The Fuse

Our ability to ‘move’ in the world is modified and affected by the objects we encounter in the world.

Excerpt from ‘Movement short stories‘ in Notes Movement Method

The Fuse
When I was 19, I won an electric kettle by submitting a joke borrowed from a Readers Digest to a local radio station. The show was called The Fuse. Ha! To send the joke, I stole my dads’ walkie-talkie-esque phone which only typed messages in all caps SO IT ALWAYS LOOKED LIKE YOU WERE YELLING!!!

IN ORDER TO PROVE HIS LOVE FOR HER
HE CLIMBED THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN
HE SWAM IN THE DEEPEST OCEAN
HE CROSSED THE WIDEST DESERT
SHE LEFT HIM
HE WAS NEVER HOME

Every week the radio show would give away different types of electronics if one submitted the funniest joke. I was aiming for a DVD but my joke as you can see was only worth an electric kettle. At the time our electricity at home had been disconnected so the unboxed kettle just sat there gathering dust. A few years later I joined a communal studio & took it with me. Here the kettle thrived. It provided hot water for my tea using scavenged, shared, & stolen teabags. It acquired a new life moving across studios & changing hands through its communal use with other artists, consequently losing its filter & shine. Here it belonged to everyone & when I eventually vacated the studio I did not take it with me. The kettle had found its true purpose I figured. As for the joke, the woman leaves the man who assumes that by undertaking all these arbitrary Herculean tasks she will stay or wait for him.