Dobla dee, dobla dah, aaaaah, ah! La la la la life goes on. And so does M.A.D.

You get the hang of it now right, no need to explain ok?

Dance: verb, noun: verb to dance, move about it rhythmic, a-rhythmic motions. Some people do it well, and make careers out of it and are admired for their grace and great bods. Others break out in a terrified sweat when that dreaded, dark moment arrives when friends, family or even worse, someone you fancy wants to drag you kicking and screaming onto the floor. Because let’s face it, one day the rhythm is going to get you. And I don’t mean Gloria Estevan and the Miami Sound Machine. Oh, and here’s a good one on dance.

Darkness: noun, a state of no light actual or metaphorical, like right now, politically Malaysia is in a time of darkness. ARTERI has its own take on darkness here.

Decoration: noun, an object that is decorative or about a pleasing aesthetic, often used to adorn domestic/public settings to enhance beauty. Art is decorative, but also claims to have a deeper purpose/meaning which can transcend decoration, better known as Art for Art’s sake.  Should artists decorate?

Dictionary: noun, a collected body of words and their definitions. Can come in large or cute pocket versions, all languages have them, even Elvish. Normally regarded as boring necessities for language students and those in literary fields. M.A.D and hopefully S.A.D. (the Singaporean version, coming soon!) are epitomy of dictionary coolness, which ultimately means we are really really sad (no acronym for this).

Discourse: noun, serious piece of critical writing or speech. Huh? Do we have that in Malaysia, does a press release count? Often boring, unappealing strange language, but once penetrated can be useful, transformative and for a second gives the false (but no less nice) impression of feeling really really clever. 

Distort: verb, to alter the original appearance of something whether physical or intellectual. 

Diva: noun, a person (male or female) who exhibits extravagant behaviour, is outrageously demanding, sometimes a genius other times annoying. Everyone in the cultural world goes through this phase at least once. Some emerge on the other side aware that this type of behaviour is exhausting (normally because no one buys into it) for more persistent diva’s they become famous and adored, and pampered, and somewhere down the line get a little plump from being fed all their own bullshit hype.

Drama: noun, a performed play, or genre of play. Dramatic events, and haven’t we had a lot recently. ARTERI is being plagued by Spammers! Dun dun duuuuunnnnn!  How do they get through our air tight defences? Also used to describe the behaviour of someone at some point in the creative industry, why is the artworld so drama sometimes la? Less difficult then a diva but no less entertaining/stressful. 

Drawing: noun, to draw or not to draw (sorry thats a verb), is the question in the Malaysian artworld. Everybody does it right? And EVERYONE, even just in secret, loves a good doodle. The result of putting pen, pencil, crayon, paint and whatever else takes your fancy to recreate objects/people from life or imagined fantasies from the brain. 

Any takers for Dada, dot, draughtsmanship?

(EM)