Geneve Journal: Discoveries

Afropat 3, 2008.  oil on canvas (one of my more molecular-looking paintings.)

In a typical left-is-right, right-is-left directional mix up some twenty years ago, I took the wrong bus leaving Geneva, to see a concert being performed by some friends in a village further up along the Southern shore of the lake.  The bus I on which I was riding seemed to be getting closer and closer to the French border than I would have expected.  I decided to get off at what I gather was one of the last stops in Switzerland.  The terrain of the area where I disembarked was decidedly one in which one would expect to hear a classical music concert in a ancient church.  I wandered around a short while to ascertain where I was while hoping I would, by chance, come upon said sought after church (as if the church would materialize in just the location I happened to get off a bus.  

The location where I was seemed like a somewhat restricted area, with gatehouses at the entrances of what was a complex of light industrial type buildings.  I don't think I saw other being anywhere, and I definitely felt out of place - and conspicuous to the attention of beings unseen by me.  

I made my way back to the bus stop and eventually caught another bus back into Geneva and considered the whole endeavor a wash out.  

It turns out that complex I found myself in was CERN.  

View My CERN Excursion, 1992 in a larger map  

That was back in the pre-Large Hadron Collider days, and although I certainly didn't find what I was looking for, the folks at CERN announced today that they may well have found what they've been looking for.

My curiosity led me to discover that there is an artist residency program at CERN.   


I'll be returning to Geneva later this year, and I'll look to make a more intentional trip to CERN, perhaps to capture some audio related to the arts program for Dead Hare Radio.