I thought I was someone else / Someone good (Lou Reed, Perfect Day).

8.00 am. In order to move beyond rumination:

8.45 am. There’s so much to be grateful for. I haven’t awoken to the sound of bombing; I’m not being hounded from my home or country; I’ve food a plenty and fresh water, and clothes on my back; I’ve the opportunity and capacity to work; my family is safe and well; and the only enemies I face are those within and the great Adversary. Having sent out my usual Monday morning notifications and confirmation of classes, I made ready to undertake background research for ‘Image and Inscription’.

9.30 am. Where was Moses at the beginning of Exodus 20 — on or off the mount? I suspect he is off; he made his third descent at the end of the previous chapter (Exod. 19.25). Exodus, Chapter 20, verses 18 to 19 indicates that the Israelites could not only hear the Ten Commandments (ten words, or the Decalogue) being uttered by God from the mountain but also ask Moses for God to desist speaking, ‘lest we die’ (such was the fearfulness of his voice). Then, Moses ascends for the fourth time (Exod. 20.21). During this one-to-one audience, God restates the prohibition of the second commandment (which underlies the process of the sound composition). The rationale, on this occasion, was that ‘Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven’ (Exod. 20.22). In other words, God’s self-revelation was auditory rather than visual. Moreover, no sculptural artefact or icon could ever encapsulate the grandeur and sublimity of the manifestation that Moses and the Israelites had witnessed. (Which is why forging of the golden calf, later on in the narrative, was so obscene (Exod. 32.1).)

Section 7, then, will be an exposition of the whole of Exodus, chapter 20, which includes the Decalogue, the restatement of the second commandment, and a summary of God’s instruction for his proper worship. Section 8 would deal with the giving of numerous laws, the design of the Tabernacle and its appurtenances, two further ascents by Moses, and the Tables of the Law, which God wrote with his own finger (Exod. 31.18). Section 9, I anticipate, will be very dramatic and focus upon the forging of the golden calf, and the double iconoclasm of the Tables and the idol. Section 10, will conclude the composition with an account of the restoration of the Tables and the phenomenon of Moses’s shining face (Exod. 34.29).

1.40 pm. On the way to the School, I stopped off at Holy Trinity Church to drop off cups which I’d washed at home after my tea and coffee duties following the morning service last week. I appreciate being there on my own:

2.00 pm. A marketing meeting to discuss how we might better introduce ourselves to schools and engage with higher education art ‘exhibitions’ (which is the new term for ‘conventions’). 3.00 pm. Some admin: references, and all sorts.

4.00 pm. A Skype tutorial with one of my long-distance tutees. It’s a mode of conversation that I’ve too little experience of to be entirely comfortable. But I’m learning. And on this occasion, the person on the other end made it all the easier.

6.30 pm. Practise session 1. 7.30 pm. I wrote an email following up this afternoon’s tutorial and then returned to the sound studio in order to consider the implications of this morning’s biblical study. Section 7 was begun.