Stone Throwing Competition 2010 - The art of the emptying hand

Sand bay - January - Saturday the 23rd - 1200

Meet at the junction Birkett\Kewstone Road

Why throwing stones is great:
Stones form the foundations of human culture, they are both the mortar and supporting walls. It was with stone that humans first expressed themselves on their environment, first realised their power to effect change at a distance, first started to crumble and re-form the world around them. Without stones we would not understand civilisation, the architectural and social. Stones are the most consistent form which humans have used to communicate over the course of history. From the primary functions of violence and splendour through hunting with throwing stones and related ritual, to David and Goliath, the columns of the Colosseum, stone henge and houses of parliament. In 2009, infrastructure is still constructed with concrete and cement, beer is drunk from glass bottles, woman are still stoned to death, people still hurl rocks at each other with slings in the middle east, NASA threw a rock(et) at the moon, and the best example of the eternal dichotomy between the civilised and animal, the state and the citizen, destruction and creation; the rioters who tore up the city and threw it at the police. Rocks are relevant. To be able to throw stones is as necessary as to be able to read and write. It is a pre-requisite to understanding technology, culture and what it is and means to exist. It is perhaps for these reasons that when at a distance of perhaps 25 metres, after settling your body, feet ready, shoulders relaxed square to the target, eyes fixed and mind both full and empty, aware of the horizon and the sun and wind, with the weight of the stone in your hand, when you set your body in motion, the power coming up through your feet and hips, torso, arm and then fingertips, a pure cry of sound escaping from belly to throat as the stone flows from fingers to atmosphere, it's trajectory forming in the same moment as your imagination, that as it strikes, in the frame that the stone connects with the target, for that minutia of time, the world is yours; understood, conquered, whole. In addition the metaphysical element of stone throwing, there are also practical advantages. Self defence and violent insurrection being two obvious examples. The way of the emptying hand is an art that once mastered will be of infinite use, now and forever. What better way to start the year than by smashing stuff up with stones?

Results by Alfonso Borragan