In 1971 The Dice Man was published in the US and rapidly became a cult comic novel. Written by George Cockcroft under the pen-name Luke Rhinehart, it tells the story of a psychiatrist who begins making life decisions based on the throw of a dice. Something similar will be attempted in Ireland for six weeks from August 14th by Asian visual artist and explorer Sima Gonsai.
On a bicycle journey along the Irish coast and navigating without a map, Gonsai will allow the people she meets choose her route from one city, town or village to the next as part of her Cycle Dialogues project.
Also assisting her with directions will be information provided by the Irish community in Birmingham - her adopted home city - and suggestions made through her MySpace page, www.myspace.com/cycledialogues.
The MySpace page will be central to her project, allowing people track her progress as she updates her journey. It is also intended the journey should follow a route beginning in Dublin and finishing in Belfast, using eight cities and counties en route as reference points.
Places Gonsai may visit on the 2,500km route include Wicklow, Wexford, Waterford, Cork, Kerry, Clare, Galway, Sligo, Donegal and Derry. She intends travelling approximately 100-115km a day, three days on and one day off.
She believes travelling by bicycle allows her get close to people in their places of residence, and Ms Gonsai has already documented over 4,800km of bicycle journeys across the globe, including trips to Palestine, Vietnam and Cambodia. Her written travelogue has been featured in The Eccentric City newspaper.
In Ireland she will also be collecting the thoughts and stories of people she meets on postcards which will be shared through a compilation, to be published at the end of the journey.
