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The final bow for Nederlands Dans Theater & Complicité after Figures in Extinction at the Edinburgh International Festival — a powerful collective exhale after a performance that asks the audience to reckon with loss, grief and what it means to be alive in an imperilled world. The work was co-created by choreographer Crystal Pite and theatre-maker Simon McBurney, and draws on dance, spoken word, music and video to explore extinction, memory and human disconnection.
Purpose-designed and built diving support and heavy construction vessel, the Deep Arctic is suited for demanding environments like the North Sea and can work throughout the year in virtually all sea and weather conditions.
Features and capabilities
Length 121 m
Speed 14 knots
Year built: 2017
Accommodation: 120 people
Class 3 dynamic positioning system
250 Te crane and 1 ROV (1000m)
18 person, twin bell, 300 m dive system
Air Diving System permanently installed
The 156-metre, TechnipFMC-owned Deep Arctic came to Damen Shiprepair Amsterdam (DSAm) primarily for a main class renewal (intermediate) docking and for maintenance including the renewal of the steel plates to her box coolers. To achieve this the yard removed 31 separate box coolers from the forward, midships and aft sea chests.
The preparations needed to accomplish this involved the disconnection of all the associated piping on both the coolers and the anodes, the removal of any associated deck plates and benches, and the installation of lifting pad eyes above the box coolers where required.
Following the secure and precise removal of the coolers according to a pre-prepared lifting plan, they were placed either on the floor of the dock, on the quayside, or into shipping crates specially fabricated by DSAm for transport to the owners’ own specialists. Once all the overhauls and inspections were completed and the coolers returned, the yard reinstalled them all. The works required renewing the box cooler steel plates included cropping the old sea chest plates and replacing them with new steel plates prefabricated in the DSAm steel workshop and machine shop.
Once the works were complete, all the interior areas affected, including the ballast water tanks, forward tanks, coffer dam tanks and hull plates, were treated with a coatings programme. The yard also blasted and painted all the repaired sea chests and 16 additional forward sea chests.
Whilst the Deep Arctic was in the dry dock, she also overwent a complete thruster overhaul including upgrades to her tunnel, retractable and Azimuth thrusters, six in total. Her propeller shaft and centre line rudder also had their 10-yearly overhaul. These operations all took place in close collaboration with the Owner’s specialists Rolls Royce and OEM. Additional associated works included the fabrication of new piping for both tunnel thrusters, renewal of the lower gear units, repairs to the rudder stock actuator and the overhaul of the stern tube seal boxes.
To finish off, the yard also performed a large number of works at considerable heights. These included repairs to the gangway and load tests on the accommodation ladder and platform. Maintenance was also done to the structures of cranes no.1 (400T) and no.2 (58T), which included the removal of rust and painting the main and navigation masts and the helideck support structure.
All the works were undertaken to TechnipFMC’s and DSAm’s exceptionally high safety standards, aided by the close cooperation and planning that took place between the Damen and TechnipFMC project teams. The carefully configured seven-man DSAm project team ensured that the yard had enough resources to meet the high demands of TechnipFMC, and it included three junior project managers plus one, fully project-dedicated safety officer, which is relatively unusual. Both teams also had a planner onboard to keep the works operating to schedule. The overall result was a project delivered on time and to the highest quality.
TechnipFMC’s dive support vessel Deep Arctic has been upgraded to run as a battery hybrid in a move that will reduce its fuel use and emissions by 20 percent.
The change helps the company work towards its 50 by 30 target of reducing our Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2030 – two measures which also feature in TechnipFMC’s ESG Scorecard.
OneFleet is actively upgrading the company’s vessels to improve energy efficiency.
David Jousset, Vice President OneFleet, said, “As a company, we are committed to reducing our emissions and OneFleet is looking to solutions that will help us reduce the carbon footprint of our subsea activities. Switching to hybrid power on Deep Arctic is an important step for us.”
The rechargeable batteries provide redundancy power for Deep Arctic’s dynamic positioning thrusters. Dynamic positioning is used to keep a vessel in a fixed position relative to the seabed for long periods during diving operations.
Using instant access electric battery power as the back-up means fewer diesel generators are kept running, cutting engine running hours and maintenance costs by up to 50 percent.
In addition to the batteries, when in port, the vessel can connected to shore power so that mobilization activities can be carried out with no direct emissions, where the infrastructure is available.
The hybrid battery conversion took place in the Remontowa shipyard in Gdansk, Poland, in January and February. Commissioning by Seimens and sea trials followed in March and April and the vessel was handed over early this month.
Enova, which is owned by Norway’s Ministry of Climate and Environment, part-funded the project.
As I approached the end of my Plumbing/Gas Fitting Apprenticeship in August 1974 I started to get my own jobs to do.
At the end of April & beginning of May 1974 I was responsible for the disconnection of the gas & water supplies to the old goods shed at Farningham Road station in preparation for the sale and redevelopment of the site.
Here we see the same unidentified Class 45 powering away towards London.
"In a land of gods and monsters,
I was an angel
Living in the garden of evil"
(Gods And Monsters - Lana del Rey)
In Nishat Bagh in Srinagar.
Nishat Bagh is a terraced Mughal garden built on the eastern side of the Dal Lake, close to Srinagar in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India. ‘Nishat Bagh’ is Urdu, and means the "Garden of Joy," "Garden of Gladness" and "Garden of Delight."
Located on the bank of the Dal Lake, with the Zabarwan Mountains as its backdrop, Nishat Bagh is a garden with views of the lake beneath the Pir Panjal mountain range. The Bagh was designed and built in 1633 by Asif Khan, elder brother of Nur Jehan.
When Shah Jahan saw the garden, after its completion in 1633, he expressed great appreciation of its grandeur and beauty. He is believed to have expressed his delight three times to Asif Khan, his father-in-law, in the hope that he would make a gift of it to him. As no such offer was forthcoming from Asif Khan, however, Shah Jahan was piqued and ordered that the water supply to the garden should be cut off. Then, for some time, the garden was deserted. Asif Khan was desolate and heartbroken. When he was resting under the shade of a tree, in one of the terraces, his servant was bold enough to turn on the water supply source from the Shalimar Bagh. When Asif Khan heard the sound of water and the fountains in action he was startled and immediately ordered the disconnection of the water supply as he feared the worst reaction from the Emperor for this wanton act of disobedience. Fortunately Shah Jahan, who heard about this incident at the garden, was not annoyed by the disobedience of his orders. Instead, he approved of the servant’s loyal service to his master and then ordered the full restoration rights for the supply of water to the garden to Asif Khan, his Prime Minister and father-in-law.
The Mughal Princess Zuhra Begum, the daughter of the Mughal Emperor Alamgir II, and granddaughter of the Emperor Jahandar Shah, was buried in the garden.
Walking in the garden, Nishat Bagh, Srinagar.
Nishat Bagh is a terraced Mughal garden built on the eastern side of the Dal Lake, close to Srinagar in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India. ‘Nishat Bagh’ is Urdu, and means the "Garden of Joy," "Garden of Gladness" and "Garden of Delight."
Located on the bank of the Dal Lake, with the Zabarwan Mountains as its backdrop, Nishat Bagh is a garden with views of the lake beneath the Pir Panjal mountain range. The Bagh was designed and built in 1633 by Asif Khan, elder brother of Nur Jehan.
When Shah Jahan saw the garden, after its completion in 1633, he expressed great appreciation of its grandeur and beauty. He is believed to have expressed his delight three times to Asif Khan, his father-in-law, in the hope that he would make a gift of it to him. As no such offer was forthcoming from Asif Khan, however, Shah Jahan was piqued and ordered that the water supply to the garden should be cut off. Then, for some time, the garden was deserted. Asif Khan was desolate and heartbroken. When he was resting under the shade of a tree, in one of the terraces, his servant was bold enough to turn on the water supply source from the Shalimar Bagh. When Asif Khan heard the sound of water and the fountains in action he was startled and immediately ordered the disconnection of the water supply as he feared the worst reaction from the Emperor for this wanton act of disobedience. Fortunately Shah Jahan, who heard about this incident at the garden, was not annoyed by the disobedience of his orders. Instead, he approved of the servant’s loyal service to his master and then ordered the full restoration rights for the supply of water to the garden to Asif Khan, his Prime Minister and father-in-law.
The Mughal Princess Zuhra Begum, the daughter of the Mughal Emperor Alamgir II, and granddaughter of the Emperor Jahandar Shah, was buried in the garden.
Meah (3 yr) and Marjorie (5 yr) playing on 'the Hill' which are the sand dunes behind their family home in Kennedy Hill. Free as little birds they run and play in the sand dunes, unaware of the problems their Community is dealing with. This is such a beautiful place, the sand is white, the water is turquoise, the sky is blue and the view is even more spectacular. This is a pristine location. Kennedy Hill, Broome, Western Australia. ©Ingetje Tadros
The Book www.indiegogo.com/projects/this-is-my-country-a-photobook...
This Is My Country will be a hard cover book of 112 pages with 70 black and white photographs and an introduction by aboriginal writer and film maker mitch torres. It will be printed in a hardbound edition on 170 gsm paper at Ofset Yapimevi in Istanbul where all of FotoEvidence's high quality books are produced.
By backing This Is My Country you will be part of creating an enduring document about the struggle for justice of Australia's First People and supporting Aboriginal communities as they fight displacement.
Kennedy Hill is an Aboriginal community in the remote town of Broome in the Kimberley, in the North West of Australia. The community exists in the shadows of Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett’s commitment to close down approximately 100-150 Aboriginal communities in Western Australia. There are more than 270 remote Indigenous communities in Western Australia, home to 12,000 people.
Aboriginal Elders and Leaders are shocked and feel closing down communities is a big threat to their people. They believe the impact of such a move will be devastating. Communities are based ‘on Country’. Closing down communities means losing connection to the land in which ancient stories are etched. These stories inform about morals, values and relationships, and are reinforced in Language through song and story at times of ceremony or travel through that Country –there used to be 250 Aboriginal languages before White Invasion. By closing down communities, ancient knowledge that has been passed down through generations will get lost and people will be lost because of this disconnection that nurtures them physically, emotionally and spiritually. Consequently, poverty, disadvantage, alcoholism, unemployment, etc. –which are contained within communities because of ongoing cultural connection– will be relocated and intensified and brought to the bigger towns. History is repeating itself!
Australian award-winning Photojournalist Ingetje Tadros has spent four years working with Aboriginal people and has been documenting their confronting daily lives within their communities. Her concerns for Aboriginal people and their communities stretch from the old uninformed line that demonises Aboriginal men by insinuating that Aboriginal women and children are under great threat by the men in the communities, to a lack of affordable accommodation; Over seven per cent of the Kimberley population is homeless and ninety per cent of this homelessness is comprised by its First Peoples.
Kennedy Hill, or as the locals refer to it, ‘The Hill’ is significant to Indigenous people in the region.The presence of a large shell midden immediately adjacent to the community is testament to this significance; It’s been a living area and a sacred place since before White Invasion... since time in memorial.
Aboriginal people all over the Kimberley are now in fear of losing not only their homes but losing the significant connection to their land and sacred sites. The question now remains, which Aboriginal communities will be closed?
Broome, Western Australia.
©Ingetje Tadros/Diimex
In ‘The Genesis Exhibition: Do Ho Suh: Walk the House’, Korean-born, London-based artist Do Ho Suh invites visitors to explore his large-scale installations, sculptures, videos and drawings in this major survey exhibition.
Is home a place, a feeling, or an idea? Suh asks timely questions about the enigma of home, identity and how we move through and inhabit the world around us.
With immersive artworks exploring belonging, collectivity and individuality, connection and disconnection, Suh examines the intricate relationship between architecture, space, the body, and the memories and the moments that make us who we are.
Source: www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/the-genesis-exhibiti...
Rubbing/Loving Project: Unit 2, 348 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011, USA (2013-2024)
Suh made these rubings of objects in his rented home in New York, a building he lived in for over 20 years. The rubbings are arranged by type, such as air vents, bathroom fixtures and light switches. Before moving out of the apartment, Suh received permission to rub the surfaces of the building’s interiors. His landlord and friend, Arthur Henoch, who had lived on the floor abov, had died with dementia, and the subject of memory loss preoccupied Suh as he created the work. ‘The instant I have masked [a] surface, I can no longer remember exactly what’s behind it. I’m aware that I know what’s under the paper, but I can’t have access to the memory. When I start rubbing, things rush back.’ Suh used a different color to create the paper traces for each section. A physically and emotionally exhausting, months-long task, the process becomes one of memorializing spaces.
Source: Info in the exhibition, right next to the work
Comet C/2013 US10 (Catalina) this morning. One can detect some rather interesting details. A clear center line in the dust tail. At least 3 disconnection events. A very extended, faint parallel shaped part of the gas tail and the bright strait ion tail.
Technique: Sony A7s (CentalDS modded and cooled) ISO 3200, sLog2 mode, 8 x 300 sec, Borg ED-Apo F3.9/480mm, comet guided with ED-Apo 70/400mm and ASI 740.
Transformative Space
Scene 1 Video 2
Enter a cathartic pursuit. The passage entrance was small and did not indicate what we were to experience—assessing the unknowns in space, shifting dramatically from concept to academic self-questioning to a deconstructed disorientation. I followed our seers upstairs, through multiple room scapes, and down corridors, to when and where I finally realised. I had to select which self-delusion was best for me. In hindsight, I have re-entered these rooms my entire life, and my disconnection between acting and actioning required resolution. To begin a transformation and build a manifestation of social-spatial exclusiveness. To play as one within this curated experience, as a spectator and participant. A paradox in finding meaning and fulfilment.
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Contemporary Augmented Art
It is about being creative and innovative with knowledge
Public worship is an act of the highest importance. However, it tends in our days to become a spectacle in which the congregation remain passive, inert spectators. But prayer is action; it requires complete mobilization of heart, mind, and soul. What is the worth of attending public worship when mind and soul are not involved? Renewal of liturgy involves renewal of prayer.
-Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays by Abraham Joshua Heschel
There is, in addition, a malady indigenous or congenital to liturgy. Liturgy as an act of prayer is an outcome and distillation of the inner life. Although its purpose is to exalt the life which engenders it, it harbors a tendency to follow a direction and rhythm of its own, independent of and divorced from the energies of life which brought prayer into being. At the beginning, liturgy is intimately related to the life which calls it into being. But as liturgy unfolds, it enters a state of stubborn disconnection, even into a state of opposition. Liturgy is bound to become rigid, to stand by itself, and to take on a measure of imperviousness.
Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays by Abraham Joshua Heschel
Transformative Space
Enter a cathartic pursuit. The passage entrance was small and did not indicate what we were to experience—assessing the unknowns in space, shifting dramatically from concept to academic self-questioning to a deconstructed disorientation. I followed our seers upstairs, through multiple room scapes, and down corridors, to when and where I finally realised. I had to select which self-delusion was best for me. In hindsight, I have re-entered these rooms my entire life, and my disconnection between acting and actioning required resolution. To begin a transformation and build a manifestation of social-spatial exclusiveness. To play as one within this curated experience, as a spectator and participant. A paradox in finding meaning and fulfilment.
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Today is the 100th anniversary of the premiere of Igor Stravinsky's 'Rite of Spring'.
I thought this would be the perfect moment to launch my article in Petapixel on Flickr.
The article was a few months back, and there was a fair amount of negative feedback from those who may have misunderstood the purpose of my camera modifications. The magazine printed my test roll but my vintage camera photography is almost always post-processed. For me the digital negatives from my modified cameras always worked extremely well in post processing to give me a certain otherworldly and sometimes nostalgic look that I search for.
Looking back, I think that those who viewed this article were comparing me directly with Lomography. And the two are entirely different things altogether, thus the disconnection.
Vintage cameras are not toy cameras although they can be made to mimic them at times.
As for my test roll, I could easily have taken razor-sharp photos. I had done this already with other vintages. However, there was some potential beauty arising from the overexposed negatives & blurry focus which purposely had not been adjusted for during shooting. Yet I was not interested so much in beauty as I was looking for any trace of entropy from the various components of the altered camera and lens (certainly some of my fantasy designs** have caused the traditional functional experience of the camera as a whole to be guided almost surreally by its parts, hence deconstructed. Shouldn't serious fantasy camera design be allowed an "atonal" phase perhaps leading into veritable atonality?). Anyway I very much appreciated the opportunity to be on Petapixel, I hope they'll publish my drawings one day which also are not easily categorizable. Like Igor Stravinsky, I should like to view all of my work on Petapixel to be seen one day as a Rite of Spring.
Here is the Link:
petapixel.com/2013/03/27/modding-a-vintage-camera-for-dig...
** Note: I have a future design coming up as a homage to the novelist Marcel Proust, which will employ a Lomography camera. It is a most perfect match to honor Proust with and will definitely be "atonal". I hope that it will also cause much well-documented rioting and controversy in the theatre of the web and vault it's designer closer to being part of the photography pantheon.
Please see my recent Leica A Truro 'cottages, camera for a special dedication to this day.
This giant saguaro has certainly had a hard time, as evidenced by the three arms that have already fallen off, as well as four others that have been damaged (probably frozen) and have drooped toward the ground rather than pointed to the sky. They're all candidates for disconnection as well.
Conversely, there are several arms that appear to be in good shape (and a couple of those are fairly recent additions), and the trunk seems to be reasonably healthy. My guess is that this saguaro has plenty of life ahead of it.
Seen in Saguaro National Park.
Stephen Brookfield does not disappoint. We had him come to Brock University in 2004.
My favourite reflection he had was that teaching online has given him a true appreciation of silence. Asynchronous activity gives the ability to pause and reflect and not be reactionary in response as a student. As an instructor the pause gives you permission to accept silence. He has transferrred this to his face to face classrooms with the Chalk Talk activity, a sort of physical backchannel, where he encourages students to get up out of their seat and write ideas, questions, concepts on the board and/or connect these between them and/or show disconnections or antithetical (!=) relationships.
Holistic design is a design approach which sees a design as an interconnected whole that is part of the larger world. It goes beyond problem solving to incorporate all aspects of the ecosystem in which a product is used. The focus of holistic design is context dependent; even so, among other things, it considers aesthetics, sustainability, and spirituality.
While it is most commonly employed in architecture, with a little thought, holistic design can be adapted to any form of product or service design. Designer Yves Behar offers seven key principles for designers to incorporate holistic design in their work:
Begin with questions rather than answers. Instead of acting on a brief which already dictates the answers, asking questions which put the problem in its holistic context is far more important.
Deliver more, not less. Don’t reduce functionality to meet holistic goals – improve the functionality and meet holistic goals.
Create your own theories. Borrow shamelessly from disciplines other than design, and adapt theories from those disciplines so as to deliver greater designs.
Use 360-degree design. Look at the whole customer lifecycle of a product and design from marketing to disposal.
Consider alternative business models. Behar’s business recognizes how hard it can be for clients to trust the iterative holistic design process and often trades royalties or equities rather than charging traditional fees.
Do better. Look at projects which seem impossible, and then aim to deliver them anyway.
Find what you want that everyone else wants. Create change, and meet unmet needs.
Holistic design may appear avant-garde and ambitious, but what it demands of a designer’s imagination is the same creativity that can pay dividends far into the future. Designing for sustainability is key to future-proofing a product; adopting a holistic approach addresses that sustainability.
www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/holistic-design
Introduction
I am a lecturer at the Bezalel Academy of Art & Design Architectural Department, Jerusalem and a practicing architect working in Israel for the last 20 years.
My work has focused both on practice & theory.
My on going search for what is behind the order of human environment, had been developed gradually by me since my studies at the Architectural Association (AA) school of Architecture in London (Dip 1973), through research work with Prof. Christopher Alexander at the "Center for Environmental Structure" Berkeley California, my post graduate studies in Architecture & Buddhist studies at U.C. Berkeley (1979-81), and along my teachings and practice in Israel in the last 25 years.
When religion and nationalism are cynically used by fundamentalists and by extremist right and left groups to cause cultural conflicts, and when architects are prompted by aggressive political motives, there is a real existential threat to the physical and human environment we live in.
There is no doubt, that the great art (and architecture) creations throughout history evolved in societies that drew their strength from their cultural and spiritual traditions and from the places they belonged to. These sources, which one might take as the factor that separates cultures and peoples, are exactly the ones that link them together in harmony.
The same tree that symbolizes life in the Cabala appears in Tantra Asana art; the same red thread the people of Tibet wear on their wrist for good luck are put on baby's pram in the Jewish tradition. In present state of affairs there is a need for a new worldview that by its very nature crosses cultures, replacing current conceptions and approaches.
The first part of the essay will present the holistic worldview, a school of thought that has been at the forefront of science for many years in which my architectural work belong, and the way this approach got interpretated by me both in theory and in the design process, a process fundamentally different from customary ones.
The second part will be a presentation of two selected projects built by me in Israel forming a clear implementation and interpretation of the concepts described before, in relation to their cultural and physical (urban and rural) reality.
The first project is the Music Centre and Library at the historic heart of Tel-Aviv forming a unique dialogue between a new building and the historical environment, an environment being a unique interface between the orient and the west (completed 1997).
The second project is a Residential Neighborhood in the Kibbutz forming a new concept of housing related to the recent structural changes in the kibbutz life, giving a new definition to the conception of equality.
ARCHITECTURE IS MADE FOR PEOPLE
A phenomenological approach to architecture
The purpose of architecture, as I see it, is first and foremost to create a humanenvironment for human beings. Buildings affect our lives and the fate of the physical environment in which we live over the course of many years, and therefore their real test is the test of time. The fine, old buildings and places we always want to return to ‚ those with timeless relevance‚are the ones that touch our heart, and have the power to create a deep and direct emotional experience.
Contemporary architecture as well as conceptual art sought to dissociate themselves from the world of emotions and connect the design process to the world of ideas, thus creating a rational relation between building and man, devoid of any emotion.
There are different ways to describe buildings that have this timeless quality, buildings that convey an inherent spiritual experience. Frank Lloyd Wright called them "the ones which take you beyond words". Quoted by Stephen Grabow, (Grabow, 1983) Christopher Alexander says: "The buildings that have spiritual value are a diagram of the inner universe, or the picture of the inner soul." And in The Timeless Way of Building (Alexander, 1979), Alexander writes, "There is one timeless way of building. It is thousands of years old, and the same today as it has always been. The great traditional buildings of the past, the villages and tents and temples in which man feels at home, have always been made by people who were very close to the center of this way. And as you will see, this way will lead anyone who looks for it to buildings which are themselves as ancient in their form as the trees and hills, and as our faces are."
His Holiness the Dalai Lama calls this quality: "the great self, the such ness or the nature of reality... The state of mind which brings us close to that quality is a state of knowledge and awareness detached from extraneous factors as the mere clarity of the mind".
Although this timeless quality exists in buildings rooted in different cultures and traditions, the experience they generate is common to all people, no matter where or from what culture they come from. Thus Alexander's basic assumption was that behind this quality, which he calls "The quality without a name", lies auniversal and eternal element common to us as human beings.
It seems to me that the real challenge of current architectural practice is to make the best use of the potential inherent in the modern technological age we live in while fulfilling the timeless needs common to us all as human beings - needs that modern architecture in general has knowingly denied for the past 60 years, in order to create a friendly and human environment.
The basic argument presented here is that in order to change the feeling of the environment and create places and buildings that we really feel part of and want to live in, the issue here is not a change of style, but a transformation of theworldview underlying current thought and approaches.
THE HOLISTIC APPROACH TO ARCHITECTURE
THE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE PARTS AND THE WHOLE
The dissociation created in our time between man and his environment is a clear expression of the change that occurred in the concept that man is part of nature and not superior to it. Comparing planning processes which resulted in dissociating man from his environment to planning processes that make him feel part of the physical world he lives in, emphasizes the difference between the mechanistic-fragmentary worldview and the holistic-organic one, which guides the holistic school of thought to which my own work belongs.
These are two different sets of orders.
The mechanistic worldview underlying contemporary architecture separates elements and creates an environment of autonomous fragments. The result is cities like Brasilia in Brazil,
Chandigarth in India, the satellite towns in England and the new neighborhoods around Jerusalem, where the structured disconnection between the house and the street, the street and the neighborhood, the neighborhood and the city arouses a feeling of detachment and alienation.
The holistic-organic approach that has been for many years at the forefront of science in general and as implemented in my architecture work in particular regards the socio-physical environment as a system or a dynamic whole, the existence of which depends on the proper, ever-changing interrelations among the parts. Moreover, the creation and existence of each part depend on the interrelations between that part and the system.
In his book The Joy of Living and Dying in Peace (Dalai Lama, 1997) His Holiness the Dalai Lama refers to this concept of cause and effect by saying: "Nowadays in the field of science there are many disciplines like cosmology, neurobiology, psychology, and particle physics, disciplines that are the result of generations of scientific investigations. Their findings are closely related to Buddhist teachings. The foundation of all Buddhist teaching and practice is the principle of dependent arising. Since things arise in dependence of other causes and conditions, they are naturally free from independent and autonomous existence. Everything that is composed from parts, or conditioned by causes and conditions, is impermanent and fleeting. These things do not stay forever. They continually disintegrate. This kind of subtle impermanence is confirmed by scientific findings".
In any organic system, each element has its own uniqueness and power, but always acts as part of a larger entity to which it belongs and which it complements. vHaving adopted this concept, I do not regard urban design, architecture, interior design and landscape design as independent disciplines removed from each other, but asone continuous and dynamic system. Thus the building is not perceived as a collection of designed fragments, but asone hierarchical language, in which every design detail, on any level of scale, is derived from the larger whole to which it belongs, which it seeks to enhance, and for whose existence it is responsible. The overall feeling of inner wholeness-unity in a building thus stems from the proper interrelations among its parts.
The same idea is found in the Mandala, a model that represents processes occurring in nature, where there is always a center of energy feeding the parts around it. However, the very existence of this center of energy is dependent on the existence of the parts around it.
This concept of interdependence and continuity was presented in a public talk given by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in which he noted: "The construction of the whole is caused continually by the disintegration of its parts. For example, the butter lamp as a whole is a source of light due to the melting of the butter. The melting of the butter is caused due to the heat produced by the lamp".
THE PLANNING PROCESS ITSELF
1.Choosing A Pattern Language for The Project
Based on the assumption that beauty and harmony are objective properties related to the geometrical properties inherent in the structure itself, and that feelings have to do with facts, Alexander states in his book The Timeless Way of Building (Alexander, 1979) that all places of organic order that seem unplanned and orderless are a clear expression of order on a deep and complex level. This order is based on absolute rules that have always determined the quality and beauty of a place, and is the source of the good feeling in it. In other words, there is a direct connection between the patterns of events that occur in a place and the physical patterns - patterns of space in his terminology ‚ that constitute it.
The fact that places that share a common pattern of events (for example, Piazza San Marco in Venice and Piazza Mayor in Madrid), although different in form, all create the same emotional pleasant experience, gave rise to the hypothesis, that beyond what appears different, there is something else, common to them all.
Let's take for example the pattern called Arcade – an archetype of a structure that relates to the transition area between a building and the open space around it. Although the arcade in the Hadera synagogue is different from the one in the Assisi cloister or the one in the Tel-Aviv Senior Citizens Day Center, there is one superstructurecommon to them all, a superstructure that defines therelationship between the building and its surroundings.
Since the environment consists of patterns that produce a common experience, the relevant question was, what lies behind the specific patterns that produce the samecomfortable feeling we all share in that environment. The explanation was, that as in the various spoken languages there is, according to Chomsky, a common structural element he calls the
language of languages or the underlying patterns, an element that is innate in human beings and therefore common to us all (which explains why children can so easily learn a foreign language), so in the physical space there are patterns that reflect an innate pattern structured in our brain.
The first step in the planning process is to determine the patterns of space that are relevant to the project. Some of them will stem from the specific context of the project and the cultural reality of the place, patterns that vary from place to place, and some from the more basic needs common to us all as human beings wherever we are, as presented in A Pattern Language (Alexander, Ishikawa, Silverstein, 1977).
Once the list of patterns relevant to a specific project has been decided, a set of interrelations between them is automatically created between them, organically defining the scheme of the project. This scheme is than translated into a plan.
2. Planning on the Site Itself
A transformational Planning Process
The plan of the building that is finally created is actually a structure of balance between the abstract pattern language chosen for the project and the living reality of the actual site, a reality that differs from site to site.
The planning process proposed here is fundamentally different from the common planning processes, a process introduced to by Alexander while I was working with him on the site plan of Shorashim Community Village in Israel, and adopted in all my work since than.
Once the list of patterns for the project is set, all planning decisions concerning the physical structure of the project are taken literally only on the site itself. Unlike the common planning process, where planning takes place in the office and then transferred to the site, here the drawings are merely the recordingof planning decisions that have been taken currently on the site itself.
The process of creation has to be inspired by what is already there, and our task as artists or architects is to discover, identify and revive those visible and hidden forces.
The creative process which feeds on what is apparently already there, is definitely not a passive one. Unlike common planning process, where everything is predetermined, this is a process whereby the plan of the building develops gradually from the interaction of the abstract planning patterns and the unpredictabledeveloping situation on the site.
In his book Zen in the Art of Archery (Herrigel, 1964) Eugene Herrigel describes the state of mind in which the process of creation must take place, noting, 'Drawing the bow and loosing the shot happens independently of the Archer. The hands must open like the skin of a ripe fruit. The Archer must let himself go, to the point that the only thing that is left of him is a purposeless tension. At this state of mind, being released from all attachments, art should be practiced'.
The order according to which the planning decisions are taken on the site is determined by the hierarchical order in which the planning patterns appear on my list governed by the rules of the pattern language itself. Decisions are first made on issues that affect the larger scale we have to confront at any given moment along the development of the plan, moving to other decisions generating from them.
Moreover, the planning process is not conceived as an additive, but rather as adifferentiating one, where each new element of the plan is differentiatedgradually from previous ones.
Each decision taken on the site and marked on the ground actually changes the configuration of the site as a whole. That new whole (configuration) that has been created and can be fully visualized on the site forms the basis for the next decision. Since each stage is based on the previous one, a wrong decision creates a faulty system that cannot serve as a basis for the next decision.
The final 'layout' that emerges on the site is measured and recorded by a surveyor. That moment when all the markers suddenly become a whole, a visible plan, is a moment of surprise and excitement.
Experience has taught me that decisions that sometimes appear irregular and strange on paper often make sense in reality (where it comes from), and vice versa, a plan that appears perfect on paper (where it was created) does not make sense on the site. So, if when looking at the 'stakes plan' doubts arise concerning one or more of the decisions taken on the site, the correction is not made on paper in the office, but checked again on the site itself. The final "stakes plan" forms the basis for the final plan.
CHOOSING THE COLORS FOR THE BUILDING
Choosing the colors for the building is one of the more difficult decisions in the design process. The choice of colors has an overwhelming effect on the feeling of the building. Colors have the power to give life and enhance the qualities inherent originally in a building or to suppress them. The choice of color is made intuitively on the site when the building is completed, when I can fully sense its mass as part of the overall environment. I try to envision the colors (hues) that practically reveal themselves naturally from the building. Only then do I experiment with applications of those colors in order to arrive at the final tones.
As in the planning of the building, so at this stage of choosing the colors, the process is a gradual one. First I determine the color of the walls ‚ the big mass, and then deriving from that, follows the decision about the colors of the window frames, the rails, the gates and all the other details, to the smallest one, so as to complement, enhance and enlighten previously chosen colors.
A DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE QUALITIES OF
TRADITION AND MODERN TECHNOLOGY
Modern technology available today should not be conceived as an aim or a value in itself, but as a tool to create a human and friendly environment that will satisfy the basic needs that are common to all of us as human beings. Despite the unlimited possibilities it opens to us, that should be used in a controlled, value-oriented and moral way.
One of the immediate questions I am asked in reaction to the buildings I design is whether it is a new design that tries to reconstruct an architectural language of the past. My answer to that is that I do not attempt or aim to reconstruct the past or to nostalgically trace this or that style. The similarity and the association created between the buildings I design and those we know from the past, and the similar experience and feeling they create, originate in my use of the same fundamentalpatterns and planning codes that guided in the past and will be guide in the future in any culture and tradition, those who aspire to give a building a spirit and soul, codes that have been brutally ignored (in general) by contemporary architecture, and which I try to revive and implement in the buildings I design, in relation to the physical and social context of the place I am working in.
MUSIC CENTER AND LIBRARY
A UNIQUE DIALOGUE BETWEEN A NEW BUILDING AND THE HISTORICAL ENVIRONMENT
Tel-Aviv, Israel
Completion Date 1997
Preserving the spirit of a historical environment does not necessarily mean a fanatic repetition of its language. The Bialik district at the heart of Tel-Aviv, with Bialik Square at its center, is a micro-document of the architectural history of Tel-Aviv from the 19201⁄4s, the "Eclectic period", when European architecture was brought to Israel and integrated with the local oriental architecture, to the 19301⁄4s and the new 'International Style' somewhat later.
The new Music Center and Library built at Bialik Square (1997) is located on the site of a three-story residential house built in 1931 and demolished in 1994. My commission was to design a new building integrating a reconstructed part of the façade of the old one.
My conception was that once you demolish a building and reconstruct just one isolated architectural element of it, it would become a meaningless fragment, for it would no longer be an organic part of the whole, and thus would not serve the initial purpose of preserving the old. Thus, what I tried to do was to treat the reconstructed part as an environmental element that has to be naturally integrated with the newly designed building, to form one coherent functional-visual entity.
The intention was to design the new center as an integral part of the square.
The key question I asked myself was, what is the right thing to do in order to preserve and enhance the spirit of what still exists around there, which is so human and right.
Standing in the square I adopted none of the classical approaches. I aimed neither to reconstruct the past nor to dissociate myself from it by enforcing a completely new order. I was looking for a language that at that point in time in Bialik Square would create a meaningful dialogue between a new, contemporary building and the historical environment.
The Interrelation Between The Building And The Square
The powerful presence of the building in the square emanates from its being an integral part of it, and not from the efforts to distinguish it from its environment.
This intimate and organic integration was created by several basic means:
The dimensions of the building were in harmony with the human scale of the square.
The façade of the building defines the boundaries of the square, and therefore determines the feeling it inspires. The orange paint of the building1⁄4s faÁade, apparently expected to disturb the tranquility of the square, was the element that complemented the blue color of the sky and the green color of the trees to create a harmony that inspired peace and serenity in the square.
The cornices that jut out at the faÁade belong morphologically both to the building and to the space next to it, uniting them together.
The dialogue between the building and the square continues through the high windows behind which all the indoor 'public' areas are located, as well as from the roof terrace overlooking the square.
The crown on top of the building provides a graduated link to the sky. Its shape was derived from the same language that determined the pattern of the cement tiles of the porch and the reliefs on the railing wall.
At the front, where the building touches the square, an entrance porch was designed for the orchestra to play to the audience sitting in the square, thus creating a physical and human connection between the building and the square.
The interior of the building
Past the main lobby, at the entrance to the building, is the auditorium, separated from it by a glass wall, through which the back garden at the far end can be seen.
At the side of the lobby there is a wide-open staircase, which is an identified beautiful space by itself. It leads to the upper floors, providing a view to all the floors open to it.
The first floor houses the lending library with the catalogues and librarian counter at the entrance. The rear areas are reserved for the notes, scores and books, with access to staff only.
The second floor accommodates the museum of musical instruments and contemporary exhibitions related to music. Further along, past glass partitions are a study and periodicals room and an archive. These three spaces make one visual continuum while preserving the identity and uniqueness of each space.
The top floor houses the audiovisual library that lends discs, videotapes, and records. Further along, beyond the glass partition, is an audiovisual room with a view of the sea.
Extending from this floor, overlooking the square, is a roof terrace that has also a view of the sea.
The secret enfolded in the beauty of a building (or of any artifact) as a whole lies in its spatial order and in the nature of its details. The details like the furniture, lighting accessories, materials and colors, are regarded as an inherent part of the building and therefore are inseparable part of my planning process.
The similarity in form between the details stems from the common whole to which they belong.
In modern society, beauty has become a term of abuse, often associated with inefficiency, impracticality, lack of functionalism and high costs. That notion of beauty is true when it relates to details as decorative elements and ornamentationfor its own sake.
The Shakers, a religious sect that created an abundance of useful furniture and utensils in the mideighteenth century, noted that the wholeness and beauty of form are products of pure functionalism, and that there is no room for beautiful forms that do not flow from a functional need. Take, for example the gold leaves capital of the iron column, which connects it to the beam. This part is functionally separate from the other parts of the column and was therefore given a different form and color.
At the same time, however, the Shakers did not interpret the term 'pure functionalism' in the narrow sense of the word, as did the modernists, for whom the expression 'form follows function' was semantically connected only to thephysical body of the building, but in the broad sense that connects it both to the physical and spiritual experience in a building. This is the experience I want to create for the users of the buildings I design.
This concept is manifested, for example, in the following design details:
The wall between the lobby and the auditorium, which normally would be solid, is a glass wall that allows a view to the depth of the building immediately upon entrance.
The six steel columns that rise to the top of the building are structural, but at the same time their placement helps to define and distinguish the public areas of each floor.
The capital of the column, a functional entity that both separates it from the beam and connects it to it, is distinguished from other parts of the column by its leave-like shape and its gold color.
The textured gold color of the walls in the public areas is different from the color of other spaces.
The seams between the stone tiles and the carpets are made of cherry wood, a third material that both joins and separates the two.
The soft reflection of the light when it touches the gold, silver and redish colors in the space creates a unique feeling that envelops all parts of the building.
All parts of the audiovisual library are visually connected, all have a view to the roof terrace and the sea at the far distance.
RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBORHOOD IN THE KIBBUTZ
Kibbutz Maagan Michael, Israel
Completion Date
Stage 1 2001
Stage 2 2004
STRUCTURAL CHANGES IN KIBBUTZ LIFE REQUIRE A NEW CONCEPT OF HOUSING
From Quantitive Uniformity to Qualitative Equality
The social, economic and physical structure of the collective known as a 'kibbutz' was founded in Israel in the early 20th century.
Its uppermost value since its very beginning was equality, translated in most realms of community life not as equality of opportunities, in its qualitative sense, but rather in itsquantitative sense, as formal uniformity. This dogmatic equality obliterated the self-identity and uniqueness of the individual and saw him only as part of the collective.
In recent years, however, this old conception of equality has been redefined in many respects. The social structure reverted back to the nuclear family, with children raised at home, and no longer in a communal house where they were regarded as the possession of the community as
a whole. Wages, previously based on the notion that every member contributed according to his or her own ability, but was supported according to his or her needs, have now become differential, based on one's contribution. Housing in the kibbutz is perhaps the last fortress of the old and simplistic conception of equality, a conception that now more than ever can change.
According to this conception, houses are regarded as static models ofpredetermined uniform shape, arbitrarily positioned on the building site. All houses with no regard to any environmental factors such as the direction of light or the angle open to the view on any specific plot, resulted in having all identical plan and elevations. Thus a tenant whose window happens to face the orchard has the advantage on the one whose window faces the cow shed.
This approach created a qualitative inequality between the houses and inequality of opportunities among the tenants.
Moreover, the outcome of this dogmatic approach was that houses built in the desert environment of the Negev or the hilly Galilean environment were exactly the same.
The new model I implemented in the design of the new houses in Kibbutz Maagan Michael was fundamentally different. The planning process adopted was based on patterns that were common to all the houses, patterns that grew out both of the social structure of the kibbutz and the geographic location facing the sea. When these common patterns were used in different site conditions, a variety of houses emerged, sharing one architectural language.
Planning the neighborhood on the site
Kibbutz Ma'agan is situated on a hill, with the new neighborhood on the western side that faces the sea. Each planning decision, from the positioning of the house on the site, through the determination of the direction of its entrance in relation to the path, and unto the location of each window, was taken on the site of each plot.
First the position of each house in relation to the others was determined, so as to ensure that each one has an open view to the water and can enjoy the breeze coming from the sea.
To determine the level of each house so that one could see the sea while sitting on the terrace, I used a crane that lifted me up to where I could see the sea. This height was measured and the level of the house was determined accordingly.
At the center of the neighborhood, a path was planned connecting the promenade that runs along the water and the path that runs from the
communal dining hall at the heart of the kibbutz to the neighborhood.
What dictated the course of the path was the wish to see the water from every spot along the path.
The houses were arranged in small clusters, sharing a communal open space. Unlike the traditional pattern in the kibbutz, where all open spaces, called 'the lawn', are communal and the buildings are dispersed arbitrarily in between, here the secondary paths running between the houses defined in a non-formal way, with no fences, the 'private' zone of each family.
This sense of 'private territory' unexpectedly created a new reality in which each family started to grow its own garden. This new pattern of behavior could not have developed in the traditional model, where the common open spaces were planned as the property of everyone, and therefore of no one.
At this stage the site plan was completed. The position of each house in the neighborhood in relation to the paths and its position in relation to the sea produced different types of house plans. On plots where the entrance from the path was in the same direction as the sea view, type A plans emerged. Here the entrance was through the main garden to the living-dining area that faced the view.
On plots where the entrance was from the opposite direction of the sea view, type B plans developed, and the entrance was through the opposite side of the garden and living areas.
In front of each house there is a bicycle rack (the only means of transport allowed within the boundaries of the kibbutz). Next to the entrance door a place for muddy boots was allocated, a prominent symbol of the kibbutz.
The walls are all whitewashed light blue, complemented by regionally quarried sandstone characterizing the construction details.
The implementation of a conceptually new model in a very rigid social framework became possible now, as a result of an overall change in the reality of the kibbutz communities, a change that was inevitable in the twenty-first century.
Nili Portugali
© 2005
Nili Portugali is an architect based in Tel-Aviv, Israel and has just published a new book, "The Act of Creation and the Spirit of a Place: A Holistic-Phenomenological Approach to Architecture", Edition Axel Menges, Stuttgart & London 2006. See www.niliportugali.com for more details.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
His Holiness the Dalai Lama, The Joy of Living and Dying in Peace, Harper Collins, India, 1997
Christopher Alexander, S. Ishikawa, M. Silverstein, A Pattern Language, Oxford University Press, 1977
Christopher Alexander, The Timeless Way of Building, Oxford University Press, 1979
Stephen Grabow, Christopher Alexander, The Search for a New Paradigm in Architecture, Oriel Press, 1983
Eugene Herrigel, Zen and the Art of Archery, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1964
Views expressed on this page are those of the writer and are not necessarily shared by those involved in INTBAU.
intbau.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/AHolisticApproachto...
Purpose-designed and built diving support and heavy construction vessel, the Deep Arctic is suited for demanding environments like the North Sea and can work throughout the year in virtually all sea and weather conditions.
Features and capabilities
Length 121 m
Speed 14 knots
Year built: 2017
Accommodation: 120 people
Class 3 dynamic positioning system
250 Te crane and 1 ROV (1000m)
18 person, twin bell, 300 m dive system
Air Diving System permanently installed
The 156-metre, TechnipFMC-owned Deep Arctic came to Damen Shiprepair Amsterdam (DSAm) primarily for a main class renewal (intermediate) docking and for maintenance including the renewal of the steel plates to her box coolers. To achieve this the yard removed 31 separate box coolers from the forward, midships and aft sea chests.
The preparations needed to accomplish this involved the disconnection of all the associated piping on both the coolers and the anodes, the removal of any associated deck plates and benches, and the installation of lifting pad eyes above the box coolers where required.
Following the secure and precise removal of the coolers according to a pre-prepared lifting plan, they were placed either on the floor of the dock, on the quayside, or into shipping crates specially fabricated by DSAm for transport to the owners’ own specialists. Once all the overhauls and inspections were completed and the coolers returned, the yard reinstalled them all. The works required renewing the box cooler steel plates included cropping the old sea chest plates and replacing them with new steel plates prefabricated in the DSAm steel workshop and machine shop.
Once the works were complete, all the interior areas affected, including the ballast water tanks, forward tanks, coffer dam tanks and hull plates, were treated with a coatings programme. The yard also blasted and painted all the repaired sea chests and 16 additional forward sea chests.
Whilst the Deep Arctic was in the dry dock, she also overwent a complete thruster overhaul including upgrades to her tunnel, retractable and Azimuth thrusters, six in total. Her propeller shaft and centre line rudder also had their 10-yearly overhaul. These operations all took place in close collaboration with the Owner’s specialists Rolls Royce and OEM. Additional associated works included the fabrication of new piping for both tunnel thrusters, renewal of the lower gear units, repairs to the rudder stock actuator and the overhaul of the stern tube seal boxes.
To finish off, the yard also performed a large number of works at considerable heights. These included repairs to the gangway and load tests on the accommodation ladder and platform. Maintenance was also done to the structures of cranes no.1 (400T) and no.2 (58T), which included the removal of rust and painting the main and navigation masts and the helideck support structure.
All the works were undertaken to TechnipFMC’s and DSAm’s exceptionally high safety standards, aided by the close cooperation and planning that took place between the Damen and TechnipFMC project teams. The carefully configured seven-man DSAm project team ensured that the yard had enough resources to meet the high demands of TechnipFMC, and it included three junior project managers plus one, fully project-dedicated safety officer, which is relatively unusual. Both teams also had a planner onboard to keep the works operating to schedule. The overall result was a project delivered on time and to the highest quality.
TechnipFMC’s dive support vessel Deep Arctic has been upgraded to run as a battery hybrid in a move that will reduce its fuel use and emissions by 20 percent.
The change helps the company work towards its 50 by 30 target of reducing our Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2030 – two measures which also feature in TechnipFMC’s ESG Scorecard.
OneFleet is actively upgrading the company’s vessels to improve energy efficiency.
David Jousset, Vice President OneFleet, said, “As a company, we are committed to reducing our emissions and OneFleet is looking to solutions that will help us reduce the carbon footprint of our subsea activities. Switching to hybrid power on Deep Arctic is an important step for us.”
The rechargeable batteries provide redundancy power for Deep Arctic’s dynamic positioning thrusters. Dynamic positioning is used to keep a vessel in a fixed position relative to the seabed for long periods during diving operations.
Using instant access electric battery power as the back-up means fewer diesel generators are kept running, cutting engine running hours and maintenance costs by up to 50 percent.
In addition to the batteries, when in port, the vessel can connected to shore power so that mobilization activities can be carried out with no direct emissions, where the infrastructure is available.
The hybrid battery conversion took place in the Remontowa shipyard in Gdansk, Poland, in January and February. Commissioning by Seimens and sea trials followed in March and April and the vessel was handed over early this month.
Enova, which is owned by Norway’s Ministry of Climate and Environment, part-funded the project.
Got the idea from something I read a few days ago. Possibly the creepiest thing I've done so far. lol
"Depersonalization disorder (DPD) is a dissociative disorder in which the sufferer is affected by persistent or recurrent feelings of depersonalization and/or derealization. Diagnostic criteria include persistent or recurrent experiences of feeling detached from one's mental processes or body.[1] The symptoms include a sense of automation, going through the motions of life but not experiencing it, feeling as though one is in a movie, loss of conviction with one's identity, feeling as though one is in a dream, feeling a disconnection from one's body; out-of-body experience, a detachment from one's body, environment and difficulty relating oneself to reality."
From my 2014 series, 'Sanctuary', created for my final year of studies.
"I think that my love for photography was first kindled during long stints in hospital, photographing flowers that my mother had brought me. Throughout my adolescence I struggled with my mental and physical health, and nature was a sanctuary and escape for me. I lament the disconnection between our everyday lives and the natural world. The vulnerability, hope and suffering that I experienced, combined with the beauty and majesty of nature, inspired this body of work."
In ‘The Genesis Exhibition: Do Ho Suh: Walk the House’, Korean-born, London-based artist Do Ho Suh invites visitors to explore his large-scale installations, sculptures, videos and drawings in this major survey exhibition.
Is home a place, a feeling, or an idea? Suh asks timely questions about the enigma of home, identity and how we move through and inhabit the world around us.
With immersive artworks exploring belonging, collectivity and individuality, connection and disconnection, Suh examines the intricate relationship between architecture, space, the body, and the memories and the moments that make us who we are.
Source: www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/the-genesis-exhibiti...
Perfect Home: London, Horsham, New York, Berlin, Providence, Seoul (2024)
The outline of this work is based on a 1:1 form of the interior of Suh’s present home in London, following his migration here in the 2010s. Inside ‘Perfect Home’ reveals fixtures and appliances from multiple places Suh and his family have inhabited over the years. These light switches, doorknobs and other small elements of our dwelling spaces, touched constantly over time, contribute to our understanding of home. Almost subconsciously, we remember how to reach for these well-used items. Suh color-codes the objects based on their location or origin, and places them at their original height, resulting in a dizzling accumulation of places and time zones within the work.
Source: Info in the exhibition, right next to the work
From my last round of night shooting before The Change.
I feel a little lazy sharing these phone edits instead of waiting to do a "proper" edit, but in this case I look at what the app came up with and feel like "I couldn't have said it any better myself."
Reduced res jpeg, wifi-ed to phone, edited in Filmborn.
What's at the end of the rainbow? Desert decay and an abandoned pink shack... This rainbow brought beauty to an otherwise isolated and bleak land.
Teams in front of the Ariane 6 test model at Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana.
Europe’s next rocket, Ariane 6, passed all its qualification tests in preparation for its first flight, and now the full-scale test model needs to be removed from the launch pad to make way for the real rocket that will ascend to space.
The test model that is now on the launch pad at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, stands 62 m high. It is exactly the same as the ‘production model’ Ariane 6 rockets that will soon be launched, except that its boosters do not need to be tested as part of the complete rocket, so the boosters are not fuelled.
To make way for launch, teams from ArianeGroup, France’s space agency CNES and ESA have started to remove the Ariane 6 test model by disconnecting the cables and fuel lines that pass through the launch tower.
On 30 January 2024, the cryogenic connection system passed a last system test of the liftoff disconnection operations lines. The yellow arms seen here support the fuel lines that deliver liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to the upper stage to power the Vinci orbital engine – for this test there was no propellant in the fuel lines. Simultaneously at the bottom of the central core the connection system for the main stage also disconnected.
The connection system allows the free-standing launcher a clear ascent corridor on its way to space, and protects the connection systems before the rocket engines’ plumes could damage it. The disconnection during the critical and complex dynamic liftoff phase must be executed in a strict timeline with an accuracy of a few milliseconds.
Credits: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/ArianeGroup/Optique vidéo du CSG - P.Piron
פרויקט זה עוסק בתופעה בפרסום בה הקשר בין הדימוי למוצר הופך מזערי. כשאני נחשף לבר רפאלי מפרסמת מוצר מסויים, האסטרטגיה הפירסומית מתמקדת בעצם נוכחותה. הקשר בינה למוצר מאבד מחשיבותו. הפרויקט שלי לוקח תופעה זו צעד אחד קדימה אל נתק מוחלט בין הדימוי למוצר. התוצאה היא חמישה סרטוני תבנית, בעלי אופי סאטירי וגרוטסקי, המיועדים לפרסומו של כל מוצר נתון.
This project is referring a phenomenon inside the advertising industry which makes the connection between the image and the product to become minor. Whenever I'm exposed to a commercial which Bar Rafaeli is advertising a certain product, The advertising strategy is focused at Bar Rafaeli's actual presence. Hence, the connection between her and the product is losing it's significance.
My Project takes this phenomenon a step forward into a total disconnection between the imagery and the product. The result is a set of five template videos, characterized with satire and grotesque, which is destined to allow the possibility of advertising any kind of product.
Explored #71
In memorium of all the men and women of this country to have fought and died for our country to preserve the freedoms we currently embrace. The sky should be a friendly place for birds to soar and planes to fly. Anything else is just a pity in every sense of the word and a true disconnection for how each and everyone of us on this planet should unquestionably be able to live our lives. Power and greed is never the answer.
Happy a wonderful Memorial day and a lovely Sunday! :-)
Shot of a Red tailed Hawk taken in GG Park Saturday.
Once again having a difficult time keeping up with comments, hope to visit everyone soon!
From my 2014 series, 'Sanctuary', created for my final year of studies.
"I think that my love for photography was first kindled during long stints in hospital, photographing flowers that my mother had brought me. Throughout my adolescence I struggled with my mental and physical health, and nature was a sanctuary and escape for me. I lament the disconnection between our everyday lives and the natural world. The vulnerability, hope and suffering that I experienced, combined with the beauty and majesty of nature, inspired this body of work."
I assure you I am alive and well, though right now in recovery from a
vasectomy. A great many things have prevented much building as of late,
but I have been doing a lot *WITH* LEGO.
As some of you may know, I lead and teach at many area libraries' LEGO
clubs for various age groups. I also teach my daughter. I even hosted a
LEGO birthday party for a 4 year-old recently.
Aside from the other many things keeping me from working on MOCs, LEGO life
is sweet. I am feeling really excited about my builds coming along for Rose
City Comic Con and BrickCon.
The aforementioned disconnection of my greebles is allowing for some
excellent building time. What you see here is a little playground I made
with my daughter. She turned 3 last month and is really into minifigs and
playing and helping me while building sets:)
Can you tell she likes the animals??
Research strongly supports people with
hearing loss often feel isolated from their
loved ones, friends and co-workers.
This sense of isolation can lead to
depression, poor self-esteem, self-pity,
feeling disconnected from or the actual
loss of relationships, and loss of love.
Candid street shot, France 2013.
Bowen Park Totems Before Disconnection (1991) - 3 (of 5) - Epson V500 scan of 35mm Negative - Photographer Russell McNeil PhD (Physics) lives on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, where he works as a writer.
REFORD GARDENS | LES JARDINS DE METIS
Visit : www.refordgardens.com/
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From the plaque:
TiiLT, 2016
Sean Radford, Chris Wiebe (SRCW)
Winnipeg, (Manitoba) Canada
Finding roots in the formal geometries of the labyrinth and the many informal camping traditions in the Canadian landscape, TiiLT is a transformable and inhabitable place for visitors to act or to idle, however they may be inclined.
Each structure may be flipped between two orientations , responding to the position of the sun, offering alternative views and shifting pathways through the site. The toggling movement conjures a school of fish, or a flock of birds, flitting in opposite directions yet connected as a whole. The straw-like tightness of the structures and the white skin recall a field of floral blooms, contrasting the surrounding green landscape and blue sky.
TiiLt challenges the notion of the garden in creating an interactive environment that is part sculpture and part landscape- to evoke a sense of place and beauty from modest elements. TiiLT provides simple, intimate, shaded spaces in congregation, retrieving memories of long days in short seasons, time spent alone and among neighbours, embracing the feeling of shared disconnection, together.
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Beautiful flowers at Reford Gardens.
Visit : www.refordgardens.com/
From Wikipedia:
Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.
Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.
Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.
She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.
In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.
During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.
In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.
Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.
To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.
Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.
In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)
Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford
LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS
Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.
Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.
Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada
Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.
Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada
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Had some time today to do a new headshot for myself.
These past couple of weeks have been crazy. I had my first exhibition last week. Now my mind is absorbed in a new series that I'm doing. I'm getting funded by the Julie M. Art Gallery in the distillery district to do a series in my style - it will be about identity, disconnection, Judaism and Israel. Huge topics that have always been quite personal. I can't wait to see what happens when I completely expose myself to a series. The exhibition will be happening at the end of March/early April.
AND I'm graduating from university in April...but who has time for school these days pfft.
I'm currently holding a print giveaway. The prize pack is pretty swag, you should enter! goo.gl/ljE51
<3
**View LARGE on t2z in proper context **
☣ ☣
-->> .. ..-cont. from part 1..
..2 of 3 .. defence..
**
..Just what they 'spectin ?? This ain' pretty like rose pedal filled bath water. Or Ernest Hemingway..
.. or the later in the water. And so it goes ..
..a nice word picture.
..ballistic ..
..no time for games.. "SHALL WE RECOUNT,W.O.P.R. ??" ::
..The attack couldn't have come soon enough ..and maybe it came too soon.. the Alien Invader wish it had never come at all. Tho'.. like Macbeth.. the hapless Invader knew not to use words like 'NEVER' for it was an invisible word with no power ..no meaning, just some blank semblance of what someone dreamt of what 'Nothing' was like or meant to be.
The birds flew off in panic.
Placing understanding in 'NEVER' makes sense to some.. and others it Is nothing.. just a word ,or a land of fantasy ..and things of dreams,phantoms,and magical mice. These things may come to some at the speed of light..nature is so much swifter than the digital dreams of science and tech-. "Never say never".. Unfortunate ..is is to know 'NEVER'. To know NEVER is to know paradox.
The Maddnezz remains everywhere and nowhere.. and NEVER and forever. He attacks when he pleases ..and the prison he creates for the Invader is non-binding yet creates the cage for the demon's wonderful experiment. As if the mad doctor's last lab rat on the island. Research absolves ..to become obsessed with the rat..to torcher the rat.. to stick it, to prick it. To see how it will squeal and squirm..to push it to it's limit. To make it run a mad maze then take away the cheese upon the split second it's been found. Plug it into things.. pincers and diodes.. wires and plugs. To think nothing but of the rat .. to become one with the rat.
The Maddnezz was NEVER there .. maybe that was denial. Always .. and maybe ?? He comes when he chooses .. but it's one sided.. the Maddnezz knows everything. The Invader knows nothing of the creature's mind. Perhaps he chooses to.
The Maddnezz is God. He often comes in any form..he often comes in anything or anyone. He is everywhere.. he may be the world. The disconnection may be an affront. Maybe the Invader is not connected to the world around him to protect himself from the evolving hatreds of some beings on the ancient green planet.
But the Maddnezz is God..
Resembling a hulkish skull.. as if a Minotaur and the Angel of Death had crossed with a bovine. His head is attached to a forever stretch of what looks to me fleshy, muscle material. Slimy ..it's base is a claw of sorts. A Hydra of claws on phallic teets..and the moth is that of a leech ..and and uncontrollable tongue. The Oni is nothing of the folklore style. Shapeshifter, tormenter.. exceptionally evil.. or something beyond anything the Invader could ever understand 'EVIL' to be. As if an outcast of Yomi .. and beloved only to the most sinister of hearts.
Forever.. a minor boogieman to the Bakemono. A few old women of the Rokurokubi used to tell tales and gossip of such shapeless goblins to the Children of the River. But as the planet forever turned ..the water forever flowed ..shapeless ..such a phantom myth was washed away and cleansed from the fables. And forgotten. The Maddnezz is Legend in Never .. as if he was always here ..yet not at all.
Shapleless..
Sometimes he may come screaming from the sky .. the 'CLAW' as his vessel .. he spins like the great Turtle and makes a grande entrance. Larger than life and destroying everything from point A to point B. As if Heaven opened up and an angel vomited on the Big Easter Parade.
Sometimes ..he is nowhere.. then he's there. It's as if the Invader knew him forever. As if he was always there.. forever..and no one knew it.
..like discovering the skeleton of a dead sparrow in the gutter of a house. The creature was trapped in the gutter long ago.. with no means of escape. It perished and decomposed .. the flys long gone. What's left are the twised remains of the trapped bird. It was always there.. but noone knew of it. Until you discover it climbing an extended ladder to gain access to the roof. Between the rungs and in the gutter.. a small peckish skull and a pretzel pile of bones is staring back at you.
The Maddnezz drew much power after each attack. The more powerful the attacks .. the beast grows into stronger forms. The existence the Invader leads was not ever clear to him.. and when the Demon attacked .. the Humanoid was often left for dead. Perhaps he already was.
Maddnezz speaks in twisted tones and torettes.. ::
"I strike at your heart.. your soulless heart.. i have no soul i want yours.. i need yours.. i am your soul. I fuck you ..i feel you.. i feed you ..the things the darkest mind knows all to well in rot and gain.
Death comes to those with the blindest ambitions and power the destruction they leave in their wake shall return to them in unforeseen cascades. It shall crash back them and destroy them. Behind many great Powers are souls of evil cowards ..
Rebuild,destroy, replenish,exhaust,destroy .. push the planet to her limits.. push the human psyche into it's nuclear age.
A dozen just perished.. no it's your turn ..again it's your turn.
..why let them devour you when i can .. Regurgitate you .. again and again.. this is only the beginning as it began long ago ..and the end is near for this heart is mine..and the beginning begins again for the end. This is NEVER.. and it it goes on forever- forever war .. Nuclear mind.. toxic heart.."
His monstrous ramble was cut short and the questions exploded into nothing. Maybe this was meant to be a distraction to catch the Alien off.
The Oni struck. Plunging his pointed horns into the Invader's cold,pale flesh.. like strong arms of the gorilla..the horns threw the Invader high in the air like a child's play ball. At some point some of the Invader's limbs became detached.. but it all happened too too fast !! They may have been the severed by the horns when he was lifted and thrown into the abyss above.
Suddenly there was slam.. .. the Invader landed flat o his backside on some slab of roughish. Shock ..paralyzed. The Oni twitched his skull..bewitched. As if on command .. Missiles fell from the sky .. and everything was going black. Except for the bursts of the bombs. The ground was shaking.. yet the visage in the Alien's eyes was growing bleaker. The Demon wrapped his tentacles around the Invader's feet and lifted him off the gravel. Hanging upside down
.. the Demon's jaw plunged into the Humanoid breast .. as if a million bayonets had stabbed. Ripping out the heart ..then tossing the rest of the Invader away as if yesterday's catch. The bombs continued to drop .. everything was draining. For the first time ..in a long shifting of the sands..
..the Invader could feel.
But the weakness was stronger.. the darkness grew until was too strong. Everything was going ..away ..
..-blank .. a flash of light.. some bomb.. then blank - - bomb.. flicker.. flutter.. -fl - - - -
.. - blank .. words .. bl- blan- .. .. .. b
- - - -
- -
- - ** **
..another explosion .. missiles dropped as heavy metal acid rain. A burning sensation .. a rush of false life. Pain .. the Invader had nothing but pain where his heart was.
Disconnected ..as if he was a ghost. His limbs were relatively in tact.. but his arms were severed .. Somehow they managed to stay connected to his torso like magnets ..even tho' they "weren't".
Dizzy.. he stood up sloppy joe like on the rumbling ground.. the stars sparkled bright thru' the fog of smoke. His legs felt of pudding .. and his eyes were to dry to cry even if he could gather enough emotional energy to do so. His energy wasn't focused anyway.. but a massive sound of manic eating could be heard from behind.
Like a sea of wolves devouring a sole surfaced whale in a bone-dry ocean.. the sound could have been frightening. But the Invader was not connected.. it wasn't even a factor. The scent burnt blood and ash filled the war-torn area. It could have all been morbidly beautiful if he was connected.
Suddenly ..a hint of rage at the sight. Hunched over the abstract monster was ripping away at the layers of the Invaders heart. The muscle was proving difficult to chew through. 'Sunday steak on a Thursday ..' ..it was tough.
Blank anger ..and a sudden need to fight the Demon .. confusion .. screaming.. perhaps he was trying to get connected.. lost
.. the Alien rushed .. enraged at the dining Oni like a moth into the fire.. only to be swatted away by the Maddnezz claw as if it was 'NOTHING'.
The Spaze Caze flew back faster than when the attack first occurred. More confused than ever.. he smacked the back of his head on a rock.. his ability to think was hindered for all he could think of was the pain..the anger.
The burning sensation empowered him leap forward again and again repeating his first move..over and over.Frustrated. As if it was his first move again.. pointlessly attacking the Demon trying to obtain the heart as Oni continued to rip into the flesh of the muscle. So pointless.. the anger wained after each pass.
..as if a horse batting away the flys with his tail. Soon the endeavor became obvious in it's fruitlessness.
The Maddnezz was too powerful..for the injured Humanoid and would do as he pleased.
Finally.. the Alien stood hopeless in pain..bleeding and burning .. standing in view on the desolate war-land.. as if world was ending in implosion. Missiles fell from nowhere.. this was 'NOWHERE' ..this may have been 'NEVER'.. the words escaped meaning. Meaning meant nothing.. and finally..
..The Invader understood the blank and the power of the madness. Empty bleeding.. and the look of the impossible seared into his brow.
Trapped in amber ..
After much struggle ..
The Maddnezz broke the flesh.. the oni pierced the heart. Eating into the core.. bloods splattered everywhere like every slasher movie ever made..
.. his power was slithering into the moment.. unseen forces ,energies .. filled his form..
The Maddnezz was about to grow.. more missiles fell.
The Invader ripped off his right arm.. for a split second .. .. .. he had the need to brace himself.. somehow he knew what was coming.
At least this time..
- ..2 be continued.. -
** ** **
.unexpected existence is ..thus is the theme for Spaze's defence..
..provided by : Architecture In Helsinki .. ::
- Click here ,if you wish to listen to -A.I.H's What's In Store ?..--
**
** ..crayon inks,colour pencil,MAGIC MARKER,design marker,ballistic missiles..Ph.shop,Macromedia Fireworks, Special thanks to W.O.P.R. - 22,January 2007
©2007, 2011 .. tOkKa,terrible2z.com ..all other elements © their much respected owners..please respect the copyrights..
A few people in the pews of the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) in Delft. Symbolic for the current exodus from the churches, due to a growing disconnection with modern society?
ODC - Theme (08-09-2014): Disconnected
Imaging was difficult under the moon and haze, though the irregularity of the tail may be showing disconnection of the tail.
equipment: Takahashi FSQ-106ED refractor with Reducer QE 0.73x at f/3.6 and Canon EOS 5Dmk2-sp2, modified by Seo-san on Takahashi EM-200 temma 2 jr. equatorial mount autoguided at the center of the condensation of the coma with side by side mounted Takahashi FS-60C, Starlightxpress Lodestar Autoguider, and PHD guiding
exposure: 47 times x 30 seconds at ISO 1,600 and f/3.6
First exposure started at 19:43:46 and the last at 20:13:40 November 16, 2013UTC.
site: 1,094m above sea level at lat.35 53 27 N. and long. 138 25 13 E. near Kiyosato
Curator’s Statement
Yong Sook Kim-Lambert’s large-scale color-field paintings are interspersed with shadowy figures that seem to suggest a foreboding and loneliness, while at the same time incorporating power and prophesy. Her work is a visual tapestry, with layers of both watercolor and acrylic used to emphasize her emotional expressionism. The artist freely uses Korean and Chinese calligraphy, as well as cutting from newspapers and magazines to strengthen her design qualities. While our Western culture does not allow us to interpret the text literally, the presence of these enigmatic characters speaks to us of our cultural differences and the alienation and disconnection that minorities encounter daily. These works are Kim-Lambert’s bold statements to society and civilization.
I have been in awe and an admirer of Yong Sook’s work for many years. The Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art is honored to present Yong Sook Kim-Lambert: East Meets West, an exhibition that gives southern Pennsylvania an opportunity to see and enjoy the work of this prominent 21st century artist.
Barbara Hollander, Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art
this photo was a complete accident, as i'm sure you can tell by the somewhat odd look on my face. the sun was shining brightly and as we all know blinding sun and phone screen are not a winning combination.
my first instinct was to delete this photo. send it into whatever oblivion horrible photos we take of ourselves accumulate and quietly weep together in bitter pools of faible amour propre.
the thing is, when you take enough photos of yourself (and this is part of the reason i don't do this so much anymore) you learn what makes you look magazine worthy good, and inevitably what makes you look like a something inbred that crawled out of a swamp on it's belly.
and it's easy to fall into a trap of seeing yourself a certain way because "delete" is such an
easy button to push.
(what's harder to accept is a photo of you that someone else has taken that doesn't match up with the image you've created of yourself. this can be devestating because you start to wonder if that horrible creature you see is how other people see you and if you've been fooling yourself this entire time...because the delete button is just.so.easy.to.push. when you have control of it.)
everyonceinawhile, though, there are photos like this. the real ones. the ones unplanned, unposed. the accidental shot that captures the reality of the moment. the one offs that show who you really are. they aren't ugly, they aren't gorgeous.
they are far worse than either of those extremes.
they are vulnerable and intimate, and not in a planned, manipulated, pouty, pity me sort of way. they are real. real glimpses into the truth of who you are and how you perceive yourself.
this one took some effort to post, mostly due to me having to give up a certain element of control over how the audience
(or "kids" as i affectionately like to call y'all - and i don't say that as an insult of a top down sort of thing, because "kids" to me means all of us, myself included. we never really grow up - we're just "kids" forced into adult roles. so it has an air of freedom, and an air of sadness when i use it. mostly it's an inclusive term for all of us as i feel that "audience" is polarizing, and always tends to place the "artist" on a superior platform above those he is performing for. if you're here and reading this, i want you next to me, sharing it with me, even if you don't fully understand. i don't want you over there and me here. that sucks. disconnection always sucks.)
perceives me. in the era of facebook and social media, twitter, et al. everyone's life is a highlight reel. someone's either ecstatically happy, or suicidally sad, or someone ate, cooked, or bought something, or someone just ran 8000 miles in 3 hours or bench pressed
a buick while teaching blind kids to read, or someone just broke up with the love of their life that they met a month ago, or someone's verbally assaulting you with their inflammable political ideologies.
there is no vulnerability that's real, that's human. it's all manipulated to elicit a certain response. and it's addictive to get that response. it kicks up the dopamine. it makes you feel good to be paid attention to, to think that someone cared enough to respond.
but it's not real.
it's not real if you're not real.
i have been out many a night and ended up talking to complete strangers about very deep and thought provoking issues and ideas for hours. inevitably, i never see them again.
there is a certain charm in that, but there is also an extreme sadness. the charm is understanding the meaning of the conversation afterwards - that nothing in the world can ever change those few hours spent with those people. that block of time is frozen in memory forever. the sadness comes from knowing you'll never see those people again, never know if their lives change, if they carry your words with them like you do theirs, and if they think of you once in a while and wonder.
i have a saying about this: i've made a thousand friends, the kind i'll never see again.
i think it's because people find it easier to be themselves with a stranger they know isn't going to be part of their daily or even weekly lives.
it's because we become these facsimilies of ourselves with the people we see on the daily. family, friends, co-workers, lovers. there is a facade we all have, and we spend an inordinate amount of our time and energy maintaining that facade.
sometimes i see these facades and it makes me physically hurt because if i stare at someone long enough two things happen: i see them as they'd be if they were very old, and i see them as they were when they were children. and in strange bizarre cases, i see them as they were in other lifetimes (but that's another topic for another time).
i look at people and wonder "what's their motivation for getting up in the morning?"
why do they keep living and breathing? is it kids, a job? what?
sometimes i don't understand my own motivation for doing anything, but here i am - day after day after day, waking up in the morning and doing what i do, eating healthy, running, studying, - and ultimately...what for?
as i used to say before: it's not the how that'll kill you. it's the why.
but the thing is, we all keep doing it. just like our hearts keep pumping even though we don't consciously compel them to. we all keep waking up in the morning and doing what we do.
i keep feeding the stray outdoor kitty, i keep running almost every day, i keep watching netflix, i keep staying up too late and waking up too early, i keep making stupid jokes, i keep oscillating between happiness and sadness, i keep wondering where i went wrong,
and i keep receiving subtle signs from the universe that make me wonder, and smile, and
have hope that everything will turn out just fine in the end.
not that everything is falling to pieces now or anything. it's just that old friend "existential crisis" that rears it's lovely wobbly head once in a while.
everyone has this. and if they say they don't, they're lying.
i tend to think the above picture says all of this and more.
there's a sadness mingling with hope in the eyes mixing with a bit of misunderstood mischeviousness.
and the smile is forced or completely natural depending on your own emotional resonance.
it's at once a facade and a complete deep down core soul exposure.
i'm either about to tell you a really inappropriate but hella funny joke, or i'm about to
crack in a million pieces.
i either love being here, being me - or i wish i was another person on another planet.
my eyes are brimming over with frustration and silent sarcasm or they are filled with
peace, and hope, and love that's about to burst forth in a super cheesy happy smile.
and therein lies the vulnerability.
/on a drive recently, the existential crisis kicked into high gear, and
i did what i normally do when i don't want to think - plug in mp3p0 and
turn up the sound so loud it's hard to think.
first came the sign, then came the sound.
a song that mp3p0 hasn't picked in years.
and for a few minutes i felt completely understood.
Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks," painted in 1942, is a masterpiece of American realist art. This iconic painting offers a stark portrayal of urban life, featuring a group of patrons in a late-night diner. The setting is desolate, and the use of light and shadow creates an eerie atmosphere, emphasizing the isolation and disconnection of the individuals within. "Nighthawks" is renowned for its ability to evoke a sense of quiet desperation, reflecting the alienation and solitude often experienced in the modern city. Hopper's work continues to captivate viewers with its enigmatic narrative and masterful use of light and composition.
Adam volunteers behind the scenes at 2XXfm, keeping the stations electronic program guide (EPG to the techos) up to spec at all times.
2XXfm is completely volunteer run by the people of Canberra, offering alternative, independent and local news, music, entertainment and current affairs.
With the support of citizens like Adam, 2XX provides connection for people to their community and culture in these times of great disconnection.
Community Radio 2XX fm
Canberra
Australia
I assure you I am alive and well, though right now in recovery from a
vasectomy. A great many things have prevented much building as of late,
but I have been doing a lot *WITH* LEGO.
As some of you may know, I lead and teach at many area libraries' LEGO
clubs for various age groups. I also teach my daughter. I even hosted a
LEGO birthday party for a 4 year-old recently.
Aside from the other many things keeping me from working on MOCs, LEGO life
is sweet. I am feeling really excited about my builds coming along for Rose
City Comic Con and BrickCon.
The aforementioned disconnection of my greebles is allowing for some
excellent building time. What you see here is a little playground I made
with my daughter. She turned 3 last month and is really into minifigs and
playing and helping me while building sets:)
Can you tell she likes the animals??