View allAll Photos Tagged Interconnectedness
I seem to be uploading white boats at present, this may be for strange cosmic reasons that I am not sensitive to, or it could just be an inexplicable coincidence as occurs during the warp and weave of interconnectedness, stuff like that.
I couldn\'t find much about Aquatech Surveyor, unfortunately, as it seems to be doing something quite noble, which is a "benthic" survey. I did search for the boat\'s profile but my anti-virus software blocked the only interesting site...
Anyway, I found an article by AWJ Marine about the boat\'s activities in 2020, close to Gwynt y Môr (an offshore windfarm off North Wales) and it put me on to "benthic" surveys: benthic is a new word for me but apparently benthic surveys "are ecological assessments that study the organisms and habitats found on the bottom of a body of water." So, something like that seems to be taking place right now on the Thames.
Here is another inexplicable coincidence: a book by Robert MacFarlane, "Is A River Alive" was brought to my attention by Robert Allan Bear bear3741 which, after 2 previous attempts I have managed to get into (not unusual for me and not a comment on the book). So far, it\'s spoken of how we treat rivers (badly) and is beginning to talk about how, perhaps, we should treat them and it\'s hooked me, although I may not agree with it ! I'm not far in, but MacFarlane has already raised the beneficial effects of uncovering lost rivers (there are many - even one running through Kings Cross tube station and another, with a very similar name, just upriver of this...).
As I said, the interconnectedness of everything.
There you have it.
[DSC_0550b]
The transient beauty of the coast is intricately intertwined with the captivating patterns that emerge in the sand, crafted by the relentless forces of wind and wave. These natural sculptors shape the shoreline, leaving behind ephemeral masterpieces.
As the tides ebb and flow, they orchestrate a delicate dance with the sand. With each advancing wave, the water gently caresses the shore, carrying particles of sand along its journey. As the wave recedes, it relinquishes its cargo, depositing the grains in a meticulous arrangement. This cyclical process, repeated countless times, creates intricate patterns that stretch along the coastline.
The patterns left behind by the retreating tide mimic the ebb and flow of life itself. Swirling ripples, reminiscent of a miniature desert landscape, emerge as the water recedes, their graceful curves and undulating lines transforming the beach into a living work of art. The patterns are at once orderly and chaotic, with intricate geometrical formations intermingling with whimsical curves and asymmetrical shapes.
The wind, a silent artist in its own right, adds its touch to the sculpting process. As it sweeps across the coast, it whispers secrets to the sand, coaxing it to dance in its invisible embrace. The wind's gentle touch lifts fine particles from the beach, carrying them aloft in an intricate ballet. It sculpts the sand into delicate ripples, resembling the soft undulations of fabric.
The interplay between the wind and the tide results in an ever-changing landscape. The patterns shift and evolve, shaped by the combined forces of these elemental sculptors. Ripples become miniature mountains, rising and falling in a transient topography that mirrors the larger contours of the surrounding coast. Each gust of wind and every advancing or receding wave leaves its mark, etching new patterns and erasing old ones, in an eternal cycle of creation and destruction.
These ephemeral patterns serve as a reminder of the impermanence of existence and the transient nature of beauty, as each passing moment alters the landscape, erasing what once was and creating something new. The sands become a canvas for the symphony of time, a tangible reflection of the ever-changing nature of our lives.
The beauty of these fleeting patterns lies not only in their visual allure but also in the emotions they evoke. They inspire a sense of wonder and awe, inviting us to pause and appreciate the intricate designs that nature creates with such effortless grace. The patterns speak of the interconnectedness of all things, the harmonious interplay between the elements, and the constant flux that defines our existence.
In these patterns of nature, we find a profound lesson: that life, like the shifting sands, is ever-changing, and that true beauty lies not in permanence but in the appreciation of the fleeting moments that grace our journey.
Excerpt from harbourfrontcentre.com/event/fluid-fossils/:
Fluid Fossils is a site-specific mural by Winnipeg-based artist Anna Binta Diallo, exploring themes of time, memory and interdependence through the metaphor of fossils. Using silhouettes of human forms assembled from found images, Diallo creates a visual narrative on the interconnectedness of the past, present and future. Originally exhibited at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, it invites viewers to reflect on how contemporary actions and objects will serve as relics for future generations, emphasizing the importance and responsibility of shaping collective heritage.
Artist Statement
“Fluid Fossils envisions a landscape of silhouettes representing a fragment of human history, crafted from images drawn from nature and everyday life. These figures embody the process of fossilization, where moments of significance are imprinted and preserved over time. Through this visual dialogue, I explore the balance between transience and permanence, urging reflection on what we choose to preserve and how our gestures and objects will one day become the relics of tomorrow. The mural serves as a meditation on the enduring impact of our actions and the legacy we leave behind, urging us to consider our collective responsibility in safeguarding the traces of our shared history.” — Anna Binta Diallo
I bet many of you will recognize this view. At least two famous buildings are clearly visible: Stockholm City Hall and The Riddarholmen Church. As you can see, the subway trains kept coming and going on the tracks below. I wish they'd have lamps on the roofs or something to allow for smoother light trails. Anyway. The photo was taken from The Lock Area. See also: Interconnectedness.
Part I – Part II – Part III – Part IV – Part V – Part VI – Part VII – Part VIII
Not all mural work in Gastown is COVID-19 specific nor on boarded up windows. This pieces adorns the wall on a parking garage entrance/exit ramp on Water Street.
It is by art + design studio Chairman Ting and called" Pacific North Weave".
Pacific North Weave is an illustration that plays with the concept of interconnectedness. Vancouver is a fabric that is woven by a vibrant and diverse palette of colours as it sits at the edge of western Canada.
It is the junction point between the west and the east. The illustration is comprised of hundreds of visual elements sourced from all over the city and is intertwined by purposeful lines that form a texture from afar.
When seen from up close we begin to see the seamless interaction between each individual element in the illustration that help form this intricate snapshot of the city.
United, strong, and free are the fabric that make up this beautiful city we call home.
This project was a collaboration between Chairman Ting, Six Hundred Four + EVO Car Share.
The collaboration was brought together with one idea in mind, and that’s to champion the arts and culture of Vancouver.
The illustration titled ‘Pacific North Weave’ took on several forms including a hand painted mural in Gastown, a hand painted art piece (60” x 40” on display at Six Hundred Four), a printed vinyl mural at the EVO office and finally as premium designer sneakers by Six Hundred Four.
Six Hundred Four Shoes partners with emerging artists, turning their original work into 604 pairs of premium, limited editions sneakers.
Each pair is crafted utilizing state of the art printers that effectively tattoo the art onto the shoes.
EVO Car Share is a car sharing service in the Greater Vancouver area, created by the British Columbia Automobile Association.
The company offers exclusively Toyota Prius Hybrid vehicles with roof-top bike racks.
How far are you willing to go down the dialectical hole?
Marxist religion is the opium of the people. Identity politics, critical race theory, and gender theory are all forms of repackaged Marxism: identity Marxism, race Marxism, and gender Marxism. Flee from wokeism (woke Marxism): diversity, equity, and inclusion! Climate change (climate Marxism): humans are the oppressors, the earth is the oppressed. The dialectic of climate change: shame the unmasked and unvaxxed...oops, I mean: Struggle Session the masses about climate change and carbon footprints (eventually people will not be allowed to travel around freely; they will be locked down in their 15 minute city smart homes; they will feel too guilty to leave their bedrooms). “The dialectic marries truth to a lie. It forms a synthetic view, a synthetic reality—a contrived reality.” In the end the dialectic swaps out the truth for a lie. It destroys the truth. It destroys society. It will replace capitalism with socialism. It will replace freedom with authoritarianism. Like the devil, it comes only to steal and kill and destroy. The dialectic is ever changing. It never remains the same. It’s always on the move, it’s always on the creep. The dialectic is steadily moving towards sustainability (universal socialism) and global citizenship. When I use the word socialism, I’m talking about a new spin (dialectic) of fascism and communism; it’s a universal neo-commufascism called “Antichristism (socialist/antichrist).” The dialectic of Global Citizenship Education:
www.unesco.org/en/global-citizenship-peace-education/need...
www.un.org/en/academic-impact/page/global-citizenship-edu...
www.globalcitizenshipfoundation.org/about/global-citizens...
Global Citizenship Education can be defined as a lifelong revolutionary pursuit that uses both dialectical learning and activism to brainwash and equip global citizen activists with the knowledge and skills to promote Sustainable (socialist) Development in order to forge [with a communist hammer] a more [un]equitable and [un]inclusive society. Global Citizenship Education harnesses cultural power dynamics, using modern educational institutions to foster an ecosystem of internationalization and globalization to promote the permanent pursuit of social(ist) justice. We will use a post-colonial, critical-transformative, and value-creating GCE-curriculum with a sustainable (socialist) paradigm that will direct us towards sustainable (socialist) societies. We will utilize Social and Emotional Learning to promote empathetic awareness of the interconnectedness of people to the global ecosystem, which is a key feature of the new Education for Sustainable (Socialist) Development. All graduates of this program will receive a Global Citizenship Certificate, acknowledging that the pupil (disciple) understands the social(ist) implications and ethics of Global Citizenship.
The United Nations is partnering with countries to rewire their educational systems for social(ist) transition, which will in turn rewire the minds of their people for social(ist) change. The Member (puppet) States of the United Nations must promote these Sustainable Development Goals. Their Educational Institutions have a responsibility to promote Global Citizenship. They must teach the youth about the benefits of being members of a larger global community. They must prepare them for the future global order. The concept of global citizenship is embedded in the 17 Corpus Hermeticum (occultic/demonic) Goals of Sustainable Development (goals toward perpetual universal authoritarianism). It will take a global effort among stakeholders (bankers, billionaires, politicians, CEOs), using public–private (government and corporations [fascism], and NGOs) partnerships (as a workaround [bypass around] democracy) to achieve these (New World Order) Goals. The United Nations’ Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals will prepare the young people (Red Guards) for the Cultural Revolution, which will purge the Four Olds from society: Old Ideas, Old Customs, Old Culture, and Old Habits. The Great Reset (Build Back Better) will be like the Great Leap Forward under Mao; “it was an economic and social campaign that ended in digression and mass death.”
This dialectic will eventually lead us into a one world economic order in which all global citizens will receive a digital citizenship smart tattoo ID: 666. Take the jab, take the (micro)chip. If you refuse, we’ll use a Maoist style Struggle Season to publicly humiliate and beat and torture and execute (behead) you. Bow down and worship the Image of the Beast (the idol of the Supreme Leader—The True Social(ist) Man—the Antichrist). Take the Mark of the Beast and be reborn a true social(ist) man (transhuman/666)—a god, like the Beast who died and came back to life.
“Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves.” “Watch out! Guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” “Dear children, the last hour is here. You have heard that the Antichrist is coming, and already many such antichrists have appeared. From this we know that the last hour has come.”
I will ask you again: how far are you willing to go down the dialectical hole?
“The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.” “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.”
This major retrospective—the first to be organized by a US institution in 30 years—builds on the wealth of new research, scholarship, and perspectives that has emerged since Andy Warhol’s early death at age 58 in 1987. More than 400 works offer a new view of the beloved and iconic American Pop artist, not only illuminating the breadth, depth, and interconnectedness of Warhol’s production across the entirety of his career but also highlighting the ways that he anticipated the issues, effects, and pace of our current digital age.
Warhol gained fame in the 1960s for his Pop masterpieces, widely known and reproduced works that often eclipse his equally significant late work as well as his crucial beginnings in the commercial art world. This exhibition brings together all aspects and periods of his varied and prolific career and includes paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, videos, archival and printed material, installation, films, and media works. By showcasing the full continuum of Warhol’s work, rather than focusing on a certain period, this presentation demonstrates that the artist didn’t slow down after surviving the assassination attempt that nearly took his life in 1968 but entered into a period of intense experimentation.
Warhol, with obvious self-deprecation, described his philosophy as spanning from A to B. As this exhibition decidedly proves, his thinking and artistic production ranged well beyond that, but his true genius lies in his ability to identify cultural patterns and to use repetition, distortion, and recycled images in a way that challenges our faith in images and questions the meaning of our cultural icons.
This exhibition was organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
The transient beauty of the coast is intricately intertwined with the captivating patterns that emerge in the sand, crafted by the relentless forces of wind and wave. These natural sculptors shape the shoreline, leaving behind ephemeral masterpieces.
As the tides ebb and flow, they orchestrate a delicate dance with the sand. With each advancing wave, the water gently caresses the shore, carrying particles of sand along its journey. As the wave recedes, it relinquishes its cargo, depositing the grains in a meticulous arrangement. This cyclical process, repeated countless times, creates intricate patterns that stretch along the coastline.
The patterns left behind by the retreating tide mimic the ebb and flow of life itself. Swirling ripples, reminiscent of a miniature desert landscape, emerge as the water recedes, their graceful curves and undulating lines transforming the beach into a living work of art. The patterns are at once orderly and chaotic, with intricate geometrical formations intermingling with whimsical curves and asymmetrical shapes.
The wind, a silent artist in its own right, adds its touch to the sculpting process. As it sweeps across the coast, it whispers secrets to the sand, coaxing it to dance in its invisible embrace. The wind's gentle touch lifts fine particles from the beach, carrying them aloft in an intricate ballet. It sculpts the sand into delicate ripples, resembling the soft undulations of fabric.
The interplay between the wind and the tide results in an ever-changing landscape. The patterns shift and evolve, shaped by the combined forces of these elemental sculptors. Ripples become miniature mountains, rising and falling in a transient topography that mirrors the larger contours of the surrounding coast. Each gust of wind and every advancing or receding wave leaves its mark, etching new patterns and erasing old ones, in an eternal cycle of creation and destruction.
These ephemeral patterns serve as a reminder of the impermanence of existence and the transient nature of beauty, as each passing moment alters the landscape, erasing what once was and creating something new. The sands become a canvas for the symphony of time, a tangible reflection of the ever-changing nature of our lives.
The beauty of these fleeting patterns lies not only in their visual allure but also in the emotions they evoke. They inspire a sense of wonder and awe, inviting us to pause and appreciate the intricate designs that nature creates with such effortless grace. The patterns speak of the interconnectedness of all things, the harmonious interplay between the elements, and the constant flux that defines our existence.
In these patterns of nature, we find a profound lesson: that life, like the shifting sands, is ever-changing, and that true beauty lies not in permanence but in the appreciation of the fleeting moments that grace our journey.
Vajrasatva Mahaa Aakasha Pushti Nama Yogenii Tantra, rDo rJe Sems dPa' Nam mKha' Che rGyas Pa Shes Bya rNal 'Byor Ma'i rGyud
Vol: Kha P. 595 Line 3
In the Language of India:
Vajrasatva Mahaa Aakasha Pushti Nama Yogenii Tantra
In the Tibetan Language:
rDo rJe Sems dPa' Nam mKha' Che rGyas Pa Shes Bya rNal 'Byor Ma'i rGyud
I fold my hands to the One Who Transcends Dominion and Possession, the Glorious Bearer of The Stone of Transformation!
On one occasion I spoke out these words:
He who transcends dominion and possession, the true Master of all those who leave behind dominion and possession and conduct themselves accordingly, whose personal character is physical, vocal, and psychological, and who is Supreme Bliss (bDe ba'i mChog) was, naturally, engaging the Lotus of Great Bliss, his honored wife. He erected a crystal palace from the powerful waves of tremendous happiness, a happiness that comes from working towards happiness, for his honored wife. Its architecture and dimensions were beyond measure.
The entire audience entered [the crystal palace], including:
Vajra Maker of All Vision
Vajra Stability
Vajra Glory of Supreme Rarity [596]
Vajra Endless Life, and
Vajra Accomplishment Free From Demonic Consumption
Their Honored Wives:
Wide Eyes (Yangs pa'i sPyan)
Feminine Stability
She Who Splendors in Jewels
She Whose Life is Unending
She who's Accomplishments Are Free from Demonic Consumption
Furthermore, there were the Enlightened Ones of Strong Mind:
Heart of the Land
He with the Power of Transformation in His Hands
Heart of the Sky
Dominator of the World
Kind
Polite Voice
Cleanser of Darkness
Goodness in All Things
And Their Honored Wives:
Dancer
Flower Garland
Singer
Actress
Perfume Lady
Flower
Candle
Sweet Water
The Honored Tylers were:
Killer of the Lord of the Dead
Victory in All Things
He Who Takes the Lotus to the End
He Who Puts the Soup of Life on the Stove (Thab or Thabs?)
Their Honored Wives:
She Who Kills the Lord of the Dead
She Who Wins at Everything
She Who Takes the Lotus to the End
She Who Puts the Soup of Life on the Stove
An audience of those already mentioned, and many others, all came together there, with no disparity between any of them. What is more, they came together just like sesame seeds, filling the whole place.
Their light made the dominions of the world visible. It filled [the world]. It pervaded [the world]. Suddenly it was there, looking like a glowing shimmer. [597]
Then, from the waves of the power of that great happiness, which comes out of working for happiness, there emerged Grand Masters numbering three thousand great thousands. All the dominions of the world were shaken by their might (mThu). Very Shaken. Totally shaken. They were wiped out. Very much wiped out. Totally wiped out. Totally and completely wiped out. They were blasted. Very blasted. Totally blasted. They crackled. Crackled loudly. Crackled all up.
Then the periphery was equalized with the center. All living beings were brought into submission. They also used the power of prayer to bring all the many kinds of physical realities, the many kinds of speech, and the many kinds of psychological realities into submission.
Through physical submission one manifests oneself in the work and deeds of a human being. One is born, studies, does things that are difficult to do, turns the wheel of truth, and so on. There are also methods of submission by which one does the work and deeds of a lion or the work and deeds of an elephant.
Submission through speech is an act of submission in which divine beings use divine language and dragons use dragon language.
Psychological submission is the act of submitting in the shining light of absorption as well as through magical ritual. [598]
This is the First Chapter of The Vast Tantra of the Magnificent Sky: The True Character of All Those Who Travel through Reality. It is called "The Topic under Discussion."
II
Then He Who Leaves behind Dominion and Possession smoothly moved into the absorption of Great Happiness which comes out of working towards happiness. It is called "Generous Royalty." He smiled with his face to those in the audience.
Then all those who had left behind dominion and possession, travelers through reality, addressed, in a single voice, the Master of those who leave behind dominion and possessions, travelers through reality, with these words:
Aye Ma Oh!
O Supreme Master of physical, vocal, and psychological realities!
Allow us, through your compassion,
To utilize a physical writing implement
To retain the methodology of your wisdom!
Then the Master of those who have left behind dominion and possession, those who travel through reality, took on the body of Goodness in All Things. All the Travelers through Reality saw him as having three faces and six arms.
Then those Travelers Through Reality, including Maker of All Visions, made a very pure sacrifice, an offering of what is external, what is internal, and what is secret, to Goodness In All Things, The Master of all those who have left behind dominion and possession, who travel throughout reality. [599]
They held their hands together and said these words:
"We request that the Master of all those who have left behind dominion and possessions, those who travel through reality, perform for us the transmission of empowerment into the Secret Mandala, and after that turn the wheel of the truth for that which has no symbol!"
They said this.
The Master of all those who travel reality, who leave behind dominion and possessions, listened to this, and said: "So be it!"
He gave instruction with these words:
Aye Ma Oh!
All of you want to request this Tantra,
For it is difficult to understand!
Good! Good! O Great Enlightened Ones!
Good! Good! Listen with respect!
Then all those who travel through reality repeatedly folded their hands, their eyes full with the greatest joy. They addressed him with these words:
Aye Ma Oh!
O Buddha, What a Buddha!
Aye Ma Oh!
The Buddha's announcement is Good!
Aye Ma Oh!
We request that you,
The one who has left behind dominion and possessions,
Explain to us the Supreme Magnificent Enlightenment!
Aye Ma Oh!
We request you,
Most Direct One (gZu bo che),
To explain that supreme secret word that,
When properly applied,
Consolidates a strategy
For bringing about the Great Enlightenment of All Living Beings!
Then the Master of all travelers through reality, those who have left behind dominion and possessions, [600] gave instructions to all those who travel through reality with these words:
You, The Unsurpassed,
Wish to quickly acquire
The perfect Ati Yoga,
The strategy for bringing about
The enlightenment of living beings.
So listen!
I will give you an explanation.
Then the Master of all those who travel through reality, those who have left behind dominion and possessions, smoothly moved into the absorption that is called "The Bedazzling Stone of Transformation." He positioned the audience in a Secret Mandala. Then he performed the transmission of the empowerment. After that he explained the truth of it, from the very beginning:
Reality itself is the true identity of everything.
Everything has been worked out to make this real.
The strategy is to engender wisdom.
This cannot be seen through perspectives based on differentials.
The true identity of all things
Cannot be seen by anyone whosoever!
Even the Buddha cannot see it!
The wisdom of enlightenment has no visible abode!
This is the real reason it has no true identity!
Nothing brings a harvest of Nothing!
A duality of Something and Nothing does not exist!
This is called "The Inconceivable Center."
The only thing real about a true identity
Is that there is nothing whatsoever to say about it!
Anything that can be an object of sensory perception
Cannot be proven to exist!
The true identity of all things [601]
Has no beginning and no end.
It neither lasts nor does it stop.
It is not plural nor is it single.
It does not come nor does it go.
Speculation is pacified through recognition.
Respected intentions have no substance!
This cannot be perceived by the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body or mind (yid)!
The attitude that one is perceptive is a deception!
True purity cannot be understood!
There are no superior attitudes with regard to Samsara and Nirvana.
When one dwells in the way things really are
Stability and instability are both fine.
When what is taken in and what is saved are clear,
There are no specifics or generalities,
No endings and no beginnings.
The unspeakable is completely inconceivable!
Words that are not written down are the best.
(Yi ge Med pa – This is the Title of key tractate in the Great Sky cycle)
If you give up on words
The delusions of the mind will stop!
This is the second chapter of the Vast Tantra of the Magnificent Sky, the true nature of all those who travel through reality. It is called "Dwelling in Reality,"
III
Then the Master of travelers through reality, those who have left behind dominion and possessions, considered the previous request that had been presented by the audience. He intentionally spoke out the following intentional statement:
The truth about dwelling in reality
Is that there is no peace
Through acquisition or rejection.
It is difficult to determine,
And difficult to teach. [601]
It stands apart from linguistic conventions.
The physical aspect of the Stone of Transformation
Is not a compound.
The physical aspect of the immutable (gyung drung sku)
Has no birth or death.
It is not compounded in tripartite temporality.
That which is called "This,"
Magnificent and permanent,
The light of all things,
Cannot be taught symbolically.
I myself am incapable of seeing it.
It is not something that can be directly perceived.
It pervades all things.
It is actually a treasure that does not decay.
The true identity of all things
Is none other than their true potential (stong pa nyid).
There is no differential or difference whatsoever
Between Samsara and Nirvana.
There is not even a single thing to distinguish these two.
Things like conglomerates (phung po), domains (khams),
and generative forces (skye mched)
Along with their interdependent origination,
Are nothing but potentialities.
Those who are born into the true reality,
Which is their own potential,
Cannot see it.
The true reality
Is therefore known as "Travelling Through Reality."
It is as if all things move through bliss.
You will not find it by looking anywhere else.
No one who looks for true purity
Will be able to see the purity.
Some of those who are blind
Have a great insight into this.
Those who cannot see Nirvana
Or the position of the Buddha
Instantly achieve genuine enlightenment
Through Lotus Wisdom (Padma'i Ye shes).
The true Master has a single identity
But appears in many different ways.
The Master of distorted designations
Deceives living beings,
As if he was sticking them into a trap.
The transcendence of dominion and possessions
Is a magnificent occurrence.
The minds of those who do not make conceptual designations
Remain clear,
For they leave behind dominion and possessions.
Just as every living being dwells in reality,
Every Buddha is his own true origin.
Living beings bring themselves into life.
This [life] does not come from anything else.
It is on account of their ignorant designations
That all sentient beings,
Beings that [already] have Buddha Hearts (sangs rgyas snying po),
Come to experience all kinds of sorrow,
Both subtle and gross.
.
The Bhaga,
Which is the domain of what is true
Is the real condition of all sentient beings.
This is the sky.
It pervades everything.
Those who do not see this
Do not see it.
It is a serious error for them to put shadows over it.
It is vast, tremendous, and profound in depth.
It is understood by the wise (she rab can).
That which comes from nowhere, goes nowhere.
It has nothing to do with coming and going.
The heart of pure intent
Will not be found,
No matter where one looks,
No matter how many approaches one takes.
Purity is unshadowed self awareness (rang rig).
There is no origin
To all those material things.
They are not pure;
They are complete fabrications.
There is no difference whatsoever
Between the real domain of truth
And the heart that turns away from it.
Reality is without attachment.
It is not born and does not die.
It cannot be imagined nor conceived of.
It is bliss.
This is the Third Chapter of The Vast Tantra of the Magnificent Sky, a realistic paradigm for all travelers through reality. It is called "Teachings on the Unchanging Truth."
IV
Then the Master of all travelers through reality, those who have left behind dominion and possessions, longed, most delightfully, to manifest his own greatness. The Master of both the corporeal and of wisdom proclaimed the following:
Even the Buddha does not see
The reality that pervades all things.
It is not available to direct awareness,
While it pervades all things.
This comprehensive Light
Is not a compound.
It is actually permanent.
It is the corpus of the Stone of Transformation.
This, from amongst all pure embodiments,
Is the supreme body.
The explanation of the truth
Is called "The Corpus of Truth."
This is clearly understood by means of
A grand self-generated wisdom.
The One with the Lotus (Pad ma can) has put together
A series of tactics
Involving an inclusive basis (kun gzhi) as essential elements.
The corpus of actual enlightenment is not conceptual.
How, then, is this perfect corpus put together?
The actualization of perfect enlightenment
Is instantaneously realized
Through the Wisdom of its own potential.
This is the Corpus of Truth.
There is no other.
The Magnificent Mandala of what is real [605]
Becomes evident by virtue of its waves of power.
Attitudes based on conventional intentions
Give birth to tactics that do not prevent apparitions.
The field that is a Mandala for the Stone of Transformation
Has it dawn with the true instructions on Mantra and Mudra.
The Corpus of Enjoyment,
Supreme in its interconnectedness,
Is stationed, with its symbol and allegories,
In the massive collections of Letter Wheels (yi ge 'khor lo).
The corpus of good deeds (bsod nams)
Maintains the purest wisdom
With the continuity of a river.
The Lord (mgon po), The Grand Master,
Turns the wheel of the stone of transformation.
He uses his tongue's powers to send forth
The turning of the wheel of truth.
There is interconnectedness between prayers
And the magnificent Aware Ones.
They appear in manifest embodiments
Throughout every domain in the world.
Utilizing impermanent things,
They demonstrate a way
To get from birth right up to Nirvana.
They bring everyone that has distorted ideas
Into the fields of those with Great Hearts.
Through the stages of the physical, the verbal, and the psychological,
They bring fulfillment to the lives of living beings.
This is the forth chapter of The Vast Tantra of the Magnificent Sky, a realistic paradigm for all travelers through reality. It is called "Teaching that the Master of the Harvest has a Physical nature along with his Wisdom." [606]
V
Then the Master of all travelers through reality, those who have left behind dominion and possessions, spoke out a strategy on the Mandalas of the corporeal, the vocal, and the psychological so that they should be realized.
The reality of any truth
Is not masculine, nor feminine, nor neuter.
There is something essential
About bringing in the harvest.
Do not talk about the various sorts of Mandalas!
They are made from shapes,
Which pervade all things.
The corpuses of truth and of perfect enjoyment,
Along with their innumerable manifest embodiments
Are dispersed [everywhere],
But are not elaborated upon.
That which is pure is not a potential.
It shows itself to every living being in the three spheres
[of Desire, Form, and Formlessness]
In a physical form that will be suitable
For the purpose of making them submit.
Potentialities cannot be removed from shapes.
The Masters,
Who are not spoken of,
Have the power to make them submit.
They send out all kinds of sounds and words
To control all kinds of conjectures.
I have taught the single transport (theg pa),
The dual transport, the triple transport,
The five transports, and inconceivable others. [607]
This was to prevent the separation of the center
From the periphery.
The purity of the Sonic Mandala
Is the inconceivable way that it spreads out everywhere.
There is something about the supreme Sonic Mandala
That makes the eighty four thousand bounteous worlds
Melt into Sonic Spaciousness.
He said this.
Then the entire Sonic Mandala melted into the spaciousness of truth, and became invisible.
Then he spoke on the Magnificent Mandala of the Heart.
The Mahamudra shines out
From the mudra of reality.
The clan of the real (de bzhin)
The clan of the Stone of Transformation (rdo rje)
And the clan of Precious Things (rin chen)
Blaze in the light of the Mahamudra!
Just like the blazing Udum flowers
That are sometimes found on lonely pathways.
You alone perceive all the Mandalas of Illusion.
For others, there is nothing there at all.
Thus he spoke.
Then all the Mandalas of the Heart were transformed beyond the imagination.
This is the fifth chapter of The Vast Tantra of the Magnificent Sky, a realistic paradigm for all travelers through reality. It is called "A Non-conceptual Teaching on the Physical, Vocal and Heart Mandalas." [608]
--
Peace on Earth
Translated by Christopher Wilkinson
Join us for an otherworldly experience unlike any other!
Embark on a mesmerizing journey through the cosmic tapestry of existence in "Earth's Luminescence: A Journey through Life, Earth, and Light" by Delain Canucci. Witness the breathtaking dance of light and energy as we explore the interconnectedness of life and the boundless beauty of our planet.
Prepare to be amazed! See you there!
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Botanica%20Magika/16/190/893
*
I❤EventsOnlinePR: www.iloveevents.online/2024/02/14/earths-luminescence-a-c...
The transient beauty of the coast is intricately intertwined with the captivating patterns that emerge in the sand, crafted by the relentless forces of wind and wave. These natural sculptors shape the shoreline, leaving behind ephemeral masterpieces.
As the tides ebb and flow, they orchestrate a delicate dance with the sand. With each advancing wave, the water gently caresses the shore, carrying particles of sand along its journey. As the wave recedes, it relinquishes its cargo, depositing the grains in a meticulous arrangement. This cyclical process, repeated countless times, creates intricate patterns that stretch along the coastline.
The patterns left behind by the retreating tide mimic the ebb and flow of life itself. Swirling ripples, reminiscent of a miniature desert landscape, emerge as the water recedes, their graceful curves and undulating lines transforming the beach into a living work of art. The patterns are at once orderly and chaotic, with intricate geometrical formations intermingling with whimsical curves and asymmetrical shapes.
The wind, a silent artist in its own right, adds its touch to the sculpting process. As it sweeps across the coast, it whispers secrets to the sand, coaxing it to dance in its invisible embrace. The wind's gentle touch lifts fine particles from the beach, carrying them aloft in an intricate ballet. It sculpts the sand into delicate ripples, resembling the soft undulations of fabric.
The interplay between the wind and the tide results in an ever-changing landscape. The patterns shift and evolve, shaped by the combined forces of these elemental sculptors. Ripples become miniature mountains, rising and falling in a transient topography that mirrors the larger contours of the surrounding coast. Each gust of wind and every advancing or receding wave leaves its mark, etching new patterns and erasing old ones, in an eternal cycle of creation and destruction.
These ephemeral patterns serve as a reminder of the impermanence of existence and the transient nature of beauty, as each passing moment alters the landscape, erasing what once was and creating something new. The sands become a canvas for the symphony of time, a tangible reflection of the ever-changing nature of our lives.
The beauty of these fleeting patterns lies not only in their visual allure but also in the emotions they evoke. They inspire a sense of wonder and awe, inviting us to pause and appreciate the intricate designs that nature creates with such effortless grace. The patterns speak of the interconnectedness of all things, the harmonious interplay between the elements, and the constant flux that defines our existence.
In these patterns of nature, we find a profound lesson: that life, like the shifting sands, is ever-changing, and that true beauty lies not in permanence but in the appreciation of the fleeting moments that grace our journey.
Idealizado em 1908 pelo engenheiro brasileiro Augusto Ferreira Ramos e inaugurado no dia 27 de outubro de 1912, o bondinho do Pão de Açúcar fez 100 anos em 2012. Primeiro teleférico instalado no Brasil é um dos mais importantes ícones do turismo carioca, tornando-se uma das principais marcas registradas da cidade do Rio de Janeiro.
Nos meses de dezembro, janeiro, fevereiro e julho – de alta temporada – a freqüência diária chega a três mil pessoas. Nestas nove décadas de funcionamento, o bondinho recebeu a visita de turistas de todos os cantos do mundo. Figuras ilustres como o cientista Albert Einstein e o ex-presidente dos Estados Unidos John Kennedy já passaram pelo bondinho do Pão de Açúcar, além dos muitos artistas que se apresentaram no Morro da Urca, principalmente na década de 80. Em 1977, o equilibrista americano Steven McPeak caminhou sobre o cabo do teleférico, entre o Morro da Urca e o Pão de Açúcar, segurando uma vara metálica como contrapeso. Uma seqüência do filme "007 Contra o Foguete da Morte", com Roger Moore como James Bond, filmada em 1979, ajudou a promover a cidade e o país no exterior. Em 1990, uma homenagem ao piloto Ayrton Senna expôs no Morro da Urca um carro de Fórmula 1. E, mais recentemente, em 2004,a Tocha Olímpica dos Jogos Olímpicos de Atenas e em 2007 a Tocha Olímpica dos Jogos Pan-Americanos do Rio de Janeiro visitaram o Pão de Açúcar.
O Bondinho do Pão de Açúcar é um teleférico localizado na cidade do Rio de Janeiro, no Pão de Açúcar, sendo uma das atrações turísticas da capital fluminense, inaugurado em 27 de outubro de 1912. A vista da Baía da Guanabara, considerada uma das paisagens mais belas do mundo, era o atrativo que levava curiosos e alpinistas a escalar o Pão de Açúcar, já em fins do século XIX.
Segurança considerado um dos mais seguros do mundo pelas entidades internacionais de teleféricos de passageiros, há 90 anos o bondinho do Pão de Açúcar circula sem ter registrado nenhum acidente com vítimas. As atuais linhas são dotadas de dispositivos de segurança, com alarme em todos os pontos. Diariamente pela manhã, antes de receber os primeiros turistas, os bondinhos saem numa viagem de vistoria. O percurso é todo programado e controlado por equipamento eletrônico, que verifica 47 itens de segurança.
O complexo turístico é formado por três estações – a da Praia Vermelha, Morro da Urca e Pão de Açúcar – interligadas por quatro bondinhos – dois no trecho Praia Vermelha/Morro da Urca e dois no trecho Morro da Urca/Pão de Açúcar. O Morro da Urca tem 220m de altura e o do Pão de Açúcar, 396m. Vegetação rara Cercado por uma vegetação característica do clima tropical, com resquícios de Mata Atlântica, possui espécies nativas que em outros pontos da vegetação litorânea brasileira já foram extintas, e também raras espécies vegetais, como a orquídea “laelia lobata”, que só floresce em dois locais no planeta: no morro do Pão de Açúcar e na Pedra da Gávea, ambos no Rio de Janeiro.
Montanha brasileira com o maior número de vias de escaladas (até 1997 existiam 38), o Pão de Açúcar recebe diariamente centenas de alpinistas, montanhistas e ecologistas brasileiros e estrangeiros. Pólo Cultural Além de marco turístico e ecológico da cidade do Rio de Janeiro, o complexo também foi um importante pólo cultural. Na década de 70, passou a abrigar no anfiteatro do Morro da Urca – chamado “Concha Verde” – shows musicais que lançaram grandes talentos da música brasileira, numa programação que chegou a reunir 50 mil pessoas por ano.
Atualmente, o anfiteatro recebe exposições de artes, conferências de empresas, coquetéis de lançamento de produtos, jantares e festas. Desafio à engenharia A história do bondinho está diretamente ligada ao desenvolvimento da cidade: seu idealizador, Augusto Ferreira Ramos, imaginou um caminho aéreo até o Pão de Açúcar ao participar, em 1908, de uma exposição na Praia Vermelha em comemoração ao centenário da abertura dos portos às nações amigas. Com um capital inicial de 360 contos de réis, foi fundada então a Companhia Caminho Aéreo Pão de Açúcar e, em 1910, foi iniciada a construção do primeiro teleférico brasileiro.
Na obra trabalharam brasileiros e portugueses com equipamentos e materiais alemães, que foram transportados para o alto dos dois morros por centenas de operários realizando perigosas escaladas, numa ousada operação para a engenharia da época”, destaca Maria Ercília Leite de Castro, diretora geral da empresa. O trecho inicial, entre a Praia Vermelha e o Morro da Urca, numa extensão de 575m, foi inaugurado em 27 de outubro de 1912, quando 577 pessoas subiram ao morro da Urca no bondinho de madeira, com capacidade para 24 pessoas. No ano seguinte, em 18 de janeiro de 1913, foi inaugurado o trecho morro da Urca/Pão de Açúcar, com extensão de 750m. Em maio de 1969, já sob a administração do engenheiro Cristóvão Leite de Castro, a Companhia Caminho Aéreo Pão de Açúcar, através de contrato assinado com o Governo da Guanabara, teria que duplicar a linha aérea, que passaria a ser servida por dois bondinhos. A empresa resolveu, então, instalar novo e moderno teleférico, com quatro carros, cada um com capacidade para 75 pessoas. A obra, orçada em US$ 2 milhões, exigiu o desmonte de três grandes blocos de pedra do alto do Pão de Açúcar, pesando mil toneladas, e durou dois anos para ser concluída. No dia 29 de outubro de 1972 os atuais bondinhos começaram a funcionar. Troca de cabos Para a Companhia Caminho Aéreo Pão de Açúcar, as comemorações pelos 70 anos do teleférico começaram em 14 de junho de 2002, quando o complexo turístico reabriu ao público, depois de 75 dias fechado para a troca dos oito cabos de sustentação dos quatro bondinhos, em atendimento às recomendações internacionais de substitui-los a cada 30 anos. O investimento da empresa nesta obra foi de US$ 852 mil. Também foram feitas melhorias para prestar atendimento ao turista com mais qualidade: os bondinhos ganharam novos vidros e piso antiderrapante; as estações receberam nova iluminação, novo mobiliário e tratamento paisagístico. Também as lojas foram remodeladas, apresentando com qualidade os produtos oferecidos aos visitantes.
O Morro do Pão de Açucar
O morro do Pão de Açúcar é uma montanha sem vegetação em sua quase totalidade, sendo um bloco único de granito que sofreu alterações por pressão e temperatura, emergindo com o choque entre os continentes sul-americano e africano. Possui mais de 600 milhões de anos e 395 metros de altura. É circundado por um resquício de mata Atlântica. É um dos principais pontos turísticos da cidade do Rio de Janeiro, no Brasil. Há várias versões sobre a origem do nome.
Uma das mais conhecidas indica os portugueses como responsáveis. Durante o apogeu do cultivo da cana-de-açúcar no Brasil, após a cana ser espremida e o caldo fervido e apurado, os blocos de açúcar eram colocados em uma forma de barro cônica (para transportá-los para a Europa), denominada "pão de açúcar". A semelhança do penhasco carioca com aquela forma de barro teria originado o nome.
O Pão de Açúcar, por sua forma de ogiva, pela localização privilegiada, pela presença na história da cidade, pelo original acesso ao seu cume, é um marco natural, histórico e turístico da cidade do Rio de Janeiro. Marco natural, porque o pico do Pão de Açúcar está na entrada da Baía de Guanabara, sendo referência visual para os navegadores que, do mar ou do ar, o procuram por estar localizado na periferia da cidade. Marco histórico, porque aos seus pés, Estácio de Sá, em 1º de março de 1565, fundou a Cidade de São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro. Estácio de Sá chegou ao Rio de Janeiro em 28 de fevereiro de 1565 e no dia 1º de março lançou os fundamentos da cidade, entre os morros Cara de Cão e Pão de Açúcar, por ser local de mais fácil defesa. O local permitia, não só a observação de qualquer movimento de entrada e saída de embarcações da baía, como facultava a visão interna de todos os possíveis invasores. Marco turístico, porque a inauguração do teleférico do Pão de Açúcar em 1912, projetou o nome do Brasil no exterior. O teleférico do Pão de Açúcar foi o primeiro instalado no Brasil e o terceiro no mundo, aumentando o desenvolvimento do turismo nacional. Não é sem razão que é chamado de a Jóia Turística da Cidade Maravilhosa.
O Pão de Açúcar é a montanha brasileira que tem o maior número de vias de escaladas (cerca de 60 vias). Enquanto os bondinhos sobem e descem centenas de vezes, os alpinistas preferem chegar ao Pão de Açúcar por outros caminhos e seu próprio risco.
Bondinho do Pão de Açúcar
Hoje, a visão dos bondinhos, no seu constante vaivém, está incorporada à paisagem carioca. Construído, operado e mantido pela Companhia Caminho Aéreo Pão de Açúcar, o complexo turístico Pão de Açúcar foi criado para o divertimento de milhares de pessoas num local privilegiado pela b Duração da viagem: Praia Vermelha/Morro da Urca: 3 minutos Morro da Urca/Pão de Açúcar: 3 minutos Altura dos morros: Morro da Urca: 220 metros Pão de Açúcar: 396 metros Distância entre as estações: Praia Vermelha/Morro da Urca: 528 metros Morro da Urca/Pão de Açúcar: 735 metros Dados dos bondinhos: Capacidade: 75 pessoas Capacidade média por hora: 1360 pessoas Velocidade no primeiro trecho: até 6 metros por segundo Velocidade no segundo trecho: até 10 metros por segundo Tempo médio de percurso: 3 minutos Como chegar: Ônibus: Do Centro, 107 De Copacabana, 511 Do Jardim Botânico, 512 Fonte: Cia. Caminho Aéreo Pão de Açúcar, Rio de Janeiro - Brasil.
O complexo do Pão de Açúcar, localizado no bairro da Urca e composto pelo morro do Pão de Açúcar (que dá nome ao complexo), morro da Urca e morro da Babilônia, é, juntamente com a estátua do Cristo Redentor, o maior cartão postal da cidade do Rio de Janeiro e um dos mais famosos do Brasil.
=================================================================
Ingles
Conceived in 1908 by Brazilian engineer Augusto Ferreira Ramos and inaugurated on October 27, 1912, the Sugar Loaf turned 100 in 2012. First ski lift installed in Brazil is one of the most important icons of tourism in Rio, making it one of the main trademarks of the city of Rio de Janeiro.
In the months of December, January, February and July - high season - daily attendance reaches three thousand people. These nine decades of operation, the tram was visited by tourists from all corners of the world. Illustrious figures such as Albert Einstein and former U.S. President John Kennedy passed away at the Sugar Loaf, and the many artists who performed at the Morro da Urca, especially in the 80s. In 1977, the American juggler Steven McPeak walked on the cable from the cable car between the Morro da Urca and the Sugarloaf, holding a metal rod as a counterweight. A sequence of the movie "007 Rocket Against Death" with Roger Moore as James Bond, filmed in 1979, helped to promote the city and the country abroad. In 1990, a tribute to the pilot Ayrton Senna exhibited at Morro da Urca one Formula 1. And more recently, in 2004, the Olympic Torch Olympic Games in Athens in 2007 and the Olympic Torch of Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro visited Sugar Loaf.
The Sugar Loaf cable car is a cable car located in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Sugar Loaf, one of the tourist attractions of the state capital, opened on October 27, 1912. The view of the Guanabara Bay, considered one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world, was the attraction that led curious and climbers to climb Sugarloaf, already in the late nineteenth century.
Security considered one of the safest in the world by international bodies of passenger lifts, 90 years ago the Sugar Loaf circulates without any accidents with victims. The current lines are equipped with safety devices with alarm at all points. Every morning, before the first visitors, the cable cars go out on a journey of inspection. The entire route is programmed and controlled by electronic equipment, which checks 47 safety items.
The resort consists of three stations - Praia Vermelha, Morro da Urca and Sugar Loaf - interconnected by four cable cars - two for the stage Red Beach / Morro da Urca and two in the stretch Morro da Urca / Sugar Loaf. The Morro da Urca is 220m tall and Sugar Loaf, 396m. Surrounded by rare vegetation characteristic vegetation of the tropical climate, with remnants of the Atlantic Forest, boasts native species elsewhere in the Brazilian coastal vegetation already extinct, and also rare plant species such as the orchid "laelia lobata", which only blooms in two locations on the planet: the Sugar Loaf Hill and Sugar Loaf, both in Rio de Janeiro.
Brazilian mountain with the largest number of climbing routes (until 1997 there were 38), the Sugarloaf daily receives hundreds of climbers, mountaineers and ecologists Brazilians and foreigners. Pole Beyond Cultural and ecological tourist landmark of the city of Rio de Janeiro, the complex was also an important cultural center. In the 70s it housed in the amphitheater of the Morro da Urca - called "Concha Verde" - concerts that launched great talents of Brazilian music in a program that came to gather 50,000 people per year.
Currently, the amphitheater art exhibitions, business conferences, cocktail parties to product launches, dinners and parties. The challenge to engineering history Monorail is directly linked to the development of the city: its creator, Augusto Ferreira Ramos, imagined a way to air the Sugar Loaf to participate in 1908, an exhibition at Red Beach in celebration of the centenary of the opening of ports to friendly nations. With an initial capital of 360 contos, then the Company was founded Path Sugar Loaf and, in 1910, began the construction of the first Brazilian cableway.
In Brazilian and Portuguese labor worked with German equipment and materials, which were transported to the top of the hills for hundreds of workers performing dangerous climbs in a daring operation for the engineering of the time, "said Maria Ercília Leite de Castro, head of the company . The initial stretch between Praia Vermelha and Morro da Urca, a length of 575m, was inaugurated on October 27, 1912, 577 people went up to the hill of Urca in wooden trolley with capacity for 24 people. The following year, on January 18, 1913, opened the stretch Urca hill / Sugar Loaf, with a length of 750m. In May 1969, now under the administration of the engineer Christopher Leite de Castro, Way Company Sugar Loaf, through a contract signed with the government of Guanabara, which would double the airline, which would be served by two cable cars. The company decided then to install new and modern ski lifts, with four cars, each with a capacity for 75 people. The project, budgeted at $ 2 million, demanded the removal of three large blocks of stone from the top of Sugar Loaf, weighing tons, and took two years to complete. On October 29, 1972 the current streetcars began running. For cable swapping Way Company Sugar Loaf, the celebrations for the 70th anniversary of the lift began on 14 June 2002, when the resort reopened to the public after 75 days closed for the exchange of the eight cables supporting the four streetcars, in compliance with international recommendations to replace them every 30 years. The company's investment in this project was $ 852,000. Improvements were also made to provide services for tourists with more quality: the cable cars got new glasses and non slip flooring and stations received new lighting, new furniture and landscaping treatment. Also the stores were remodeled, with quality products offered to visitors.
The Sugar Loaf
The Sugar Loaf Hill is a mountain without vegetation almost entirely, being a single block of granite that was altered by pressure and temperature, emerging with the clash between the continents South America and Africa. It has more than 600 million years old and 395 feet tall. It is surrounded by a remnant of Atlantic forest. It is one of the main sights of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. There are several versions about the origin of the name.
One of the best known indicates the Portuguese as responsible. During the height of the cultivation of sugar cane in Brazil, after being squeezed sugarcane juice and boiled and refined, sugar blocks were placed in a conical clay form (to transport them to Europe), called "bread sugar ". The similarity of the cliff Rio with that form of clay have originated the name.
The Sugar Loaf, in the form of warhead, by location, by the presence in the city's history, the original access to its top, it is a natural, historical and touristic city of Rio de Janeiro. Natural landmark, because the peak of Sugarloaf Mountain is at the entrance to Guanabara Bay, with visual reference to the browsers, sea or air, seeking to be located on the outskirts of the city. Milestone, because at his feet, Estacio de Sa, on 1 March 1565, founded the city of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro. Estacio de Sá arrived in Rio de Janeiro on February 28, 1565 and on March 1 laid the foundations of the city, between the hills Face Dog and Sugar Loaf, being easier to defend site. The site allowed not only the observation of any movement in and out of the bay boats, as facultava the internal view of all possible invaders. Marco tourist, because the opening of the Sugar Loaf cable car in 1912, designed the name of Brazil abroad. The Sugar Loaf cable car was first installed in Brazil and the third in the world, increasing the national tourism development. No wonder it is called the Jewel of the Marvelous City Tourist.
The Sugarloaf Mountain is the Brazilian who has the largest number of climbing routes (about 60 copies). While the cable cars up and down hundreds of times, climbers prefer to get to Sugarloaf by other ways and your own risk.
Sugar Loaf
Today, the vision of streetcars in its constant shuttle, is built into the landscape of Rio. Constructed, operated and maintained by the Company Path Sugar Loaf, the resort Sugarloaf was created for the amusement of thousands of people in a place privileged by b Length of trip: Beach Red / Morro da Urca: 3 minutes Morro da Urca / Sugarloaf: 3 minutes of hills Height: Morro da Urca: 220 meters Sugarloaf: 396 meters Distance between stations: Red Beach / Morro da Urca: 528 meters Morro da Urca / Sugar Loaf: 735 meters of data cable cars: Capacity: 75 persons Average capacity per hour: 1360 people in the first leg speed: up to 6 meters per second speed in the second sentence: up to 10 meters per second average journey time: 3 minutes Directions: Bus: The Center, 107 De Copacabana, 511 Botanic Garden, 512 Source: Cia Way Sugar Loaf, Rio de Janeiro - Brazil.
The complex of Sugarloaf, located in the district of Urca and composed by Sugar Loaf Hill (which gives its name to the complex), and Morro da Urca hill of Babylon, is, along with the statue of Christ the Redeemer, the largest postcard the city of Rio de Janeiro and one of Brazil's most famous.
Poverty is the state for the majority of the world’s people and nations. Why is this? Is it enough to blame poor people for their own predicament? Have they been lazy, made poor decisions, and been solely responsible for their plight? What about their governments? Have they pursued policies that actually harm successful development? Such causes of poverty and inequality are no doubt real. But deeper and more global causes of poverty are often less discussed.
Behind the increasing interconnectedness promised by globalization are global decisions, policies, and practices. These are typically influenced, driven, or formulated by the rich and powerful. These can be leaders of rich countries or other global actors such as multinational corporations, institutions, and influential people.
In the face of such enormous external influence, the governments of poor nations and their people are often powerless. As a result, in the global context, a few get wealthy while the majority struggle.
See also Agata Olek talks about her 100% Acrylic Art Guards (Flickr 720p HD video)
Agata Olek (Flickr)
100% Acrylic Art Guards
"I think crochet, the way I create it, is a metaphor for the complexity and interconnectedness of our body and its systems and psychology. The connections are stronger as one fabric as opposed to separate strands, but, if you cut one, the whole thing will fall apart.
Relationships are complex and greatly vary situation to situation. They are developmental journeys of growth, and transformation. Time passes, great distances are surpassed and the fabric which individuals are composed of compiles and unravels simultaneously."
Agata Olek Biography. The SPLAT! of colors hits you in the face, often clashing so ostentatiously that it instantly tunes you into the presence of severely cheeky humor. A moment later the fatigue of labor creeps into your fingers as a coal miner's work ethic becomes apparent. Hundreds of miles of crocheted, weaved, and often recycled materials are the fabric from which the wild and occasionally wearable structures of her fantasylands are born.
Olek was born Agata Oleksiak in Poland and graduated from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poland with a degree in cultural studies. In New York, she rediscovered her ability to crochet and since then she has started her crocheted journey/madness.
Resume sniffers may be pleased to know Olek's work has been presented in galleries from Brooklyn to Istanbul to Venice and Brazil, featured in "The New York Times", "Fiberarts Magazine", "The Village Voice", and "Washington Post" and drags a tail of dance performance sets and costumes too numerous to mention.
Olek received the Ruth Mellon Award for Sculpture, was selected for 2005 residency program at Sculpture Space, 2009 residency in Instituto Sacatar in Brazil, and is a winner of apex art gallery commercial competition. Olek was an artist in an independent collective exhibition, "Waterways," during the 49th Venice Biennale. She was also a featured artist in "Two Continents Beyond," at the 9th International Istanbul Biennale.
Olek herself however can be found in her Greenpoint studio with a bottle of spiced Polish vodka and a hand rolled cigarette aggressively re-weaving the world as she sees.
13th annual D.U.M.B.O. Art Under the Bridge Festival® (Sept 25 to Sept 27, 2009)
www.dumboartfestival.org/press_release.html
The three-day multi-site neighborhood-wide event is a one-of-a-kind art happening: where serendipity meets the haphazard and where the unpredictable, spontaneous and downright weird thrive. The now teenage D.U.M.B.O. Art Under the Bridge Festival® presents touchable, accessible, and interactive art, on a scale that makes it the nation's largest urban forum for experimental art.
Art Under the Bridge is an opportunity for young artists to use any medium imaginable to create temporary projects on-the-spot everywhere and anywhere, completely transforming the Dumbo section of Brooklyn, New York, into a vibrant platform for self-expression. In addition to the 80+ projects throughout the historical post-industrial waterfront span, visitors can tour local artists' studios or check out the indoor video_dumbo, a non-stop program of cutting-edge video art from New York City and around the world.
The Dumbo Arts Center (DAC) has been the exclusive producer of the D.U.M.B.O Art Under the Bridge Festival® since 1997. DAC is a big impact, small non-profit, that in addition to its year-round gallery exhibitions, is committed to preserving Dumbo as a site in New York City where emerging visual artists can experiment in the public domain, while having unprecedented freedom and access to normally off-limit locations.
Related SML
+ SML Flickr Collections: Events
+ SML Flickr Sets: Dumbo Arts Center: Art Under the Bridge Festival 2009
A visual and textual representation of his interactions with his friends, neighbours and family, Entang Wiharso’s Temple series explores issues of identity, conflict, humanity and human interconnectedness.
The work is replete with the words of wise men, snippets of conversation, utterances of personal hope and dreams of friends, family and the artist himself.
Night Festival 2012 - www.nhb.gov.sg/brasbasahbugis/nightfestival/index.htm
This evocative photo features a lensball encapsulating a globe with intricately engraved continents, partially submerged in the Atlantic Ocean's waves. The water's foam gently caresses the lensball, symbolizing the delicate balance of our planet amidst the relentless forces of nature. The image serves as a powerful metaphor for global warming and the alarming disappearance of icebergs, highlighting the urgent need for environmental conservation.
The crystal-clear lensball magnifies the intricate details of the Earth, emphasizing the interconnectedness of all continents and ecosystems. The surrounding ocean waves represent the rising sea levels and the profound impact of climate change on our world's geography. As the water encroaches upon the globe, it serves as a stark reminder of the fragility of our environment and the pressing need to address the global climate crisis.
Through this striking visual, the photo calls for reflection and action, urging viewers to recognize the consequences of environmental neglect and to embrace sustainable practices to protect our planet for future generations.
"Uncover our heads and reveal our souls..."
~Fever Ray
This photo began with the concept of transformation and or shapeshifting but the more I sat with it, I discovered other truths come into light.
For as long as I can remember, beginning in early childhood and more than likely, the moment I was conceived, I've had a direct sense of interconnectedness to all things wild. The land, trees, rivers, animals, sky, plants, and that liminal space beyond the veil.
I have always retreated to the wild. It is there I belong. It is there I am understood. It is there I am seen. It is there I truly find myself. I am no longer a separate entity, but a part of everything. I am all. I am the deer, I am the swaying trees, I am the flowing rivers, I am the wind whispering through the skies, I am a bud opening to the sun, petals of colors blooming and dying. I am reborn over and over. I am the leaves scattering in the storms, I am the eagle soaring through clouds and currents, I am thrown in-between my body, this vessel, and the bodies of all that lingers and gallops and strolls the forests, desserts, mountains and grassy plains. As Victoria Woolf quotes, "I feel it all. I am it all."
I hold this most sacred deer skull I found and instantly feel a connection to it's spirit. A kindred spirit at that. We are forever one.
Go into the wild. Stand still beneath the tall trees and listen to them speak. Everything is alive and a part of you. Allow the gentle wind renew you. Feel your kindred spirits surround you.
(Listen with headphones (link below);
Close your eyes, imagine walking into the depths of a forest, go back into ancient times, before man created labels, systems, religions and boundaries, before man broke that connection to spirituality/nature.
Heilung - Fylgija Ear
The transient beauty of the coast is intricately intertwined with the captivating patterns that emerge in the sand, crafted by the relentless forces of wind and wave. These natural sculptors shape the shoreline, leaving behind ephemeral masterpieces.
As the tides ebb and flow, they orchestrate a delicate dance with the sand. With each advancing wave, the water gently caresses the shore, carrying particles of sand along its journey. As the wave recedes, it relinquishes its cargo, depositing the grains in a meticulous arrangement. This cyclical process, repeated countless times, creates intricate patterns that stretch along the coastline.
The patterns left behind by the retreating tide mimic the ebb and flow of life itself. Swirling ripples, reminiscent of a miniature desert landscape, emerge as the water recedes, their graceful curves and undulating lines transforming the beach into a living work of art. The patterns are at once orderly and chaotic, with intricate geometrical formations intermingling with whimsical curves and asymmetrical shapes.
The wind, a silent artist in its own right, adds its touch to the sculpting process. As it sweeps across the coast, it whispers secrets to the sand, coaxing it to dance in its invisible embrace. The wind's gentle touch lifts fine particles from the beach, carrying them aloft in an intricate ballet. It sculpts the sand into delicate ripples, resembling the soft undulations of fabric.
The interplay between the wind and the tide results in an ever-changing landscape. The patterns shift and evolve, shaped by the combined forces of these elemental sculptors. Ripples become miniature mountains, rising and falling in a transient topography that mirrors the larger contours of the surrounding coast. Each gust of wind and every advancing or receding wave leaves its mark, etching new patterns and erasing old ones, in an eternal cycle of creation and destruction.
These ephemeral patterns serve as a reminder of the impermanence of existence and the transient nature of beauty, as each passing moment alters the landscape, erasing what once was and creating something new. The sands become a canvas for the symphony of time, a tangible reflection of the ever-changing nature of our lives.
The beauty of these fleeting patterns lies not only in their visual allure but also in the emotions they evoke. They inspire a sense of wonder and awe, inviting us to pause and appreciate the intricate designs that nature creates with such effortless grace. The patterns speak of the interconnectedness of all things, the harmonious interplay between the elements, and the constant flux that defines our existence.
In these patterns of nature, we find a profound lesson: that life, like the shifting sands, is ever-changing, and that true beauty lies not in permanence but in the appreciation of the fleeting moments that grace our journey.
The transient beauty of the coast is intricately intertwined with the captivating patterns that emerge in the sand, crafted by the relentless forces of wind and wave. These natural sculptors shape the shoreline, leaving behind ephemeral masterpieces.
As the tides ebb and flow, they orchestrate a delicate dance with the sand. With each advancing wave, the water gently caresses the shore, carrying particles of sand along its journey. As the wave recedes, it relinquishes its cargo, depositing the grains in a meticulous arrangement. This cyclical process, repeated countless times, creates intricate patterns that stretch along the coastline.
The patterns left behind by the retreating tide mimic the ebb and flow of life itself. Swirling ripples, reminiscent of a miniature desert landscape, emerge as the water recedes, their graceful curves and undulating lines transforming the beach into a living work of art. The patterns are at once orderly and chaotic, with intricate geometrical formations intermingling with whimsical curves and asymmetrical shapes.
The wind, a silent artist in its own right, adds its touch to the sculpting process. As it sweeps across the coast, it whispers secrets to the sand, coaxing it to dance in its invisible embrace. The wind's gentle touch lifts fine particles from the beach, carrying them aloft in an intricate ballet. It sculpts the sand into delicate ripples, resembling the soft undulations of fabric.
The interplay between the wind and the tide results in an ever-changing landscape. The patterns shift and evolve, shaped by the combined forces of these elemental sculptors. Ripples become miniature mountains, rising and falling in a transient topography that mirrors the larger contours of the surrounding coast. Each gust of wind and every advancing or receding wave leaves its mark, etching new patterns and erasing old ones, in an eternal cycle of creation and destruction.
These ephemeral patterns serve as a reminder of the impermanence of existence and the transient nature of beauty, as each passing moment alters the landscape, erasing what once was and creating something new. The sands become a canvas for the symphony of time, a tangible reflection of the ever-changing nature of our lives.
The beauty of these fleeting patterns lies not only in their visual allure but also in the emotions they evoke. They inspire a sense of wonder and awe, inviting us to pause and appreciate the intricate designs that nature creates with such effortless grace. The patterns speak of the interconnectedness of all things, the harmonious interplay between the elements, and the constant flux that defines our existence.
In these patterns of nature, we find a profound lesson: that life, like the shifting sands, is ever-changing, and that true beauty lies not in permanence but in the appreciation of the fleeting moments that grace our journey.
Als neuronales Netz wird in den Neurowissenschaften eine Anzahl miteinander verknüpfter Neuronen bezeichnet, die als Teil eines Nervensystems einen funktionellen Zusammenhang bilden.
In neuroscience, a biological neural network (sometimes called a neural pathway) is a series of interconnected neurons whose activation defines a recognizable linear pathway.
Erstellt mit JWILDFIRE:
JWildfire ist eine komplett kostenlose und plattformunabhängige (Java-basierte) Grafiksoftware, mit dem Schwerpunkt der Erstellung von sogenannten "Flame fractals".
Cryo Unit: Threatened to overwhelm me again
As the de-adenosine sequence reached its apex, a cosmic symphony of dissolution began. The last, fragile barriers of selfhood, meticulously constructed over a lifetime, crumbled into stardust. The rigid distinction between my physical body and the intricate machinery that now sustained me, between the ephemeral nature of thought and the overwhelming, external chaos, bled away with an exquisite, agonising slowness. It was as if a dam had burst, unleashing a torrent of pure, unadulterated consciousness. The shimmering nebula of my mind, once a mere poetic metaphor, materialised into my literal form, an ethereal cloud of pure energy. I became an observer, detached yet intimately connected, as currents of vibrant, cosmic colour flowed through what were once my limbs. Brilliant hues, reminiscent of a newborn star's fiery birth, filled the space where my heart had once pulsed with the organic dread of mortality.
That primal fear, a constant companion throughout my existence, dissolved into nothingness, replaced by an unsettling, almost serene acceptance. The very logic that had anchored my understanding of the universe evaporated, leaving behind a profound sense of interconnectedness. My companions, once loaded with personal history and emotional resonance, became faint, distant stars in the swirling, luminous galaxy that was now my mind. They were memories, yes, but memories observed from an impossible distance, devoid of their former grip.
I was a ghost in a bottle, adrift in a tear in reality, a rift in the fabric of spacetime itself. The chaos that had once threatened to overwhelm me from the outside no longer felt like a menace, but rather a profound, encompassing presence, a silent witness to my transformation. And in the quiet, vibrant heart of it all, a powerful, inexplicable pull emerged. It was not the familiar, gravitational tug of a celestial body, but rather a profound sense of purpose, an undeniable calling. A silent invitation, emanating from the sentient whispers of survival and the tantalising promises of ultimate transformation, drew me deeper into the cosmic dance. I was no longer merely existing; I was becoming.
Podcast:
www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXaHuXMcUMrhIzfjKlj9clJCOf...
Meta TV
www.facebook.com/watch/100063480315046/1020837046583872/
Blogger:
www.jjfbbennett.com/2025/09/the-cryo-unit.html
FB Subscriber Hub
www.facebook.com/share/g/1AycZvNRzH/
eBook
www.amazon.com/author/jjfbbennett
Tags
#art #Spacestation #scifi #fictionalworld #story #arthouse #futuristic #spaceadventure #Sanctuary #Revitalisation #Retro #art #metaart #videoart #videoartist
GUIDE AND SUPERVISION... Holistic Way, Super Vision, Eye Nutrition...pineal gland create inner light and super vision of your dreams...Lighting is a standout amongst the most imperative components in home stylistic layout. A decent lighting makes a feeling of warmth and inviting interest in the house. It likewise empowers you to perform every day errands well, makes you agreeable and above all outwardly upgrades the room.
Abstract: Sustainability has the potential to provide a holistic framework that can bridge the gap that is often found between socio-economic justice and environmental discourses. However, sustainability and sustainability education have typically accepted the prevailing socio-economic and cultural paradigm. It is my aim in this paper to demonstrate that a truly holistic and visionary sustainability (education) framework ought to demand radical and critical theories and solutions- based approaches to politicize and interrogate the premises, assumptions, and biases linked to the dominant notion of sustainability. If we are to envision and construe actual sustainable futures, we must first understand what brought us here, where the roots of the problems lie, and how the sustainability discourse and framework tackle—or fail to tackle—them. To do this is to politicize sustainability, to build a critical perspective of and about sustainability. It is an act of conscientização (or conscientization), to borrow Paulo Freire’s seminal term, of cultivating critical consciousness and conscience. In lieu of the standard articulation of politics as centralized state administration, ‘critical sustainability studies’ is based on a framing that gives prominence to a more organic, decentralized engagement of conscientious subjects in the creation of just, regenerative eco-social relations. It illuminates the ideological and material links between society, culture, and ecology by devoting particular attention to how knowledge and discourse around and across those realms are generated and articulated. I believe that future scholarship and activism in sustainability and sustainability-related fields would benefit immensely from dialoguing with this framework.
The assumption that what currently exists must necessarily exist is the acid that corrodes all visionary thinking.
– Murray Bookchin, The Meaning of Confederalism, 1990
Introduction: Why Sustainability (and Sustainability Education)?
Despite conflicting opinions over what the terms ‘sustainability’ and its variant ‘sustainable development’ actually mean, the framework of sustainability has gained a lot of traction in the last two decades. Its Western origins can be traced back to the writings of Western philosophers and seminal environmentalists like John Locke and Aldo Leopold (Spoon, 2013). Redclift (2005) asserts that sustainability as an idea was first used during the ‘limits to growth’ debates in the 1970s and the 1972 UN Stockholm Conference. Perhaps the most commonly quoted definition of sustainable development is that of the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) who states that “sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WCED, 1987, p. 43).
Sustainability has the potential to provide a holistic framework that can bridge the gap that is often found between socio-economic justice and environmental discourses. After all, recent scholarship indicates that the issue of environmental quality is inevitably linked to that of human equity (Morello-Frosch, 1997; Torras & Boyce, 1998; see Agyeman, Bullard, & Evans, 2002), and thus they need to be thought about together. I hold that an actual sustainable society is one where wider matters of social and economic needs are intrinsically connected to the dynamic limits set by supporting ecosystems and environments.
Sustainability education has emerged as an effort to acknowledge and reinforce these interrelationships and to reorient and transform education along the lines of social and ecological well-being (Sterling, 2001). By being rooted in whole systems thinking, i.e. “the ability to collectively analyze complex systems across different domains (society, environment, and economy) and across different scales (local to global)” (Wiek, Withycombe, & Redman, 2011, p. 207), sustainability education strives to illuminate the complexities associated with the broad, problem-oriented, solution-driven nature of sustainability (Warren, Archambault, & Foley, 2014). If we are to devise cultural systems that are truly regenerative, this “novel” brand of education urges the teaching of the fundamental facts of life by stewarding learning communities that comprehend the adaptive qualities of ecological patterns and principles (Stone, 2012). Sustainability education highlights the centrality of ‘place’ as a unit of inquiry to devise reciprocal—and thus sustainable—relationships where one nourishes and is nourished by their surrounding social and ecological milieus (Williams & Brown, 2012).
Additionally, sustainability and, as a consequence, sustainability education are future- oriented and therefore demand ‘futures thinking’: the ability to assess and formulate nuanced pictures of the future vis-à-vis sustainability predicaments and sustainability problem-solving schemes (Wiek, et al., 2011). In a nutshell, futures thinking suggests that we need to imagine the potential ramifications of past and current human activities by critically analyzing them today if we are to conceive of new, more sustainable futures (Warren et al., 2014). Future studies can therefore help people to pursue their “ontological vocation” as history makers (Freire, 1993, p. 66) and to (re)claim their agency as a means of creating the world in which they wish to live (Inayatullah, 2007).
However, sustainability and sustainability education have typically accepted the prevailing socio-economic and cultural paradigm despite their apparent holistic intent and(theoretical) efforts to reconcile the three pillars of sustainability—equity, environment, and economy. Whether intentionally or not, they have promoted curative solutions instead of reflecting new, critical mindsets that can actually generate meaningful socio-cultural innovation by naming and discursively dismantling the systems and processes that are the root causes of the complex problems we face. And, as Albert Einstein once put it, “no problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it.”
It is my aim in this paper to demonstrate that a truly holistic and visionary sustainability (education) framework ought to demand radical (of, relating to, or proceeding from a root) and critical (of, relating to, or being a turning point) theories and solutions-based approaches to politicize and interrogate the premises, assumptions, and biases linked to the dominant notion of sustainability.
Troubling (Monolithic) Sustainability
In order to be able to unveil and critically analyze the propositions and suppositions of what I call ‘the monolithic sustainability discourse,’ it is fundamental to start with the etymology of the word ‘sustainability’ itself. The operationalization of the term can be problematic for it implies prior judgments about what is deemed important or necessary to sustain. While some of these judgements might resonate with an array of environmentalists who perceive that the health of the planet and the well-being of our descendants are being—or are already—compromised by certain human activities, various other perilous premises and assumptions are generally left unacknowledged as a result of the depoliticized character of the dominant discourse of sustainability. Lele and Norgaard (1996) have put forward three questions that can help us to uncover and think more critically about these presuppositions in and across various contexts and scales: (a) what is to be sustained, at what scale, and in what form?; (b) over what time period, with what level of certainty?; (c) through what social process(es), and with what trade-offs against other social goals? (p. 355).
By building on these critical questions and clarifications, we can better understand the nuances of how the destructive and thus unsustainable ethos of dehumanization and socio- ecological exploitation may inform and permeate normative notions and articulations of sustainability. Yet, this is only plausible if sustainability is politicized. To politicize is to engage the existing state of socio-political affairs, to problematize that which is taken for granted, to make explicit the power relations that are an innate part of everyday life and experience (Bailey & Gayle, 2003). In an attempt to comprehend why sustainability is typically depoliticized we ought to examine briefly its discursive history.
The term ‘sustainable development’ became a part of the policy discourse and almost every day language following the release of the Brundtland Commission’s report on the global environment and development in 1987 (Redclift, 2005). While their definition included a very clear social directive, its human and political dimensions have been largely overlooked amongst references to sustainability, which, due to its environmental origins (Lele & Norgaard, 1996) and neoliberal focus on rights rather than needs (Redclift, 2005), have typically focused on bio- physical, ecological issues (Vallance, Perkins, & Dixon, 2011). Social sustainability, which has been conceptualized in response to the failure of the sustainability approach to engender substantial change (Vallance et al., 2011), is the least developed of the three realms and is frequently framed in relation to ecological and/or economic sustainability (Magis & Shinn, 2013). I assert that the reason for this is twofold: first and foremost, the sustainability agenda was conceived by international committees and NGO networks, think tanks, and governmental structures (Agyeman et al., 2002), which makes it a top-down approach and, consequently, less likely to recognize and address themes such as structural poverty, equity, and justice (Colantonio, 2009); and second, because social sustainability is made subservient to economics and the environment, it fails to examine the socio-political circumstances and elements that are needed to sustain a community of people (Magis & Shinn, 2013).
Sustainability, since its inception as a Western construct, has been progressively viewed as a crucial driver in economic development and environmental management worldwide. Nevertheless, as delineated above, its almost universal focus on reconciling the growth model of economics and the environment has served to covertly depoliticize the dominant discourse and therefore render it uncontentious if not intrinsically benign. It is worth further exploring the dynamics of depoliticization for I believe they are at the radicle of the issues sustainability attempts to address in the first place.
Bailey and Gayle (2003) identify a series of acts that can be associated with the dynamics of depoliticization, three of which can be observed when examining the monolithic sustainability discourse: (a) eschewing political discourse; (b) removing from the discourse the recognition that social advantages are given to certain constituent groups; (c) not disclosing underlying viewpoints or values. These processes are enmeshed with intricate ideological instances that help to mask the systemic and/or structural nature of a social or cultural matter (Bailey & Gayle, 2003). Further, as Foucault (1984) has stated, “power is everywhere” (p. 93) and it is embodied and enacted in discourse and knowledge. Hence, possessing the analytical tools to name and unpack these discursive ideological formations and power dynamics ought to be a prerequisite to the development of more holistic and critically conscious understandings and applications of sustainability.
Politicizing Sustainability
If we are to envision and construe actual sustainable futures, we must first understand what brought us here, where the roots of the problems lie, and how the sustainability discourse and framework tackle—or fail to tackle—them. To do this is to politicize sustainability, to build a critical perspective of and about sustainability. It is an act of conscientização (or conscientization), to borrow Paulo Freire’s seminal term, of cultivating critical consciousness and conscience (Freire, 1993). It is a call for the necessity to highlight, problematize, and disrupt what I have termed ‘the ethos of unsustainability’ and its interrelated ideologies of dehumanization and exploitation. Ultimately, to embrace a stance that fails to scrutinize the sources of degradation and exploitation is to uphold the power relations that sustain oppressive structures (Freire, 1993; Perry, 2001). I assert that only by delving into the origins of the ‘ethos of unsustainability’ can we really devise sustainability paradigms that are capable of promoting significant socio-cultural transformation.
To comprehend the contours of the predicaments that loom on our horizon as well as their premises and logics, we must go back over 500 years in history to 1492, the year that marks the beginning of the current colonial era and the globalization of the European colonial imaginary (Tuck and Yang, 2012). It is important to note that my intention in doing so is not to provide a sweeping, all-encompassing description of this genealogy/historical process, but rather, to simply name, connect, and emphasize the ideological systems and patterns that have been conceptualized and reconceptualized so as to sustain the ethos of unsustainability and its exploitative power structures. After all, as Freire (1993) has indicated, “to name the world is to change it” (p. 88).
(World) Capitalism: A Technology of European Colonialism
According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the word ‘colonialism’ stems from the Roman word ‘colonia,’ which meant ‘settlement’ or ‘farm.’ The OED describes it as:
… a body of people who settle in a new locality, forming a community subject to or connected with their parent state; the community so formed, consisting of the original settlers and their descendants and successors, as long as the connection with the parent state is kept up.
In Colonialism/Postcolonialism, Ania Loomba (2001) points out that this definition fails to link the word ‘colonialism’ to its ideologies of conquest and domination as it eschews any testimonial about those peoples who were already living in the places where the colonies were formalized. She offers another, more nuanced definition that hints to the processes of conquest and control of other peoples’ land and resources (Loomba, 2001, p. 2):
The process of ‘forming a community’ in the new land necessarily meant unforming or re-forming the communities that existed there already, and involved a wide range of practices including trade, plunder, negotiation, warfare, genocide, slavement and rebellions.
Loomba (2001) illuminates that while European colonialisms from the late fifteenth century onwards included a miscellany of patterns of domination and exploitation, it was a combination of these patterns that generated the economic disparity required for the maturation and expansion of European capitalism and industrial civilization; thus, capitalism demands the maintenance of colonial expansion in order to flourish. In spite of colonialism not being a monopoly of capitalism because it could be—and has been—utilized by so-called ‘socialist’ or ‘communist’ states as well (Dirlik, 2002), capitalism is a technology of colonialism that has been developed and re-structured over time as a means of advancing European colonial projects (Tuck and Yang, 2012). Colonialism was the instrument through which capitalism was able to reach its status as a global, master frame (Loomba, 2001).
A distinction between the three historical modes of colonialism might help to further elucidate the interrelationships between capitalism and colonialism.
Theories of coloniality as well as postcolonial theories typically acknowledge two brands of colonialism: external colonialism, which involves the appropriation of elements of Indigenous worlds in order to build the wealth and the power of the colonizers—the first world—, and internal colonialism, the bio- and geo-political management of people and land within the borders of a particular nation-state (Tuck and Yang, 2012). A third form, settler colonialism, is more suitable to describe the operationalization of colonialisms in which the colonizers arrive and make a new home on the land (Tuck and Yang, 2012). The settler objective of gaining control over land and resources by removing the local, Indigenous communities is an ongoing structure that relies on private property schemes and coercive systems of labor (Glenn, 2015).
In these processes of colonialism, land is conceived primarily if not exclusively as commodity and property, and human relationships to the land are only legitimized in terms of economic ownership (Tuck and Yang, 2012). These combined colonialist ideologies of commodification and private property are at the core of the various political economies of capitalism that are found in today’s globalized world (O’Sullivan, 2005). By relying on the appropriation of land and commodities through the “elimination of the Native” (Wolfe, 2006, p. 387), European colonialisms wind up restructuring non-capitalist economies so as to fuel European capitalism (Loomba, 2001). The globalization of the world is thereby the pinnacle of a process that started with the formation of the United States of America as the epitome of a Euro- centered, settler colonialist world power (Quijano, 2000).
Inspired by the European colonial imaginary, which transforms differences and diversity into a hierarchy of values (Mignolo, 2000) as well as by economic liberalism, which erases the production and labor contexts from the economy (Straume, 2011), the capitalist imaginary constitutes a broad depoliticization that disconnects its ‘social imaginary significations’ from the political sphere (Straume, 2011). Given that capitalism is imbued with European diffusionist constructs (Blaut, 1989), namely ‘progress,’ ‘development,’ and ‘modernity,’ the depoliticization of this now globalized imaginary is required not only to maintain the resilience of capitalism as a master frame (Straume, 2011), but also to camouflage its interconnectedness to European colonial systems.
Antonio Gramsci’s (1971) study and articulation of the conceptualization and operation of ideologies proves fruitful in terms of understanding how the capitalist imaginary has been used to facilitate processes of globalization that benefit European colonialisms. He argued that ideologies are invaluable when manufacturing consent as they are the means through which certain ideas and meanings are not only transmitted, but held to be true (Gramsci, 1971). Hence, hegemony, the power garnered through a combination of ideologies and coercion, is attained by playing with people’s common sense (Gramsci, 1971) and their lived system of meanings and values (Williams, 1976; see Loomba, 2001). Since subjectivity and ideology are key to the expansionist capitalist endeavor and its interrelated logics of commodification and domination (Gramsci, 1971), it becomes necessary to summon and dissect the colonial ideas and belief systems that have served and continue to serve as its conduits. This can in turn help us to interrogate the value systems and mental models that directly and/or indirectly inform the dominant notion of sustainability (education).
White Supremacist, Heteropatriarchal State Capitalism
As devised and practiced by Europeans and, later, by other Euro-centered powers such as the United States, colonial ideologies of race and racial structures smooth the way for capitalist production (Wolfe, 2006). The Eurocentric construct of race as “a system of discrimination, hierarchy and power” (Olson, 2004, xvii, p. 127-128) conveys colonial experience and infuses the most essential realms of world power and its hierarchies (Quijano, 2000). The state and its many institutions are particularly pivotal in sustaining these racialized ideologies that are obligatory for the development and continuance of capitalism (Loomba, 2001).
Slavery, as the foundation of notions of race and capitalist empire and one of the pillars of white supremacy, marks the concepts of ‘progress’ and ‘development’ as white (Painter, 2010) and renders black people as innately enslaveable, as nothing more than private property (Smith, 2010a). Within the context of the United States, the forms of slavery can and, indeed, have changed—from chattel slavery, to sharecropping, and more recently, to the prison industrial complex, which is still grounded in the premise that black bodies are an indefinite property of the state (Smith, 2010a)—yet, slavery as a logic of white supremacy has persisted (Smith, 2010a). The other two pillars of white supremacy are genocide, which expresses the need for Indigenous Peoples to always be disappearing, and orientalism, which builds on Edward Said’s influential term to explain how certain peoples and/or nations are coded as inferior and, therefore, a constant threat to the security and longevity of imperial states (Smith, 2010a).
The pillars of white supremacy may vary according to historical and geographical contexts (Smith, 2010a). Nonetheless, the centering of whiteness is generally what defines a colonial project. The formation of whiteness, or white identity, as a racialized class orientation stems from political efforts by capitalist elites and lawmakers to divide and conquer large masses of workers (Battalora, 2013). White identity is perhaps one of the most successful colonial and capitalist inventions since it “operates as a kind of property … with effects on social confidence and performance that can be empirically documented” (Alcoff, 2015, p. 23). It is a very dynamic category that can be enlarged to extend its privileges to others when white supremacist social and economic relations are jeopardized (Painter, 2010). It sustains itself, at least partially, by evading scrutiny and shifting the discursive focus to ‘non-whites’ (Silva, 2007). Whiteness is to be made invisible by remaining the norm, the standard, that which ought not to be questioned.
Capitalism therefore depends on and magnifies these racial hierarchies centered on whiteness. And, since race is imbricated and constructed simultaneously with gender, sexuality, ability, and other colonial categories—a conceptualization that serves to obscure white supremacy in state discourses and interventions (Kandaswamy, 2012)—, it is crucial to investigate the other ideologies that also shape class formation processes.
Heteropatriarchy, the combination of patriarchal and heterosexual control based on rigid and dichotomous gender identities—man and woman—and sexual orientations—heterosexual and homosexual—where one identity or orientation dominates the other, is another building block of colonialism. Patriarchy is employed to naturalize hierarchical relations within families and at a larger, societal level (Smith, 2010b). Similarly, heteronormativity paints heterosexual nuclear-domestic arrangements as normative (Arvin, Tuck, and Morrill, 2013) and is thus the bedrock of the colonial nation-state (Smith, 2010b). These social and cultural systems that configure heteropatriarchy are then apprehended as normal and natural whereas other arrangements or proclivities are demonized and perceived as repulsive and abnormal (Arvin et al., 2013). Heteropatriarchy is directly linked to colonial racial relations as it portrays white manhood as supreme and entitled to control over private property and to political sovereignty (Glenn, 2015). This indicates that the process of producing and managing gender frequently functions as a racial project that normalizes whiteness (Kandaswamy, 2012).
The laws and policies that were designed to institutionalize the formation of whiteness and white supremacy demonstrate that race, class, and gender are intertwined systems that uphold, constitute, and reconstitute each other (Battalora, 2013). The state and its ideological institutions are therefore major sites of racial struggle (Kandaswamy, 2012); they are responsible for devising and constantly revising the rationale that guides a white supremacist, heteropatriarchal settler colonialism grounded in the need to manufacture collective consent. These discourses are rooted in a pervasive state process that combines coercive state arbitration with societal consent by articulating the ideologies that link racial structure and representation as an effort to reorganize and distribute resources according to specific racial lines (Ferguson, 2012).
Despite increasing globalizing neoliberal urges toward deregulation and privatization, capitalism is still enabled and supported by the state. Its ‘ideological apparatuses,’ the state institutions and ideologies that enable and support the classist structure of capitalist societies (Althusser, 1989), is still fundamental to the expansion of capitalist enterprises; the nation-state is capitalism’s atomic component. The neoliberal state has utilized innovations in methods of social discipline and control along with legal practices to facilitate the process of economic globalization (Gill, 1995). Yet, all these schemes that involve retention of power through dominance and manufactured consent are rooted in divide and conquer strategies that cause those in subservient positions in society to engage in conflicts with one another (Hagopian, 2015). The interlinked logics and ideologies of white supremacy and heteropatriarchy conceived by state capitalism serve to spur dissent between potential opponents and thereby further stratify socio-economic classes. This prevents them from building a unified basis that can present a tangible threat to the status quo (Hagopian, 2015). Colonial and neocolonial powers have repeatedly deployed this stratagem to not only increase their geographical reach, but also to normalize and standardize the economic growth model of capitalism.
Colonialism is hence not just an ancient, bygone incident. The ideologies and processes delineated above demonstrate that it has remained very much in effect within contemporary capitalist and neoliberal frameworks (Preston, 2013). It then becomes critical to investigate how the dominant sustainability discourse may or may not collude in these schemes so that we may conceive of holistic blueprints that beget positive socio-ecological transformation.
Sustainability and Colonialism: Contradiction or Conscious Ideological Maneuver?
By unearthing what I believe are the roots of the predicament that sustainability attempts to heal, namely the ethos of dehumanization and exploitation rooted in divide and conquer systems, it becomes easier to analyze how the colonial political economy of capitalism may conserve hegemonic ideologies that pervade social relations and knowledge generating processes.
Yet, these ideologies and knowledge schemes have been given minimal attention in sustainability (education) scholarship. Even though some academics have contributed to the generation of a more critical comprehension of the interrelationships between capitalism, environmental degradation, and socio-economic justice (see Cachelin, Rose, & Paisley, 2015; Martusewicz, Edmundson, & Lupinacci, 2011; Pellow & Brulle, 2005), this major blindspot in linking sustainability to the colonial imaginary and its legacies prompts the following questions:(awhy are critiques of colonialism and capitalism so infrequent in the sustainability literature?: (a) why are critiques of colonialism and capitalism so infrequent in the sustainability literature?; and (b) how does that impact the discourse of sustainability?
I assert that, in spite of calls for paradigm shifts, the dominant disancourse of sustainability in the West embodies a transnational, globalized standard of economic growth. The promise that economic development can eradicate or at least alleviate poverty and hunger in a sustainable way reflects some of the same goals and values of the optimistic ‘ecological modernization’ concept and perspective, which suggest that the development and modernization of liberal capitalism result in improvements in ecological outcomes (Buttel, 2000). The neoliberal, capitalist overtones of sustainable development not only expose the contradiction inherent in the term, but they also serve to further commodify nature (Cock, 2011). This neoliberalization of nature, which has recently gained a lot of attention in the corporate world and academia under the lexicon of ‘ecosystem services,’ alienates people from their physical surroundings and therefore reinforces the society-nature divide. In short, the sustainability discourse has been appropriated by the capitalist master frame and has transformed most if not all social and ecological relations into financial ones. In lieu of addressing social and environmental justice issues, this form of “green” or “natural” capitalism is responsible for deepening both social and environmental inequalities (Cock, 2011).
Since sustainability (education) is (supposed to be) a praxis-oriented framework that symbiotically combines thought and action for transformative, liberatory ends, it ought to embrace this critique of colonial capitalism and the subsequent neoliberalization of the political economy if it is to oppose and resist hegemonic ideologies in its multiple and diverse manifestations. After all, whether intentionally or not, what matters in the end is that those discourses of sustainability that do not take a stance against colonialism and capitalism only serve to preserve them and the status quo. An understanding of these interdependent systems allows for the development of critical sustainability dialogues and actions that can actually promote the paradigmatic shifts required to redress the socio-cultural problems that are at the heart of the environmental crises. Thus, sustainability can and should be reframed to suggest a process of personal, social, and cultural conscientization that is environmentally sound, i.e. one that follows ecological principles and patterns, instead of upholding the dehumanizing, exploitative, and paradoxical ‘development as growth’ standard of global capitalism.
The following section combines the analyses and critiques presented in the preceding (sub)sections into a single, cohesive, and holistic framework, and further elucidates the distinctions between monolithic sustainability and critical sustainabilities.
The Framework of Critical Sustainability Studies
[T]he political cannot be restricted to a certain type of institution, or envisioned as constituting a specific sphere or level of society. It must be conceived as a dimension that is inherent to every human society and that determines our very ontological condition.
- Chantal Mouffe, The Return of the Political, 2005
‘Critical sustainability studies,’ while not exactly novel in the sense that it draws on principles, concepts, and positions that are foundational to other frameworks and fields—more specifically, critical Indigenous and ethnic studies, postcolonial theory, queer theory, feminist theory, crip theory, social ecology, political ecology, and cultural studies—, presents itself as an alternative to the sustainability theories and conceptualizations that have failed to engage a truly intersectional analysis of dominant sustainability and environmental discourses, policies, and practices. Its primary objective is to rearticulate sustainability as it has the potential to provide a more holistic conception of conscientization that can bridge the gap between social and economic justice and environmental sustainability.
The framework indicates a crucial double political intervention: to put sustainability and critical theory in conversation; to embed sustainability and ecology into critical theory and vice- versa. As I discussed in the previous section, sustainability has, for the most part, become a hegemonic and, therefore, highly problematic discourse that refuses to transform the complex ideologies and systems that undergird the ethos of unsustainability and the current socio- ecological crises. On the other hand, critical theory, which seeks to extend the consciousness of the human self as a social being within the context of dominant power structures and their knowledge management operations (Kincheloe, 2005), could benefit from incorporating ecological principles and the sustainability notion of ‘place’ into its analytical toolbox. After all, I am as interested in localizing critical knowledge—without disconnecting it from global matters and realities—as I am in putting forth more critical and radical views of sustainability. Hence, this framework brings together what I believe are some of the most robust and cutting edge theories and methodologies to facilitate the deconstruction of the questionable ideologies that guide Western epistemologies like (hegemonic) sustainability.
Critical sustainability studies encourages sustainability scholars and/or educators to move from a defined methodology of problem-solving to the more critical moment of calling something into question (Freire, 1993). By rooting it in conscientization, I propose an orientation to sustainability and sustainable development that politicizes and reveals it as an agenda, discourse, and knowledge system that ought to be contested and rearticulated so that it can incorporate and critically engage with emancipatory understandings of power and power relations. Furthermore, by problematizing and closing the culture-nature divide, it can lay down the groundwork for the paradigmatic changes necessary to heal widespread colonialist alienation from the wider ecological community and to create visions of deep sustainabilities that can engender ecologically sound socio-cultural transformation.
I stress that the notion of sustainabilities is necessary if we have the intention of opposing and displacing the monolithic, top-down and now universalized sustainability agenda, which I refer to as ‘big S Sustainability.’ After all, much like science (Parry, 2006), sustainability is not the property of any one culture or language. There are different ways of seeing and knowing sustainability, so it is time to pluralize it in the literature and discourse. This simple act is an extraordinary intervention in itself because within the colonial imaginary “sustainability” means “Western sustainability.” By centering “novel” understandings of sustainability that are concerned with the specificities of geo-political, cultural, and historical contexts and power relations, sustainability scholars and educators can create theories and visions of sustainability that can lead to the development of more just, place-based cultures and social ecologies.
Critical sustainability studies as I envision it is a consciousness-raising exercise that is particularly useful in educational settings. It indicates methodology as much as content. This praxis-oriented framework can help teachers and students alike to develop consciousness of freedom and to acknowledge authoritarian socio-cultural tendencies that have toxic environmental ramifications. The next section provides an overview of its tenets, the educational philosophy that underpins it, as well as the four preliminary methodological principles and examples of related pedagogical interventions that directly inform the framework and its liberatory, decolonizing ambitions.
Epistemological Position, Preliminary Methodological Principles, and Pedagogical Interventions for Conscientization
The epistemological, methodological, and pedagogical implications of critical sustainability studies are rooted in an ethical and political vision, one that is found in the vast majority of social ecology and political ecology projects: that “the domination of nature by man [sic] stems from the very real domination of human by human” (Bookchin, 2005, p. 1). In other words, we cannot overcome the ecological crisis unless we rid ourselves of the colonial ideologies of domination and hierarchy that permeate all forms of systemic and systematic exploitation and dehumanization. While much easier said than done, critical sustainability studies seeks to conceptualize this vision by building on the following tenets:
That sustainability and sustainability education are not neutral, they either advance or regress justice and Critical sustainability studies strives to promote justice and ecological regeneration.
That an analysis of power is central to understanding and engendering positive socio-cultural Critical sustainability studies strives to be conscious of power relations and to identify power inequalities and their implications.
That it is crucial to foreground the sociocultural identities and experiences of those who have been (most) oppressed – people of color, people with disabilities, queer and transgender people, the working class and the economically poor, undocumented immigrants, Critical sustainability studies acknowledges that just, healthy cultures and societies can only be cultivated if we examine the circumstances that cause and maintain socio-economic marginalization.
That positive socio-cultural transformation comes from the bottom up. Critical sustainability studies emphasizes and advocates a collective and decentralized approach to sustainable change.
And, finally, that the human community is inherently a part of rather than apart from the wider ecological world. Critical sustainability studies affirms that this relational ethos serves as the epistemological foundation of novel, dynamic worlds where healing and justice are at the front and center of our cultural and ecological identities.
In addition to delineating critical sustainability studies as a praxis that is founded on the above tenets, the framework is guided by a critical constructivist epistemological position. Strongly influenced by Freirean pedagogies and the Frankfurt school of thought, critical constructivism endeavors to dissect the processes by which knowledge is socially constructed; in other words, what we know about the worlds we live in always demands a knower and that which is to be known, a contextual and dialectical process that informs what we conceive of as reality (Kincheloe, 2005). This epistemological position problematizes and extends constructivism by illuminating the need for both teachers and students to develop a critical awareness of self, their perspectives, and ways their consciousness have been shaped and/or reshaped by society (Watts, Jofili, & Bezerra, 1997). Critical constructivists attempt to comprehend the forces that construe consciousness and the ways of seeing and being of the subjects who inhabit it (Kincheloe, 1993, as cited in Watts et al., 1997). This political, counter- Cartesianism, and anti-objectivist philosophy (Kincheloe, 2005) is central to an emancipatory approach to sustainability and sustainability education, and is, therefore, at the root of the critical sustainability studies conception of holistic conscientization.
www.susted.com/wordpress/content/critical-sustainability-...
As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.
~ Pope John Paul II
Not so many years ago the human world changed. It changed for you and it changed for me. It changed for almost everyone.
Individuals, throughout the world, quite suddenly had a way to take a step into the outside world.
Warhol predicted it in the sixties. Everyone would have their 15 minutes of fame. Perhaps we didn't understand his message, or he got it slightly wrong but each of our fifteen minutes consist of a blog, a flickr stream, a facebook page, a tweet, a digg, a viral video. So many of us who would have never got to bare our souls, or to connect and meet in our virtual would, are able to do that every single day.
The compassion, the creativity, the connections we can make, the internet has made this all possible. Of course it is not all good, nothing in human endeavour ever is but where it is good it is very, very good.
As a species we are more alike than we are different, and the ordinary people that inhabit this planet just wish to get on with their lives in peace and freedom.
The threads of this have been spreading like a mycellium, unseen by the overlords, a creeping network connecting the like-minded.
Things were about to change...
Tragically and symbolically the flame that ignited the fire was the plight of a poor man in Tunisia. A man who couldn't even live his life in dignity and in utter desperation he burned himself to death.
This became the catalyst for disaffected youth across the region. Already they had been talking of the future they desired and were organising themselves into active groups. But now, with the desperate actions of Mohamed Bouazizi in Tunusia and his brutal death at his own hands, an idea spread through the collective unconscious "if he can lay his life down for us, then what can we do?"
And this is how revolution begins. The people lose their fear and one more day of repression is too high a price to pay. Ordinary people become willing to lay down their lives so that others can live in freedom.
One must have a heart of stone not to feel profoundly moved by the images on our TV sets and the passion and joy of the voices of unified, down-trodden peoples. To see them risk all to be free after so many years of brutal oppression brings home what a cossetted and privileged life we lead in the free world. Can we truly understand what it means to be free if we have not had to live under the rule of some psychopathic nutter or another? I guess we are lucky not to have to know what we take for granted.
First the Tunisians, then the Egyptians and now the Libyans. I can only sit back in awe and total admiration to witness their utter bravery. I don't think I would have the moral courage to do what they are doing, in fact I know I wouldn't. In the face of utter terror and brutality, they continue to make their stand. Godspeed to them all.
I just wish that any and all oppressed peoples throughout the Middle East, the Bahrainis, Saudis, Syrians, Iranians and everyone else can find their liberation too. Everyone on this planet deserves to live in peace and freedom. I also wish that we in the free West find the moral courage to do the right thing by these people and stop selling arms to oppressive regimes and propping up whomever suits our aims in the so-called name of "stability" or too feed our addiction to oil. I count myself in that too.
So what of land art amongst all these things? Well, spring is an auspicious time. Something stirs within us all
. It is in our genetic makeups, deep within our souls. We are creatures of nature and all born of this shared planet.
That may be why spring is the season of revolution. The French and Russian revolutions began in spring. Czechoslovakia began a period of liberalisation in 1968, known as the Prague spring. The fall of the Eastern bloc begun in autumn 1988 but gathered apace in the spring of 1989 when Solidarity was made legal in Poland in April and they won an overwhelming 99% of seats in the parliamentary elections. And there are many more too.
I am touched deeply by spring as I am sure all that are experiencing it right now, are too. I am also deeply touched by the struggle and bravery of the people of the Middle East. The internet is an example and a symbol combined, of the power of the interconnectedness of all things. Where oppression and brutality seek to divide and conquer. The seasons, the natural world and the power of information and communication brings us all back together again.
"There is one God looking down on us all. We are children of the one God. God is listening to me. The sun, the darkness, the winds are all listening to what we now say."
~ Geronimo
The Old Ones before us knew things. Many of them were so spiritual that the Creator told them things through visions, ceremonies, and prayer. The Creator taught them about interconnectedness, balance and respect. The Old Ones experienced these things and told us we are all children of the same God. We all live under the same natural laws. Every human being, every animal, every plant, every insect, every bird, we are all the same in the eyes of God. Great Mystery, teach me to respect all the things You have created.
The transient beauty of the coast is intricately intertwined with the captivating patterns that emerge in the sand, crafted by the relentless forces of wind and wave. These natural sculptors shape the shoreline, leaving behind ephemeral masterpieces.
As the tides ebb and flow, they orchestrate a delicate dance with the sand. With each advancing wave, the water gently caresses the shore, carrying particles of sand along its journey. As the wave recedes, it relinquishes its cargo, depositing the grains in a meticulous arrangement. This cyclical process, repeated countless times, creates intricate patterns that stretch along the coastline.
The patterns left behind by the retreating tide mimic the ebb and flow of life itself. Swirling ripples, reminiscent of a miniature desert landscape, emerge as the water recedes, their graceful curves and undulating lines transforming the beach into a living work of art. The patterns are at once orderly and chaotic, with intricate geometrical formations intermingling with whimsical curves and asymmetrical shapes.
The wind, a silent artist in its own right, adds its touch to the sculpting process. As it sweeps across the coast, it whispers secrets to the sand, coaxing it to dance in its invisible embrace. The wind's gentle touch lifts fine particles from the beach, carrying them aloft in an intricate ballet. It sculpts the sand into delicate ripples, resembling the soft undulations of fabric.
The interplay between the wind and the tide results in an ever-changing landscape. The patterns shift and evolve, shaped by the combined forces of these elemental sculptors. Ripples become miniature mountains, rising and falling in a transient topography that mirrors the larger contours of the surrounding coast. Each gust of wind and every advancing or receding wave leaves its mark, etching new patterns and erasing old ones, in an eternal cycle of creation and destruction.
These ephemeral patterns serve as a reminder of the impermanence of existence and the transient nature of beauty, as each passing moment alters the landscape, erasing what once was and creating something new. The sands become a canvas for the symphony of time, a tangible reflection of the ever-changing nature of our lives.
The beauty of these fleeting patterns lies not only in their visual allure but also in the emotions they evoke. They inspire a sense of wonder and awe, inviting us to pause and appreciate the intricate designs that nature creates with such effortless grace. The patterns speak of the interconnectedness of all things, the harmonious interplay between the elements, and the constant flux that defines our existence.
In these patterns of nature, we find a profound lesson: that life, like the shifting sands, is ever-changing, and that true beauty lies not in permanence but in the appreciation of the fleeting moments that grace our journey.
The transient beauty of the coast is intricately intertwined with the captivating patterns that emerge in the sand, crafted by the relentless forces of wind and wave. These natural sculptors shape the shoreline, leaving behind ephemeral masterpieces.
As the tides ebb and flow, they orchestrate a delicate dance with the sand. With each advancing wave, the water gently caresses the shore, carrying particles of sand along its journey. As the wave recedes, it relinquishes its cargo, depositing the grains in a meticulous arrangement. This cyclical process, repeated countless times, creates intricate patterns that stretch along the coastline.
The patterns left behind by the retreating tide mimic the ebb and flow of life itself. Swirling ripples, reminiscent of a miniature desert landscape, emerge as the water recedes, their graceful curves and undulating lines transforming the beach into a living work of art. The patterns are at once orderly and chaotic, with intricate geometrical formations intermingling with whimsical curves and asymmetrical shapes.
The wind, a silent artist in its own right, adds its touch to the sculpting process. As it sweeps across the coast, it whispers secrets to the sand, coaxing it to dance in its invisible embrace. The wind's gentle touch lifts fine particles from the beach, carrying them aloft in an intricate ballet. It sculpts the sand into delicate ripples, resembling the soft undulations of fabric.
The interplay between the wind and the tide results in an ever-changing landscape. The patterns shift and evolve, shaped by the combined forces of these elemental sculptors. Ripples become miniature mountains, rising and falling in a transient topography that mirrors the larger contours of the surrounding coast. Each gust of wind and every advancing or receding wave leaves its mark, etching new patterns and erasing old ones, in an eternal cycle of creation and destruction.
These ephemeral patterns serve as a reminder of the impermanence of existence and the transient nature of beauty, as each passing moment alters the landscape, erasing what once was and creating something new. The sands become a canvas for the symphony of time, a tangible reflection of the ever-changing nature of our lives.
The beauty of these fleeting patterns lies not only in their visual allure but also in the emotions they evoke. They inspire a sense of wonder and awe, inviting us to pause and appreciate the intricate designs that nature creates with such effortless grace. The patterns speak of the interconnectedness of all things, the harmonious interplay between the elements, and the constant flux that defines our existence.
In these patterns of nature, we find a profound lesson: that life, like the shifting sands, is ever-changing, and that true beauty lies not in permanence but in the appreciation of the fleeting moments that grace our journey.
The bumblebee is a highly important pollinator of many plants, they hold the power of service. When landing upon a flower to collect its nectar, pollen also attaches itself to the leg. This is then passed on to other flowers, creating a fertilisation process. Their movement from one plant to plant represents the interconnectedness of all living things. The bumblebee is a messenger bringing the secrets of life and service.
www.facebook.com/nefiseHphotography
A photomontage of a photograph and a smoke art composite. Created as part of my journal submission for the start of year 2 on my children's wellbeing practitioner training - exploring the latest neuroscientific child development research outcomes. Really inspired by neuroscientist Louis Cozolino, he finds parallels between the survival and connectivity of neurons and the survival and connectivity of children, who both need the same things to survive. This photo composite represents a healthy brain which has developed all the neuronal pathways. Neuron cells “reach out for connection” and develop dendrites, which resemble the branches of trees..
Declaration of Support for the Standing Rock Sioux
We stand here today, in our feast hall, where our laws guide our way forward, to extend our full support with the Dakota Sioux Peoples in Standing Rock who are heroically standing their ground against the Dakota Access Pipeline. We have been witnessing the outright abuses against Indigenous and human rights that are occurring on the ground there and denounce the violence and force used against the Indigenous peoples, the media, and the land itself. The acts by these companies and the governments that are supporting them are utterly shameful.
Our nation has also been standing up against fossil fuel companies, including the Enbridge Northern Gateway bitumen project and numerous fracking projects that are threating to build a carbon corridor across our beautiful yintah (traditional territory) and our life-giving rivers and streams. As sovereign indigenous nations, who have not ceded or surrendered our territories, land management decisions must respect our Anuk Nu’at’en (Wet’suwet’en Law). This is often not the case however, and we have lessons to share about the divide and conquer tactics used against us. We have seen many divisions in our community, especially when it comes to fracked gas, our own people used against us. But we urge you at Standing Rock to stand strong and continue the fight of our ancestors. We can’t eat money, we can’t drink oil.
Our stance as the Indigenous peoples, the hereditary governments of our lands, is a stance not just for our people, but for all people for the next seven generations. We celebrate our traditional ways, our values, and beliefs because they hold the wisdom of our ancestors, a way for all of us to live sustainably in our lands.
We understand the interconnectedness of all things! We understand that water is life!
We understand that a new way of life is possible because we have lived that life!
The people of the earth united, will never be defeated.
Mandate Drawing - addison karl - Original On Cardstock - 2012 - 100 x 80cm
Drawing Illustrations By Karl Addison
To See More:
For More: www.idrawalot.com/
www.flickr.com/photos/partybots/
******************************************************************************************
As Karl Addison’s art and vision evolves—from blank slate, to paper, to mural, to installation, to unoccupied public space—our understanding and comprehension of the world around us begins to unfold as well. We may not notice his input, infiltrating our subconscious—our everyday—but it’s there. A beautiful woman’s face composed of negative space watching peacefully over a cemetery in Wedding, a fragile old Jewish woman towering over a decommissioned factory in Berlin, an urban zoo of imagined creatures deposited all over the globe, an abandoned room filled with 4,500 fat babies…Addison’s art and commentary on history and culture are everywhere, becoming part of the collective unconscious.
Through his travels to Italy, Israel, Japan, throughout the US, and his current residence in Berlin, Addison’s overarching theme of people and the spaces they occupy and interact with has taken shape. By focusing on pieces, which work to become part of public space rather than interrupt it, his intent to create regenerative art through murals and other mediums is being actualized. He has achieved this both independently and collaboratively with other contemporary artists and painters, most notably James Boullough. Addison’s recent and current collaborative projects also highlight his more narrowed focus of interconnectedness, “connecting humanity around the world with different cultures from different places,” he wants us to value tiny lines, details, to appreciate a world view and hopefully, start extolling minute details of our own.
It takes an extraordinary person, one with talent, courage, and patience, to express himself the way Addison does. To project his voice and vision for the world to see—to rip it out of a sketch book or a blank page in his mind—and produce it. To take it beyond the two-dimensional and spray paint, wheat paste, bomb, the side of a building with an illimitable piece of art. To exhibit in public space—on walls, on clothing, in art galleries—what a beautiful fucking thing. Art—“a new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind” leaving the watching to the watched.
- written by jennifer weitman
The transient beauty of the coast is intricately intertwined with the captivating patterns that emerge in the sand, crafted by the relentless forces of wind and wave. These natural sculptors shape the shoreline, leaving behind ephemeral masterpieces.
As the tides ebb and flow, they orchestrate a delicate dance with the sand. With each advancing wave, the water gently caresses the shore, carrying particles of sand along its journey. As the wave recedes, it relinquishes its cargo, depositing the grains in a meticulous arrangement. This cyclical process, repeated countless times, creates intricate patterns that stretch along the coastline.
The patterns left behind by the retreating tide mimic the ebb and flow of life itself. Swirling ripples, reminiscent of a miniature desert landscape, emerge as the water recedes, their graceful curves and undulating lines transforming the beach into a living work of art. The patterns are at once orderly and chaotic, with intricate geometrical formations intermingling with whimsical curves and asymmetrical shapes.
The wind, a silent artist in its own right, adds its touch to the sculpting process. As it sweeps across the coast, it whispers secrets to the sand, coaxing it to dance in its invisible embrace. The wind's gentle touch lifts fine particles from the beach, carrying them aloft in an intricate ballet. It sculpts the sand into delicate ripples, resembling the soft undulations of fabric.
The interplay between the wind and the tide results in an ever-changing landscape. The patterns shift and evolve, shaped by the combined forces of these elemental sculptors. Ripples become miniature mountains, rising and falling in a transient topography that mirrors the larger contours of the surrounding coast. Each gust of wind and every advancing or receding wave leaves its mark, etching new patterns and erasing old ones, in an eternal cycle of creation and destruction.
These ephemeral patterns serve as a reminder of the impermanence of existence and the transient nature of beauty, as each passing moment alters the landscape, erasing what once was and creating something new. The sands become a canvas for the symphony of time, a tangible reflection of the ever-changing nature of our lives.
The beauty of these fleeting patterns lies not only in their visual allure but also in the emotions they evoke. They inspire a sense of wonder and awe, inviting us to pause and appreciate the intricate designs that nature creates with such effortless grace. The patterns speak of the interconnectedness of all things, the harmonious interplay between the elements, and the constant flux that defines our existence.
In these patterns of nature, we find a profound lesson: that life, like the shifting sands, is ever-changing, and that true beauty lies not in permanence but in the appreciation of the fleeting moments that grace our journey.
It seems as though Nature is just as annoyed by this season's aggressive weather as I am.
Today, I spent a certain amount of time just standing at the front door, waiting for a late Fedex delivery. My package was four hours late thanks to (you guessed it) snow in Tennessee.
I peered out at the thick, crusty snow, and wondered how much longer it'd be before I looked out and saw green.
Then I spotted this chipmunk at the entrance to its burrow. It was apparently thinking the exact same thing. It paused there, motionless, for a full minute before it abruptly disappeared, as though a trapdoor beneath it had been released.
I thought this was adorable.
I also thought this was a welcome sign of the interconnectedness of all things, and of our collective faith that Spring must come.
I also found myself thinking that if I had an underground house with a hatch to the surface, I'd spend way too much time standing at the ladder, pretending to be a submarine commander.
An expansive view of Finland’s serene wetlands, with a tapestry of interconnected lakes surrounded by verdant flora. This tranquil haven is a testament to nature’s intricate beauty.
Traduzione Italiana: Una vista estesa delle tranquille zone umide della Finlandia, con un intreccio di laghi interconnessi circondati da una flora rigogliosa. Questo rifugio tranquillo è una testimonianza della complessa bellezza della natura.
© All rights reserved.
see on black - www.darckr.com/username.php?username=10334788@N02
1.1.2010 - 1.383 / 114 / 510 / 4 galleries
2010 Predictions from ... Beyond.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3zJm98UXzQ
"first, we would suggest pausing a moment and recognizing that the great unknown is your paradise"
"we are only giving you the potential of what you are most inclined to do;
we are not giving you some magic future, created by energies that are not yours."
"The concept of free choice creates a constant and continuously changing track in front of you."
"In 2010, anything that you desire strongly will manifest in your life"
"There will be a number of people who will increasingly be aware of a longing within themselves for more"
"Souls will be stirring that have not been awake for many, many lifetimes"
"In the year 2010, it will become harder to hide truth. Transparency will become the watchword of the times"
"The coming year is a time to shed the perception of trouble and strife, and exchange that vision for one of transformation, growth, sharing and envisioning the new reality you are striving for."
"The world is full, fat and overly ripe with juicy secrets now. These will seed, pop and explode onto the world stage this year."
2010 will be the year conspiracy theorists will say, "i told you so"
"Much will come to the forefront that was hidden in the past, including areas such as UFOs, psychic phenomenon, healing miracles and government cover-ups."
"Universal truths about energy and interconnectedness of all life will emerge into the mainstream with increasing speed."
"There will be growing sense of awareness across the planet that many things aren't really as they have appeared to be for a long time"
For many of you this will be the year in which you "get it"
"The demystifying of life on the grand scale it is occurring now is unprecedented ."
"The new world view is being created from inside out, instead of the outside in."
"Human beings will move from instinctual survival to conscious creation."
"what happens between now and 2012 will be the foundation for the next ten years. And what transpires within the next ten years will be the foundation for the next hundred years and more."
"Be prepared for announcements of cures for devastating diseases."
"Be prepared for some amazing technologies that will support the restoration of the dirtied waterways."
"Evolutionary medical processes found trough stem cell technology will bring to masses to absolute gaping awe."
"People will be able to live uncompromisingly with strong bones well into their nineties after this year's discoveries."
"Researchers will begin to study human emotions more thoroughly and will see how humans play a vital role in creation of sickness. And scientific communities will start slowly accepting this."
"In 2010 you are going to have a young people's crusade because of the Internet."
"Technology developed by hackers will permit people of all races and ethnicity to communicate without the interference of governments or countries seeking to silence them."
"Another blessing of the Internet will be the lifting of the curtains hiding child labor."
"Communities will once again spring up in a way that has not been seen in some time."
"You will begin to see a marked increase in the demand for wholesome, healthy, non-contaminated foods."
"The past that held gods who took sides is dying."
"A power circling perpetually throughout this year to help you achieve your dreams, successes and enlightenment, is the power of envisioning."
"So if we were to give you advice that will hold true for the entire year, it would be to become a powerful visionary."
"Energy follows thought."
"We see even the last of you emerging from the fog soon."
"Do not give your precious energy to a dying past."
"Face the brilliance of your most wonderful creations."
"Dwell on your dreams."
.
The Kamikochi was Japan’s first mountain resort hotel when opened in 1933 and built in the European Alpine lodge-style design.
This is a postcard, produced in an almost ukiyo-e style was issued by the Japanese Government Railways in the 1930’s and would have been on sale at their stations and at the destinations they served of which this mountain hotel would have been one.
Trees and nature are central to Shinto, a religion that originated in Japan, which holds that spirits inhabit trees that reach one hundred years of age. These tree spirits are known as kodama, and according to Japanese folklore, the kodama give the tree a personality.
Trees themselves are symbols of strength, individuality and expression, calmness, growth and the interconnectedness of everything and they feature heavily in Japanese art.
Excerpt from www.mississauga.ca/arts-and-culture/arts/public-art/perma...:
A place to be seen,
A place to connect with the natural world,
A place to dream.
A moment of repose, to stare up at the sky and listen to the leaves in the wind.
A place to chat with your girlfriends about the day.
A spot to catch a glimpse of your crush.
A place to feel welcomed, included and inspired.
-LeuWebb Projects
Located within the forested park just outside the Burnhamthorpe Community Centre lies Fungi of the Woods, an imaginative interpretation of the sociability of mushrooms that is conceptually based upon the ways in which community members connect with each other.
Within a forest park grows a cluster of mushrooms, waiting to be discovered. Mushrooms play characters in fairytales, have been sought by Indigenous peoples and European foragers for their medicinal properties, and speak to the interconnectedness of species. Popping up when conditions are just right, the mushroom spore grows from of an underground network that may stretch for miles. They represent the possibility of transformation, of ecological interconnectedness, of collaboration between species.
Fungi of the Woods celebrates a space for community and opens creative possibility of social connection for all, while subtly communicating the wider connections across people and environments.
Mushrooms have vast underground networks whereby they can communicate with each other to warn of danger, alert to positive growing conditions, and ultimately create a community. Mushrooms are the fruiting bodies of underground fungal networks called mycorrhiza. These networks break down soil nutrients and connect tree roots along long great distances. Mushrooms, through mycorrhiza, use means of communication that are not immediately visible, and so too do people. Through body language and gestures, cultural norms and values, we also communicate through non-verbal means. Equally important are these means and methods, particularly in a neighbourhood that is as diverse and unique as Applewood – Rathwood.
The cluster of sculptural mushrooms is connected to the diagonal path of the Community Centre’s open space via a universally accessible rubberized surface.
The ground plane is playfully coloured by rubberized surfacing strands referencing the network of mycorrhiza around the bases of the mushrooms. The tall mushroom acts as a canopy to protect visitors from sun, rain, and snow. The top of the shorter mushroom is of an accessible seat height. Its surface gently curves upwards, allowing teens to lean back and look at the sky, for wheelchair visitors to nest beside, and for children to scamper upwards, and then rise to a rounded top for perching – a place to see and be seen.
The transient beauty of the coast is intricately intertwined with the captivating patterns that emerge in the sand, crafted by the relentless forces of wind and wave. These natural sculptors shape the shoreline, leaving behind ephemeral masterpieces.
As the tides ebb and flow, they orchestrate a delicate dance with the sand. With each advancing wave, the water gently caresses the shore, carrying particles of sand along its journey. As the wave recedes, it relinquishes its cargo, depositing the grains in a meticulous arrangement. This cyclical process, repeated countless times, creates intricate patterns that stretch along the coastline.
The patterns left behind by the retreating tide mimic the ebb and flow of life itself. Swirling ripples, reminiscent of a miniature desert landscape, emerge as the water recedes, their graceful curves and undulating lines transforming the beach into a living work of art. The patterns are at once orderly and chaotic, with intricate geometrical formations intermingling with whimsical curves and asymmetrical shapes.
The wind, a silent artist in its own right, adds its touch to the sculpting process. As it sweeps across the coast, it whispers secrets to the sand, coaxing it to dance in its invisible embrace. The wind's gentle touch lifts fine particles from the beach, carrying them aloft in an intricate ballet. It sculpts the sand into delicate ripples, resembling the soft undulations of fabric.
The interplay between the wind and the tide results in an ever-changing landscape. The patterns shift and evolve, shaped by the combined forces of these elemental sculptors. Ripples become miniature mountains, rising and falling in a transient topography that mirrors the larger contours of the surrounding coast. Each gust of wind and every advancing or receding wave leaves its mark, etching new patterns and erasing old ones, in an eternal cycle of creation and destruction.
These ephemeral patterns serve as a reminder of the impermanence of existence and the transient nature of beauty, as each passing moment alters the landscape, erasing what once was and creating something new. The sands become a canvas for the symphony of time, a tangible reflection of the ever-changing nature of our lives.
The beauty of these fleeting patterns lies not only in their visual allure but also in the emotions they evoke. They inspire a sense of wonder and awe, inviting us to pause and appreciate the intricate designs that nature creates with such effortless grace. The patterns speak of the interconnectedness of all things, the harmonious interplay between the elements, and the constant flux that defines our existence.
In these patterns of nature, we find a profound lesson: that life, like the shifting sands, is ever-changing, and that true beauty lies not in permanence but in the appreciation of the fleeting moments that grace our journey.
Poverty is the state for the majority of the world’s people and nations. Why is this? Is it enough to blame poor people for their own predicament? Have they been lazy, made poor decisions, and been solely responsible for their plight? What about their governments? Have they pursued policies that actually harm successful development? Such causes of poverty and inequality are no doubt real. But deeper and more global causes of poverty are often less discussed.
Behind the increasing interconnectedness promised by globalization are global decisions, policies, and practices. These are typically influenced, driven, or formulated by the rich and powerful. These can be leaders of rich countries or other global actors such as multinational corporations, institutions, and influential people.
In the face of such enormous external influence, the governments of poor nations and their people are often powerless. As a result, in the global context, a few get wealthy while the majority struggle.
Available:
www.selekkt.com/f/manufacturer/1061
Paper Color: White - Matt
Ink Color: Black & Orange
Edition: 25
Size: A3
Weight: 250g/m2
Artwork by Karl Addison
For More Information:
********************************************************************** **********
********************************************************************** **********
As Karl Addison’s art and vision evolves—from blank slate, to paper, to mural, to installation, to unoccupied public space—our understanding and comprehension of the world around us begins to unfold as well. We may not notice his input, infiltrating our subconscious—our everyday—but it’s there. A beautiful woman’s face composed of negative space watching peacefully over a cemetery in Wedding, a fragile old Jewish woman towering over a decommissioned factory in Berlin, an urban zoo of imagined creatures deposited all over the globe, an abandoned room filled with 4,500 fat babies…Addison’s art and commentary on history and culture are everywhere, becoming part of the collective unconscious.
Through his travels to Italy, Israel, Japan, throughout the US, and his current residence in Berlin, Addison’s overarching theme of people and the spaces they occupy and interact with has taken shape. By focusing on pieces, which work to become part of public space rather than interrupt it, his intent to create regenerative art through murals and other mediums is being actualized. He has achieved this both independently and collaboratively with other contemporary artists and painters, most notably James Boullough. Addison’s recent and current collaborative projects also highlight his more narrowed focus of interconnectedness, “connecting humanity around the world with different cultures from different places,” he wants us to value tiny lines, details, to appreciate a world view and hopefully, start extolling minute details of our own.
It takes an extraordinary person, one with talent, courage, and patience, to express himself the way Addison does. To project his voice and vision for the world to see—to rip it out of a sketch book or a blank page in his mind—and produce it. To take it beyond the two-dimensional and spray paint, wheat paste, bomb, the side of a building with an illimitable piece of art. To exhibit in public space—on walls, on clothing, in art galleries—what a beautiful fucking thing. Art—“a new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind” leaving the watching to the watched.
- written by jennifer weitman
Language not only communicates, it defines culture, nature, history, humanity, and ancestry. The indigenous languages of the Arctic have been formed and shaped in close contact with their environment. They are a valuable source of information and a wealth of knowledge on human interactions with nature is encoded in these languages. If a language is lost, a world is lost. This deep knowledge and interconnectedness is expressed in Arctic song, subsistence practices, and other cultural expressions but especially in place names across the Arctic. Place names of the indigenous peoples reflect subsistence practices, stories, dwelling sites, spawning sites, migratory routes of animals, and links to the sacred realms of the indigenous peoples of the north. From surveys it was possible to calculate change in the absolute number of speakers and proportion of speakers for 44 of the surveyed languages. Only 4 languages displayed an increase in absolute numbers of speakers, proportion of speakers and net population. Thirty nine of the surveyed languages experienced a decrease in vitality over the last decade, i.e., a decrease in numbers of speakers and in the proportion of speakers within their populations. Thirty-five languages experienced reductions in proportion of speakers and 22 of these ranged from 10–50%. Of the remaining languages all but seven experienced reductions of over 10% in the absolute numbers of speakers within their populations. Some languages, such as the Enet language of the Russian Federation experienced a 70% decrease in the numbers of speakers. Only twelve languages displayed an increase in absolute numbers of speakers The Inuit language(s) had the highest gain while the Chukchi language had the greatest loss.
For any form of publication, please include the link to this page:
This photo has been graciously provided to be used in the GRID-Arendal resources library by: Hugo Ahlenius, GRID-Arendal & CAFF
As an outsider how must i appear? We all live in separate worlds. Leading separate lives. Can it be that we are all interconnected! I am. We are.Love them as yourself as we all once were strangers.
Week 9 Odds & Ends (1041-1045)12/08 – 12/12/2019 ID 1041
Arthur Dove American 1880-1946
Sunrise, Northport Harbor , 1929
Oil on canvas
Sunrise, Northport Harbor depicts an area on Long Island’s North Shore favored by Dove. Completed in 1929, it epitomizes the artist’s newly evolved vocabulary of swelling, curvilinear forms of modulating color, through which he sought to portray a vital, generative perception of nature. Although renowned for his production of perhaps the earliest abstract works by an American, Dove alternated his imagery between representational and nonrepresentational modes, unified by a common aesthetic of repeating, often interlocking shapes that reveal his belief in the essential movement and interconnectedness of life.
This painting was exhibited at An American Place, the Manhattan gallery run by the photographer and influential promoter of American Modernism Alfred Stieglitz, who championed Dove’s work from the beginning of the latter’s career.
Gift of John S. McGovern, Class of 1926 y1962-44
From the Placard: Princeton University Art Museum, NJ
Had a great day yesterday putting on a workshop for a wonderful bunch of folks at the Middlewood Trust down on the River Roeburn.
It is sometimes a little nervy as my approach is really unstructured but with good reason. Tapping into your creative core is a process of not trying and not doing, using nature to inspire you by having no expectations of what you might make, or that you will create anything at all.
It seems counter-intuitive but it is actually the secret formula: a thoroughly intoxicating mix of the sound of rushing water in your ears, the stilled mind and soul with senses a-fixed on Mother Nature and a runaway unconscious mind, handbrake off, careering downhill.
It is really stupendously satisfying to be gently floating downstream into someone's flow when they're involved in my workshop and communing with nature and just simply getting it. I think there were a few epiphanies of varying intensities and the most reward comes from those who report beforehand that they did not consider themselves artistic, didn't think it would be for them and are basically convinced that they would be devoid of ideas and inspiration.
After discovering the process of switching off to switch on, the ideas come like a runaway train and I grin with glee as they describe to me how nature directed them and what a surprise it is to be full of inspiration.
I am very happy to show people this process but I often need to remind myself to do the very same. Don't try and just be.
I'm always inspired by what my work-shoppers come up with. Everyone has different ideas and interpretations and tunes into different aspects of nature. And after spending the day with them yesterday I had to go back down to the river again today to have a look at what had happened to what they had made, get some snaps of the ones I'd missed and (not) try to make something myself.
Adam had lashed struts of bracken together and a I fancied a go myself so I made a pyramid to go over the stack I built yesterday.
I thought I could call it some sort of megalithic power triangle that I would power a light bulb with had I wanted to, but really this was in the same territory as making a bow and arrow with your mate Tim from next door when you were 8. Lashing struts and making various 3D shapes will take some additional pondering in anticipation of another day.
I wandered around in the river in my wellies, slipping on mossy rocks and occasionally letting water into one or the other when I misjudged the depth.
There was a big, bad boulder in the middle further upstream with many overhanging Alders nearby so I considered covering it in leaves.
I've never made anything with Alder leaves before, or Alder anything really and I was immediately struck by how circular the leaves were. I plucked a few from a branch dipped them in the warmish water and started to lay them on the stone, they needed to be backside up to adhere properly as they have a slightly upward V curve to them. The veins and stem are quite prominent and like all leaves, so very attractive to the leaf-o-phile.
The wind was coming in little gusts and just like someone who was blowing out birthday candles one leaf lifted and landed in the water in front of me. It spun around in a little eddy, around and around and around. Its roundness struck me even more and was amused by how it spun. Now aware of what the breeze was doing and how water was not going to be enough to stick down these leaves I started to change tack. Spinning and roundness hmmm.
I went back to one of the trees and looked again at the leaves and I saw they came in sets of sizes. Immediately I saw a distinctive pattern and like a flash jumbled up ideas all became linked into a single express train of thought.
A circle of circles of increasing sizes would fit together and grow outwards whilst radiating their life giving stems from the centre to the edge. The smallest leaves in a set of five form the centre, with the next size from the tree forming the next five surrounding the first in interlocking concentric circles, growing out like a flower and somehow expressing the growth pattern of the Alder leaves.
When I have a moment like this and I feel like I've channeled a pattern in nature it is hard to contain the bubbling excitement that's inside. It doesn't happen often but when it does it's very invigorating indeed.
As I added each concentric ring of another five leaves, each set larger than the last, the thorns were simply stitched into the most practical place to fix each new leaf, and yet somehow the leaf growth pattern seemed to be embued throughout the piece.
Sadly these attributes aren't all that clear in an image sized for the web, it is something that really needs to be seen up close and ideally in person. Well I saw it so that's all that counts ;-)! But seriously I removed it from the river as it was already starting to rain and as I was walking back up the hill, left it on a rock by the path. Perhaps someone will chance upon it and be able to see what it is all about.
Whether or not they do it doesn't matter and it was all those moments of stillness that counted, those and the pleasure of seeing a couple of tiny sticklebacks swimming beneath the structure, kicking up swirls in the silt and the sand.
It's those tiny, precious moments of being, those instants of interconnectedness that count, the circle leaf spinning around in the eddies and the water spider skating across the film of the coppery water.
Not being and doing and not doing and being, what after all is there else left to know.
In memoriam: the “Utah” Blue Spruce (1933-2014)
Utah's state tree was the Blue Spruce, Picea pungens, from 1933 to March 2014. By statute it was referred to as the Blue Spruce and that is one of its common names.
Because of the reference to our state tree as the “Colorado” Blue Spruce in 4th grade elementary school text books, some often misguided efforts have been made to change our state tree (which instead should have involved some changes to the text books). The latest of these efforts succeeded (partly as a publicity stunt) in early 2014 when Utah Governor Gary Herbert (who personally made a great push for the change and made it part of his State of the State address) signed a bill to change the state's tree to the also beautiful Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides).
This was done however to a large degree out of ignorance.
A similar effort was made in 2008 when a 4th grade class pushed to instead make the “Utah” Juniper the state tree.
Colorado also designated the Blue Spruce but not until 1939, more than five years after Utah's designation. Supposedly Colorado had long been considering it before Utah's designation. It is not uncommon however for states to have the same state tree.
Essentially our text books were wrong in referring to the tree as only the “Colorado” Blue Spruce and should have instead educated school children (and future legislators) that common names are simply that, and that the Blue Spruce is a Utah native tree. The “Utah” juniper is also not limited in distribution to Utah.
While it is true that the Blue Spruce occurs to a greater degree in Colorado than Utah and that its type locality was named from a plant originally collected in Colorado (by Dr. Charles Parry, who also botanized in Utah and made significant botanical contributions), this does mean it is more of a Colorado than a Utah tree. In fact the Quaking Aspen has a type locality that is uncertain and is believed to be somewhere in Canada and was in any event not based on a tree from Utah. And, ironically, the aspen tree is certainly equally, if not more, iconic of Colorado than Utah. And the Quaking Aspen has a much more extensive distribution throughout much of North America compared to the more narrowly distributed Blue Spruce and is in that sense less emblematic of the western United States.
Central Utah's extensive aspen stand dubbed Pando is thought to be the largest living organism on the planet. Each connected plant is genetically identical (clones). Somehow the idea of this interconnectedness was thought to represent a symbol of Utah's reproductive prolificness, its connectedness in general, and the ability of everyone to work together collectively. Unless we consider ourselves to be genetically identical clones and have the common goal of overpopulation, this symbology is questionable. And in another ironic twist, Pando is thought to be dying from climate changes; yet our state (and federal) legislators largely “do not believe” that climate change even exists. The Blue Spruce is also to some degree a tree in trouble due to climate change, but not as much the Quaking Aspen.
Did Utah want to turn over a new leaf (the analogy used in Herbert's 2014 State of the State address) by designating a state tree the most famous member of which is dying? Is this not instead symbolic of a state that fails to use science and facts in its decision-making process? And increasingly in the West in general?
Sept. 24, 2014, Brighton area, Wasatch-Cache forest, Salt Lake County, Utah