In 2001, the Taliban in Afghanistan dynamited two of three giant Bamiyan Valley Buddhas in Afghanistan. Since then, the Buddha remnants at Bamiyan (also spelled Bamyan and Bamian) were included on the 2008 World Monuments Watch List of the 100 Most Endangered Sites by the World Monuments Fund. Many well-meaning organizations have taken an interest [...]
Archive for March, 2008
Restoration another form of destruction?
Posted in Conflicts of Interest, tagged Afghanistan, Buddhism, restoration, Taliban, U.N., war on March 31, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Shifting border sands or softening the political sands for St. McCain?
Posted in Beyond Borders, tagged borders, Democracy, Iraq, Lebanon, Middle East on March 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The confusion of what is happening as our showcase child for Democracy in the Middle East (Iraq) descends into that reality of a failed state. More like a still born child. Still born like our other child: Lebanon elected the Hamas. Not what Empire wanted – be a democracy the way we want your democracy [...]
Next Year In Mumbai
Posted in Documentary, tagged Bene Israel, Documentary, Hunter College, Israel, Jewish community on March 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
One of my fellow students in the Integrated Media Arts MFA program at Hunter College, Jonas Pariente, is in India this year to document a remarkable Jewish community, Bene Israel. The community has been in continuous residence for over 2,000 years and is believed to be the oldest of its kind in India. They claim [...]
The border between dream and reality…
Posted in Architecture, tagged Architecture, Bauhaus, Bilbao, Gehry, utopia on March 27, 2008 | 2 Comments »
While cleaning my apartment I came across an old New York Times article, “Bilbao Ten Years Later,” by Denny Lee (Travel, Sept. 2, 2007). It was accompanied by a huge photo by Denis Doyle that revealed vertical streaks—presumably from dirt, pollution and rain—marring the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum’s titanium fish-scale surface. It reminded me that 20th [...]
The majority of Americans don’t believe in Bush’s war.
Posted in A Picture is Worth..., tagged Cheney, Iraq, war on March 26, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Automatic for the people
Posted in Art or Commerce?, tagged advocacy, artist, artists, community building, creative thinking, culture jamming on March 25, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Art*o*mat is a long-term project of artist Clark Whittington, who retools vintage cigarette vending machines to dispense affordable art objects created by over 400 artists from 10 countries. The machines have the chrome and high polish look of restored vintage cars. Each is unique, beautiful and reminiscent of another era. But they are not collectors’ [...]
The new math…
Posted in Beyond Borders, tagged Afghanistan, death toll, deaths, Iraqi civilians, Iraqi refugees, US troops on March 25, 2008 | 1 Comment »
4,000 US troops killed in Iraq. 488 US troops killed in Afghanistan. Almost 29,320 US troops injured in Iraq. Between 82,349 and 89,867 documented Iraqi civilian deaths. 2 million Iraqi refugees in Turkey, Iran and Syria. At least 20,000 U.S. troops who were not classified as wounded during combat in Iraq and Afghanistan have been [...]
Playtime by design
Posted in Art or Commerce?, tagged camera, commercial, creativity, free, play, profit, toys, website on March 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Creativity and profit-making have always had a turbulent relationship. Creativity typically gets sacrificed for the profit motive (though not always), and profit-makers tend to see creative types as a cloud of annoying gnats blocking their progress toward the clear, melodious sound of “Cha-ching!” One welcome development in the creativity / profit-making equation can be seen [...]
Last chance to see…
Posted in Exhibition, Installation, tagged biennial, containment, history, immigrants, immigration, London, memory, race, segregation, separation, Tate Museum on March 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
…the Columbian artist Doris Salcedo’s “Shibboleth,” at the Tate Museum, London, through April 5th. It’s a 548-foot installation piece that divides the floor of the Tate’s Turbine Hall. According to the artist it, “represents borders, the experience of immigrants, the experience of segregation, the experience of racial hatred.” Can the viewer make all of these [...]
Get Lost: Mapping Downtown New York
Posted in Mapping, tagged Manhattan, Mapping, maps, New Museum on March 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Check out a remarkable “collective portrait of downtown New York…. Get Lost brings together fictional landscapes, Utopian visions, private memories and obsessive instructions to explore Manhattan, its past, present, and future.” A project of the newly-housed and reopened New Museum, the maps were created by 21 artists from around the world.
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