Thursday, April 30, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
David Hare: Berlin,Wall at the Public
Berlin,Wall written and performed by David Hare, appears at the Public Theater this month
BERLIN
For his whole adult life, David Hare has been visiting the city which so many young people regard as the most exciting in Europe. But there’s something in Berlin’s elusive character that makes him feel he’s always missing the point. Now, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall, Hare reads a 55-minute meditation about Germany’s restored capital—both what it represents in European history and the peculiar part it has played in his own life.
WALL
The Israeli/Palestine security fence will one day stretch 486 miles, from one end of Israel to the other. It will be four times as long as the Berlin wall, and in places twice as high. In this second monologue, Hare offers a history of the wall’s building, an exploration of the philosophy behind it and a personal account of those who live on either side.
(The text of WALL: A Monologue appears in the current NY Review of Books. )
Edward Rothsetin writes about the Berlin Wall in today's NY Times:
After East Germany erected the Wall in 1961, turning itself into a kind of prison where the penalty for failed escape was often death, the Wall provided a compass that seemed to define the directions and tensions of the cold war. It was as if some immense laboratory experiment had gone on for half a century according to rigorous principles: Take a single defeated society, weary with guilt, wounds and hatred, and divide it in two. Split apart families and friends; workplaces and factories; resources and opportunities. And see what kinds of worlds develop under very different visions of social and political order. The Wall was an attempt to enforce the experiment’s continuation; instead, its confession of the need for force anticipated the experiment’s conclusion.
BERLIN
For his whole adult life, David Hare has been visiting the city which so many young people regard as the most exciting in Europe. But there’s something in Berlin’s elusive character that makes him feel he’s always missing the point. Now, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall, Hare reads a 55-minute meditation about Germany’s restored capital—both what it represents in European history and the peculiar part it has played in his own life.
WALL
The Israeli/Palestine security fence will one day stretch 486 miles, from one end of Israel to the other. It will be four times as long as the Berlin wall, and in places twice as high. In this second monologue, Hare offers a history of the wall’s building, an exploration of the philosophy behind it and a personal account of those who live on either side.
(The text of WALL: A Monologue appears in the current NY Review of Books. )
Edward Rothsetin writes about the Berlin Wall in today's NY Times:
After East Germany erected the Wall in 1961, turning itself into a kind of prison where the penalty for failed escape was often death, the Wall provided a compass that seemed to define the directions and tensions of the cold war. It was as if some immense laboratory experiment had gone on for half a century according to rigorous principles: Take a single defeated society, weary with guilt, wounds and hatred, and divide it in two. Split apart families and friends; workplaces and factories; resources and opportunities. And see what kinds of worlds develop under very different visions of social and political order. The Wall was an attempt to enforce the experiment’s continuation; instead, its confession of the need for force anticipated the experiment’s conclusion.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Separation Barriers
Wikipedia lists the world's 23 separation barriers in a database (shown partially here) classifying them by country, dates, length, type.
How much better to view this data globally - revealing at a glance that only two (and one is only proposed) of the current world separation barriers are in the southern hemisphere.
And, of course, digitally:
Integrating geospatial, as well as political data in a "whole earth" social visualization would result in an instrument to view the obstructions to our human circulation – a Diasporarium.
How much better to view this data globally - revealing at a glance that only two (and one is only proposed) of the current world separation barriers are in the southern hemisphere.
And, of course, digitally:
Integrating geospatial, as well as political data in a "whole earth" social visualization would result in an instrument to view the obstructions to our human circulation – a Diasporarium.
Event at Global Kids International Justice Center
On October 24th,2008, Rik Panganipan of the Global Kids Digital Media Initiative interviewed us about Wallsickness and Gone Gitmo.
Using Visual Art for Political Change, Tour with Digital Artists Peggy Weil and Nonny de la Peña
Using Visual Art for Political Change, Tour with Digital Artists Peggy Weil and Nonny de la Peña
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Mauerkrankheit / Wallsickness
Mauerkrankheit (a German term for Wallsickness to describe the malaise surrounding the Berlin Wall) is a series of visualizations of current and historic border walls. The first installation, in Second Life, begins with a section of the proposed “border fence” dividing Mexico from the U.S. and continues with segments from Gaza Fence, the Melilla Fence (the E.U. funded wall to separate Spanish territories from Morroco), the Berlin Wall, and The Great Wall of China. Currently in prototype form on Annenberg School’s Network Culture Sim, the work challenges the notion of a physical barrier in the virtual environment and explores the potential of community to come together (as opposed to being split apart) by political walls. Mauerkrankheit/Wallsickness in SL received a merit award of Merit Award of L$50,000 (US$200.) from USC Annenberg School for Communications: Network Culture Project.
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