Project by Petko Dourmana
Background
Through much of the Victorian era, Russia was persistently viewed as a threat both to the Western/European order and, sporadically, to British interests in India. The crisis increased dramatically during the Russo-Turkish war in 1877-1878 and ended at the Congress of Berlin when the Great Powers, invited by British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, forced the newly created Bulgarian state to restore much of the land awarded at the peace treaty of San Stefano back to Ottoman rule.
A war song by G. H. MacDermott (singer) and G. W. Hunt (songwriter) commonly sung in pubs and music halls at the time was used to construct the public opinion showing British interests offended by the Russians. (more…)
This is the letter I’ve received a day ago from my friend Chalu:
“Hi friends and family
I am racing in the New York Mayor’s Cup, a kayak race around Manhattan this Sunday. I have a personal reason for racing.
Jonathan is 3 years old boy who is diagnosed with cancer a year ago. He is related to me. He underwent chemotherapy and other extensive treatments. A week and half ago, he underwent an extensive surgery removing part of pancrea. He is now fighting a spread in his lungs.
It has been a long fight. Cancer is becoming a common place and according to one study, it will triple in next ten years. For many reasons, our environments and genetics don’t work together.
I decided to race in his name. If you could be kind enough to send “get well” wish email to his address, that would be great. On the race day, I plan to do a few group shots and send him pictures.
Here are his pictures a year ago.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jonathanbeatcancer/GetWell/photo#5120416854081564498
We made an email address; jonathanbeatcancer@gmail.com
Feel free to emails. I am sure his family and he will appreciate that.”
Chalu has made a blog for this lovely kid:
http://jonathanbeatcancer.blogspot.com/
Good luck Chalu, good luck Jonathan.
Sculptural installantion for public space
Global warming is one of the toughest ordeals we phaced in the 21. century – a test not only to the technological and organizational resources of our globalized world, but also to the values and ethics of today’s people. The potential overcoming of this problem and the possible solutions to it are the factors to shape our future mode of existence.
Many people understand the threat of the global warming, and though feeling it physically in terms of climate change, cannot link it to a clear and discernable image.
Therefore I decided to visualize the problem in a direct and illustrative way, by using enlarged models of the molecules of the main greenhous gas substances, such as carbon dioxide, methane, and others.
Part one of the project includes sculptural installations for public space of the six main agents of the greenhouse effect. They will have size of 2-3 meters and will be disposed in common urban environment /city parks, pedestrian areas, promenades, etc./.
With their pure and aestheticly appealing form they are meant to attract the attention of passers-by and stand as a reminder to people that it is us, and our daily activities and habits, that cause the global warming, hence it is a matter of personal responsibility to keep the planet as we knew it.
My talks with the Greek architect Theodore Dounas had been an inspiration for him to create two projects for Art Pavilion.
http://arlav.blogspot.com/2007/05/bg-art-pavilion-1.html
After the novel by Alexander Beliaev
The book tells a story of a young man named Ichtiandr (literally “Fish Man” in Greek) who as a child received a life-saving transplant - a set of shark gills. The operation was performed by his father, a scientist and a maverick surgeon, in an attempt to save his son’s failing lungs. The experiment was a success but it limited the young man’s ability to interact with the world outside his ocean environment. Similar to other Beliaev’s works, the book investigates the possibilities of physical survival under extreme conditions, as well as the moral integrity of scientific experiments.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphibian_Man
There are plastic sergeants in Brazil that can experiment with implanting gills to human beings.
These humans will be extremely prepared for the sea world which is going to be the most of the world in the future.
The climate change is upon us – this is why we need a hard scientific look at the likely scenarios – to give clearheaded advice to the individual about how to prepare for the worst it can throw at us.
A small team of artists, technicians and scientists will work together on development of The Global Warming Survival Kit containing all the practical solutions that can safe the human beings in the environment rapidly changed by the global worming.
The team will work on regular working camps that will be organized at places with variable geographical latitude and altitude and in the period between the camps will work remotely via Internet.
The first working camp will be organized in July 2007 in a chalet near by the highest peak of Balkan mountain: Botev vrah. There is meteorological laboratory on the peak where is recorded the whether, temperature and other data and The Global Warming Survival Kit Team will work with the meteorologists during the working camp.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botev_Peak
More pictures of Botev peak: http://www.predavatel.com/bg/3/bot.htm
Bluetooth sharing performance by Petko Dourmana (after They Must Be Giants)
YouTube is the most popular video sharing website where users can upload, view, and share video clips. The wide variety of site content includes movie and TV clips and music videos, as well as content such videoblogging and short original videos.
YouTube has become such an Internet social phenomena that in 2007 Time Magazine featured a YouTube screen with a foil mirror as its annual Person of the Year.
Not everybody is positive about You Tube. Some major content owners are targeting YouTube for copyright infringements on the site as well as third party websites that link to infringing content on YouTube. Viacom and the British Broadcasting Corporation for example both demanded YouTube to take down more than 200,000 videos.
They have been even cases of baning YouTube. Turkey blocked YouTube on March 6, 2007 for allowing videos insulting Turks and Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, to be shown, in an escalation of what some call a “virtual war” between Greeks and Turks on YouTube, with people from each side posting videos to belittle and berate the other. The 33 second video that caused the banning was first mentioned on Turkish CNN and the Istanbul public prosecutor sued YouTube for insulting Turkishness. The court suspended access to YouTube pending removal of the video. The ban was strongly criticized as censorship in the press and by the general public. YouTube decided to remove to the video and public access was restored on March 9, 2007.
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