Global Lives World Video Premiere in San Francisco

The Global Lives Project’s World Premiere installation will be on view at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco from February 26 – June 20, 2010! The exhibit is part of an artist residency that will evolve over four months. For the first time ever, the series of ten 24-hour videos of daily life from around the planet will be shown.

The producers write on this biggest video project ever: Framed by the arc of the day and conveyed through the intimacy of video, we have slowly and faithfully captured 24 continuous hours in the lives of 10 people from around the world.  They are srceened here in their own right, but also in relation to one another. There is no narrative other than that which is found in the composition of everyday life, no overt interpretations other than that which you may bring to it. By extending the long take to a certain extreme and infusing it with the spirit of cinema verité, we invite audiences to confer close attention onto other worlds, and simultaneously reflect upon their own.  The force and depth of human difference and similarity are revealed in this process. Gaps which mark cultural divides feel, at once, both wider and narrower.  This sense – that we, as humans, are both knowable and unknowable, fundamentally different as well as the same – opens a space for dialogue. Sometimes projects with the simplest premises are the most complicated to execute, and this can be said for Global Lives. Hundreds of volunteers  from around the world make up our collective. Some are filmmakers and photographers, others are programmers and engineers, some are architects and designers, others are students and scholars – all are everyday people in their own contexts; each has participated according to his or her own motivations. They have donated, quite literally,  thousands of hours towards bringing this project into being.  This installation, our world premiere, offers us an opportunity to thank them, along with the generous communities that collaborated with us in each of these shoots. This project is designed to remain a work-in-progress. Our volunteers are subtitling all 240 hours of footage in their original languages and translating them into English and beyond. This will form the basis for our online, participatory library of human life experience – the other major venue for our work. We continue to accept new footage for our expanding archive –  fresh additions to an evolving visual conversation.

The Global Lives Project was collaborating with renowned designers and architects from FOURM design+build, Sand Studios and Ade, as well as experienced video installation producer, Barry Threw, and digital media artist, Rafael Alcala. Special thanks to our amazing volunteer collaborators and our sponsors for this exhibit: the Long Now Foundation, the Adobe Foundation, the Burwen Education Foundation, the Consulate General of Switzerland in San Francisco, and the Black Rock Arts Foundation. The work itself was made possible by hundreds of individual donors and sponsors, and our key partners: Temple University Japan Campus, DotSUB, Creative Commons, the Museu da Pessoa, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP, and United Nations University.

Nick Brandt: Photography Show in Brussels

The Young Gallery, Brussels currently shows the amazing photographic work of Nick Brandt. Here is what the artist writes on his pictures: “Few photographers have ever considered the photography of wild animals, as distinctly opposed to the genre of Wildlife Photography, as an art form. The emphasis has generally been on capturing the drama of wild animals IN ACTION, on capturing that dramatic single moment, as opposed to simply animals in the state of being. I’ve always thought this something of a wasted opportunity. The wild animals of Africa lend themselves to photographs that extend aesthetically beyond the norm of 35mm-color telephoto wildlife photography. And so it is, that in my own way, I would like to yank the subject matter of wildlife into the arena of fine art photography. To take photographs that transcend what has been a largely documentative genre. Aside from using certain impractical photographic techniques, there’s one thing I do whilst shooting that I believe makes a big difference: I get extremely close to these very wild animals, often within a few feet of them. I don’t use telephoto lenses. This is because I want to see as much of the sky and landscape as possible–to see the animals within the context of their environment. That way, the photos become as much about the atmosphere of the place as the animals. And being that close to the animals, I get a real sense of intimate connection to them, to the specific animal in front of me. Sometimes a deliberate feeling that they’re almost presenting themselves for a studio portrait. Why the animals of Africa in particular? And more particularly still, East Africa? There is perhaps something more profoundly iconic, mythical, mythological even, about the animals of East Africa, as opposed to say, the Arctic or South America. There is also something deeply, emotionally stirring and affecting about the plains of Africa – the vast green rolling plains punctuated by the graphically perfect acacia trees. My images are unashamedly idyllic and romantic, a kind of enchanted Africa. They’re my elegy to a world that is steadily, tragically vanishing.” More of his work can be seen at the portfolio page of the gallery who also sells his original prints.

Ashrita Furman sets two new world records in Columbia

55-year old Ashrita Furman, holder of 114 current Guinness World Records, including the record for the most records, established two new records on a trip to South America this week.  The first record was set on Easter Island.  Ashrita was able to juggle while jumping on a pogo stick for four miles.  And at the Hotel Caribe in Cartagena, he blew a postage stamp 100 meters while carrying “Pepe”, a Colombian tree sloth in a time of 7 minutes 29 seconds.  Ashrita attributes his success at breaking records to meditation and the inspiration of his meditation teacher, Sri Chinmoy. For many years Ashrita Furman is using his free time to train for the most special and unusual records and this on many in the world’s most exciting sites and places. As this year’s vacation brought him to Columbia, he used its scenery as background for his current world records. Congratulations Ashrita!

Photos by Jowan Gauthier

Gary Quinn on the ways to a healthier body

This is an excerpt of an interview with Gary Quinn, who will again be leading a workshop at the “Lebenskraft 2010″ in Zurich under the theme “The meaning of Life”:

Start the day with healthy fresh fruits – you only want to eat fruits in the morning – with oatmeal, because oatmeal is really great for your cholesterol level. Many things you can add to the oatmeal: blueberries for your antioxidants, raspberries, a little bit of cinnamon in it, that helps the whole body process. You can also have nuts, for example pecans or walnuts. Think of your body as a machine and if the machine is always working, the wheels are turning and the spokes are lubricated, then you will never have any problems. As we start to look at the calories one consumes, the nutritional value of the calories is sometimes a big Zero. That means, if you are eating a lot of cakes, sugar items, pastries, most of this has zero nutrition value so some cells in the body start to shut down because they are dying. You really need to replace  processed food. Go through your diet every day, and see what is processed what you can take out. In Europe we have a lot of opportunities to get fresh products. If you have your own garden, or you have access to a farmer, that’s the best way to get your vegetables, and also your diary products, if you still want them. I personally don’t digest diary products, I haven’t eaten any diary products for the last 24 years. I also found diary ages a person and if you look at people who eat a lot of diary products, meat and by-products of animals, it ages the body. So you really want to stay away from too many cooked foods, you want to start to eat a little more greens, because remember the greens are revitalizing the cells. If you are not going to feed the cells correctly, they will die.

Eating coked food is like eating dead food. The enzymes in the raw food – raw carrotes, raw tomatoes  for example – are what we need. I will be releasing an audio book that I produced together with my mother. It’s called “21 days to detoxe your life” and will be available online on my website probably in a couple of months. But what you really want to do, is to add more vitamin C to your body. There are so many ways like eating oranges. It’s important to see what you are eating and create your personal diet. And it is better to eat your big meals during the day, in the morning or at lunch time. Try to eat less at night, because you go to bed with a heavy stomach. You also want to bring in exercices. Yoga is fantastic to help the body stretch and stay young. You have swimming, biking, running, hiking. I know during the cold winter months it’s more difficult to exercise, but you can for example find an indoor swimming pool or gym. Anything you can do  in tgis direction will prolong your life. The first thing is to make a list of inventory of how many calories you are consuming. Evode sugar. Refined sugar is the worst thing for your body, better take brown unrefined sugar or for example agave syrup. Eat more vegetables and salads and even try to become vegetarian. Take suplements and try to have a balanced diet. You have to get in charge of your body as a temple. Nobody is going to do it for you. Start today and don’t wait until you have a chronic illness!

World Harmony Run in Columbia

World harmony and peace is still the most important goal of humanity. In January 2010  the International “World Harmony Run”, founded by spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy, made station in Paipa, Columbia. They ran We ran from Lake Sachogota to the main square of Paipa. They were  joined by world record holder and inspiration Lazaro Matinez Cruz who carried the torch into the main square. Lazaro set a world record by travelling by wheel chair from Buenos Aires to Paipa – a distance of over 6000 km which took him over the Andes mountain range. Then Carolina Conmargo, one of Colombia’s top athletes joined the team and presented the torch to Padre Victor Guerra (picture) who blessed the torch and offered a brief sermon in his beautiful church – Catedral de San Miguel Arcangel. The World Harmony Run is a global torch relay, seeking to strengthen international friendship and understanding. Read more here. Take also a look at the beautiful artwork children offered expressing their hopes and dreams for a more harmonious world on the online art gallery.

Picture of the Millenium Solar Eclipse

The “Astronomy Page of the Day” website published this amazing picture. It shows the Moon’s shadow raced across planet Earth on January 15, 2010. Observers within the central shadow track were able to witness an annular solar eclipse as the Moon’s apparent size was too small to completely cover the Sun. A visually dramatic ring of fire, the annular phase lasted up to 11 minutes and 8 seconds depending on location, the longest annular solar eclipse for the next 1,000 years. This picture of the Moon’s silhouette just before mid-eclipse was taken within the eclipse path from the city of Kanyakumari at the southern tip of India. The telescopic image was made through a filter that blocks most visible light, but still transmits light from hydrogen atoms. As a result, detailed mottling, or granulation, caused by heat convection in the Sun’s atmosphere can be seen around the dark lunar disk. (Credit & Copyright: Mikael Svalgaard)

About our Sun and Sun Gazing

Our sun allows us our daily life, and not only our life but all life forms on this Earth including nature itself. What do we know about our biggest and most important power station. I found some interesting facts on the sun on Hira Ratan Manek’s website. In a second article I will present more details on the Sun Gazing soon.

The Sun is the biggest planet in our planetary system. Its circumference is 109 times bigger than that of the earth and it can accommodate 1.3 million earths in it. Its distance from our earth is 150 million km and it weighs 333,000 times the weight of the earth. Also, 99.8% of the weight of our planetary system is the sun’s weight. Sun continuously sends out fireballs, which are 50,000 km long, 9,000 km wide and whose each jump towards the earth is 200,000 km.  Due to all these magnificent powers of the sun, it is no wonder that it has inspired the mankind throughout the history. It has been worshiped from the earliest of times by many societies living in different parts of the world. Each civilization had a different story about it.

In ancient Egypt, the sun was worshiped as Ra. Mankind and animals were said to have come into being through his tears. The king himself was believed to be the “Son of Ra”. It was also believed that on his death, the king would be re-united with his father, the sun. The pyramids were regarded as a ramp or a means of access to the sky.  Additionally, Ra was believed to travel across the sky in a boat and through the underworld all night. There, in order to rise again the next morning, he had to defeat the evil Apepi. He was represented as rising from the ocean of chaos to greet the world again.

Science has proved the need for sunlight for growth, agriculture, health and numerous other aspects of human life. Many of the myths from around the world reflect a belief in the need for sunlight in the greater scheme of things. Indian mythology too understands the role of the sun. It was worshiped as “Surya” in India in ancient times. According to the Indian mythology, Surya was responsible for health and life, a reflection of what was perhaps the scientific belief of the time. Surya is one of the principal Vedic deities. He is pictured as riding across the sky on a chariot pulled by seven horses. One wonders the analogy between seven horses and the seven colors of light. There is a practice in getting energy on a temporary basis by the Americas. To get energy for their body, Native Indians take sunbath by standing in the sun for two hours exposing maximum parts of their body and they don’t need to eat food on those days.  They sustain on micro food of the sunlight.  When clouds gather we become gloomy.  We see the sun and get energetic.

The phenomenon, initiated by Hira Ratan Manek is in fact a rediscovery of a scientific ritual, which was used to heal physical, mental, emotional and spiritual diseases in ancient times. Ancient Indians called this practice Surya Namaskar, where ancient Egyptians and Americans called it Heliotherapy and Europeans called it Apollo therapy. In the Americas, the sun was also known as INTA. The scientific technique practiced by Hira Ratan Manek is how he derives his energy from the solar energy of the sun. Mankind is also using solar energy for running solar cookers, solar heaters, and solar cars. Similarly, what he does is to convert himself into a solar car by using sunlight. Traditionally, human beings eat secondary sources of energy as the plants and other vegetation depends heavily on the sun for their growth, simply put, the idea here is to learn how to absorb energy from the primary source, that is, the sun itself. There is a scientific explanation of what may be occurring during the exercise of this method. Since the brain is a powerful recipient and the retina and the pineal gland (third eye) being equipped with photoreceptor cells, a kind of photo analysis could be taking place during the Surya Namaskar, which provides a person with all kinds of energy and vitamins that are required for the proper functioning of his internal organs. Additionally, the rays of the sun with seven colors have a cure for all kinds of diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, obesity, arthritis, osteoporosis, cancer and others.  If world peace is to be achieved, everyone should have a perfect balance of mind. Thus, this method can also contribute to the world peace. (Portrait by B.J. Raval)

Yellowstone Wildlife

This is a Yellowstone Wildlife and Scenery video filmed with the new Canon 7D camera. This mid October trip to Yellowstone was the sixth consecutive for Ryan Marshik and Sparky Stensaas; Chris Gibbs joined us for the second time. Guitar music by Russ Viton. To see more wildlife photography of Sparky Stensaas visit photoshelter.com/c/sparkyphotos

The Green Beautiful – A film on the future of our planet

Really a rare awakening movie now available in French with English subtitles.  It tells the story of a woman from an advanced civilization of another planet who decides to come to Earth and is astonished how far behind we are. Amusing and serious at the same time. An absolutely must to see! This is the first of 9 parts, all available on YouTube.

Check the size of the planets, stars and the Universe!

This video shows you the sizes of the different planets up to the biggest star. Experience the size of the Universe and widen your consciousness!