Global or local?

An 1843 sculpture, by Antoine-Louis Barye, of Theseus slaying the Minotaur:

Theseus’s entering the center of the Labyrinth at Knossos and slaying the Minotaur has sometimes been associated with Apollonian order and culture overcoming the bestial elements of body and psyche. And in the way that Barye has depicted Theseus above, there is a fusion, a twinning at the belly, with the Minotaur, as if to suggest that the higher and heroic self (the disciplined self) must, with composure and focus, dominate, and even slay, the bestial self. But the intimate and sensual “joining at the pelvis” of Barye’s bronze makes one wonder if the death of the bestial might constitute a mortal blow to the Apollonian as well. The Minotaurian shadow—or double—needs honoring as well as controlling, yes?

The idea that each human has two selves (the higher and the lower), and that the higher self is more important, has been both a boon and a curse to humanity, bleeding (literally and disasterously) into our politics: the Hegelian State is our collective higher self to which individual lower selves must submit.

Here’s an image of the sculptor. A bit stout, he appears to have carried Theseus in his head and the Minotaur in his belly. I wonder if he might also have been an enthusiast for Hegel:

Hello Believers,

Minoan Palace; does this ring a bell?

The Phaistos Disc (also spelled Phaistos Disk, Phaestos Disc) is a disk of fired clay from the Minoan palace of Phaistos, possibly dating to the middle or late Minoan Bronze Age (2nd millennium BC). It is about 15 cm (5.9 in) in diameter and covered on both sides with a spiral of stamped symbols. Its purpose and meaning, and even its original geographical place of manufacture, remain disputed, making it one of the most famous mysteries of archaeology. This unique object is now on display at the archaeological museum of Heraklion in Crete, Greece.

The disc was discovered in 1908 by the Italian archaeologist Luigi Pernier in the Minoan palace-site of Phaistos, on the south coast of Crete, and features 241 tokens, comprising 45 unique signs, which were apparently made by pressing pre-formed hieroglyphic “seals” into a disc of soft clay, in a clockwise sequence spiraling towards the disc’s center.

The Phaistos Disc captured the imagination of amateur and professional archeologists, and many attempts have been made to decipher the code behind the disc’s signs. While it is not clear that it is a script, most attempted decipherments assume that it is; most additionally assume a syllabary, others an alphabet or logography. Attempts at decipherment are generally thought to be unlikely to succeed unless more examples of the signs are found, as it is generally agreed that there is not enough context available for a meaningful analysis.

Although the Phaistos Disc is generally accepted as authentic by archaeologists, a few scholars have forwarded the opinion that the disc is a forgery or a hoax.

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Daily Draw November 2nd, 2009

I have geared up again after ten years to complete dollhouses and miniature needlework projects. I downloaded the demo version of PC Stitch and I’m trying out the Pro version. I can use it for needlepoint, cross stitch, beading and knitting for graphed patterns in regular and miniature sizes. So far I’m really pleased with it so I’m hoping to buy it with Christmas money.

I started a miniature French knot rug and I’m finishing up a couple more in petit point and planning designs and painted furniture and wallpapering to finish two of my dollhouses. I’ve got a 1:144 scale dollhouse for a dollhouse I need to finish and I’m considering buying a very fancy 1:144 kit for Christmas. I received permission from an artist to interpret an abstract painting for a dollhouse, so I’m really excited about that as it’s a Kandinsky-type artwork and will look fabulous as a miniature rug. It’s been a long time since I worked on these houses, but similar to unpacking and finishing some old quilt blocks and making new ones over the summer, I’m doing that with my miniatures.

I’ve been too busy to draw a daily card. What scandal is this, too busy for cards? How can this be?

From the Silenus Tarot:

5 OF WANDS

Struggle, and difficult situation. Seek to clarify what is really going on.

Yeah, I suppose you can battle with people about one thing and it’s really about another, so it helps to have a think on what’s really bothering everyone.

Theseus (of minotaur fame) was at the wedding feast of his good friend and the centaurs got a bit out of hand with drink and tried to abduct the women, including the bride, hence this battle. Theseus slayed a few centaurs, in a classic story of good and evil and the hero coming to the rescue.

Murder at a wedding, was there no other way to resolve the situation? That also occurs to me. Yes, the centaurs were wrong and got drunk and unruly, always a bad scene, but is murder heroic?

So, a good old think is something one should consider before acting on difficulties.

Das “Personal” zum Labyrinth kennen wir aus der griechischen Mythologie: Den kretischen König Minos, seine Gattin Pasiphaë, ihre Tochter Ariadne, den Helden Theseus, den Baumeister und Erfinder Daidalos, seinen Sohn Ikaros und das unmögliche Fabelwesen Minotauros, halb Mensch, halb Tier, für das das Labyrinth als Gefängnis gebaut wurde.

Der Ursprung des Labyrinths wird im Mittelmeerraum zur Zeit der minoischen Kultur vermutet. Auf kretischen Münzen ist das klassische siebengängige Labyrinth mit seinem eindeutigen Weg in die Mitte abgebildet, so wie wir es heute noch kennen und als das “echte” Labyrinth ansehen. Doch als Gefängnis für den Minotauros wäre das höchst ungeeignet gewesen. Es könnte also nur ein Labyrinth im weiteren Sinne gewesen sein: der Irrgarten mit seinen Sackgassen und der verwirrenden Wegführung.
Seit der britische Archäologe Sir Arthur John Evans bei seinen Ausgrabungen die Ruinen des Palastes von Knossos auf der Insel Kreta freilegte, wird darin der Standort für das Labyrinth des Minotauros gesehen. Aber einen wissenschaftlichen Beweis dafür gibt es bis heute nicht.

Ist das Labyrinth überhaupt so entstanden? Gibt es ein historisches, reales Labyrinth, in das man den Minotauros hätte einsperren können?

Vielleicht war es eher das Höhlensystem von Gortys, ebenfalls auf Kreta und nicht so weit von Knossos entfernt? Es wird sogar Labyrinth genannt.
Der beste Kenner dieses Höhlensystems ist zweifellos der Schweizer Thomas Waldmann, der unzählige Male in den unterirdischen Gängen gewesen ist, sich inzwischen bestens auskennt und alles auf seiner Website “Die kretische Labyrinth-Höhle” dokumentiert hat.
In Zusammenarbeit mit ihm hat sich im Sommer dieses Jahres eine Gruppe der Universität Oxford wissenschaftlich mit dieser Höhle beschäftigt. Im Projekt “Labyrinth Lost” berichten sie davon und teilen ihre bisherigen Forschungsergebnisse mit.

Vielleicht darf diese Labyrinth-Höhle als das Labyrinth des Minotauros angesehen werden?
Jedenfalls wäre so eine unterirdische Höhle besser als Gefängnis geeignet gewesen als eine bauliche Anlage.

Vielleicht werden wir es auch nie erfahren und so bleibt uns das Geheimnis Labyrinth noch lange erhalten.

Nachtrag am 11.11.2009:
Inzwischen hat sich der Spiegel der Sache angenommen und darüber einen Bericht geschrieben.
Hier ist der Link zu Spiegel-Online.

We know the “staff” of the labyrinth from the Greek mythology: King Minos of Crete, his wife Pasiphaë, her daughter Ariadne, the hero Theseus, the master builder and inventor Daedalos, his son Icarus and the impossible mythological monster Minotaur, part person, part animal for whom the labyrinth was built as a prison.

The origin of the labyrinth is supposed around the Mediterranean at the times of the Minoan civilization. On Cretan coins the classical 7-circuit labyrinth with its unequivocal way into the centre is illustrated, as we know it even today as the “real” labyrinth. However, as a prison for the Minotaur this would have been extremely inexpedient. Only a maze with its dead ends and the bewildering paths could have been suited for this.
Since the British archeologist Sir Arthur John Evans excavated the ruins of the palace of Knossos on the island of Crete, the location is seen as the labyrinth of the Minotaur. But there is not a scientific proof for it till this day.

Did the the labyrinth come into being this way? Is there a historical, real labyrinth in which one could have imprisoned the Minotaur?

Maybe it was rather the cave system from Gortys, also on Crete and not so far from Knossos? It is even called labyrinth.
The best expert of this cave system is certainly the Swiss Thomas Waldmann who has been countless times in the subterranean passageways, knows a lot  and has documented everything on his website “The Cretan Labyrinth Cave”.
In cooperation with him a group of the University of Oxford explored the cave system this summer. They called the project “Labyrinth Lost” and are reporting on it and will present the results of their research.

Maybe this labyrinth cave may be accepted as the labyrinth of the Minotaur?
In any case, a subterranean cave would be a better prison than a physical structure.

Maybe we will never find it out and thus the mystery of the labyrinth will stay alive.

Tällä viikolla vietetään kansainvälistä Open Access -viikkoa.  Ammattikorkeakoulujen Open Access -hanke  pyrkii edistämään amkien opinnäytteiden ja julkaisujen verkkosaatavuutta Theseus-verkkokirjaston sekä Osaaja.net-verkkolehden avulla.

Theseukseen on tallennettu jo yli kolme tuhatta amk-opinnäytettä. Kaikki amkit eivät vielä vie opinnäytteitään Theseukseen. Kirjastossa Open Access -viikko näkyy Theseus-julisteissa, -esitteissä sekä -karkeissa.  Karkit on puettu samoihin sinivihreän sävyihin kuin muukin materiaali. Ja osoitekin niillä on: http://www.theseus.fi/.

Jos ei kuitenkaan halua tyytyä virtuaalikarkkeihin, kannattaa etsiytyä kampuksen kirjastoon!

Materials used: foam, raffia, wooden pin, paint.

Assemblage based on the Greek Myth:

Ariadne was the daughter of King Minos of Crete, who built the Labyrinth for Minotaur, a half man-half beast with the head of a bull and body of a man.  Athenian youth were given as human sacrifice to Minotaur every nine years. Theseus volunteered to save the Athenians by  killing the beast. Ariadne fell in love with the handsome Theseus, and helped him by giving him a sword and a ball of thread that helped him find his way out of the Labyrinth after killing Minotaur. Theseus promised to take  Ariadne with him to Athens and marry her. However,  on their way home he abandoned the heartbroken Ariadne on the island of Naxos.

See more of the series:

When my business partner and I started our consulting firm one of the most difficult problems was finding a name. It not only had to stand for what we did, in some way, but also had to be available, i.e. not registered, in our state.

Many mythology books later we came up with Theseus Corporation, since Theseus supposedly inspired the people of Athens to govern themselves (though we had some difficulty explaining to our organizational change workshops why we’d named our company after a serial rapist and murderer).

The corporate naming process does have some pitfalls. Take, for example, the Blackwater security company (founded by a guy aptly named Prince), named for some dark swamp water near the Dismal Swamp, with a logo of a bear claw in a rifle scope. When they ran into some image problems, they changed their name to Xe – a non-descript name if there ever was one. Except: Xe is the chemical symbol for xenon, a colorless, odorless gas which, if it replaced all the oxygen in your room, would asphyxiate you in seconds. Do they know this?

But I digress from this lovely picture of the virgin, symbol of the astrological sign Virgo. If your company were, and I quote:

a leading manufacturer of Ball Valves for Energy and Process / Industrial markets. Virgo was founded by a group of technocrats who continue to own and manage the company. In the past 5 years, Virgo has emerged to be one of the fastest growing valve companies in the world.

why on earth (or in the solar system) would you name it “Virgo Engineers”?

More on the same subject:

http://erikatakacs.wordpress.com/2009/08/20/assemblage-if-i-were-ariadne-i-would-make-him-work-harder/

Materials: raffia, train tracks.

Based on the Greek myth:

Ariadne was the daughter of King Minos of Crete, who built the Labyrinth for Minotaur, a half man-half beast with the head of a bull and body of a man.  Athenian youth were given as human sacrifice to Minotaur every nine years. Theseus volunteered to save the Athenians by  killing the beast. Ariadne fell in love with the handsome Theseus, and helped him by giving him a sword and a ball of thread that helped him find his way out of the Labyrinth after killing Minotaur. Theseus promised to take  Ariadne with him to Athens and marry her. However,  on their way home he abandoned the heartbroken Ariadne on the island of Naxos.

The theatrical play “The Minotaur”

August 2009. Ano Setta – Evia, Greece.

Setta Amphitheater. The theatrical play “The Minotaur” by Matina Papageorgiou, directed by Dimitris Papakonstantinou.

Photo: Actors, Giorgos Mpasiakos as Theseus and Matina Papageorgiou as Ariadne.

The scenario of this play is based on the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. Dionysus falls in love with Ariadne. He offers her immortality and makes her his wife. Three days after their marriage and while Dionysus is absent in Naxos, Ariadne, without the fear of death, is hurrying to meet her brother; the monstrous Minotaur. There, in the front of the gate of the Labyrinth, Ariadne will meet with Theseus who has just arrived in Crete from Athens, in order to fight and kill the beast.  There will be love at first sight… The writer, Matina Papageorgiou is setting up a complicated structure of relations and conflicts, around the central erotic triangle; and all together a colourful and enchanting fairy tale.  

Αύγουστος 2009, Σέττα – Εύβοια.

Θέατρο Άνω Σέττας – Θίασος Κασταλία. Θεατρικό έργο της Ματίνας Παπαγεωργίου «Μινώταυρος», σε σκηνοθεσία Δημήτρη Παπακωνσταντίνου.

Στη μινωική Κρήτη μας μεταφέρει το τελευταίο έργο της Ματίνας Παπαγεωργίου. Ο Διόνυσος ερωτεύεται παράφορα  την Αριάδνη, την κάνει γυναίκα του και της προσφέρει αθανασία. Τρεις μέρες μετά το γάμο τους και ενώ εκείνος λείπει στη Νάξο, η Αριάδνη, απαλλαγμένη πια από το φόβο του θανάτου, σπεύδει να πραγματοποιήσει μια παλιά επιθυμία της: να γνωρίσει τον αδελφό της το Μινώταυρο. Εκεί μπροστά στην πύλη του Λαβύρινθου, η εκλεκτή του Διονύσου, άτρωτη από το θάνατο, όχι όμως από τον έρωτα, θα γνωρίσει το Θησέα, που έχει μόλις καταπλεύσει από την Αθήνα για να παλέψει με το θηρίο και να ελευθερώσει  την πόλη του από τον αιμάτινο φόρο.

Photo: Οι ηθοποιοί, Γιώργος Μπασιάκος ως Θησέας και Ματίνα Παπαγεωργίου ως Αριάδνη.

Kevrekidis Photography 

© 2009 Jordan Kevrekidis

It started out grey and stereotypically Seattle this morning.  I had plans to meet a friend for coffee, so I headed out anyhow, waving to my roommate as I left.  A bit chilly, warming with the walk, and eventually we found our way to the coffee shop at 43rd and Phinney.  A bit of clever iPhone use and we found directions to a park that my friend thought contained a sundial.  In a city more known for grey and rain than sun, we were headed for a sun dial!  But when we got there it seemed more season oriented- bits of silver inlaid into the ground with “winter” and “summer” written on them, but no standing spire to cast a shadow.  No sun either, so it was all rather moot.  Still, lovely view of Queen Anne and Ballard and there were umbrellas tied into the trees.

The entrance to the park had a large spool of silver “thread” and a quote about Theseus following the spool of thread out of the labyrinth and embracing Ariadne after he emerged.  I’ve been re-reading Bullfinch at work, and the funny thing about the Theseus myth is what follows the slaying of the minotaur.  Ariadne has abandoned house and home, she has betrayed her father and fallen in love and takes to the sea with Theseus and his men.  They land on an island and as she sleeps on the shore Theseus sails away.  Throughout these myths the women are left behind and cast aside, not to mention turned into fountains and trees and animals because some god or demigod has fallen in love.  The nymphs call to their fathers, the mortals pray to the gods, and instead of punishing the men the women are transformed.

It seems uneven, even if the women become immortal as Ash or Alder, as constellation or bubbling fountain.  A hero is a matter of perspective it seems.

(An interview with Doubting Thomas)THE MYTH OF ICARUS

Is Ikaria the island where Icarus fell?

I can’t tell you. I hadn’t been born yet and there is no video-tape of the accident. The nearest we have to a video is Brueghel’s painting but this is not enough evidence. It’s a painting made in Holland thousands of miles away from the Aegean, many centuries later. Though it’s a fact that it looks like those amateur videos that are focused on an innocent scene and accidentaly captured a tragedy. Then they become famous and their makers sell them to the media for a lot of money. It could be a video, but it’s not. It’s an oil painting -a artistic fancy, in other words.

Yet people say that’s where he fell.

People say a lot of things. For example in every encyclopedia and guide book we read, “Ikaria, known from the fall of Icarus, e.t.c.” People love to be told stories especially when accidents are involved.

Yes but what about the name of the island?

Oh, names may mean something or may mean nothing. We can go to the registrar and change our names according to our fancies and make various connections and associations. Or without changing the name, we can change it’s meaning or it’s origin to suit our convenience. For example, there is a Greek island called Karpathos, that is, it’s got the same name as the Karpathian mountains in Transylvania, Romania. Now the Karpathians (of the island) are free to associate the name of their island with Dracula; to claim, for example, that the mountains of Romania got their name from their island; evenmore, that Dracula was born in Karpathos and after having sucked all the blood out of the inhabitants as a kid, when he grew up, he flew (he was a vampire) to a larger place with a larger population and an endless supply of blood. Nevertheless, today, even if the Aegean Karpathians had thought of doing this, they are too late. The Romanians have taken every advantage of the tale already and Dracula’s castle is the biggest tourist attraction of their country. There would be a huge diplomatic clash between Greece and Romania, if the Aegean Karpathians claimed their island as the birthplace of Dracula. There is so much money and prestige involved, you see.

So the association between Ikaria and Icarus is a lie?

I don’t say it’s a lie. All I say is I don’t know. There is no video and there were no reliable eye-witnesses, BBC, CNN, SKY NEWS and so on. Maybe there was an amateur video (by a cousin of that plower in the painting, for example) or a pilot shot for a documentary on a rustic subject; because it had captured “The Fall” it survived till the 16th century and that’s what Brueghel saw and he made the famous painting. All I’m saying is that we must find and watch the original video to be sure of the fact. For example, something like this.

Or from even closer this!

______________________________

Next week a new episode of the interview with Doubting Thomas.
Subject-matter : “Ikaria political“ : Red Rock, Dry Rock, Devil’s island, Island of Exile

Athina Sk.

Tags: ikaria, icarus, αγρίμι-μου, άπιστος-θωμάς, brueghel, ικαρία, ίκαρος, ikarian-legends, interview, συνέντευξη | Edit Tags Sunday February 11, 2007 – 05:43am (PST) Edit | DeleteNext Post: Legends about Ikaria : THE RED MYTH Previous Post: Μύθοι για την Ικαρία : Ο ΜΥΘΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΙΚΑΡΟΥ

• Can
• Offline IM

Yes, we must definitely find the Icarus video. I am also interested in the videos of other high flyers such as Abbas Ibn Firnas, Leonardo da Vinci, Hezarfen Ahmet Celebi etc. I looked at youtube but none is available. Leonardo’s depiction of the Icarus accident is a collector item and would be OK instead of the original video. I wonder if Doubting Thomas has seen any of those?

Tuesday February 13, 2007 – 04:56pm (EST) Remove Comment

• elle
• Offline

Keep looking. Doubting Thomas is right. In the times we live, what’s not on a photo or a video, just doesn’t exist!..

Thursday February 15, 2007 – 01:14am (PST) Remove Comment

• AKK
• Offline

THE IONIAN MYTHS
________________

Related to: “Icarus in the pool”
http://www.flickr.com/groups/ikaria/discuss/72157603772508112/
________________

The Myth of Icarus, the flying man, belongs to the ‘Circle of Theseus’, which in its turn belongs to a larger group of closely related myths, all of them being the foundation of the Ionian Greek heritage and identity.

In simple words, to know these myths meant that you were Greek.

Though it is certain that the Ionians conducted savage warfare against the Carians, the Cretans and other peoples who inhabited the coasts of the Aegean, their myths speak very little about it. They speak about achievements of the mind instead; ingenious devices, machines, new political ideas (‘the city-state’ for instance was supposed to be Theseus’ invention), new kind of ships (‘the 50oared that could sail against any sea current), new gods like Dionysus who was –what else?- the difficult art of wine making and drinking personified or rather deified, as it should be.

To know these myths meant that you were Greek.

Thursday January 24, 2008 – 10:59pm (EET) Remove Comment

• AKK
• Offline

To know these myths meant that you were Greek.

It is very interesting how little magic is involved in them. For example, in the myth of Deadalus and Icarus, unlike the similar myths about flyers from Persia and India, we are told bluntly that it was enough for a man to glue feathers with wax to make wings and fly away! We are not even told that the flyer had to move his arms very fast! Isn’t it absurd?
There is no magic and yet, there precisely lies the magic. The myth is a challenge to the mind. How on earth did Deadalus and Icarus do it? How did Theseus come up with the idea to seduce Ariadne and how did she come up with the idea to give him the string, Ariadne’s clue, to find his way in the Labyrinth?

These are logical myths. Their purpose is not to make you stand in awe but to make you want to do the same.

For example, you see that you weren’t able to fly with feathers glued with wax tied around your arms? Your head is in bandages? Don’t worry. Blame Dedalus who probably knew a few tricks that he didn’t say. But if you were patient enough to do all that feather and wax and leather straps work, if you were as crazy as to jump from a high place trying to fly, you can build yourself a nice little boat now. Plant a nice mast, rigging and sail and set off towards the unknown.

These are logical myths. And there is nothing more crazy than logic. But it’s magic because it makes us move. Not too often against each other, I hope.

Thursday January 24, 2008 – 11:02pm (EET) Remove Comment

• AKK
• Offline

_____________________________
THE MYTH OF ICARUS AND ICARIA (1)
_____________________________

When the Ionians who of course knew well the myths of the ‘Circle of Theseus’, came from Miletus and settled in Ikaria in the 7th century B.C. or while they were sailing past and round it, they must have observed the resemblance of the island’s Phoenician name, Ikor, (most of the Aegean islands bear Phoenician names) to the name of Ikaros (Icarus) and they must have told their brothers, the Athenians. As the Phoenicians weren’t there anymore to contradict them, the Athenians thought: Nice! We can complete the myth of Deadalus and Icarus. That place must have been where Icarus fell and drowned! There is wild wind-beaten sea around it, called “Sea of Ikor”? That’s it!
And so you have an entire sea and an entire island dragged out of nothingness and into the Ionian universe: “The place where Icarus fell” = Island Icarus (in Thucydides) = Ikaria (in the archives of Venice and to the present day).
The myth was a great one and the Ikarians were lucky to have acquired it. Even Nero the mad Roman emperor loved that story and he had tried to adapt and stage set it in the theater! Only that he was soon short of actors because the play was too realistic. The Icaruses dropped themselves from the ceiling and died!
Meanwhile the Ikarians worked on their myth and even claimed they had found the tomb of Icarus. In fact it is said that they showed it to visitors in the Roman time (‘tourism’ as we know it was born exactly then).

Thursday January 24, 2008 – 11:05pm (EET) Remove Comment

• AKK
• Offline

_____________________________
THE MYTH OF ICARUS AND ICARIA (2)
_____________________________

So it was all propaganda, you will say. Of course it was. Isn’t it all? Those myths were heavy with propaganda and partiotic stuff. What else is a myth after all if not a way to turn reality the way we want it?

I find this fascinating. The mind connects and works with whatever finds handy.

Cabet and the utopians started and social conditions made so as today the Myth of Icarus is associated with the idea of Freedom. Since the 19th century people refer to it as “The Flight of Icarus” rather than “The Fall of Icarus”. Ikaria again takes advantage. By some game of coincidence, it so happened that its inhabitants have never been slaves to nobody, were never invaded, lived primitive perhaps, but free –sometimes (good times) carefree. “Welcome to the Island of Icarus” reads the big sign in the harbour of the capital. Agios Kirikos. Does it mean “This is the site of the most famous flying accident in the world”?
No. For the people I know at least, it means (consciously, unconsciously or subconsciously) “Welcome to the Island of Freedom”.

The Island of Freedom… What a heavy weight our own propaganda has put on our shoulders!

Why couldn’t we rather have something lighter and more neutral like “Welcome to the Island of Windmills” instead?
……

Thursday January 24, 2008 – 11:09pm (EET) Remove Comment

• AKK
• Offline

Είπα στο

http://www.flickr.com/groups/ikaria/discuss/72157603772508112/

ότι θα γράψω τα παραπάνω και στα Ελληνικά, ε;
Ε, λοιπόν πολύ αμφιβάλλω…

Thursday January 24, 2008 – 11:11pm (EET) Remove Comment

• elle
• Offline

Οχι μωρε. Αστο. Δεν χρειαζεται. Τρεχα γυρευε – που λες κι εσυ…
“Το Νησι της Ελευθεριας” -αυτο μονο ας μεινει. Πραγματι, τι μεγαλο βαρος.
“Το Νησι της Ισοτητας” -να προσθεσω εγω (αν και ασχετο με το μυθο). Κι αυτο ειναι βαρος.
Χριστε μου ευτυχως που υπαρχει το κρασι!

Friday January 25, 2008 – 04:22am (PST) Remove Comment

• vixen
• Offline

“Με το κεφάλι δεμένο μέσα σε επιδέσμους; Μη χολοσκάς. Μπορείς τώρα να φτιάξεις ένα ωραίο σκάφος…”
Χαχαχα – Μ’ άρεσε πολύ!

Saturday January 26, 2008 – 02:02pm (EET) Remove Comment

• Simon G
• Offline

All propaganda?
Of the muses, children of Memory, perhaps.
Reality the way we want it?
No, I think it’s reality the way we don’t want it.
Think of Oedipus (Tiresias: ‘What made me forget? I never should have come.’) Or Agamemnon returning home. Or Odysseus for that matter.
There is a political dimension, but you can’t limit it to just that!

Thursday February 14, 2008 – 12:20am (CET) Remove Comment

• Simon G
• Offline

But now I’ve argued with AKK it looks like I don’t appreciate him setting out the myth and so much background for us.

So to cover up the argumentativeness, can I add Auden’s poem?

About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well, they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer’s horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
In Breughel’s Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

Thursday February 14, 2008 – 10:53am (CET) Remove Comment

• elle
• Offline

Simon G, maybe AKK should have put the word ‘propaganda’ between quotes. Yet for the Greeks, politics has run in their veins since always, so terms like this sound much less heavy. They are part of the culture.

I don’t know why, the epigram on Aeschylus grave came in my mind. It didn’t read anything about him being a big shot playwright. It read “The long curly haired Persians will remember his valour in battle”. The poet wanted to be remembered as the young soldier who had been and had fought for the freedom of his city in Marathon.

Thursday February 14, 2008 – 11:33am (PST) Remove Comment

• elle
• Offline

Heh heh heh! You caught me ) Auden’s poem was behind my choice of Brughel’s painting to go with Nana’s hilarious interview of DT.

Thursday February 14, 2008 – 11:40am (PST) Remove Comment

• AKK
• Offline

You are right. I over-simplified. Put ***propaganda*** in many quotes.

Auden?

Friday February 15, 2008 – 02:04pm (EET)

Fans of 5-member group SS501 posted up newspaper ad to congratulate the group on their 4th anniversary since their debut.

Their offical fan club Theseus had posted the advertisement posting on 8th June on the daily newspaper – there was congratulation message together with a photo of the SS501 members smiling happily together.

Previously SS501 Kim Hyun Joong fans also posted up advertisement posting for completing his drama ‘Boys Over Flowers’.

Meanwhile, members Kim Kyu Jong and Kim Hyung Joon are promoting for MBC drama, while members Heo Yeong Saeng and Kim Hyung Joon are promoting as DJ on SBS Power FM.

source: kbites

If only he had changed the black sail to a white one, the Aegean Sea would have been named after someone else’s daddy.  How hard can that be to remember?

The first video is a 6 minute abridged version of “Theseus & The Minotaur” containing the best scenes cut together

See the full version below for the complete 25 minute story

Produced and directed by Mitchell Pronschinske

email:   mpronschinske@gmail.com

When walls form  labyrinths…

I must self-confess: I have contracted an infectious compulsion. Like a paranoiac, I stumble upon seemingly random information that I automatically relate to this blog. Am I turning into Pynchon’s Oedipa? Which Oedipa, the crazy or the lucid one? Depends on your outlook.

In thinking about walls, experiences, and immersive environments, I came across something I was searching for in relation to a project on interactive cinema that I am currently working on.

The Labyrinth Project at Expo 67

Cinema is a big part of my life. Sadly, not as big as it used to be because reading about cinema takes up most of my time, so I don’t really have that much time to actually watch films! Yes, this is frustrating me more and more every day.

Anyway, I was reading descriptions of the Labyrinth Project installation at Expo 67 in Montreal at the same time as I was reading Brandscapes. Perhaps the connections I have drawn are arbitrary and a simple consequence of concurrent events taking place in my mind at the same time.  In any case, I connected the cine-Labyrinth to a broader idea of cinema as architecture, cinema as an all-encompassing experience (an illusion enhanced by the immersive architecture of the project), and the Labyrinth as an experience cinematographed (rather than choreographed or orchestrated) around the installation’s traversers.

Any attempt to describe the Labyrinth experience is inevitably reductive.  Not even pictures and sketches can complement a language-oriented description. But alas, this is all I have in terms of accessing an event that cannot be – and does not wish to be -  recreated… and relived.

Floorplan of the Labyrinth building and of the vertical and horizontal screens in Chamber 1

Even though I had to imagine the experience of traversing the cine-labyrinth in an indirect manner – through descriptions, accounts, sketches and pictures – I still had an affective response to the idea of a cinematic labyrinth. All I could think of FEEL was a sense of panic creeping and building up inside me. I’m not quite sure why, but I think it has to do with the the fact that this is an experience that distorts certain expectations regarding cinema, architecture, and the concept of viewership. The labyrinth accentuates this feeling of panic… Panic when coming face to face with the unknown.  Panic intermingled with feelings of clastrophobia and disorientation… Loss of control.

But then I read the inevitable analysis of this maze-like space. Oooh, so this is supposed to be an experiment that lays the “sensory training ground for the new global citizen”… a space “where simultaneous information inputs create not confusion which numbs the senses but a new ‘oceanic consciousness.’ “

“This represents the world in all its plurality… [a] mythological cultural mosaic of humankind that was the basis for Pierre Trudeau’s new plan for Canadian federalism.”

Do these interpretations negate my visceral response? Do they undermine the affective sentiment triggered by the fragmentary views of the project that I had to piece together and also fill in the gaps with my imagination?

Analysis rationalizes and ultimately negates the possibility of a raw affective reaction

Cretan Labyrinth

Opinnäytteen tekijä voi päästä paremmin vauhtiin prosessissaan, kun tutustuu muiden tekemiin opinnäytteisiin. Opinnäytteitä julkaistaan nykyään yhä enemmän myös sähköisesti.

Doriassa on ammattikorkeakoulujen ja yliopistojen opinnäytteitä, joita voi hakea hakusanoilla tai selailla mm. tekijän, nimekkeen tai julkaisuajan mukaan. Haun voi tehdä tiettyyn korkeakouluun tai Dorian koko sisältöön.

Toinen tutustumisen arvoinen paikka on Theseus, jossa on Suomen ammattikorkeakoulujen opinnäytteitä ja muita julkaisuja. Tällä hetkellä aineistoja on 11 ammattikorkeakoululta, ja lisää on tulossa. Hakutoiminnot ovat vastaavat kuin Doriassa. Katso myös Tiinan juttu Theseuksesta

Monilla yliopistoilla on myös omia julkaisurekistereitä. Löydät Anun vinkit näistä TOJ-blogin puolelta.

Fast 96 Milliarden Anfragen tippten Internetnutzer allein im Februar in die Suchfelder von Google und Co. Ein Jahr zuvor waren 67 Milliarden. Zu diesem Befund gelangte der Informationsprovider Comscore. Das ständige Senden, Beantworten und Weiterleiten von teilweise völlig belanglosen Informationen wird von Kulturkritikern mittlerweile als semantische Umweltverschmutzung bezeichnet. Etwa 50-mal pro Tag öffnet ein typischer „Informationsarbeiter“ sein E-Mail-Fenster, 77-mal wendet er sich dem Instant-Messaging-Programm für den schnellen Versand von Nachrichten zu, nebenbei werden noch etwa 40 Web-Sites besucht. So hat es die US-Beratungsfirma RescueTime auf Basis von 40.000 Nutzerprofilen in der Berufswelt untersucht.

Herman Maurer, Professor für Informatik an der Technischen Universität Graz, lässt sich von solchen Schreckenszenarien nicht beeindrucken. „Lange vor dem Jahr 2100 werden alle Menschen jederzeit und an jedem Ort auf alles Wissen der Menschheit zugreifen können, ähnlich wie wir das heute bei materiellen Gütern können. Dieser Zugriff wird mit Geräten erfolgen, die stark mit den Menschen integriert sind, und wird sich auf Wissen beziehen das entweder aus Datenbanken kommt oder aus Dialogen mit Experten entsteht. Das Gehirn des Einzelmenschen wird nur noch ein vergleichsweise winziger Bestandteil eines gewaltigen Wissensvorrates sein, der durch die Vernetzung aus Milliarden von Menschenhirnen und Datenbanken entsteht“, prognostiziert Maurer.

Skeptiker, die vor einer nicht beherrschbaren Informationsüberflutung warnen, werden bald verstummen: „Am Horizont zeichnet sich bereits ab, dass die Informationslawine allmählich gebändigt und strukturiert werden wird zu sinnvollen, verlässlichen und auf die Person maßgeschneiderte Wissenseinheiten. Das wird geschehen über die stärkere Verwendung von Metadaten, von intelligenten Agenten, von vertikalen Suchmaschinen, wo Fachleute Informationen gefiltert und kombiniert haben, von Gigaportalen für die verschiedensten Anwendungsbereiche, von aktiven Dokumenten, die von sich aus antworten geben können“, so Maurer. Bei der Wissensvernetzung und dem Wissensmanagement sei es erforderlicht, Wissen jederzeit und an jedem Ort verfügbar zu machen.

„Ich habe schon vor vielen Jahren den allgegenwärtigen Computer prognostiziert: nicht viel größer als eine Kreditkarte, weitaus mächtiger als die heutigen schnellsten Computer, mit hoher Übertragsgeschwindigkeit an weltweite Computernetze mit allen ihren Informationen und Diensten angehängt, in sich vereinigend die Eigenschaften eines Computers, eines Bildtelefons, eines Radio- und Fernsehgerätes, eines Video- und Fotoapparates, eines Global Positioning Systems (GPS), einsetzbar und unverzichtbar als Zahlungsmittel, notwendig als Führer in fremden Gegenden und Städten, unentbehrlich als Auskunfts- , Buchungs- und Kommunikationsgerät“, erläutert Maurer. Die allgegenwärtigen Computer werden stärker mit dem Menschen selbst verbunden. „Die Miniaturisierung von sehr mächtigen Computern wird so weit gehen, dass man sie in das Loch in einem Zahn wird einpflanzen können“, so Maurer weiter.

Die Cyborg-Visionen von Maurer erscheinen vielleicht utopisch. Einen Evolutionssprung versprechen sich Internetexperten nach einem Bericht der Financial Times Deutschland (FTD) zumindest von Fortschritten in der Entwicklung semantischer Technologien – landläufig auch als Web 3.0 bezeichnet. Plumb agierende Computer sollen verstehen, was für Inhalte sie hin und her verschieben oder gespeichert haben. „Erst dann werden Nutzer auf ihre Fragen tatsächliche Antworten erhalten und nicht nur eine mehr oder weniger passende Aufreihung von Weblinks“, so die FTD. Das Ziel von Google ist eine Suchmaschine, mit der man sich normal unterhalten kann und die dabei aus dem gesamten Wissen der Welt schöpft. Eine ähnliche Zielsetzung verfolgt auch das derzeitig größte deutsche IT-Forschungsprojekt mit dem Namen THESEUS, benannt nach dem attischen Helden und angeblichen Ur-Vater der Demokratie. Für den Dialog zwischen Mensch und Maschine will THESEUS multimodale Benutzeroberflächen entwickeln, die durch Sprache und Gestik bedient werden können. Anfragen könnte man dann intuitiv formulieren und im Dialog mit dem System verfeinern. Ein semantischer Mediator fungiert im Computer als Schnittstelle zwischen der Benutzeroberfläche und den verschiedenen Metadatenquellen. Er wandelt eine gesprochene Anfrage in einen semantisch korrekten Datensatz um, der für eine Suche nötig ist.

Die Stimmen- und Gestenerkennung in der Google Mobile-Anwendung ist nach Ansicht des Sprachdialogexperten Lupo Pape schon ein vielversprechender Ansatz: „Es ist erst einmal eine Sprach- oder Diktiererkennung, die auf einer Suchmaschine und demnächst sogar auf weiteren Handyfunktionen aufsetzt. Sprachdialogsysteme werden es erst, wenn ein Wissen über die Domäne und Dialogintelligenz hinzukommen. Das ist das, was wir mit dem Personal Assistant umsetzen. Dazu müssen die Wissensgebiete semantisch aufbereitet und Dialogstrategien hinterlegt werden. Die wichtigsten Use-Cases gilt es zu modellieren“, erläutert SemanticEdge-Geschäftsführer Pape.

Einen Ausblick wagt auch Andreas Rebetzky, Sprecher des cioforums in Münchnen und CIO des Balinger Technologiespezialisten Bizerba: „In 20 bis 30 Jahren könnten beispielsweise vollständige Unternehmensinformationen auf winzigen Implantaten gespeichert werden. Sie könnten von unterschiedlichen Endgeräten ausgelesen werden, entweder von großen Touchscreens oder unterwegs per Sprachsteuerung über ein Armband mit Minidisplay.“

Selbst das Markenzeichen seiner Firma, die allseits aus dem Lebensmitteleinzelhandel bekannten Waagen, haben nur noch wenig mit der von Philipp Matthäus Hahn im 18. Jahrhundert erfundene „Wand-Neigungswaage“ zu tun.

Die neuesten Bizerba-Geschäftswaagen sind die wiegenden und druckenden Endstationen der Computernetze. Die jüngste Generation verlangt nicht einmal mehr einen Tastendruck, sondern kann dank optischer Bildverarbeitung Äpfel und Birnen selbst unterscheiden. Und wenn es gilt, Tomaten mit und ohne Stiel vom Strauch zu unterscheiden, dann fragt so eine Waage eben beim Kunden mit knapper Menüauswahl zurück. Auch die altehrwürdige Wägetechnik fungiert nunmehr als digitaler Einkaufsberater. So zeigt das Kundendisplay den Namen der Verkäuferin, aktuelle Kaufangebote, informiert über Nährwerte, Zusatzstoffe, Herkunft, Allergene, vermittelt Empfehlungen für die korrekte Lagerung der Lebensmittel, macht Rezept- und Menüvorschläge.

Hightech-Waage

It feels like it has been forever since I updated this site and with good reason. First, I was in Las Vegas at the Catersource/Event Solutions conference at the Las Vegas Hilton and then I had tech week for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Needless to say, it was a exhausting 2 weeks which I am only now recovering from.

Midsummer has gone exceptionally well and in many cases better than exceptionally well. It had a better opening weekend than any show over the last two seasons. Normally, I would be doing jumping jacks and cheering, but I’m actually not very surprised. See, I have realized something very interesting about this show

The Universe has been working for the last 20 years to get this show in place.

No, I’m not crazy. Yes, I realize I sound like a New Age crazy person, but just go with me for a second……

So, orginally I was to direct Accomplice by Rupert Holmes which was to open on March 6 of this year. We had everything in place (except actors) but it just didn’t feel right. Our theater needed a hit and something low cost and Accomplice was probably not going to be that (especially not with the BEAST of a set that it required). My wife came up with a great idea to do A Midsummer Night’s Dream and I approached my Artistic Director with it….and she said yes. So, 100 days ago, we completey changed the show.

That required a whole new list of designers, adding a dramaturg, figuring out how to fit 18 actors into our little space (we eventually dropped it down to 15) and a whole other slew of problems which, with some creativity, we solved. We cast the show, it opened to a great audience, it was a hit….and cheap to do.

But looking at all the crazy things that happened…I can’t help feel that the Universe set this show into motion YEARS ago.

Have you ever had a show like that? I mean all shows have some feeling of comraderie attached to them, but it’s usually a, “Hey this is pretty cool! I’m sure glad I got to work with you!” kind of feeling. Not so here. Everything fell into place and I often wonder if I’ll ever have a show like this again.

I think we all work to ward having that feeling, where everyone gets along and everyone looks forward to going to rehearsal. Where you almost don’t want to open because that means the end of play time with the director and the actors. Where people you cast have random connections to each other that you didn’t even know was possible.

For example:

- I asked my wife to co-costume design and help me cast. I asked a friend of mine to do the set design. The set designer was in a show at his college. He told a fellow cast member about the auditions and that gentlemen came to read for the part of Lysander. The guy who came to read Lysander went to high school with my wife and they hadn’t seen each other in years.

- My producer found my dramaturg who was in Romeo and Juliet with me year prior. My producer had no knowledge of that…and my dramaturg and I both forgot the other one was in that show until midway through auditions

- I was in Romeo and Juliet with another person who founded a Shakespeare only troupe with the gentleman I cast as Oberon. Had no idea they knew each other

- The gentleman I cast as Oberon works in the same department I used to work in at a local Casino….we know the same people but never worked together

- The lovely lady I cast as Titania went to the same church in Chula Vista I went to as a kid….never met each other.

-The guy I cast as Lysander (the one who knew my wife) has a best friend who was my wife’s high school boyfriend….is now “hanging out” with girl who plays Titania

- My dramaturg brought me my awesome Assistant Director, who also randomly is an acquaintance of my set designer….and I hadn’t met her until auditions

- 2 of my actors started dating (not unusual, but still pretty cool)

I’m sure there are more, but the amazing coincidence are just astounding. Which makes me realize the power that theatre has. Everyone got along, everyone is friends with everyone else. We hang out outside of rehearsal, for fun. The creativity was astounding….every element just perfectly fit and got what we were doing. I have never worked in any other medium where that has happened.

Theatre truly is more than the sum of its parts and this show proves it. This is why we do it and I know I will spend the rest of my life trying to find another show that works like this one does.

Eine neue Suchmaschine versetzt angeblich die Blogosphäre in Aufregung. Das berichtet die Financial Times Deutschland. Der Wissenschaftler Stephen Wolfram soll einen “Google-Killer” entwickelt haben. “Doch den glaubten vor ihm schon viele erfunden zu haben”, so die FTD.

“Da schreibt Nova Spivack, Suchmaschinenexperte aus San Francisco, einen begeisterten Blogeintrag über Professor Wolframs neueste Entwicklung. Über eine Suchmaschine, die angeblich spezifische, sachbezogene Fragen viel präziser beantworten kann als jede andere Suchmaschine”, berichtet die FTD.

Sein Dienst könnte nach Meinung von Suchmaschinenexperten nicht nur sehr nützlich, sondern im Internet auch einflussreich werden. “Aber ein Google ist Wolfram Alpha deswegen noch nicht, auch wenn Spivack seinen Blogeintrag vollmundig mit ‘Wolfram Alpha kommt – und es könnte so wichtig wie Google sein’ überschreibt. Was genau kommt, wird die Welt erst im Mai wissen, wenn die Website an den Start geht”, führt die FTD weiter aus.

Das Rätsel ist auch schnell entlüftet, denn das Ganze soll als Antwortmaschine funktionieren – läuft also auf den Pfaden von semantischen Technologien. Sie wird, anders als Google, auf eine Suchanfrage nicht einfach Links auflisten, die eine Antwort auf die Frage des Nutzers enthalten könnten. Stattdessen analysiert die Technologie Fragen, auf die es sachbezogene Antworten gibt – und liefert diese. Sie soll eine große Auswahl in “natürlicher” Sprache gestellter Fragen beantworten können, schreibt Spivack, der vergangene Woche zwei Stunden mit Wolfram gesprochen hat und sich dessen Onlineservice vorführen ließ. Ja toll. Konzepte für die so genannte Antwortmaschine werden an vielen Stellen zur Zeit entwickelt. In Deutschland arbeitet das Deutsche Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz am Web 3.0-Standard. Mit dem von der Bundesregierung geförderten Projekt Theseus soll die Marktreife erreicht werden. Auch bei Google. Ich habe darüber schon mehrfach berichtet. So einfach lassen sich die Google-Forscher nicht die Butter vom Brot nehmen. Bei der Sprachsteuerung sind die Jungs nur schwer zu toppen. Weiteres hier.

Driving in an unfamiliar city is a bummer. It’s a bummer because every time you set out to do something simple like go to Staples or get a coffee, it feels like a task on par with entering the labyrinth to slay the Minotaur. Like the odds that you’re actually gonna get there and survive the whole ordeal are 0.0000001, so you might as well just let that guy keep eating 14 tweens a year or whatever. Plus, if your only points of reference about the city’s traffic laws are a joke about making a right on red from Annie Hall and the panic about getting ON THE FREEWAY!!!! that goes down in Clueless, it’s pretty much only a matter of time before you vehicular(ly?) manslaughter the mayor of Los Angeles himself. Fantasy losers need to cool out bummer/hilarious unbummer: homoerotic minotaurs sure are tough (pictured).