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Archives: January 2004
Notebooks
'I never travel without my notebook. One should always have something sensational to read in the train."
Oscar Wilde
"To lose a passport was the least of one's worries. To lose a notebook was a catastrophe.' Bruce Chatwin 'Sitting on a wine barrel, facing the sea, in the far south, I make notes in an authentic moleskine, a museum piece which Bruce gave me especially for this trip..."
Luis Septilveda
It is two centuries now that Moleskine has been the legendary notebook of European artists and intellectuals, from Van Gogh to Matisse, from the exponents of the historical avant-garde movements to Ernest Hemingway.
This long-standing tradition was continued by writer-traveller Bruce Chatwin who used to buy his moleskines at an old Paris stationery shop: he had always some moleskines in his knapsack, even for his friends, like Luis Sepfilveda.
Many are the sketches and notes, ideas and emotions that have been jofted down and harboured in this trustworthy pocket-size travel companion before being turned into famous pictures or the pages of beloved books.
This silent and discreet keeper of an extraordinary tradition, which has been missing for years, has been reproduced by the Italian company Modo & Modo: in a few years moleskine has met an increasing success, becoming a symbol of contemporary nomadism.
Moleskine is a family of notebooks for different functions, according with a free mindstyle, both basic and emotional.
One to have!!!! [I've bought myself one as a present]
Posted on January 1, 2004
in Design
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Wat is kunst?
'What is kunst? Wat is kunst? De blik in haar ogen, dat is kunst.'
[What is art? What is art? The glance in her eyes that is art!]
Noordkaap
Posted on January 1, 2004
in Limit of my knowledge
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Today...
Today I woke up in a place...
They woke up in South Africa. [mpeg video, long loading...]
I'll have to wait a little longer for that day.
Posted on January 1, 2004
in Linking context
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Photofriday: best of 2003
Posted on January 2, 2004
in PhotoFriday
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Memories
This is an image of my past.
At my grandparents place.
The clock thicking, passing time.
At the hour the cuckoo flips out, remembering us that time has passed.
And before the meal we had to pray, a small prayer.
It is not time that passes, it is us.
We are the moving part in this story.
Aren't we...
Posted on January 3, 2004
in Reconstructed memories
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I see square circles
Sometimes you visite people because you have to, other times you do because you want.
Lately I have been running around to see those I wanted to see.
And it is great.
Arrive in an evening, ring a bell and say 'It is me'
A door that opens, a smile, a kiss.
Last year I believed that some things had changed, but by now I know they stayed the same.
We laugh for the same reasons, we think in the same way and sometimes different.
And that's ok.
Pink elephants in the sky... Always.
The hug was warm. Thanks all of you.
Posted on January 3, 2004
in Friends around
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Flattering article!
Today I bought the Focus (Dutch photo magazine) which is featuring the 10 most renomated Flemish photographers of the last years.
Never knew I was one of them!
Really flattering.
Posted on January 4, 2004
in Linking context
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Pand 19
Today my dad invited me to eat something.
'Where?' is the most common question to follow.
In cities like Ghent of Brussels, this question is asked because there are so many answers.
In a city like Grammont, the reason is different: you want to find a place which has nice atmosphere and where in the end of the evening you're not smelling like one big cigarette.
But Grammont has one: Pand 19. A great place on the market place.
Had the best spagetti since long.
And have to say: even better than many Ghentish places...
Posted on January 4, 2004
in Linking context
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2004
It is funny.
I left in 2002, by now it is 2004.
We move fast...
My blog exists quite some time now, and writing it has never been a burden.
Every day little notes, send through bits and bytes to the world.
Many people catch.
Fragments.
And that is what this is supposed to be: fragments, mo(nu)ments out of my life.
You will never be able to read all of it here.
You will only read where my mind decided to stop and to see. And even then it is only a fragment out of.
Because some things belong to me.
The power of a blog is that readers get involved, they sneak into a life, peek.
But in the end it is only a fragment.
Like a photographer who frames, and by choice leaves things unseen.
Posted on January 4, 2004
in Limit of my knowledge
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Sales
Sales have started.
Out of a news report: "Police has to help a shop because people started fighting."
Sunday and all the shops are open. Very unusual.
I go too. Want to check for those things I always wanted but never bought because to expensive.
Esprit features -50%. This is only the second day... [TMR would DIE to be here now. Mexx, Zara, Springfield... All of them.]
And suddenly as many people as clothes. Everything is soooo crowded.
You see peoples faces, coming from the cold into hot airco, sweating, changing clothes, trying, changing again. Again and again putting on and off those warm clothes -It is -4°C outside- You see us thinking...
We all want this to be passed.
Especially the men.
Posted on January 5, 2004
in Living in Belgium
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Wireless
Seen while waiting in the airport.
This could be a the future
(unfortunaltely I don't have my wireless connection -yet-)
Trains, TGV, and the rest will follow soon.
And then again...
Bought myself the last Harry Potter.
Enjoyed reading as much as typing on a comp...
Posted on January 7, 2004
in Living in Belgium
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Safely arrived
[clouds]
Hopped from rain (Brussels) to snow (Vienna) to clouds (TLV)
Vienna:
[Spraying our wings in order to have 'clean snowfree' plane]
Food on Austrian Airlines:
[I still don't know what it was...]
TLV from a distance:
Posted on January 7, 2004
in Living in Israel
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Delaguarda
Only just arrived, but my agenda is already filled... (People do know me.)
TMR and Sigal planned to go to De La Guarda, which turned out to be a stunning experience (but have to admit that after 25min I had the feeling of 'enough' and a big hammer hitting my head, to go to sleep)
Toda raba, stunning girls mine.
After that, we went to have a drink. X-ray off course. With my dearest Sahar, not forgetting the nicest strawberries as dessert.
Finally a bed, to sleep, feeling comfortably home again.
And for that the reason wasn't only my warm duvet...
Posted on January 7, 2004
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Shortfilmfestival
Ohad is one of my friends in Tel Aviv. He has had a documentary film education in the University. And truly, I love his shortfilms.
So I promised him to look for shortfilmfestivals in Belgium.
Courtisane is one of those shortfilmfestivals, started 2 years ago in Ghent, it kind of looked very experimental, but meanwhile they are on the good way to become a reference in Belgium.
They have a competition with as deadline March 2004. Fitst price 6000 euro.
So hurry up!
More info click here
Posted on January 8, 2004
in Linking context
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1984
Everybody knows I am an Apple freak. Everybody knows I want an new comp soon... So Apple Macworld San Francisco was THE moment to see new releases of Apple, updates of their Pbooks, or whatever.
So this girl was quite following the events on Jan 7th, following the rumors the days before. -You are smiling right now, but wait the next years, I am sure Tim and John will become the same...-
Macworld SF didn't had the things I expected -why would I want a new ipod?- Seems Apple is going for software now: ilife and final cut express.
(Fyi I want an update of the G4 12 inch Pbook: urgently needed Bluetooh inside, and fast firewire 800, ddr 366ram, and ATI instead of NVIDIA)
But showing this advertisement of 20 years ago, featuring their first Apple, shows that they were always ahead in marketing.
-Originally from Ridley Scott, and now slightly modified, with an ipod implemented-
An even bigger marketingstunt would be: 'Apple introducing something totally new on this January 24th...'
Posted on January 8, 2004
in Linking context
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Photofriday: women
Couldn't do anything but refer to an old picture...
Posted on January 9, 2004
in PhotoFriday
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Photoblog - Moleskine
The special Photoblog notebooks are designed.
The above is the first one.
The Photoblog notebooks will be shipped for those who decide to become member.
Longing for one too??
Check www.photoblog.be
More pics:
Posted on January 9, 2004
in Projects - PhotoBlog.net
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Telephonecalls
Time of telephonecalls is over. Grandfather and mother are definitely in chatting these days.
"She's running up the stairs" my grandfather writes. And after that "She'll write to you" followed by "Here I am" of my grandmother.
This little girl of 4 goes back to the middle age of telephonecalls, takes the horn and dials her father's number.
When I saw her lying, I wondered what will happen when she's 14... (remembering fights with my mother on too high phonebills, and we that had to work to pay off)
I had to take the picture. Burning onto disk how she and her mom can ressemble.
A little speakwaterfall...
A mo(nu)ment for within 10 years.
Posted on January 10, 2004
in Living in Israel
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Let's go to the sea
I remember it as yesterday: she, picking me up at the youthhostel after a terrible night (accompanied by several cockrouches). Not the person I had ever expected. Curls, smiling and probably younger and thinner than the image in my mind of an 'executive administrator'. An image build by telephone and email conversations.
In her sweet tiny car (full of scars) we drove to school.
'Let's drive to the sea', she said, after a series of sentences, one after the other, explaining why she didn't pick me up at the airport.
I didn't had to say anything. She explained a little bit bout the city, asked some questions but left the big 'Why' behind.
And suddenly after a series of houses, a turn, and the sea popped up.
A vast amount of water, quiet, simple. On the other side piles of towers, ugly.
But I only concentrated towards the sea.
My first real encouter with TLV. And with TMR.
More than a year later, TMR and I, in the same car, I hear myself say "Let's drive to the sea."
So we do.
Inbetween a vast amount of stories...
To much to tell...
Posted on January 11, 2004
in Living in Israel
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Absolutely Fabulous
They're back!!!
Eddy and Patsy, the hilarious duo, who always cheered me up when I was down. I have all the series on tape, and watched them over and over again. And every time I am crying myself to death with their hilarious behaviour.
From now on, this girl is sitting home at Sundays, to watch the new series.
Not without a reason...
Posted on January 11, 2004
in Living in Israel
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Interesting classes
My classes always turn out to be more interesting than expected. The speaker in front of the class might tell the most amazing stories, most of the time I don't understand a thing of it.
But I do find my interest elsewhere.
I never thought I'd be the dreamer of the class, the one that is staring everywhere and doesn't hear a thing, that is flying to other places in the world while sitting in an ordinary class room.
By now I am, without excuse, not without a reason (the hebrew...)
Again not understanding might have been the good choice, when hearing my class mates after the class, their class sucked, mine didn't...
(Written after a most interesting class by an artist on 'Mapping', my notebook is filled with wonderful ideas and remarks, and plans, dozens of plans...)(One of them is extending and realizing my 'Mapping of the world', and not counting in distance but in time, and thus realize a new map of reality, existing out of different layers, build by different persons.)
Posted on January 12, 2004
in Living in Israel
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Flashy
Have a lot of work this week.
Flash(y) photography.
Bought a brand new flash (because off course my CanonD10 doesn't support the cheaper/older models...)
I never kind of liked it, flash photography.
It is too surreal. But like every other thing in life, one day we'll have to do.
So I can better learn the advantages of it. And maybe start to like it.
(Have to admit, Tim, that this flash is superb. TTL makes it almost everytime right.)
But I am pretty sure that I will still like the natural light better.
Like this too soft light in a room.
Telling me nothing but white.
Posted on January 13, 2004
in Living in Israel
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Chat discussion
[©Sam Durant]
Some days ago I had a 'chat discussion'.
Somebody telling me that 'in America I'll realize what 'check up' means.'
I don't know if I'll be surprized (after being checked up several times here, and the worst one in Kosovo.)
So the discussion Europe/America came into the subject.
As said before I am not keen on the way of things there, and now.
This crazy war against 'evil forces' makes us wonder if the Cold War wasn't better after all. I mean, at least then we didn't have to wonder about possible bombings.
Somebody told me he was stuck in USA during Sept. 11. and was so happy to be in Europe afterwards: because at least the news was more on information instead on panicking.
I guess the panicking is understandable. After all these years, they are attacked in the place it hurts most: their own backyard...
But it is this panicking that causes what is happening now.
If people are afraid, they do crazy things...
Some days ago we had a lecture of an American artist from New-York.
The most common question asked here is 'Why are your works political?' and again it was asked. This time more with a reason and out of the mouth of a truly smart person.
The answer was not so surprising and yet: 'Because what is happening now in America, during the legislation of Bush. It is my world, I am living it and I have to say something about it. I can not avoid.'
Sam Durant seems to be one of the 'hot-shots', hyped artists in New York these days.
I don't like his old works so much, but the new are quite interesting, especially the series with the demonstration signs. Although didn't find an image of those...
A political work and yet so integrated, that it is not agressing you at all.
Guess this is what Bezalel teached me till now: looking for an other way to show things, so they are more easily accepted. And meanwhile still say what you think.
(Because whatever, whenever, I'll be still the foreigner giving an opinion, and whatever that opinion might be, I have to shut my mouth because who am I to tell this opinion...)
Posted on January 14, 2004
in Living in Israel
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Woman.
Some days ago, this wonderful woman said: 'I'm turning 38... It's kind of scary.'
I had to smile, but didn't say much. (Everybody thinks she's 26... and age is in one's mind, isn't it?)
But yesterday I started to read the book of Lieve Blancquaert and Betty Mellaerts. It is a photobook, but next to that it contains wonderful daily stories.
I had to translate these fragments...
"It started with the question of 2 men, asking me whether I felt like making a book on 10 women. The women could be anyone, from Flanders, or Holland, famous or not. The only thing in common: they had to be 40 or above.
I said yes.
It was said at the beginning: in this book we would choose for women who wake up in the morning and dare to look in the mirror, watch their wrinkles, and read the stories of their life in them. That they laughed, a lot. And cried, and worried. And that with time, there came peace, knowing who they are, and what they want.
And what the world thinks doesn't matter anymore.
Women, always somebodies mother, daughter, lover. But after forty, also and especially: themselves. Vulnerable and strong."
[Textfragment from Betty Mellaert, pictures © by Lieve Blancquaert]
Posted on January 14, 2004
in Friends around
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Statements
I have to make a little note for the exhibition in Bezalel.
A statement.
An explanation.
But I do not have any explanation.
Wondered about it, silently running in my mind.
And suddenly it popped up, making sense.
One quote.
"There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things."
"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
Maybe this is what it is about, the last year and a half.
Or maybe way before.
The jump abroad, by accident Israël it could have been so many places, but it became Israël-
And even while writing this, a little ghost appears in the hall, a certain song in a background, kisses a blown-away kiss, and I have to smile.
Certainly this is what it is about.
Squaring circles, jumping bridges, travel the road less traveled, fly like a swallow.
I am not looking for explanations anymore.
This is my query, and even if it brings no answers, it is OK.
The answer is the road
Posted on January 14, 2004
in Limit of my knowledge
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Bush in 30 seconds
Check these adds and smile.
My favorite is this one, John, we have something in common.
But have to admit: this one is convincing because of the truth...
Not only Europeans are against policies of certain political persons, also Americans, and not only any American.
Americans with brains.
Read this: 7 good reasons why they say so...
Posted on January 14, 2004
in Linking context
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Long day
This was a loooong day.
Working since the morning.
And yet not yet to sleep.
Will be horrible next weeks...
Photoblog.be, SNOWblog.net, Mo(nu)mentum.exhibition in Belgium, Vis a vis preparation, and Final Exhibition in Bezalel.
What else do we want?
Vacation... (N.Y. here I come...)
Posted on January 14, 2004
in Living in Israel
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Photoblog - Stickers released!
Here they are, our stunning beauties.
Who would ever thought 6 months ago we'd be standing sofar???
So soon this city will be tagged.
TLV'ers, somebody willing to tag with me?
[And I am sure I'll get response on this one for Ghent very soon...]
Posted on January 14, 2004
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Creative Pool
We can say a lot of things about AD!DICT (like they don't publish on promised dates and the 4-period only is released twice a year, etc. etc.).
But we do have to admit that they try to do nice stuff for the new artists/individual designers.
This time they organize a fair for freelancers.
A pity I am not in Belgium at that time, would loved to be there to present MasTuVu
Posted on January 15, 2004
in Linking context
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Cultuurnet Vlaanderen
While looking for more info on 'Hoe subsidies te krijgen' and other stuff, I found this one.
Culturenet Flanders, surely just born, but promising. (Heck, they are cooperating with Microsoft...)
But what I was looking for: a databank of young Flemish artist, I don't find.
(With next to it, all info on sponsoring etc.)
Time to offer a similar idea as Photoblog to the government, I think...
Posted on January 15, 2004
in Linking context
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Sponsoring
And off course I found some info on sponsoring...
For those who wonder as much as I, check these (all in Flemish):
*Culture in Flanders on site of Flemish Government (link to everything)
*Sponsoring of new artists
*Newsletter on Temporary Art and the Flemish Government
(I am just putting it here as a reminder, so wherever, whenever, I can check)
Posted on January 15, 2004
in Linking context
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Photofriday: moving
Posted on January 16, 2004
in PhotoFriday
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Back to the start
Come up to meet you, tell you I'm sorry
You don't know how lovely you are
I had to find you
Tell you I need you
Tell you I set you apart
Tell me your secrets
And ask me your questions
Oh let's go back to the start
Running in circles
Coming up tails
Heads on a silence apart
Nobody said it was easy
It's such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be this hard
Oh take me back to the start
I was just guessing
At numbers and figures
Pulling your puzzles apart
Questions of science
Science and progress
Do not speak as loud as my heart
Tell me you love me
Come back and haunt me
Oh and I rush to the start
Running in circles
Chasing our tails
Coming back as we are
Nobody said it was easy
Oh it's such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be so hard
I'm going back to the start
[Coldplay]
Posted on January 17, 2004
in Limit of my knowledge
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Max Brenner
A chocolate bar. Imagine. Should be paradise for me. (Yepyep a real Belgian girl, that's me...)
(But only one has to wait for paradise to long, it can get upsetting..)
Anyway, Tamar took me to Max Brenner's chocolat paradise, their was a queue to this heaven and afterwards I have to say, it was almost worth it.
Great food, and delicious moka-chocolate drink.
We, belgians, should envy it is an Israeli and not a Belgian who came up with this idea.
And off course it is the packaging that does it all.
Guess Neuhaus should go more to this...
[Tamar with suckaoid]
[Suckaoid, you'd love to have this one, though I prefer the nice cups even more]
Posted on January 17, 2004
in Linking context
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An empty chair
Beauty can be so simple...
Absence of what is not...
Posted on January 18, 2004
in Limit of my knowledge
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A Photograph Is Not an Opinion. Or Is It?
-copyright Susan Sontag-
We assume a world with a boundless appetite for images, in which people, women and men, are eager to surrender themselves to the camera. But it is worth recalling that there are parts of the world where being photographed is something off-limits to women. In a few countries, where men have been mobilized for a veritable war against women, women scarcely appear at all. The imperial rights of the camera--to gaze at, to record, to exhibit anyone, anything--are an exemplary feature of modern life, as is the emancipation of women. And just as the granting of more and more rights and choices to women is a measure of a society's embrace of modernity, so the revolt against modernity initiates a rush to rescind the meager gains toward participation in society on equal terms with men won by women, mostly urban, educated women, in previous decades. In many countries struggling with failed or discredited attempts to modernize, there are more and more covered women.
by Susan Sontag
Read more - see pics of Annie Leibovitz (of book 'Women')
Posted on January 18, 2004
in Linking context
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It is not an accident
"It is no accident that you are reading this. I am making black marks on white paper. These marks are my thoughts, and although I do not know who you are reading this now, in some way the lines of our lives have intersected... For the length of these few sentences, we meet here.
It is no accident that you are reading this. This moment has been waiting for you, I have been waiting for you. Remember me."
Duane Michals
(One of my favorite photographers)
Posted on January 18, 2004
in Limit of my knowledge
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Kosovo: Op zoek naar een toekomst
Ze kijkt me aan.
Waarom ik naar Belgie gekomen ben?
Ik ben een politieke vluchtelinge. Mijn land werd te gevaarlijk voor me.
19 was ze, toen ze haar ouders achterliet, en met een oom naar België trok.
Alleen in een vreemd land, een vreemde taal en vreemde mensen.
Niets om op terug te vallen behalve haar familie hier.
Als 2 jaar later de oorlog in Kosovo uitbreekt komen ook haar zussen en haar broer, haar nicht en diens kinderen naar België
afgezakt. Oorlogsvluchtelingen.
Je kan op alles labels kleven. Tot die labels mensen worden, personen met een leven, met lief en leed.
Vluchtelingen, staat het in de krant geblokletterd.
Voor mij zitten mensen die een verhaal vertellen over alles achterlaten, over met een klein koffertje aankomen in een vreemd land.
Over terecht komen op Linkeroever, en eerst in slaapzalen allemaal samen slapen, en later verspreid te worden over het hele land.
Over onzekerheid hoe het met de rest van de familie is, zij die zijn achtergebleven in het thuisland, of gevlucht naar elders.
Over de gruwel die ze hebben opgestapeld in herinneringen
Vluchtelingen worden al te vaak beschouwd als mensen op zoek naar een systeem om van te profiteren,
Soms zijn ze gewoon als u of ik: op zoek naar een toekomst.
Dit en andere verhalen worden aan u voorgesteld aan de hand van foto's van Ine Dehandschutter en Bart Gabriël. De fotoreeks toont beelden uit Kosovo en België; families die elkaar missen, telefoneren, een leven opbouwen zonder, maar toch met elkaar.
De foto's worden aan u voorgesteld in de nieuwe kantoren van Balkanactie vzw.
Wij nodigen u graag uit op de openingsreceptie op
Vrijdag 23 januari 2004 om 16u
Uitbreidingstraat 498 - 2600 Berchem (aan Berchem Station)
Tentoonstelling dagelijks te bezoeken van 19 tot 23 januari, tijdens de kantooruren.
Posted on January 19, 2004
in Projects
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Working
I am soo busy... One can't imagine.
For some of you it seems that I am stuck to my computer, but reality is different.
Since I am taking pictures for the British Filmfestival, I have been running around.
On top of that the first Snowblog class is set for next week.
I have to prepare that one (If somebody has classes for 12-years old prepared, please send..., I forgot mine in Belgium.)
Furtheron the radio station called and is coming within 3 weeks. (Fortunately this is the easy part)
The Kosovo exhibition is soon (and although I have to thank Bart for doing the hard stuff, I am still kind of busy with it.)
2 sites have to be finished soon, and Photoblog is growing too fast.
Not to forget the works for the final exhibition (although I have to admit: I don't allow myself thinking of that one yet.)
Shortly said: I LOVE this running around.
Guess I will allow myself a big bottle of champagne when in July I passed this year.
Which reminds me that there is still a big bottle in the fridge. We'll keep it for the first weekend of February: girls having fun, celebrating birthdays and one allowing herself to be OFF for 2 days.
Posted on January 19, 2004
in Living in Israel
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What do you expect your life to be in five years?
Not so many of you probably know, but more than a year ago I started this blog with the name 'L'auberge Israelienne'
Referring to the great movie L'Auberge Espagnole.
Just saw a part of it on television, remembered suddenly why it is such a great movie...
Probably one of the reasons why I finally decided to go away for a year...
So rent the dvd... (see the trailer here)
Maybe you'll end up like me... somewhere on the other end of the world.
And? What do you expect your life to be in five years?
Posted on January 19, 2004
in Reconstructed memories
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Emptiness and other questions
While scrolling through a classmates last exhibition, suddenly it popped up to me what photography does with me.
I dare to say that my photography makes me wonder every day.
Being graduated as a documentary photographer and studying in an art school makes me question myself over and over.
Does a picture have to be beautiful?
Does it have to tell something?
And what if it has to tell something, what does it tell?
I watched so many pictures lately, and really they are so beautiful.
But it is the only thing I can say about it They are beautiful
They are like magazine pictures that track our attention and seconds later, the attention drops. Nothing keeps our mind there.
Emptiness.
I guess thats what disturbs me most. We like to show were an empty throw away society. But by playing the game and being empty in our pictures we dont keep the attention. We dont point out what it is really about.
We dont look for the story anymore.
Growing up in todays world is equal to being overwhelmed with images.
Images that want us to buy, or stick things in our throat.
I am convinced that we have to teach our children how to watch the world, how to make interpretations, because surely they dont know anymore.
To come back to my photography: I am sure I can make a book full of nice pictures, just grab them from my photoblog, ordinary things.
Have an exhibition with them.
Have people say Beautiful picture
But will it make me happy?
Will I have the feeling I achieved something in life?
I dont believe so.
So let me stick to what I am busy with. Trying it my way.
And I guess the part where I am in peoples heads instead of on peoples walls is more important to me.
The part where E.T point his finger to the boys head, and it lightens up I am in here when he is going home.
I hope that one day Ill be in there.
More than I hope to have my picture on your wall
I truly believe that this stream in art will disappear very quickly, as people tend to ask for more than emptiness.
When people will look at a piece of art, smile and say it is beautiful, and seconds later wonder what it is about. And truly find something then.
So by the end of this year, I want to collect some pictures, maybe only 1, that makes you question this world.
The rest is just empty filling of what never has been.
Posted on January 21, 2004
in Limit of my knowledge
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Living in a plastic world
She asked me 'I like the bags. Will you present them in your exhibition?
Will you present them like this, or will you picture them?'
I was stunned.
The question of these days becomes: do we show reality, or do we show an image of reality.
And again: what do we want to tell by presenting that image.
What is the difference between showing 4 bags hanging on a wall and a picture of 4 bags hanging on a wall.
Tell me, because I am trying to figure it out...
Posted on January 21, 2004
in Limit of my knowledge
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Photofriday: man
Posted on January 23, 2004
in PhotoFriday
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Kosovo: Do something with your stuff. Show it...
She wrote me, I don't know her (I think...)
What do you want to show them? What do you want them to question?
Good question, needs an answer.
I want people to wonder, to see the details, to notice the beauty.
Not to nag about the things they don't have, let's start to see what we do have.
Sounds like a passage ut of the Celestinian Promise, or another high in the sky hippie knowledge. You who know me: that's not me...
But you wrote more.
You're doing great. Do something with your stuff. Show it.
I did...
Showing in Antwerp right now
Feel free to visit.
Or listen to the interview on Radio 1 (Click on the icon / only in Dutch)
And I promise.. More exhibitions to come. :)
Posted on January 24, 2004
in Projects
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Tools
I found somewhere this interesting tool: google translates your website in another language...
Check this page in French, German, Spanish, Italian, and even Portuguese
A pity it doesn't exist in Dutch yet, my father would be soooo happy...
Tx google...
Posted on January 24, 2004
in Linking context
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Coolville makes my day
Everythime a new comic appears on his site, I can't stop grinning.
He's superb, and it really makes me smile everytime.
Thanks Steve!
Posted on January 24, 2004
in Linking context
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Things that make me happy...
A perfect fitting jeans
-especially when you get it as a present-
and a nice number on a bank account...
:)
Posted on January 24, 2004
in Living in Israel
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SNOWblog.net: Classes
The last two days I have been busy teaching little Arabs and Israeli how to take pictures.
All for the SNOWblog project.
And it was GREAT!
An update follows soon...
Posted on January 24, 2004
in Projects - SnowBlog.net
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SNOWblog.net: promised update
Here it is, the promised update.
My two classes went extremely smooth -regarding the time of preparation and the fact that it has been 3 years since I have been teaching. Though being a leader in scouts turns out to be an advantage I guess.-
Rather than teaching them photography as it happended to me, I wanted to do things differently.
The fact that they are children of 12 means that a different approach can be used, they are still eager in opening their eyes to new things.
Since the class subject is FOOD, I had to do something with food.
The idea of food in general makes us think of very obvious things, like bananas, meat, etc.
So upon my question of bringing pictures of food, I got those very obvious images. Exactly what I wanted.
Because in order to build up a new image we should go to the bottom.
From that point we can start up the idea that food can be so much more than only food. Food can be a culture, the people around you in the table, food can be exotic, an other culture, it can be a holiday with delicious special things.
For sure they got that idea, after me showing pictures of my last holiday, christmas. They wanted to know my family, and which ugly food is lying on the plate. Or which delicious drinks we're having.
After that I tried to teach them something on framing, by showing how important a viewer is on a camera. Because every camera is nothing more than an empty box with a lense. We put a film inside, and the light burns onto the pelicule, making us a negative. But what is more important is WHAT we choose to be on that negative.
So we made a frame with our fingers, looking at he world through our little viewer. Making choices in what to pictures, or better what not to picture.
All these little kids looking at each other in a different way. Normal, or lying on the floor, or standing on a chair and looking down, from close and from far, looking at what interests them.
So they went out of the class, some of them still looking to the world.
Hopefully in a different way.
Posted on January 27, 2004
in Projects - SnowBlog.net
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Working part II
One week further and still the deadlines are nearing...
There seems no stopping in these things.
Short list of things finished:
::the British Filmfestival has ended -jihaa, I can sleep again, and yes guys, it was fun (check latest pictures on the photoblog-site)-
::updating the site of Language Connections -the partners in SNOWblog-
::teaching the first classes for SNOWblog -see last tread-
::the Kosovo-exhibition has opened, again we got the radio, and we already have a next exhibition space
Busy with:
::designing new site for Kong.be
::preparing a financial report for Kosovo-exhibition
::preparing second class for Kfar Kasem
::preparing going to Gaza for Snowblog
::finishing site for Karama
Near future:
::work for school!!!
::Zabine update
::designing Merva.be en Sahar's site
::looking for more sponsors for SNOWblog
::looking for more sponsors for ME :)
As you see my life has turned into little lists, stuck in my pockets and lately more organized in my little Moleskine.
It is all about erasing some of my lists, and adding on the other hand.
Longing for next month -seems that all deadlines are set on end of January-
but then again, the list keeps on growing.
I guess my flight back in July will be the start of a real vacation, namely sitting in a bar, ordering a drink, talk to a friend and most of all doing NOTHING... grin.
Posted on January 27, 2004
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Harrison's Flowers
I don't know if I mentioned this movie before...
I saw it yesterday, probably for the third or the fourth time.
Amazing.
Some year ago I took it in the 'videotheque', mainly because it was a movie on a warphotographer. A lovestory how the wife of a famous photographer goes in search for her husband when he dissapears in Bosnia.
A wonderful story on how little people know about what is happening in the front.
This movie might have a love story as subject, during the whole movie the amazing story of a war is been told. The struggle of the photographers, the things they see, experience and the fact that they report.
We feel uncomfortable seeing one of the photographers starting to picture cruel events, seeing them going to the frontlines to catch the news.
But then again the necessity in them showing the world.
The movie also touches the mediaworld, showing how money rules this business. How reporters for the big agencies get all the luxury and the freelancers have to take the big risks.
But most of all it shows the cruelty of this war in the Balkan.
Everybody always talks about the Holocaust. But do we realize what happened only few years ago in our backyard?
Will we ever recognize?
Will we admit that NATO and UN did one of the biggest mistakes sofar, letting things happen while watching it...
A must-see movie... Watch the trailer here.
Posted on January 27, 2004
in Linking context
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W32/Mydoom@mm
27/01/2004 11:05
Name : W32.MyDOOM@MM
Risk : HIGH
How: through Kazaa or in attachment in mail.
Recognize: mail subject 'Hi'
Again I am sooooo happy I am working on Mac and not pc...
Since 24 hours a new virus, that attacks pretty fast, has been infecting more than 300.000 computers.
Mainly in the US, but Belgium did well too -hey, we are a computer society...-.
I received some 50 mails containing the virus -though it is very obvious when a mail says 'Hi' that it will be a virus...-
Nothing happened since I am running a Mac -hehehe-
And I have to admit that my spamfilters will have taken more of those mails before I received them.
So see me going to NYC to buy a new beauty, and yes off course Mac again...
If you are unlucky and running pc, infected of not: more info on the virus here
(People in Belgium can always check the BIPT for latest virus warnings -well other ones too, since there is an english version-)
Posted on January 27, 2004
in Living in Israel
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Mars
From today on Mars won't be any longer just the candy that you buy when urgently in need for chocolate -and no Cote d'or nearby-
No, from today on Mars will be a planet that we know.
A planet that looks pretty dusty, but according to scientists once had water.
And ice.
Curious to hear about their discoveries.
Maybe there was once life there...
Nice extract from an article to think about:
I don't know how many people really and truly understand this, but we live in the year 2004. That is almost 40 years since the time of the design and production of the Apollo Command/Service Module and Lunar Excursion Module. When our forefathers went to the Moon in the dawn of the space age, it was with the computer equivalent of stone knives and bear skins. It is truly mind boggling to the modern computer engineer that we were able to go to the Moon with the hardware and software developed from scratch back then.
This is not to disparage but to honor those who made Apollo happen because in doing it, and in the aftermath of that program, many of those people went on to be a part of the revolution exemplified by Silicon Valley (my meaning here encompasses the whole American semiconductor and computer industry). Fast forward forty years and it looks like the engineering and technology from Silicon Valley has what it takes to make this new space era happen.
In 1969 the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) sported the most advanced and compact computer built up to that time. It had 16k of RAM and a keyboard to type commands and instructions in machine code in real time. It had a small monitor to display data. It could control the navigation and flight of the LEM using radar data as well as transfer that telemetry in real time back to NASA on the Earth. It had a processing speed of more than a hundred thousand instructions per second. It was a remarkable computer in every respect. However... compared to now, it was so primitive!
Posted on January 27, 2004
in Linking context
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Supermen that's what we are...
A memory from not so long ago...
Maybe Dana is the perfect test for me, preparing the SNOWblog classes.
With her little camera, she's picturing the world as we forget to see it.
And all the professional art-photographers can try as hard as they want: the innocence captured in a kid's picture can't be faked.
So here she is, pointing her camera towards the most normal stuff, seeing things for the first time.
Sometimes there is a cat hidden in her picture, and we just don't see it.
Or the sky just stays the sky, no frames to capture, no compositions to make.
She points, she shoots.
She touches.
Me, by her views.
Visit her site.
Posted on January 28, 2004
in Reconstructed memories
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Lomo-Scootering in TLV
Posted on January 28, 2004
in Reconstructed memories
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Linking contexts
I should have mentioned this long time before.
But sometimes I am pretty lazy when it comes to update this site's links.
So to all those readers that have their own website: feel free to link your site.
Add it by going to Linking Context in the menu above, and add your url.
Tx.
Posted on January 28, 2004
in Linking context
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Skiing
Seems it has been snowing in Belgium.
Well in Israel (in the north) is also snows...
Tomorrow this girl is going to ski ;)
Jihaaa. Can't wait to be on the skis again. Will charge my iPod full battery, good for 6 hours of music.
And then, watch and glide.
:))))
Posted on January 29, 2004
in Living in Israel
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Bus in TLV/Jerusalem
Today a bus exploded.
In Jerusalem.
I was sitting in a little bus -sherut- driving towards Petach Tikva, and some hours later I would take the bus home.
Taking a bus in this country is not like you do it elsewhere.
Elsewhere you don't think about it...
For me the first time on a bus in this country was CRAZY...
My heart was booming like a madman, and everybody entering the bus could have been a suicidebomber. You wouldn't believe which stress you're under, this first time.
The second time things went better, but all the ride, it is running in your head.
And you're looking at the doors who is entering.
After that I used to go and sit backwards, so I would not notice who entered, and if somebody would enter I would not know.
By now, I just take the bus. Once in a while, when needed.
Not any stress, not caring what might happen.
But still it is not, and it will never be, like taking a bus at home.
Because here, before, whilst or after, there is this little thought.
'What if...'
See the movie 'Too many busses'
Posted on January 29, 2004
in Living in Israel
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How to be an artist
How to be an artist:
Stay loose. Learn to watch snails. Plant impossible gardens. Invite someone dangerous to tea. Make little signs that say "Yes!" and post them all over your house. Make friends with freedom and uncertainty. Look forward to dreams. Cry during movies. Swing as high as you can on a swing set, by moonlight. Cultivate moods. Refuse to be responsible. Do it for love. Take lots of naps. Give money away. Do it now. The money will follow. Believe in magic. Laugh a lot. Celebrate every gorgeous moment. Take moonbaths. Have wild imaginings, transformative dreams, and perfect calm. Draw on the walls. Read everyday. Imagine yourself magic. Giggle with children. Listen to old people. Open up. Dive in. Be free. Bless yourself. Drive away fear. Play with everything. Entertain your inner child. You are innocent. Build a fort with blankets. Get wet. Hug trees. Write love letters. --Sark
Guess he was a real artist, he just died too soon.
Posted on January 29, 2004
in Limit of my knowledge
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SNOWblog.net: Nothing is new
Nothing is new in this world, so also my photoproject in Israel has been done before elsewhere.
So I decided to do some real research on it.
No better place than the web -this is why I love it, you name it, you google it, and most of the time, you find it...-
So here is a series of interesting links I want to share. -And I want to remember for myself...-
-Wendy Ewalds Photocourse for children
-Dan Eldon Learning Centre
-Kodaks Digital Photography for schools
Posted on January 29, 2004
in Projects - SnowBlog.net
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Photofriday: emptiness
Posted on January 30, 2004
in PhotoFriday
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Camera Obscura: Dirkon paper camera
Still in search of interesting things, I was looking 'how to make a camera obscura' (Of course I know how to, but guidance and already made classes are conveniant...)
I came upon this Dirkon paper camera, out of the soviet union....
Superb.
So, see me sitting with glue and cardboard...
(More on camera obscura here, and one made from a coffeecan)
Posted on January 31, 2004
in Linking context
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Like SNOWblog, but in Africa
Posted on January 31, 2004
in Linking context
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Redhead
Oh jeah, I have been skiing yesterday. I will remember...
-See my pumpkin-face now...-
Red red red, so red that Sigal forced me to go and see a doctor.
So we went to the hospital this morning, looking for a doctor who might add something new.
He barely looked at me and described a cream to put on the face.
And one advice: stay out of the sun.
So this is the main reason to provide you all with my ideas and links, otherwise I was probably visiting a cafe or a beach, since the sun is shining like a nice July-day in Belgium.
In going back home Sigal and I did this little game: she'd take a picture and I would make a variant out of it, and vice-versa.
Those pictures can be seen at my photoblog and hers.
Trying to build a camera obscura for my class next week, and preparing some documents, this is how a weekend day can pass...
Posted on January 31, 2004
in Living in Israel
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