most expensive art work

my new wallpaper

Romare Bearden: Visual Jazz

The affinity that Romare Bearden (1911-1988), one of the most vibrant and visionary American painters of the 20th century, felt for jazz music has been well documented.

A native of North Carolina whose family relocated to Harlem when he was three years old, Bearden was a true child of the Harlem Renaissance whose circle of friends included many of the community’s leading musicians and authors as well as painters. Frequent visits to relatives who remained in the South also sustained Bearden’s fascination with the rural as well as the urban strains in African-American culture. By the 1940s, jazz musicians and jazz scenes had begun to appear in his work; and as time passed he began to employ titles of favorite jazz performances for his paintings and collages. In his later years, Bearden created specific works for albums by Charlie Parker, Donald Byrd and Wynton Marsalis; and, since his death, musicians such as Sonny Fortune and Robin Eubanks have also employed images created by Bearden for their recording projects.

Branford Marsalis is among the many jazz artists who have been keenly aware of Bearden’s creations. The charismatic saxophonist met Bearden in the ‘80s and owned two of Bearden’s works. Having recently moved to North Carolina with his family, Branford had also gained new insight into the sources of Bearden’s vision. So when the Romare Bearden Foundation suggested that Branford’s label develop an album to complement the major Bearden retrospective that opens at the National Gallery of Art in September, he embraced the idea wholeheartedly.

What has emerged is a meditation on Bearden’s vision in which Branford, on soprano and tenor saxophones, his quartet (featuring Joey Calderazzo, piano; Eric Revis, bass; Jeff “Tain” Watts, drums) and some illustrious guests present their own aural impressions of Bearden’s powerful visual imagery.

Chairman, Tallal ELBoushi, stated, “The Board of Directors of the Romare Bearden Foundation feel enriched by our association with the immensely talented Branford Marsalis. This project brings together two typically unconnected art forms, visual art and music. Through this creative partnership on the Romare Bearden Revealed CD project, we saw a natural alignment with the Foundation’s mission to preserve and perpetuate Bearden’s legacy. We recognized the opportunity it offered to once again publicly acknowledge Bearden’s truly exceptional and multidimensional talents, among them as a visual artist, writer of scholarly and children’s books and a songwriter/lyricist. It is particularly fitting that this unique project has come to fruition during this time when Bearden is being celebrated and honored with a major retrospective by the National Gallery of Art - the first African-American artist to be so honored.”

After immersing himself in Bearden’s art, Branford created a program that moves among jazz classics referenced in and suggested by Bearden’s art, new compositions created expressly for this recording, and a song in which Bearden himself played a creative role. From the jazz works that share titles with Bearden paintings, Branford chose “Slappin’ Seventh Avenue with the Sole of My Shoe,” a 1938 tour de force by the Duke Ellington orchestra rearranged for quartet plus rhythm guitar; “J Mood,” his brother Wynton’s 1986 blues recreated here in a performance where the trumpeter joins Branford’s quartet (drummer Watts was also heard on the original recording); and “Carolina Shout,” James P. Johnson’s classic stride-piano piece presented as a charging duet between Branford’s soprano sax and the piano of Harry Connick, Jr. The feelings generated by Bearden’s art recalled two other traditional compositions – Jelly Roll Morton’s “Jungle Blues,” heard in a rousing live performance recorded at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center by the Marsalis Family, and “Steppin’ on the Blues,” in which Branford’s quartet interprets the soulful 1924 recording in which trumpeter Tommy Ladnier was featured with pianist Lovie Austin’s Blue Serenaders) – as well as “Laughin’ and Talkin’ (with Higg),” a recent Watts homage to the late Billy Higgins that finds Branford and Wynton engaging in astonishing instrumental dialogue.

Branford also wrote “B’s Paris Blues,” a nod to both Bearden and saxophone patriarch Sidney Bechet, and asked Marsalis Music recording artist Doug Wamble to bring the sound of the rural blues into the mix with his solo piece “Autumn Lamp.” Both of these new compositions allude to Bearden paintings that will be included in the exhibition. Finally, “Seabreeze,” a piece from the 1950s to which Bearden contributed lyrics, was revived at a sensuous bolero tempo.



Romare Bearden Revealed is a recording that reflects Branford’s view of Bearden as “adventurous. His work reflects a world of tradition, and also the will to break tradition.” Annotator Robert O’Meally adds that the disc “challenges hearers to see the music, viewers to hear the paintings,” and likens the interchange between Bearden’s creations and these musicians as “calling and responding – or, as Bearden liked to put it, calling and recalling.”

Wynton Marsalis - Jazz in Marciac 2009

a good pdf to analyze

a world of speculation

Kubovy M, 2007, "What might have been is an abstraction, a perpetual possibility, in a world of speculation: We are not aware of what we did not see in an ambiguous figure" Perception 36 ECVP Abstract Supplement

What might have been is an abstraction, a perpetual possibility, in a world of speculation: We are not aware of what we did not see in an ambiguous figure
M Kubovy


Considerable evidence supports the idea that perceptual organization happens late. This paper undermines this view and provides evidence that perceptual organization happens at an early stage of information processing. There has been reports on six experiments in which a second-choice paradigm borrowed from early studies of signal detection was used (and provided strong evidence against high-threshold theories of detection) and apply it to the forced-choice phenomenological psychophysics of perceptual organization. 

These experiments show that when observers report one organization of an ambiguous pattern (a 300 ms masked dot lattice), they have no information about what they did not see, even when they know that they will be asked to provide information about organizations that are not the most probable. The experiments also reveal that in the face of this dearth of information about what they did not see, observers use a strategy to confabulate: they choose the answer most different from the one that corresponds to what they saw.


[Supported by USPH grant from the National Eye Institute and the National Institute of Deafness and Communicative Disorders.]

pdf link

the darkest truth about love

paradise circus

words with gods - film festival

Words with Gods is an exploration of the relationship between different cultures and religion. Aboriginal Spirituality, Catholicism, Islam, Judaism, Shinto Buddhism, Orthodox Christianity, Umbanda, Hinduism, as well as Atheism find their expression in this two-hour film.

Based on a concept by Guillermo Arriaga and arranged in the present order by Mario Vargas Llosa the film's nine episodes present different perspectives on this distinctly human phenomenon.

IMDB

http://www.wordswithgods.com/

Words with Gods is directed by Guillermo Arriaga, Héctor Babenco, Bahman Ghobadi, Amos Gitai, Emir Kusturica, Mira Nair, Hideo Nakata, Warwick Thornton and Álex de la Iglesia. The soundtrack was written and performed by Peter Gabriel, with animations by Maribel Martinez.

Words with Gods is the first of four installments in the groundbreaking Heartbeat of the World anthology film series.

Warwick Thornton
True Gods

"When I started to look for a reason for being on the project Words with Gods I peeled back the folk tales, urban myths and legends. Deep into my dreams I looked for the great and worthy, the one who was first, the CREATOR. But there in the dark alone I found my mother, my sister, and my grand mother. This enlightenment filled me with joy. For I realized that I was surrounded by GODS, who every day created miracles. The miracle of birth. Someone who can gift life is a GOD to me."

- Warwick Thornton



Héctor Babenco
The Man Who Stole a Duck

An ordinary man has for years suffered infinite sadness caused by having beaten, then lost his wife. Possessed by this sense of loss he had let his son, only a few months old, cry until he died. The man carries this pain as he wanders along the streets like a madman whose speech is at times bawling and at times murmuring. One day destiny leads him to the side of a lake where he seduces, or is seduced by the singing of, a white duck which responds to what he is saying to it. On the back seat of a public bus he carries the duck, which he is taking to his son. That night, while on his way back from the cemetery a man dressed in white stops his car. A child, also dressed in white, stares fixedly at him from inside the car. Our beggar follows the father and child, who continues to stare at him, to a locale where a cult meeting is taking place. A catharsis will occur and dialogue with God will transform him.

- Héctor Babenco



Mira Nair
God Room

In most devout Hindu family homes in India, there is a room set aside for God and prayer. Our film, God Room, is set in today's Mumbai, about a wealthy extended family moving into an expensive penthouse apartment overlooking slums and the sea. The symbol of a multigenerational family living together in harmony is gradually broken by an escalating argument amongst the family members about where the God Room should be. As the family reveal layers of their hypocrisy and prejudice, only the 8-year-old child in the family sees that God is everywhere...that God is in the eye of the beholder. The home for God is within us, not without.

- Mira Nair


Hideo Nakata
Sufferings

As an episode in Words with Gods, I wrote and directed Sufferings in 2012. It is based on a true story, about a fisherman who lost his entire family, including his little kids. People who live in the Thohoku district where Tsunami hit are still struggling for living. But I believe in their strength to keep going with acceptance of reality and some kind of hope and joy, which they find in everyday life. I hope Sufferings can comfort them a bit. I would love them to watch Words with Gods in the near future.

- Hideo Nakata


Amos Gitai
The Book of Amos

But in the end the heart of Amos is softened and he says:

And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel,
and they shall build the waste cities,
and inhabit them;
and they shall plant vineyards,
and drink the wine thereof,
they shall also make gardens,
and eat the fruit of them.
15 And I will plant them upon their land,
and they shall no more be pulled up out.

Amos, 9, 14-16

At this point we are moving to the contemporary city of Haifa, a city of tolerance and coexistence.

The film will include references to the Book of Amos, from the Old Testament. Amos who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, in the days of Osaiah, king of Juda, and Jeroboam, king of Israel.

Amos presents to us a vision of divinity with a strong social dimension. Amos is preaching for social justice, using metaphors from his experience as a peasant and as a shepherd.

Can two walk together, except they be agreed?
Will a lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey?
Will a young lion cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing?
Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is for him?
Shall one take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all?

Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid?
Shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?
Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing,
but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.

Amos, 1, 1-7

The film will be shot as a series of short monologues including some of the main cast of Amos Gitai films (actors who participated in Kadosh, Kippur and Kedma) and they will all incarnate fragments of the prophecies of Amos.

- Amos Gitai


Álex de la Iglesia
The Confession

When it was suggested that I make a Words With Gods episode, a ten-minute cinematographic piece was outlined, in which the dialogue with God should be established from a preeminent Catholic language; or in other words, to create a moral painting in which a Catholic is reflected without being considered a simple caricature.

The essential religious ideas are in my view, defined in the conception of sin as something inherent to the essence of human beings, and in forgiveness through sincere repentance. The most evil man, if he repents will be closer to God that the most virtuous man.

There is no other religion more generous. Kindness is discovered in forgiveness. Evil in the sovereignty of the man of action. Virtue of the ones who don’t do doesn’t matter. We are attracted to the one who makes a mistake and repents - the one who reconstructs his personality tower with the bricks of its errors - the one who rises above others, after falling under the weight of his knees.

This is the ground for The Confession: To narrate how the protagonist falls into destiny’s hands and before dying, an old man gives him the chance to deny his life, and accept he is just a mistaken man, like others.

- Álex de la Iglesia



Emir Kusturica
Our Life

This film is about humanity, which has a God and it is the best idea that they have found. It is more than just speaking about Orthodox Christianity; it’s about making an image of a man who is always sacrificing himself for his own good and for his well mental being.

- Emir Kusturica




Bahman Ghobadi
Sometimes Look Up

I live in an area in which each day I witness and hear of fratricide, due to differing religious ideologies. After years of staying in this region, I realized the acts carried out are not spiritual and heavenly, but the issue is religion manipulated by man. The religions are manipulated by man, to use against another man; all the while along we humans have forgotten the real story and the beauty of truth. Whether I believe in God or not, I believe in this.

- Bahman Ghobadi


Guillermo Arriaga

God's Blood

I think that religion, any religion, has to bring out the best of each human being. History has shown us that when a religion is imposed, when any God becomes an excuse for intolerance and persecution and murder, then religion has lost its essence. True religion is an invitation to be better, to feel the company of a superior being who will watch and care for us.

I'm an atheist and I have been attacked several times because of it. Believers don't accept someone who doesn’t believe. Many think that because we are atheist we lack values; or since we don`t have a giant vigilant eye over us, we are out of control and we don't behave ourselves. Nothing is more far from the truth.

I think than an atheist becomes a humanist. Since we don't believe in something else, humans become the core of our life. We don't look up, we don`t look down. We look straight into the eyes of the other human beings. That is important for me, acknowledging that every atheist - in the depth of his heart - is a humanist.

- Guillermo Arriaga

shiku hakku 四苦八苦

shiku hakku (四苦八苦), which means “Four Sufferings, Eight Sufferings”. This originates from the Buddhist notion of the Sufferings:

Meaning of Shiku:

Birth
Old Age
Sickness
Death


Meaning of Hakku: (in addition to the four above)

Not getting what you want.
Encountering something you don’t like.
Being separated from someone you like.
Being around people you don’t like.


Shiku hakku

The world in which we live is full of various kinds of suffering. Illness and old age bring about physical suffering. There are people who suffer psychological and spiritual anguish. Human relationships at home or in the work place can be stressful. And some may be fearful of the moment of death that we all will experience at the conclusion of our lives. Most of these forms of suffering cannot be resolved solely by advances in civilization or human effort.

In Buddhism, realities such as these, which our power alone cannot control and which no one can avoid, are referred to as the four and eight kinds of suffering (shiku hakku). Even those who currently feel that they have no particular hardships in their lives eventually will experience these four sufferings and eight sufferings. In fact, it is often the case that these forms of suffering appear together with the effects of the negative causes that we ourselves have amassed from our past lifetimes. As a result, sufferings can intensify and cause us to fall to rock bottom.

In the “Letter From Sado” (“Sado-gosho”), Nichiren Daishonin states:

Indeed, I must eradicate in this lifetime the grave karmic sins from the past, so that I can eliminate the three evil paths in my future existences.               (Gosho, p. 580)

Regardless of how heavy the karmic sins from our past lifetimes may be, the benefit of upholding faith in the teachings of the mystic Law (Myoho) revealed by Nichiren Daishonin is tremendously powerful. He teaches us that the effects of slander from past lifetimes will be entirely eliminated, and we can liberate ourselves from a life of suffering.

The four sufferings (shiku) are birth, aging, sickness, and death. The eight sufferings (hakku) are these four sufferings and the four additional sufferings of having to part from those whom we love; having to meet that those we hate; being unable to obtain what we desire; and the suffering arising from the five components, which constitute our body and mind.

Of the four sufferings, birth represents the agony of being born. It denotes the suffering of being born to into the cycle of transmigrating the six paths of hell, hunger, animality, anger, humanity, and rapture.

Aging refers to the suffering of being born human and having to gradually grow old. In modern society, we encounter various problems concerning the elderly. Each one of us will experience the suffering of growing old.

Sickness indicates the suffering caused by illnesses. When we are sick, we are affected both physically and mentally. There are some people who manifest extreme behavior when they are sick. The suffering of illnesses will assail all of us.

Death refers to the suffering of facing our demise. As long as we are born into this world, we eventually must encounter death. In general, we all possess the fear of dying.

Next, the suffering of having to part from those whom we love describes the anguish of having to separate from the people we love, such as our spouses, parents, siblings, and friends.

The suffering of having to meet those we hate is to be forced to encounter those we resent or dislike. Regardless of the reason, being forced to meet with someone we hate is stressful.

The suffering of being unable to obtain what we desire refers to the inability to gain satisfaction by getting what we want in our life. We all strive to obtain various things. However, we are tormented when we are unable to fulfill our wishes.

The final form of suffering is that arising from the five components, which constitute our bodies and minds. The five components consist of form, perception, conception, volition, and consciousness. This type of suffering represents intense physical and mental anguish.


Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta: Setting the Wheel of Dhamma in Motion
translated from the Pali by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu



I have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One was staying at Varanasi in the Game Refuge at Isipatana. There he addressed the group of five monks:

"There are these two extremes that are not to be indulged in by one who has gone forth. Which two? That which is devoted to sensual pleasure with reference to sensual objects: base, vulgar, common, ignoble, unprofitable; and that which is devoted to self-affliction: painful, ignoble, unprofitable. Avoiding both of these extremes, the middle way realized by the Tathagata — producing vision, producing knowledge — leads to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding.

"And what is the middle way realized by the Tathagata that — producing vision, producing knowledge — leads to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding? Precisely this Noble Eightfold Path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. This is the middle way realized by the Tathagata that — producing vision, producing knowledge — leads to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding.

"Now this, monks, is the noble truth of stress:[1] Birth is stressful, aging is stressful, death is stressful; sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair are stressful; association with the unbeloved is stressful, separation from the loved is stressful, not getting what is wanted is stressful. In short, the five clinging-aggregates are stressful.

"And this, monks, is the noble truth of the origination of stress: the craving that makes for further becoming — accompanied by passion & delight, relishing now here & now there — i.e., craving for sensual pleasure, craving for becoming, craving for non-becoming.

"And this, monks, is the noble truth of the cessation of stress: the remainderless fading & cessation, renunciation, relinquishment, release, & letting go of that very craving.

"And this, monks, is the noble truth of the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress: precisely this Noble Eightfold Path — right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.

"Vision arose, insight arose, discernment arose, knowledge arose, illumination arose within me with regard to things never heard before: 'This is the noble truth of stress.' Vision arose, insight arose, discernment arose, knowledge arose, illumination arose within me with regard to things never heard before: 'This noble truth of stress is to be comprehended.' Vision arose, insight arose, discernment arose, knowledge arose, illumination arose within me with regard to things never heard before:' This noble truth of stress has been comprehended.'

"Vision arose, insight arose, discernment arose, knowledge arose, illumination arose within me with regard to things never heard before: 'This is the noble truth of the origination of stress'... 'This noble truth of the origination of stress is to be abandoned' [2] ... 'This noble truth of the origination of stress has been abandoned.'

"Vision arose, insight arose, discernment arose, knowledge arose, illumination arose within me with regard to things never heard before: 'This is the noble truth of the cessation of stress'... 'This noble truth of the cessation of stress is to be directly experienced'... 'This noble truth of the cessation of stress has been directly experienced.'

"Vision arose, insight arose, discernment arose, knowledge arose, illumination arose within me with regard to things never heard before: 'This is the noble truth of the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress'... 'This noble truth of the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress is to be developed'... 'This noble truth of the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress has been developed.' [3]

"And, monks, as long as this — my three-round, twelve-permutation knowledge & vision concerning these four noble truths as they have come to be — was not pure, I did not claim to have directly awakened to the right self-awakening unexcelled in the cosmos with its deities, Maras, & Brahmas, with its contemplatives & brahmans, its royalty & commonfolk. But as soon as this — my three-round, twelve-permutation knowledge & vision concerning these four noble truths as they have come to be — was truly pure, then I did claim to have directly awakened to the right self-awakening unexcelled in the cosmos with its deities, Maras & Brahmas, with its contemplatives & brahmans, its royalty & commonfolk. Knowledge & vision arose in me: 'Unprovoked is my release. This is the last birth. There is now no further becoming.'"

That is what the Blessed One said. Gratified, the group of five monks delighted at his words. And while this explanation was being given, there arose to Ven. Kondañña the dustless, stainless Dhamma eye: Whatever is subject to origination is all subject to cessation.

And when the Blessed One had set the Wheel of Dhamma in motion, the earth devas cried out: "At Varanasi, in the Game Refuge at Isipatana, the Blessed One has set in motion the unexcelled Wheel of Dhamma that cannot be stopped by brahman or contemplative, deva, Mara or God or anyone in the cosmos." On hearing the earth devas' cry, the devas of the Four Kings' Heaven took up the cry... the devas of the Thirty-three... the Yama devas... the Tusita devas... the Nimmanarati devas... the Paranimmita-vasavatti devas... the devas of Brahma's retinue took up the cry: "At Varanasi, in the Game Refuge at Isipatana, the Blessed One has set in motion the unexcelled Wheel of Dhamma that cannot be stopped by brahman or contemplative, deva, Mara, or God or anyone at all in the cosmos."

So in that moment, that instant, the cry shot right up to the Brahma worlds. And this ten-thousand fold cosmos shivered & quivered & quaked, while a great, measureless radiance appeared in the cosmos, surpassing the effulgence of the devas.

Then the Blessed One exclaimed: "So you really know, Kondañña? So you really know?" And that is how Ven. Kondañña acquired the name Añña-Kondañña — Kondañña who knows.

Notes

1.
The Pali phrases for the four noble truths are grammatical anomalies. From these anomalies, some scholars have argued that the expression "noble truth" is a later addition to the texts. Others have argued even further that the content of the four truths is also a later addition. Both of these arguments are based on the unproven assumption that the language the Buddha spoke was grammatically regular, and that any irregularities were later corruptions of the language. This assumption forgets that the languages of the Buddha's time were oral dialects, and that the nature of such dialects is to contain many grammatical irregularities. Languages tend to become regular only when being used to govern a large nation state or to produce a large body of literature: events that happened in India only after the Buddha's time. (A European example: Italian was a group of irregular oral dialects until Dante fashioned it into a regular language for the sake of his poetry.) Thus the irregularity of the Pali here is no proof either for the earliness or lateness of this particular teaching.

2.
Another argument for the lateness of the expression "noble truth" is that a truth — meaning an accurate statement about a body of facts — is not something that should be abandoned. In this case, only the craving is to be abandoned, not the truth about craving. However, in Vedic Sanskrit — as in modern English — a "truth" can mean both a fact and an accurate statement about a fact. Thus in this case, the "truth" is the fact, not the statement about the fact, and the argument for the lateness of the expression does not hold.

3.
The discussion in the four paragraphs beginning with the phrase, "Vision arose...," takes two sets of variables — the four noble truths and the three levels of knowledge appropriate to each — and lists their twelve permutations. In ancient Indian philosophical and legal traditions, this sort of discussion is called a wheel. Thus, this passage is the Wheel of Dhamma from which the discourse takes its name.

TV Series Intros

I know this post is probably not very informative or rather 'light' and 'time passing' but I still wanted to share something, better then nothing right?

I have been a little busy with writing a couple of papers on philosophy and aesthetics (which I will share soon), so I couldn't interact here at the blog but I will make up for it. I promise.

Here is a couple of awesome intros I've stumbled upon: (they are not in a specific order + there might be some really good ones I have missed so please comment)
Enjoy


MARVEL'S DAREDEVIL:

MARCO POLO:

OUTLANDER:

HANNIBAL:

SALEM:

BBC SHERLOCK:

VIKINGS:

CARNIVAL:

TRUE DETECTIVE:

BLACK SAILS:

(DR) HOUSE MD:

DOWNTOWN ABBEY:

BREAKING BAD:

DOCTOR WHO (all of them):

CONTINUUM:

DA VINCI'S DEMONS:

PERSON OF INTEREST:

LUTHER:

12 MONKEYS:

DEXTER (morning routine):

The 100:

ORPHAN BLACK:

TRUE BLOOD:

BOARDWALK EMPIRE:

FRINGE:

SIX FEET UNDER:

LOST ROOM:

LIE TO ME:

MARVEL'S AGENTS OF SHIELD:

CONSTANTINE:

ELEMENTARY:

And Of course GAME OF THRONES:

Douglas Dare - music from the heavens

This week I’m a fan of Douglas Dare. A singer/songwriter with modest attitude and easy on the eyes.

We use various props and ways to communicate with the world around us. We use them to share our love, pain, hatred etc… All the emotions over all. Douglas Dare is someone who feels your emotions and touches the core of your being. Helps you heal and wishes for the best.
He has a great energy that pulls you to his inner works and understandings where you look around and be grateful for all the butterfly effects that have brought you to the second you are now.

Without further ado, here is a great artist:

Singer/songwriter Douglas Dare grew up in the small coastal town of Bridport in South West England.

Encouraged by his mother, a piano teacher, he began composing music at a young age but didn’t take up songwriting until 2008 while at University in Liverpool. His elegantly moody, piano-based songs and haunting voice drew comparisons to artists like Thom Yorke and James Blake and eventually attracted the attention of London indie label Erased Tapes who specialise in releasing avant-garde music. After relocating to London, he signed with Erased Tapes and they issued his first EP Seven Hours in September 2013. An extensive tour with label mate and similarly experimental artist Ólafur Arnalds followed before he returned home to begin work on his debut full-length. Collaborating with percussionist and producer Fabin Prynn, Dare crafted the dark, intimate ten song album Whelm, released in May 2014. 

The concert I went to took place at Salon IKSV. Some sneak preview:

for further information about douglas dare: click

yuma hidaka

photograph by yuma hidaka
please check: https://instagram.com/yuma_hidaka/

Museums Talk: From the UK - Istanbul Modern

Launched in 2012 by Istanbul Modern, the “Museums Talk” program aims to establish a new conversation platform between leading international museum professionals and audiences in Turkey. The program continues with the United Kingdom. 

Organised in collaboration between Istanbul Modern and the British Council, “Museums Talk: From the UK” invites prominent museum professionals from eight art museums from the UK between December 2014 and April 2015.  

Since the foundation of the first national public museum in the world, the UK has always been a precursor in the field of museology and British institutions provide a unique know-how combining a rich heritage with innovative approaches.

Each lecture focuses on a critical topic, such as museum management, fundraising, curatorial practices, collections and archives, education programs, audience development and public relations, marketing and communication strategies, new technologies, exhibition design and museum architecture.

MUSEUMS TALK: The Role of Museums in Urban Regeneration

Turner Contemporary - Art Inspiring Change

Victoria Pomery OBE, Director

Founded in 2011, Turner Contemporary has acted as a catalyst for the regeneration of Margate, a seaside town in East Kent that had declined as a tourist destination. Designed by David Chipperfield Architects, the gallery is located on the site where JMW Turner stayed on his frequent visits to Margate in the 1820s and 1830s. Turner Contemporary celebrates Turner’s relationship with the town and hosts a world-class programme of historical and contemporary exhibitions as well as a vibrant Learning and Public programme.

Victoria Pomery was appointed Director of Turner Contemporary in 2002 to develop an arts organisation as part of a strategy of cultural led regeneration and was awarded an OBE for services to the arts in 2012. In this presentation, Pomery will consider the role of Turner Contemporary as a catalyst for the regeneration of Margate and will describe the initial concept and some of the challenges that she and the team faced in the early years.  She will talk about the design of the gallery and what she did to ensure that the opening was a success, creating confidence and civic pride within its local communities. Victoria Pomery will reflect on the social and economic impact that the gallery has had and argue that art can inspire change.

click to watch

Developing Museum Collections: Limited Resources, Unlimited Partnerships
Simon Groom, Director
The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art













Founded in 1960, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art is the youngest of three galleries that, with the Scottish National Gallery and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, make up the National Galleries of Scotland. Housed in two 19th century buildings in beautiful parkland in Edinburgh, the Gallery of Modern Art has the finest collection of Scottish and international art from 1890 to the present day in Scotland, an impressive sculpture park and one of the world’s great collections of Dada and Surrealism.


Simon Groom, the Director of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, will discuss the challenges and opportunities ahead of art museums to develop their collection in times of crisis. He will present successful partnership the museum has forged to enable a rich programme of displays and exhibitions that makes innovative use of its collections. These include ARTIST ROOMS, held jointly with the Tate on behalf of the nation, an inspirational collection of modern and contemporary art by some of the most significant artists of the twentieth century; “From Death to Death and Other Small Tales”, an exhibition that combined works from the gallery’s collection and that of the collector, Dimitris Daskalopoulos; as well as GENERATION, a hugely ambitious nationwide programme of exhibitions in 2014 looking at 25 years of contemporary art in Scotland.



click to watch

Rethinking Museums, Rethinking Culture: New Approaches to Museum Management

David Anderson, Director

Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales

Founded in 1907, Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales operates seven national museums working in different disciplines encompassing art, history, natural history, and industrial heritage. Dedicated to preserving, presenting and promoting the culture of Wales, the institution is facing severe challenges of funding and purpose.  It is on a journey to redefine its role in Wales, the world’s first post-industrial nation – one rich in cultural traditions, but poor in economic resources.

Awarded an OBE for services to museums and education, David Anderson has been Director General of National Museum Wales since 2010 and reorganized the institution to enable it to become better fitted to meet the needs of the people of Wales in the twenty first century. In his talk, he will present the redevelopment of the St Fagans Museum near Cardiff to become the National Museum of History for Wales. Themes will include the development of a new vision and purpose for the museum, fundraising, and the role of public participation in reshaping the work of the organization.

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The Future of Museums

Chris Dercon, Director

Tate Modern

Tate Modern is Britain's national gallery of international modern art and forms part of the Tate group. It is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world and the second most popular tourist attraction in the UK with 5.5 million visitors in 2013.

Chris Dercon is an art historian, a documentary filmmaker and cultural producer. Since he was appointed Director of Tate Modern in London in 2011, he has been leading the museum’s groundbreaking programs and its unmatchable expansion project. In his talk, he will question the future of museums of art, which have always been places in a constant state of disruption and transformation. Presenting a unique platform for human encounters, he will consider the museums’ potential to become a new type of public space, one for social play and innovation, facilitating new forms of art, creativity and thinking, where people will look and interact with art as well with each other.

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Museum Education: Deepening Engagement Through Digital Learning

Jane Findlay, Head of Schools and Young Audiences Education 

Founded in 1753, the British Museum’s remarkable collection spans over two million years of human history and culture and includes world-famous treasures such as the Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon sculptures, and Egyptian mummies. With over 6 million visitors in 2013, the Museum is the top visitor attraction in the UK. 

Last year, 262,000 pupils visited the British Museum. Jane Findlay, Head of Schools and Young Audiences, will discuss the potential and pitfalls of using technology to support museum learning. Discussing the need to align learning and digital strategies for maximum impact, her presentation will cover topical subjects such as developing sustainable technology partnerships, conceiving blended learning approaches through the innovative Samsung Digital Discovery Centre, deepening families’ engagement in the galleries with augmented reality applications and building successful online teaching resources.

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Curating Digital Space: Inventing a New Art Form

Ruth Mackenzie CBE, Interim Launch Director

The Space

The Space, set up by the BBC and Arts Council of England in 2014, commissions artists from all art forms to create digital art for people round the world to enjoy via their mobiles, tablets and desktop computers. It encourages artists to experiment with new ways of reaching audiences and new forms of digital art, and it encourages audiences to move from consuming and enjoying art, to participating in art works as an active artistic community. 

Ruth Mackenzie is the Interim Launch Director and Creative Director of The Space and

the Artistic Director of the Holland Festival. Her first festival in June 2015 includes a celebration of artists from Turkey and surrounding countries. In her talk, she will share insights into curating digital artists and audience development in every continent of the world. She will argue whether digital art will have a similar effect as the emergence of film in the twentieth century as a new dominant art form, which impacted on artists across all genres and reached new mass audiences. Today, thanks to the spread of mobile devices and Internet access, mass audiences are within the reach of artists. Mackenzie will discuss how artists should develop a new relationship with these new audiences and if it requires the invention of a new form of digital art. 

 
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Cultural Diversity and Its Representation within Visual Arts
Tessa Jackson OBE, Chief Executive
Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts)

Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts) was established in 1994 with government funding to address the imbalance in the representation of culturally diverse artists, curators and writers within cultural discourse in the UK at the time. Iniva now operates in a more globalised world where the meaning of diversity itself is endlessly shifting and changing.

Iniva continues to encourage new and unheard voices, creating space where the politics of race and representation can be explored. Tessa Jackson OBE, Chief Executive, will discuss the challenges and importance of museums and galleries exploring internationalism and alternative perspectives through exhibitions and collections.

 
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Lure of the Local: Residencies, Art Schools, Museums
Sam Thorne, Artistic Director 
Tate St Ives 













Founded in 1993, Tate St Ives offers a varied exhibition and events program of international modern and contemporary art within the unique cultural context of St Ives, home of post-war British Modernism. The museum also manages the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden, which offers a remarkable insight into the work of one of Britain's most important 20th century artists.
What can museums and larger arts institutions learn from the recent flourishing of artist-led education projects? What would a museum with artist residencies at its core look like? Sam Thorne’s talk will give an overview of alternative art school projects, from Manifesta 6 to Ahmet Ögüt's Silent University, and consider their implications for museums. It will draw on his experience as a co-founder of Open School East, an art school-cum-community space in London, and of developing a residency program at Tate St Ives.

 
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note: more info will soon be added


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