Observations on Art 1.18

A friend of mine sent me this short film yesterday which I'm not going to comment on because it speaks rather well all on its own. I will however agree with what she said in the email, this girl had one hell of a year.

2011 from hey_rabbit on Vimeo.

"I shot a little video every day of 2011 on my Canon Powershot, then I edited it all down to a little over a second each. It's interesting to be able to look back on my year and remember these little moments. I love living in LA. I love the friends I've made. And I love seeing how much has changed over just one year being here. Sure, I guess now that I see it, I got sick and worked a lot this year (lots of driving, running around doing errands all day). But oh well, it's motivation for 2012!"

Observations on 2011

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"2011 was the year the bottom shook the top, the year the ballerina danced on the bull, and "The Protestor" was named Time Magazine person of the year. The faces in our Year in Pictures pay testament and tribute to our contribution and to the benefit of standing up and taking action."

Observations on 2011

#STATEOFREVOLUTION: A 2011 Visual Retrospective of Activism in New York – SNEAK PEEK from Rhodes Pictures on Vimeo.

Observations on 2011

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Observations from the Coffee Shop 12.16

I mentioned yesterday how I don't have much use for the year end best of lists but I do like to look back at the past year. The Google video I posted had me looking at some others and I started to think of what I would pick as the story of the year if anybody cared to know my opinion. To me the Egyptian rebellion and its protests in Tahrir Square are the rather obvious choice. Why wouldn't I pick the Occupy movement? Because I think without Tahrir Square you would have never had Zuccotti Park, the first led directly to the idea for the second. Obviously something was bound to happen in the US sooner or later but I don't think it would have taken the form it did.

The Arab Spring actually began on December 17, 2010 when a street vendor in Tunisia set himself on fire to protest government harassment. This act sparked the Tunisian Revolution which forced President Ben Ali to resign on January 14^th after 23 years of power. That act inspired Egyptian opposition groups to declare January 25^th the 'Day of Revolt' and tens of thousands of protesters flowed into Tahrir Square where they would remain for weeks, sometimes in the hundreds of thousands. President Hasni Mubarak resigned on February 11^th but the military remains in power to this day and protests continue.

As I finished writing this I saw a report that protesters and Egyptian military police met in a series of bloody clashes in Cairo today. The clashes were sparked by a military predawn raid on the protester's camp near Tahrir Square. And so it seems to go all over the world.

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Interview with pro-democracy activist Miral at Tahrir Square Feb 1. 2011 for documentary Zero Silence. Interview by Gert Van Langendonck, camera work by Jonny von Wallström.

"Among other topics, the production will explore the impact of the Internet and non-traditional media such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter and whistle-blowing sites on the Arab world and beyond and to what extent these digital media tools can spur society change."
Zero Silence

Observations from the Window 12.15

It's that time of year again, all the best of lists are coming out now. The best of this, the best of that, the best movies, tunes, reads, and the best new toys. I should clarify, the best new electronic toys. It's really something I could do without but I do have a sentimental side that likes looking back at the past year before moving on to the next. Today I saw this video made by Google that made me think back.
It really has been one hell of a year.

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Zeitgeist is "the spirit of the times" or "the spirit of the age." Zeitgeist is the general cultural, intellectual, ethical, spiritual or political climate within a nation or even specific groups, along with the general ambiance, morals, sociocultural direction, and mood associated with an era.
Wikipedia

"To compile the 2011 Year-End Zeitgeist, we studied the aggregation of billions of queries people typed into Google search this year. We use data from multiple sources, including Insights for Search and internal data tools. We also filter out spam and repeat queries to build out lists that best reflect the spirit of the times. All of the search queries we studied are anonymous, no personal information was used."
Google Zeitgeist 2011