Threshold performance /Global installation by Polyxene Kasda in 1990

From the bottom of a lake to the planetary dimension

In 1990 the waters of the Lake of Mornos in Greece, not far from Delphi, receded for a very short period of time, because of the draught, revealing a sunken hellenistic city and a village with a fantasmic stone church all covered with oysters. Photo documentation by Stefanos Samios.

It was a perfect metaphor for our shifting perception in the other side of the mirror at that time, formulating theories on chaos, dispersive structures, fractals in the catoptric room of the world, immersed in another time duration.This was the scenery for my threshold performance Persephone on the rising foundation-stone altar, leaving behind my first earth installation Chrysalis1.

Digging out of the mud of the altar Something Essential Missing 

Chrysalis installation of mud biodegradable sphinxes setting once more the Enigma of the Sphinx redefining human beingness.

A chrysalis on the hellenistic mosaics in the bottom of the Lake of Mornos 1990

its powerful momentum crashed in another installation in the precipice Chaos Aghias Triados on the way to Lavrion, Greece 1990.

Down in the waters of the Styx, Peloponnese, Kalavrita

and was extended in a polycentric documented risky installation in 13 special sites all over Greece by interactor Alex Tsantoulas.

Deep inside the 1,200 m2 cave of Hermes, at an altitude of 1.750 m on the slope of mountain Zeria Ano Korithia Peloponese

In the Museum of Modern Art of Joensu Finland in the PAND conference Meeting of the Worlds 1990, the project was launched as a persona-effacing / co-creative geocaching installation, which was realized in 300 sites in 27 countries all over the globe through the creative participation of hundreds of interactors.

The colossal earth installation soon melted in the rain releasing the dynamic relational web diagram of its interactοrs' timelapse arrows, as early as 1990 forecasting the advent of the webs.

Its repercussions lasted for the next 25years, under the heading Project Myth/Network 1990-2015 a stretched- now experiment on our spatiotemporal shift in the deep interface of liturgical timelessness and empirical time.

The polycentric global interactors' simultaneous documentation in the State University of Cleveland Ohio, the Municipal Center of Athens.... was augmented by a UCT world -on- the- make libation happening 15-2-1991 in the 27 countries, simultaneously.

"Myth/Network is a state which is configured as much by the artist as by the participants in her growing interactive web. It is an open system that evolves on many ontological levels.. the old system of art centered on the artist-emitter and the passive audience is transformed into a living system-network of the international creative society”.

Elzbieta Koscielak, ΑICA art critic, “Myth/Network: The vision of an open system in Art”, The Network, Govostis, Athens 3/2/1991.

http://Polyxene Kasda.blogspot.com

The village and the hellenistic city Kalion were reimmersed in 1990 under the waters of the Lake of Mornos, where they still are.

The Observatory of Corfu (1924-1940), Astronomical Society of Corfu, Corfu, 2003, a book by George Zoumpos

The existence and activity of an observatory in Corfu from1924 until 1940, as well as that of an Astronomical Society (the first in Greece) since 1927, is only known to a few people (even among Corfiots).
His existence came forth in April 1989, when complaints were lodged about the demolition of the remaining dome of the installations. The demolition was unfortunately not avoided, but a long search began, in order to gather information, so that the history of this very important scientific movement of the Middlewar could be recorded.



The search lasted thirteen year, as no worthwhile information with respect to the activity of the “Astronomical Society” was to be found. Its library and astronomical instruments were lost, and the main source of information is the magazine Urania and newspapers issues of the time.




It is difficult to estimate the work and offer of the “Astronomical Society of Greece” as, beating the difficulties in communication, that seem enormous even for today’s technical achievements, it managed to create an extended network of members and correspondants in Greece, as well as abroad. Even though it was but an amateur society, it gathered around it a great part of the Greek scientific community, and ensured the collaboration of many foreign scientists.


Felix Lamech


Trough the pages of Urania much knowledge concerning astronomical phenomena was brought down to the public, and many scientific problems of the time were presented.
A series of photos which are most likely to have come from the Reading Room and Library of the “Astronomical Society” are kept in the Public Library of Corfu, and copies of the photos in question were for the present edition
The Observatory of Corfu (1924-1940), Astronomical Society of Corfu, Corfu, 2003

George Zoumpos,
ISBN 960-87864-0-1

George Zoumpos

George Zoumpos graduated from the 2nd Junior High School of Corfu in 1976, and from the Mathematics Faculty of the Patras University in 1980. Today he teaches at the 1st High School of Corfu. He wrote his Ph.D. between the years 2000 and 2004, at the Faculty of History of the Ionian University. Its topic is “Mathematics in the Ionian Academy (1824-1864)”. While writing, he was supervised by Professor Nicos Karapidakis. He has written the following books: “The fortification of Corfu until the 18th century and the siege of 1716”, (Enimerosi ed., 1996) and “The Observatory of Corfu (1924-1940)”, (Astronomical Society of Corfu, 2003). He has participated in conventions presenting papers regarding the History of Sciences, the culture of the Ionian islands and the Observatory of Corfu. He is currently writing a study about the history and course of the philharmonic society “Mantzaros”, the short-lived philharmonic society “Samaras”, and the “Robotis School”.

Wondering about the mysteries in the sky starts in the craddle ...

Posted by Pierre Chirouze

Une pensée, aimablement fournie par Guillaume Pajeot de K-droz, France.

"
L’espace et le cycle de la vie
Les astrophysiciens nous content cette belle histoire.
Nous sommes tous fils et filles des étoiles. Chaque atome de notre corps est né dans le cœur d’une étoile. Cette étoile, en mourant, a répandu ces atomes dans le vide interstellaire.
Le soleil, notre étoile, irrigue continuellement la Terre de ces rayons qui alimentent tous les grands cycles et assurent le maintien de la vie biologique.
Un jour le soleil à son tour mourra et dans son agonie enflera jusqu’à engloutir la Terre, reprenant une part de cette matière laissée jadis par une de ses aïeules.

Space and the cycle of life
Astrophysicists tell us this beautiful story.
We all are sons and daughters of stars. Each atom in our body was born in a star’s heart. While dying, this star spread atoms into the interstellar void.
The sun -our star- continuously waters the Earth and its rays power all the great cycles that sustain biological life.
One day the sun will die also and in its agony will inflate up to swallowing the Earth, taking back a bit of this matter left by one of its ancestors.

"

Pierre Chirouze
01 7240 6763 - 06 1313 0865
p.chirouze@k-droz.fr
http://k-droz.fr/

Tristesses de la lune

Tristesses de la lune

Ce soir, la lune rêve avec plus de paresse;
Ainsi qu'une beauté, sur de nombreux coussins,
Qui d'une main distraite et légère caresse
Avant de s'endormir le contour de ses seins,
Sur le dos satiné des molles avalanches,
Mourante, elle se livre aux longues pâmoisons,
Et promène ses yeux sur les visions blanches
Qui montent dans l'azur comme des floraisons.
Quand parfois sur ce globe, en sa langueur oisive,
Elle laisse filer une larme furtive,
Un poète pieux, ennemi du sommeil,
Dans le creux de sa main prend cette larme pâle,
Aux reflets irisés comme un fragment d'opale,
Et la met dans son coeur loin des yeux du soleil.

— Charles Baudelaire

Sorrow of the Moon

More drowsy dreams the moon tonight. She rests
Like a proud beauty on heaped cushions pressing,
With light and absent-minded touch caressing,
Before she sleeps, the contour of her breasts.
On satin-shimmering, downy avalanches
She dies from swoon to swoon in languid change,
And lets her eyes on snowy visions range
That in the azure rise like flowering branches.
When sometimes to this earth her languor calm
Lets streak a stealthy tear, a pious poet,
The enemy of sleep, in his cupped palm,
Takes this pale tear, of liquid opal spun
With rainbow lights, deep in his heart to stow it
Far from the staring eyeballs of the Sun.

— Roy Campbell, Poems of Baudelaire (New York: Pantheon Books, 1952)

Excerpt from «Les fleurs du mal»

http://fleursdumal.org/poem/174
Photo of Charles Baudelaire
http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/12/29712-004-75ADF82F.jpg

Posted by: Poly Hatjimanolaki

The Bodies of the World, Luisella Caretta

I CORPI DEL MONDO,{ the Bodies of the world} Luisella Carretta 2008
250X130cm
natural colours, earth and sand from different parts of the world

Luisella Caretta

Luisella Carretta received her artistic training at the Accademia Ligustica di Belle Arti. In 1973 she completed her first drawings of the flight of birds. From that moment on she started to frequent scientific circles regularly, holding exhibitions at universities and Natural History Museums. In the 1986 she was invited to take part at the Venice Biennale in the Arte e Biologia section organized by Giorgio Celli. During this period she also went on a series of study trips to: Mexico (1987, 1995), Nepal (1989), the United States (1989, 1993, 2003), Canada (1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2001, 2005, 2007), Kenya, Tanzania (1990), Guatemala (1992), Norway (1993), Poland (1994), Colombia (1994), Argentina (1996), Ireland and India (1997), Iceland and Morocco (1998), Syria (2000), South Africa (2002, 2003), Macedonia (2004, 2008), Finland (2005). These experiences have offered her occasions for international contacts and the opportunity to take part in exhibitions and to stage installations in nature.
Bibliography: L. Carretta, Birds of Prey in Flight, Genova 1988; L. Carretta, Ethograms in the Sky, Genova 1990; L. Carretta, Journey to Mitchinamecus, Genova 1991; L. Carretta, Around Atlantis, Genova 1992; G. Giubbini, S. Solimano, Luisella Carretta: Mostra Antologica 1964-1995, exhibition catalogue, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Genova 1995; L. Carretta, Atelier Nomade, Campanotto, Udine 1998; L. Carretta Dove le pietre volano/Islanda, Campanotto, Udine 1999; L. Carretta In volo con le api, Campanotto, Udine 2000; L. Carretta Non volevo vedere l’orso, Campanotto, Udine 2002; Dissociazione e creatività/La transe dell’artista, by Vincenzo Ampolo and Luisella Carretta, Campanotto, Udine 2005 and Il mondo in una valigia/Atelier Nomade 2, Campanotto, Udine 2006.
http://www.luisellacarretta.it

K - Droz projects

Here is a sumary of the concepts that some members of K-droz, the French association have mentioned during the December 20 meeting.Those of us wishing clarifications or hoping to collaborate should write to contact@k-droz.fr and state the names of conceptor and project e.g "LEYZOUR. represent asteroids

Emergence

The Urania project is conceived as a system exhibiting emergent behaviour. An emergent behaviour or emergent property can appear when a number of simple entities operate in an environment, forming more complex behaviours as a collective. If emergence happens over disparate size scales, then the reason is usually a causal relation across different scales. In other words there is often a form of top-down feedback in systems with emergent properties. The processes from which emergent properties result may occur in either the observed or observing system, and can commonly be identified by their patterns of accumulating change, most generally called 'growth'.
Reasons for emergent behaviour include intricate causal relations across different scales and feedback. The emergent property itself may be either very predictable or unpredictable and unprecedented, and represent a new level of the system's evolution. The complex behaviour or properties are not a property of any single such entity, nor can they easily be predicted or deduced from behaviour in the lower-level entities. No physical property of an individual molecule of air would lead one to think that a large collection of them will transmit sound. The shape and behaviour of a flock of birds or shoal of fish as well as chess are also good examples.


Posted by: John Kontos