Prix Pictet Contest Winners- Photos on Global Water Crisis

Photo by Roman Signer

Check out this powerful video that shows the winning photos from the new sustainability photography award:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7701187.stm

Long Silent Voices Uniting in Chorus

I took a group of students to DC this October and one of our stops included The Torpedo Factory. Wandering through the complex and around the thousands of children and their parents actively making art during an open house, I discovered woodcut printer, Rosemary Covey, and her 0 Project (That's "Zero" Project.) Starting with a single image of a person speaking out / howling in protest / or being silenced - you choose, she has created an ever evolving installation and performance piece that is inspiring and exciting. She writes that the projects goals include:

."....express(ing) voicelessness but also the inverse, a howl of protest. The project demands response and response has come from sources worldwide—from musicians, writers, artists, photographers and others. In a very real way, their reactions are extensions of the artwork itself. And as the project develops, their reactions build on each other as well as on the artwork. One response is modified or amplified by another, and so on. Inevitably the project multiplies in the same endless manner as the original 0 art work. The project is designed to demonstrate that when art acts as a catalyst and invites responses, the ensuing dialogue becomes a form of art in itself."

I hope Covey can bring this project to the next Visualizing Human Rights Conference at UNC-Asheville next November. Until then check out the project's progress at http://rosemaryfeitcovey.com/0/

Visualizing Human Rights Conference

The Center for Global Initiatives at UNC Chapel Hill is hosting a conference billed as an anti-conference on Human Rights and the Arts. Called Visualizing Human Rights #1, this event will bring together artists whose work addresses human rights issues in unique and profound ways. A wide variety of media will be featured including documentary film, printmaking, performance, painting, installation, and photography. Go to http://cgi.unc.edu/vhr/ to register. If all goes well we will hold a bigger event next year at UNC-Asheville.

1,000 doors!

I have neglected this poor lonely blog for months now. My wife and I have been busy volunteering for the Obama Campaign every weekend. We have been part of a group that has knocked on over 1,000 doors, encouraging and speaking up for Change. My wife canvased one last time this past weekend while I was out with a youth group I help advise. Next we plan to help with driving folks to the poles, and voting, and holding our breath to see if it falls our way on November 4th.