International Options

For the past Spring, I have been experiencing a prolonged emergence of fragrances, as the unseasonably cool & wet weather has left me drunk every morning before breakfast. every morning, my acupuncture- revived elderly dying dog & I take early walks, inhaling with every step to the tune of the birds. Eden today.

But all is not well in Eden, I am always aware of the fragility of this corner of the universe. Energy and human conflict preoccupy me.

In conversations with Dr Jim White of Instaar & Univ CO recently, the issue of serious trade-offs has come up repeatedly. There are NO simple solutions to the energy-global warming crisis. Any of the "solutions" to global warming-carbon emissions so far, have profoundly disturbing "side-effects," inc ocean carbon sequestration, for example.

The brick wall we keep coming up against is population increase= unsustainable energy demands. Every "solution" comes in conflict with finite resources and some vulnerable population-species-resource suffers unconscionably.

These conversations will be part of "Weather Report" for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Boulder, CO as well as at the Joseph Beuys Event Sept 6 @ the Venice Bienale.

In energy & human terms, I am interested in the gray areas of mixing up solutions. On my island, we are considering wind energy and the state of Maine is exploring tidal power. As most of you know, I try not to fly and now conduct much of my collaborative work virtually. In that vein of gray areas, I’m interested in the implications of the work of the artists cited below:

From Stockholm, Carl Michael von Hausswolff and Leif Elggren at the Venice Bienale:

“in 1992 they decided to declare themselves kings of their own country, one made up completely of the borders between other countries: the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea; the blue line between Lebanon and Israel; the porous line between Mexico and the United States.”

“In many cases their vast, far-flung territories can be measured only in conceptual terms, just as thousands of infinitesimal, invisible lines exist only on maps and in international law. Wherever borders are disputed, the lands of Elgaland-Vargaland can be measured in actual miles: its land, in other words, is no man’s land, the places that don’t quite belong to anyone.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/09/arts/design/09bien.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Conversely, I am appalled at the recent proposal from the UK, for academic institutions to blackball Israeli academics. I have been equally dismayed by the global silence in response. In these times, we need infinitely MORE dialog, not less.

From a colleague there:

“At the moment things here in Britain are spinning out of control … All of this is obviously very worrying for me, but also for everyone else studying here because the boycott attempt that the UCU (University & College Union) is currently running against Israeli institutions and academics seriously threatens academic freedom in this country. As you can probably imagine, the consequences of such a boycott will seriously affect my studies and those of many other people here. I hope that you will support my quest to oppose this boycott and to signal that there is opposition to this crazy idea of discriminating against academics merely because of their nationality. I know that there are many political opinions amongst you, but this is not a political question, but rather one of freedom of expression.

I would be very thankful if you would sign the following petition and forward it to all your friends, so that this initiative can become successful in achieving its aim of stopping the boycott: http://www.petitiononline.com/stopucu/petition.html “