Maybe not so useful web sites to see, but still enough interesting to check it, and understand better our future-present project in Turkey…
http://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/conservation/rainbarrel/
Dear DAI people,
I received yesterday an e mail form Willemijn Bouman.
Please read it, and check the web site that she send to us about Kozavisual organisation.
dear Ljubica i saw the DAI-blog on Cappadocia and enjoyed it! also want to encourage you to make email contact with Ozge Celikaslan from KozaVisual: http://www.kozavisual.org to exchange ideas. she knows the village of Irahimpasa/Babayan (where i live) also very wel from a Turkish point of view. and you should approach her, because KozaVisual already developed some very interesting video-projects. don’t hesitate to inform yourselves. good luck Willemijn
I have some more news. Please look this web pages:
http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/citizenship/environment.html
in the midst of several nuances, i was finally able to check out some of your sites buba…..first…..www.ess.co.at……was very a scientific…..and this intersted me as an artist….however i will return to this…..what i noticed first was the various rivers that had been part of some eco water study or correction……major world rivers…..the Yangtze…..and this made me think of the Nile….and the Ganges……and then thinking of the river as how it has functioned socially and culutrually and politically ….in history as a focal point for civilizations…….a type of dependence….indeed….major cities around the world are located near or at the base of major rivers…..this makes me think of our dependnce on the RIver…..spiritually…..that the river as a constant moving body of water has a different meaning to a lake….which has a different meaning to an ocean……in terms of how we develop a relationship with not only the water….but its form….the river,…the lake the ocean…….( which makes me think of people ….some people say they are water people……however….all people have some type of relatoinship to water beyond need……water does change people…..some more than others…..) yet to return to this…..and the history of various societies relationshiip to water is interesting in how we open up to the spiritual nature of water……..i beleive sometimes we are very stimulated by it…other times we close our minds to its beauty…….and essentially when i think of lakes and rivers and oceans….there is a permanent constant of beauty……and to be in the presence of a river …a lake ….an ocean…evokes a response in terms of our opennes to its beauty……..perhaps this is related to quantum physics….and the energy from water….in this though….looking at history…every civilization has recongized the power of the river…….that to be near to a great river….is important……obviously for physical needs….yet also just to look at a river is important…….to see water….to be near water….is the spiritual element……also in this site…., in the scientific discourse……i noticed the words ” ranking and benchmarking (objects)”…with visual art being primarily made of objects……this seemd like the sceintific process, if not art itself, a conceptual stance…..could be translated into an art project quite directly……..however this may be too easy…yet a possible strating point for a more complex approach to benchmarking…..to ritualize it……to give ti artifice………and then ” rainfall- runoff,” were words that excited me because i like rainfall……its fun to be in the rain….if one has the correct mood…….and then ” ground water”, i was thinking of underground water bed….s…or stream…s…..that there is mystic art of find water with sticks…….a metaphysical approach to science…..this is interesting………2. ” marilynarsem.net”….i loved her work and this site was quite bizarre in its formality……i think that addressing water issues with interventions like 1999 clear water….are immense and beautiful……that people need to have alternative ways and more poetic ways of looking at and relating to water…….which brings me back to the ancients…and how they related to water…..were people in these ancient civilization more respectfull of water…say Egypt and the NIle…….CLeopatra…ect……that also the masses…the everyday people… may have.also approached water more spiritually…..that when they drank from it….bathed in it…washed their clothes in it…there was a pshycoilogical and spiritual link….that in Modernist Civilization….there was a seperation from this spirituality…..to water…..that water just became used…and then misused……and this loss is one exploanations for the World Water Crisis…….our loss of sensitiviy to the beauty of water and immense beauty of nature…….abandoned for power and profit …or to it……in this too…i see Marilynarsems act as simple…and that there is a beauty in the simple….in the small…..act….that it does not have to physically great….to bring great change……that the small is monumental…….in some situations…and context…….or perhaps in all….this is up for question………
however, with this in mind….i have another proposal……i am interested in working with university students……
1. To ask students to measure their water consumption in a diary for two weeks…and then the following three weeks reduce their consumption….and in the difference between the two…the saved water……they can then take this amount and collect it and implement it in some way…..
My idea was that the students could be divided into two groups……and this be a competition…..where by each individual’s saved water is added to the groups total…..say team a……and team b does the same…….then team a and team b have a competition with this saved water……..1. the fisrt idea….was that it should be fun…..” a water balloon fight” that each team sets up a table with water ballons…..in the center of their univerisy or town in a public place….and they have a water fight….and the dryiest team wins a trophy…..and each team gets their pictures taken in a group…….ect….and this occurs every year…..as a sort of celebration…..festival…..competition…….
2. the second was more serious…..that each team could use their water to grow a small vegetable garden….and then when the vegetables grow…..they make a diner …and feed people in the town or city who would benefit…….like a charitable activity….
in this perhaps there would be a raising of consciousnes of water and its spirituality…..especialy the measureing of their consumption….but also an event they could celebrate with and bond over water…..
i realize this is a Western…and possible Colonial….idea for a nations, Turkey, with completely different customs….yet the world is global and water is global and equally culturally implemented in various similarities and needs……so a post colonial theory perspective is not relevent in this proposal……they can adopt our customs…and change them…and visa versa…..we can adopt their customs….why not…. and thats the important thing is this proposal is site psecific as much as possible….to their beliefs and values in terms of how they shape the idea…….anyways, if we constantly restrict our self to post colonial dogma and politcal correctness……..nothing creative will happen between cultures…….and now that i am addressing this point……i have to say… the “real” colonizer is not nations or civilizations…..it is technology…….
IN terms of a ”technology” …..” we should take 14 pairs of socks, 14 underware, and 14 shirts, and enough clothes so that when we are in Cappadocia….we dont need to wash our clothes there and thus reduce the waste of water…..while visiting….”
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just back from Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada, close to the arctic circle: they also have a lot of problems with water, wastewater and garbage there. Even though there was about 40 cm of snow when we arrived, the amount of annual precipitation is very small and the area is categorized as a desert: water is scarce. Part of the town and most of the smaller communities do not get water through a pipe system. Each house gets it delivered by truck every day into a tank. If there is a snow storm, the truck often cannot ride, and you have to ration your water, very quick showers, or none at all, if the storm lasts another day or two. In the same way, the waste water is collected by truck from the houses and is driven to the sewage lagoon at the end of town. Not such a problem in winter, when this lake of shit is frozen, but in the summer it stinks. And the animals, birds, and in some communities even the bigger animals, Caribou, that are hunted for food, started to feed from the sewage lagoons. Garbage is another big problem: everything that is brought there stays there and ends on the dump (machines, cars, building material, packaging, paper, plastic, beer cans, you name it). Due to the climate, the breakdown even of biological material takes much longer than elsewhere. And the dump grows and grows. They are thinking of solutions, but until now, they haven’t found any they could afford.
Next thing to check about some basic information about the water..This site is official site of the International Year of Freshwater 2003! It’s a bit old informations, but you can go inside and see a concept..
http://www.wateryear2003.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=1456&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
and this site- OPTIMA, is shorter name for Optimisation for Sustainable
Water Resources Management, and they are dealing with the questions concerning the water in Turkey..
I still don’t have an idea for the project, and I’m really looking forward for the next meeting, and discussion in May at DAI…
in the meantime I think that Kevin’s idea to call Madonna to pray with us for the water in Cappadocia is really good idea!! Hihi , I would like to see that…
Only thing which is certain until now is that Marina and me have idea for the performance in Cappadocia, and maybe it will be connected with the water…but we are still thinking about this option…
Dear DAI, or should I say dear Cappadocia people!
I find something about this issue, but in South Florida (Water Management District). You can find out more about water quality, flood control, water supply, ecosystem restoration etc..
You can check it on: http://www.sfwmd.gov/portal/page?_pageid=2754,19862620&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL
And this also.. I find this about the Turkey and water waste, actually, it was “actions” with schools and kids..maybe we can work something with young people?…I don’t know…
Eco-Schools Competitions: “Eco-Code” and “Eco-Project”
Eco-Schools in Turkey will have two challenging tasks this year, besides the environmental problems they are coping with! FEE Turkey decided to organise two competitions at national level. One of the competitions is the well-known Eco-Code competition, already been implemented in Portugal. The Turkish version of the competition is slightly different from the Portuguese one, requiring one eco-code sentence from each of the themes implemented in Turkey, namely litter & waste, energy, and water. However, we tried to keep the standards similar in order to prevent any difficulties in case the competition is transferred to an international level by the international coordination, as discussed in the Eco-Schools National Programme Managers meeting in Edinburgh. The other so-called “Eco-Project competition” aims to activate schools to develop innovative eco-schools studies against environmental problems they are facing, not only in their schools, but also in their community. The word “project” does not refer to a scientific study, but the whole concept of reporting to the coordination:
* how an action against an environmental problem started?,
* which method(s) are implemented to overcome the problem?,
* and what are the results achieved at the end of the study?.
The project is thought to be beneficial for encouraging pupils to develop innovative tasks against environmental problems and increasing their abilities to work in a project team and to report back their studies. The competition will also activate and revive the studies in the schools, which are not applying for the green flag for the current year. The deadlines for the competitions are determined as the end of March for Eco-Code and mid of May for the Eco-Project competitions. Results of both will be announced at the end of May, and awards will be presented in the National Green Flag Award Ceremony.
(November 2002)
Sorry, now is maybe to much..Ok, all this is just a product of surfing through the internet, and I ‘m not so sure that it can help at all, but, who knows, maybe somebody will have an idea how to “start” this process..
i was watching t.v., and there was a program on the water shortage and the crisis in Africa, to paraphrase, many nations in africa suffer from water shortage and unclean water, that (to paraphrase) people spend up to 200 million hours a day looking for water, and that many families, especially children spend many hours walking to wells, or rivers or ponds, often dirty water, which takes away from time spent in education and other activities, however, the positive news is that the situation has improved in africa in the last twenty years from the intervention of the West, and that in twenty to thirty years, they believe the situation will improve dramatically…
( now in this moment is a question of not changing Africans work habits surrounding water- perhaps spending many hours walking to a water source is important,- as this activity of searching for water may be culturally significant, however, clean water, one can suggest is always and universally to each culture a situation which must be available and addressed, as it is foundational) in this .my thoughts in this are that I , and possiblely we,not necessarily take forgranted clean water, rather use it in a type of unconscious way, a relaxed way or casual way ( i am searching for a word, one that you may know from your personal experience with water), which perhaps is different than those who are dealing with in “survivalist” ideology,…..in this i have begun to become more conscious about my water consumption….i spend less time showering…..and will use an alarm clock to time a five minute shower…….and when brushing my teeth and shaving will minimize the running water….in trying to develop a more intimate relations with water……( one idea is that we create a one week water diary to see how we use water….when and how much….and if there are recycle possiblities in the process) also while in a cafe, starbucks actually, there is a bottled water called Ethos, which donates 10 percent of its sale to addressing water crisis’s in the world, and hope to raise in several years 10 million dollars, in this the idea of the ethical consumer is very interesting, …..also a question on my mind is how does dutch society approach water, in a general way, ( including history, which is obvious with dykes and canals, etc, ships, trading, exploration,) yet this may be a question for our respective countries, Japan, Serbia, Holland, Canada, Indonesia, where do our nations stand on water issues…….and the environment and sustainability, first in a general way, and then deeper
Dear people,
I find today something about Marilyn Arsem (she is, and she was very important in the beginning of performance art),please check http://marilynarsem.net , and please click on projects, and then on 1999 “CLEAR WATER”.
I think it can be very interesting to see..