digitaldeities

european ossuaries

ossuary |ˈä sh oōˌerē; ˈäs(y)oō-|
noun ( pl. -aries)
a container or room into which the bones of dead people are placed.
ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: from late Latin ossuarium, formed irregularly from Latin os, oss- ‘bone.’

Sedlec Ossuary, Czech Republic

Easily one of the most incredible collections of human bones in the world, the Sedlec Ossuary in the Czech Republic is unlike anything else. The small church rests at the outskirts of Kutna Hora and is filled with the mortal remains of more than 40,000 people. The origins of the “Bone Church,” as it’s commonly known, are nearly as interesting as the array of bones. In 1278, an abbot named Henry made a pilgrimage to Jesus’ burial place and brought back a small amount of earth. He sprinkled the dirt over the Sedlec cemetery, making it holy ground. Suddenly, it was the most popular place to be buried. When the cemetery ran out of room, the previously buried bodies were dug up, starting in 1511, to make room for the more recently dead.

It wasn’t until 1870 that the excavated bones were put to use. That’s when a local woodcarver, František Rint, was employed to arrange the huge quantity of bones in an attractive way. Rint proved to be a true artist, creating the most amazing bone art the world has ever seen. A coat of arms on the wall depicts a raven pecking at a skull, the breathtaking bone chandelier uses every bone in the human body at least once, and the walls and ceiling are adorned with jaunty strings of bones and skulls. The chapel is a Christian church, not a cult or Satanic ritual space as is often rumored. The bones on display were simply removed from the ground to allow more Christians to be buried on holy ground. The resulting ossuary is maybe the most beautiful one on Earth.

Santa Maria della Concezione, Rome, Italy

Santa Maria della Concezione is a wonderful example of the fact that not everyone sees death as something to be feared. The church features the remains of more than 4,000 Capuchin friars arranged in artistic displays. Some bodies are complete and dressed in Capuchin robes, but most have been disassembled and are displayed individually as bones in artful designs. A plaque in the chapel tells visitors in three languages “What you are now, we once were; what we are now, you shall be.”

Chapel of Skulls, Czermna, Poland

The story of the Chapel of Skulls (or Kaplica Czazek) is almost more interesting than the actual display of human remains in this Polish church. Between the years of 1776 and 1804, a Czech priest and a local gravedigger spent many long hours exhuming bodies from the numerous mass graves in the Czermna area. They set aside the more interesting skulls (those will bullet holes or obvious maladies, or those of politicians) and took the rest to the chapel. Overall, they dug up somewhere in the neighborhood of 24,000 skeletons. Most of them are stuffed into the 16-foot underground crypt, but the bones of approximately 3000 people adorn the chapel in what the Czech priest liked to call a “sanctuary of silence.”

a reblog from:  Web Urbanist

PANTHEON - old school data visualization MANDALA

The great Roman Pantheon, built in 126 AD, was an immense 3D architectural mandala that could have been a map of the planetary orbits, read below ... old school data visualization at it's very best!!!

re-blog from: bldgblog.blogspot.com

"A testament to Roman architecture and engineering," NASA writes, "the Pantheon's dome is said to symbolize the vault of the heavens."

[Image: A "celestogramme," looking up from within at the dome of the Pantheon, by Wolfgang Wackernagel].

Seeing that, of course, makes it impossible for me to resist referring you back to BLDGBLOG's interview with Walter Murch, posted two weeks ago, in which Murch postulates a possible connection between the physical structure of the Pantheon itself and the heliocentric astronomical theories of Nicolaus Copernicus.
In other words, does the dome of the Pantheon "symbolize the vault of the heavens," as NASA writes, but in an unexpectedly literal way?
In the interview, Murch explains how he "superimposed Copernicus’s drawing [of the planetary orbits] over an image of the Pantheon’s dome – and found that the ratios of the circles in his drawing and the ratios of the circles of the Pantheon line up almost exactly. Seeing that alignment was one of those wonderful moments where you suddenly feel a strong current of connection with the past."

[Image: Superimposition, by Walter Murch, of Copernicus's diagram of planetary orbits over a celestogramme of the Pantheon by Wolfgang Wackernagel].

So is it just an interesting coincidence?
Murch goes on:

The circumstantial evidence [for a real connection between Copernicus's drawing and the structure of the Pantheon] is compelling, but there is no reference to the Pantheon in any of Copernicus’s correspondence or in the various manuscript versions of de Revolutionibus – so we will probably never know for sure.
Nonetheless, it’s a fascinating thought: that this magnificent temple, built 1400 years before Copernicus ever saw it, designed by a pagan, Sun-worshipping Roman emperor, and later transformed into a church, may have had secretly encoded within it the idea that the Sun was the center of the universe; and that this ancient, wordless wisdom helped to revolutionize our view of the cosmos.

If you haven't seen the interview yet, be sure to check it out. It's worth the read.

[Image: Inside the Pantheon; via].

Cement Immaculate

This building.. a modern Roman Church... is quite astounding!
A re-blog from the Web Urbanist Blog posting about Creative Concrete Architecture.

(images via: Mimoa and Daniela Brocca)

Concrete will continue to be essential in creating the buildings of the future, and new ways of using this ancient material are already emerging. One of the most engaging is the exquisite Jubilee Church, also known as the Parisch Church of Dio Padre Misericordioso in Rome, Italy. Designed by Richard Meier and completed in the year 2000, the church features a trio of soaring concrete arches which represent the Holy Trinity.

This video by Roberto De Angelis is a 3D-animation of the Jubilee Church composed as the highlight of his design thesis:

Roberto De Angelis\’ 3D-animation of the Jubilee Church

gun temples by AL FARROW

Many years ago, in a Juxtapoz magazine article, I saw these temples.  I have looked numerous times online and I have typed into google:  guns, temples, churches and bullets.. to no avail.  On a gallery walk through South of Market area in San Francisco Wednesday afternoon I entered the Catherine Clark art gallery and saw his catalog on the table! Allelujah!  This has made my trip even more satifying and inspiring.

Al Farrow bio from Catharine Clark website

Al Farrow was born in Brooklyn, NY and has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for more than thirty years. An accomplished sculptor in a wide variety of media from bronze to clay to assemblage, Farrow generally adopts the language of an historical period in his work, updating the imagery or materials to make cogent observations about contemporary society. Past projects have included bowls created in the style of the Mimbres culture, an indigenous people who lived in what is now the southwest and northern Mexico, and painted in their traditional single reed brush style with images of B-1 bombers, radiation symbols, tanks and other military images. In recent years he has used munitions—bullets, guns, hand grenades, bombs—to make three-dimensional projects that resemble Christian reliquaries, Islamic mosques and Jewish menorah. His work has been collected, reviewed and exhibited throughout the United States.

Icarus Crucified

progress ... the Van Alen Fellowship project proposal

Tying together many of my previous posts and research .. I was able to complete and send off a Fellowship Grant to Van Alen Institute on March 6, 2009.  We will see.. what opportunities my future holds!

The project area I focused on was CULTURE AND POLITICS here is what questions they ask.. that I tried my very best to explain below in my proposal!

This project area refers broadly to the ways social forms, norms, identities and institutions are constituted by and through spatial practices in the public realm. The Institute seeks a range of investigations that engage the following questions:

How is public architecture alternately constructed and occupied as a site of freedom, exclusion, resistance, control and uncertainty? How are public spaces made and unmade through social struggles over rights and access? How are they shaped by cultural conflict and political debate over representation? How does design in the public realm variously operate as a vehicle for historical, social, cultural and political meanings and values? What space do different kinds of bodies, behaviors and emotions take up in public? How do they belong or not belong in public life and how might we imagine alternative forms of belonging?

Topics in this project area may include monumentality, collective memory, propriety, property rights, everyday urbanism, identity politics, biopower, homeland security, defensible space, civil liberties, citizenship, geopolitics, multiculturalism, spectatorship and tourism.

Project Proposal – Culture and Politics - Carrie Mae Kreyche

Confiscated Weapons of Mass Construction is an installation of large Yantra symbols, geometrical combination's of circular diagrams used in meditative practice, made with thousands of recycled scissors confiscated from airport security procedures. Constructing these Yantras out of confiscated airport items and placing them back into public spaces, blends together the layers of ancient ritual and modern culture, bringing to the public realm reflections on safety, protection and the role of security measures.  This proposal illuminates how valuable the visual environment is to either soothe or disrupt the emotional and spiritual state of a viewer.     

Public spaces such as shopping malls, airports and motorways are what author Marc Augé calls ‘non-spaces’.  They are public space where individuality is left behind and everyone, especially after passing through security procedures at airports, is on the same level of identity because these public spaces are both everywhere and nowhere.  The public spaces of airports were redefined when the FAA began searching people in airports in 1972 and since 9/11, security measures have been tightened even more thoroughly.  The need for security and the public’s fear of attack makes current airport spaces fertile ground for stringent rules and regulations.  The accessibility and process of national and international travel has become an uncomfortable inconvenience or struggle for many passengers.  The lines are often long and personal space is invaded with random body searches and the confiscation of personal items.  

Most airports are built as spacious urban palaces, with high ceilings, modern materials and cutting edge architecture.  Many cities take pride in the architecture of these high traffic centers and more and more, numerous airports have also begun to hold art exhibitions and rotating shows in glass cases around the terminals.  John F. Kennedy, San Francisco and many other smaller city airports have commissioned artists to build provocative installations in the spaces.  Design in this public arena can operate as a vehicle for social and cultural dialogue. Whether immigration law, ecology or reflection on security regulation, the topic of an installation can bring cultural values to the forefront.  Barbara Kingsolver once wrote that the artists’ role is to be the canary in the coalmine, and when art is silent it means trouble. It is my goal to design an art installation for these public ‘non-spaces’ that will engage people in a deeply moving way. 

When people travel through airports and other busy public urban environments, they are often rushed and stressed.  In a group discussion about airport security lines, my research discovered the metaphorical comparison that the ritual many current day passengers experience while preparing for traveling is similar to the spiritual and cultural rituals that some ascetics have.  As an example, Gandhi owned only 12 items when he died.  (See Image 1 below).

Image 2 – The twelve items Gandhi owned before he died and a modern day suitcase 

The mental process of getting ready for a flight can parallel the preparation for your own spiritual journey (special packing, special clothes/shoes). There are also many traditions of ancient cultures that send deceased ones to the grave with special swords, weapons and other sacred items to ward of evil spirits. Our culture would strip away everyone’s ability to hold these items sacred.  We have even taken it to the absurd extreme as to take away craft and cuticle scissors. Blending the common set of scissors into ancient symbolism offers a playful and provocative (upon closer inspection) visual cue piquing the viewer’s awareness of modern rituals and rules, while offering a moment of harmony to a busy public space.  This project engages one to see and possibly imagine a myriad of other alternative forms to help feel a sense of belonging and to reclaim the materials they once lost in a security search. 

Placing a large symbol that is an archetype of unity in the collective memory of most cultures, touches people on a subconscious level.   Just like a pure resonant note can shatter a glass, the imprint of the beauty of perfection changes the mind and thoughts of a viewer.  Buddhist monks create large sand Mandalas, sacred geometric circular patterns, believing that as a result of viewing them, an imprint will be left that may help one to find greater compassion, awareness, and a greater sense of well being.  These symbols hold the essence of the macrocosm and microcosm, taking the viewer both inside themselves and outside to the world at large.  Circles bring harmony on an intuitive primal level and this is the language and depth this project speaks and creates from. 

The Confiscated Security Symbols Project uses scissors that were confiscated from passengers and then sold at auction to sellers who re-sell them on e-bay (See Image 2 below).  Currently, seventy-five pounds of recycled scissors from airport excess were purchased for this project from e-bay sellers and it is planned to attend an airport auction for direct purchase of larger quantities of thousands more scissors.  

Image 2 – Bulk confiscated scissors purchased from e-bay 

The two main goals of this fellowship are to complete a solid body of work to exhibit in the gallery during the final weeks and to complete more research about sonic theology, historical use of sound with Yantras and in sacred temples, from both the use of Mantras and older temples designed as acoustic resonators.   I would also continue researching the reoccurrence of sacred geometry and circle shapes in ancient cultures versus and today.  Advertising, pop culture and modern political times have changed the spiritual and ritual value of art.  In Walter Benjamin’s famous essay ‘The Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ he speaks of this shift where ‘mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependence on ritual. Instead of being based on ritual, it begins to be based on another practice – politics.’  Today, modern art critique’s first evaluate the quality of a piece of art on its exhibition value.  My project hope to reverse this function back to Walter Benjamin’s observations and first view the role of art as an instrument of magic and second as an work of art with high exhibition value. 

A larger collection of scissors will be purchased with part of the stipend, along with other materials used to build smaller prototype sculptures.  Gallery size sculptures and installations, which will test and explore different materials, attachments and styles.  These sculptures will be exhibited in the Van Alen exhibition gallery.  Below are some of the current prototypes of construction I have worked on this year. (See image 3 below).

The long-term goal of this project is to build a large-scale installation of thirty feet or more for an airport commission, an airline terminal or another public space.  Building these installations and eventually installing them in modern public spaces, such as airports, would allow a visual dialogue with the symbols that could touch thousands of people.  The result of this fellowship would also allow me to present my iterations, ideas, and prototypes to architects and engineers for collaboration to seamlessly install these works into a final chosen space.   Included below are some digital sketches I drew in 3D with the modeling program SolidWorks and a diagrams to scale in Adobe Illustrator. (See Image 4 below). 

 

My own artistic exploration began with creating mandalas out of found objects and sculptures that reflected my own personal need for boundaries and self-protection.  This focus has shifted away from my personal needs and now looks at these issues on a much broader scale - the scale of our entire nation and even our collective world memory. The concept of how protection has infiltrated our culture now interests me. What makes people feel safe? Security measures at airports? Spiritual support? Something else? What service do physical boundaries provide? 

My research answers this question: What brings a feeling of safety or protection? My own meditation practice profoundly changed me, giving me the ability to heal and to create my own personal definition of protection and boundaries.  Bringing these symbols to the public has a healing affect and helps people feel more uplifted, safe and centered in public spaces.   

Another deliverable, besides the scissor sculptures, is a well-formatted talk or panel discussion.  This discussion covers the historical uses of Sacred Geometry in temple building, Yantras, Mandalas, visual meditation tools and how symmetrical forms in nature all touch upon the universal mystery of perfection. A concept that recently inspires me is how the architecture from the Cistercian Order achieved its visual beauty through designs that conform to the proportional system of musical harmony.  These churches were acoustical resonators that transformed a human choir into celestial music and the founder St Bernard of Clairvaux said of their design, ‘There must be no decoration, only proportion.’  As much of my artistic pursuits have been about decoration, discovering the fundamental template with which the building of temples and Yantra symbols are organized, brings me a new level of understanding of their depth of perfection.

The Yantra comes from Vedic and Hindu cosmology and signifies the cyclical forces in nature, astronomy, and the worship of deities that are given abstract forms.  These forms and their meanings center and ground my current research and life work.  I am passionately drawn to the symmetry and perfection that the circles visual offer. 

Image 5 – Picture 1, Sri Ganash Yantra from http://www.artoflegendindia.com/details/HJAAB003_Shri_Ganesh_Yantra – Picture 2, Mark Pottenger’s planetary mandalas made by tracking with computer algorithm the planetary movement of Jupiter and Uranus from http://www.ccrsdodona.org/m_dilemma/mandalas.html - Picture 3, a diagram of the true stars which are aligned within the Jewish symbol titled ‘Star of David’ from http://www.jesus-kashmir-tomb.com/YantraStarofDavid.html. 

The studio space, publicity, and support of the Van Alen Fellowship would bring the artistic advantage of focus, clarity, and freedom.  A twelve-week residency would allow the necessary space and time to experiment further with different materials and construction options.  This experimental freedom is the foundation for the further success of this project. Through giving a workshop or public talk about this project, the public would be invited to look at the work in progress and dialogue about these important topics of homeland security, monumentality, and collective memory.  The publicity through Van Alen would bring valuable attention to this project to help me reach my professional goal of future collaboration and installation.

confiscated security symbols

My most recent experiment with confiscated airport scissors arranged in cement circles.

how it started...

golden ratio (up and coming fibonacci scissor series)

My goal this next few weeks is to draw a diagram in 3D (in solidWorks) of a sculpture I will build out of scissors ...  purposefully, this next concept needs to be at a level of complexity that is beyond the scope, time and measurement of my pen and paper skills.  Drawing a logarithmic spiral that has 55 clockwise spirals overlaed on top of either 34 or 89 counterclockwise spirals will give me a GOLDEN SPIRAL OF SCISSORS.  This I will build out of my confiscated recycled airport scissors.  I will use computer aided design and technology to envision and enable me to build quickly what would have previously taken months and months to calculate and create.

example of fibonacci numbers: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 601

1 + 1 =2,  2 + 1 =3, 2 + 3 =5, 3 + 5 = 8, 5 + 8 =13, 8 + 13 =21, 13 + 21 =34, 21 + 34 =55, 34 + 55 =89

Here are some of the many patterns of the golden spiral that are all around us... macrocosm to microcosm.

inside of the ear 

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/gen/page954.html

The Fibonacci numbers are Nature's numbering system. They appear everywhere in Nature, from the leaf arrangement in plants, to the pattern of the florets of a flower, the bracts of a pinecone, or the scales of a pineapple. The Fibonacci numbers are therefore applicable to the growth of every living thing, including a single cell, a grain of wheat, a hive of bees, and even all of mankind.

Stan Grist
 http://www.stangrist.com/fibonacci.htm (E)

The sequence, in which each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers is known as the Fibonacci series: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987, 1597, 2584, 4181, ...  (each number is the sum of the previous two).

The ratio of successive pairs tends to the so-called golden section  (GS) - 1.618033989 . . . . . whose reciprocal is 0.618033989 . . . . . so that we have 1/GS = 1 + GS.

The Fibonacci sequence, generated by the rule f1 = f2 = 1 , fn+1 = fn + fn-1, is well known in many different areas of mathematics and science.   However, it is quite amazing that the Fibonacci number patterns occur so frequently in nature ( flowers, shells, plants, leaves, to name a few) that this phenomenon appears to be one of the principal "laws of nature".

text above from: http://www.world-mysteries.com/sci_17.htm

Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Yury Gitman recommended I read this article and consider naming my thesis project along these lines -

Secure Yantra's in the 'Age of Mechanical Reproduction'

I went and read the entire article online and here below are the snippets that most resonated with me ... it is a lot of words to post, but worth the read.  He speaks about the transition from art being made as ritual and magic to art being made as politics and for monetary function.  It is my personal goal to bring the Sacred back into the making of fine art.

Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Walter Benjamin (1936)

An analysis of art in the age of mechanical reproduction must do justice to these relationships, for they lead us to an all-important insight: for the first time in world history, mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependence on ritual. To an ever greater degree the work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed for reproducibility. From a photographic negative, for example, one can make any number of prints; to ask for the “authentic” print makes no sense. But the instant the criterion of authenticity ceases to be applicable to artistic production, the total function of art is reversed. Instead of being based on ritual, it begins to be based on another practice – politics.

...........................................

Works of art are received and valued on different planes. Two polar types stand out; with one, the accent is on the cult value; with the other, on the exhibition value of the work. Artistic production begins with ceremonial objects destined to serve in a cult. One may assume that what mattered was their existence, not their being on view. The elk portrayed by the man of the Stone Age on the walls of his cave was an instrument of magic. He did expose it to his fellow men, but in the main it was meant for the spirits. Today the cult value would seem to demand that the work of art remain hidden. Certain statues of gods are accessible only to the priest in the cellar ; certain Madonnas remain covered nearly all year round; certain sculptures on medieval cathedrals are invisible to the spectator on ground level. With the emancipation of the various art practices from ritual go increasing opportunities for the exhibition of their products. It is easier to exhibit a portrait bust that can be sent here and there than to exhibit the statue of a divinity that has its fixed place in the interior of a temple.

...........................................

This is comparable to the situation of the work of art in prehistoric times when, by the absolute emphasis on its cult value, it was, first and foremost, an instrument of magic. Only later did it come to be recognized as a work of art. In the same way today, by the absolute emphasis on its exhibition value the work of art becomes a creation with entirely new functions, among which the one we are conscious of, the artistic function, later may be recognized as incidental. This much is certain: today photography and the film are the most serviceable exemplifications of this new function.

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Magician and surgeon compare to painter and cameraman. The painter maintains in his work a natural distance from reality, the cameraman penetrates deeply into its web. There is a tremendous difference between the pictures they obtain. That of the painter is a total one, that of the cameraman consists of multiple fragments which are assembled under a new law. Thus, for contemporary man the representation of reality by the film is incomparably more significant than that of the painter, since it offers, precisely because of the thoroughgoing permeation of reality with mechanical equipment, an aspect of reality which is free of all equipment. And that is what one is entitled to ask from a work of art.

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from this website: http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm

Shri Ganesh Yantra + Star of David + Jupiter and Uranus Mandala

I was looking at the Jupiter to Uranus Planetary Mandala.. from the Planetary Mandalas I was just posting about last .. makes me seriously contemplate the roots of some of the chosen Vedic Yantra patterns.. the geometry is so similar.. an ah ha moment for me! For all the books I have read lately about Yantras .. none of them mention this conclusion and connection to the stars.

I did a bit more google research .. and here you go!!

THE STAR OF DAVID

The Star of David
Solomon's Seal
Astronomy and Pythagorean Mathematics

The Star of David, a six-sided star or hexagramis known among Hebrews today as Mogen David (perhaps similar is Latvian Mi(r)dzina Tauta = the (star) folk sparkles) It was also called Solomon's Seal and consisted of two interlaced triangles.

The Star of David is appropriately called a "STAR" and - in a "very speculative" view - it represents a double-triangulation which "maps"
the position of the major stars of the heavens with the major axis along the Milky Way from Sirius to Aquila.

AND
another website here is calling this Yantra the Shri Ganesh Yantra .. full circle back to Lord Gana .. perfect!!!

some more that I like from the this wesbite: http://www.ccrsdodona.org/m_dilemma/mandalas.html

Sacred Acoustics and Janet Cardiff

This last week I heard about this artist below who created an installation with 40 speakers that played 40 different voices and you could experience the song from many angle as you walked through the room.

I was also reading in a Sacred Geometry book (by Robert Lawlor) about the Cistercian Order who achieves visual beauty through designs which conform to the proportional systems of musical harmony. Many of the abbey churches were acoustic resonators transforming human choir into celestial music. St Bernard of Clairvaux, who inspired this architecture, said of their design, 'There must be no decoration, only proportion.'

JANET CARDIFF
Materials: 40 loud speakers mounted on stands, placed in an oval, amplifiers, playback computer

Duration: 14 min. loop with 11 min. of music and 3 min. of intermission

Comments by the artist:
"While listening to a concert you are normally seated in front of the choir, in traditional audience position. With this piece I want the audience to be able to experience a piece of music from the viewpoint of the singers. Every performer hears a unique mix of the piece of music. Enabling the audience to move throughout the space allows them to be intimately connected with the voices. It also reveals the piece of music as a changing construct. As well I am interested in how sound may physically construct a space in a sculptural way and how a viewer may choose a path through this physical yet virtual space.

I placed the speakers around the room in an oval so that the listener would be able to really feel the sculptural construction of the piece by Tallis. You can hear the sound move from one choir to another, jumping back and forth, echoing each other and then experience the overwhelming feeling as the sound waves hit you when all of the singers are singing.”

janet cardiff website here

corporate logos as occult symbols

Today I was searching the internet for corporate symbols that are popular, easily recognizable and people have some sort of familiarity, association or reaction to them.  The corporate meme** is some how felt by viewing the symbol.  I will use these to lead a discussion on how mandalas, circles and yantras create a feeling and hold a space of consciousness.  This is an easier angle to share about then my previous presentation were I bumbled in trying to discuss the types of deities that are used and felt in Vedic and Tantric Yantra ritual. 

examples below of popular symbols from screen shots off the internet.

**meme |mēm|   noun
an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, esp. imitation

            
    
  
     
    

  

row 1(left to right)
Trojan condoms, Nike, BMW,

Chanel Fashion
row 2
Louie Vuitton, BP - British Petroleum,  McDonalds,

the musician Prince
row 3
Olympic games, swastika, deputy sheriff belt buckle,

deer crossing
row 4
6 pointed star, NA - Narcotics Anonymous, celtic cross,

Yin Yang Symbol

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tonight I also came across this awesome post below from this blog: http://illuminatusobservor.blogspot.com
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Corporate Logos as Occult Symbols, The Vesica Piscis

The Vesica Piscis, two interlinked circles, is also known as "the Yoni". The name "yoni" refers to the middle portion of the interlocking circles, is derived from the Sanskrit meaning, "divine passage". That the yoni is the feminine, the yoni should be viewed such that the divine passage becomes a correlation to sex, or male/female union. It is this correlation, and its relation to rebirth and regeneration that remains a basic truth at the very core of Occult structural foundations.

And seeing how "vice" is used as a means to advance and preserve the philosophy, what better vice than that of "materialism", and what better symbol of "materialism" than that of "the MasterCard", which enables materialism beyond many a person's economic means?

However, this symbol is found in many a corporate logo. How about Chanel?

The famed Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California?

And of course, KOOL Cigarettes

It is all very cool when you begin to see that things are not as they appear, and the reality of the Construct begins to burst open like a bud before your eyes.

Imagine a clever code for G-d hidden here, in the corporate symbol for Gucci? And some would only see the Vesica Piscis!

Posted by Dennis Fetcho

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a comment from this blog also mentioned:
Other names for it include the mandorla and the marriage symbol, and other advertising examples include double tree hotels, the band "double o," yoga booty ballet, DC shoes, dolce and gabbanna, candlewood sweets, and too many more to list. 

.............in order, I looked them up below

   
         

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and of course.... VANDANA JAIN mandalas ... mandalas made entirely from corporate logos

from  artcodex.org

STONEFRIDGE: A Fridgehenge

reblogged from:  http://weburbanist.com

Stonefridge: A Fridgehenge

Stonefridge, as it is aptly name by its creator, is a fridge henge - a version of stone henge created entirely out of used refrigerators and set in the barren semi-desert landscape of New Mexico on the edge of Santa Fe.. Refrigerators of all colors, shapes, sizes and vintages stand on top of one another and stack to a height of nearly twenty feet and a hundred-foot diameter circle. It is an “anti-monument” to American waste and is aligned not with solar, lunar or stellar phenomena as the original Stonehenge but rather with the infamous historic atomic explosions of Los Alamos. (Source)

Electronic Shamanism

The name caught my attention... this show is interesting.. and if I lived in Toronto I would go see it.

Electronic Shamanism

Jackson 2bears & Ted Hiebert, Joseph Lefevre & Martine Koutnouyan, Geoffrey Pugen and Alyce Santoro

Curated by Min-Jeong (M.J.) Kim.

January 23-February 28, 2009

Opening reception Friday, January 23, 8pm

InterAccess is pleased to present Electronic Shamanism, an exhibition of four interactive electronic media art works from Victoria, Toronto, Montreal and Texas that incorporate kinesthetic interaction and a wide range of sensorial engagements to examine the similarity between the shamanic experience and our interactions with high technology. The works in the exhibition also consider technology as a vehicle and mediator of shamanistic experiences, bringing spirituality and technology together, combining age old rituals and emergent media.

Please join us on Friday, January 23 at 8pm for a special opening reception, with an interactive performance by Victoria based artists' Jackson 2bears and Ted Hiebert.

More about the works in the exhibition:

Bringing together contemporary techno-cultural studies and indigenous teachings, 2bears and Hiebert's (Victoria) performance Electronic Shamanism is a study in the manifestation of an alternative self through the application of technology and trance. The performance incorporates experimental sound and video, brainwaves, neurofeedback and hardware self-hypnosis techniques to create an ever-looping process of self evaluation and activation.

Joseph Lefevre & Martine Koutnouyan's (Montreal) The Shaman's Space is an interactive web installation that prompts gallery goers to take on the role of shaman: they wander through this cyber realm, meet spirits of the past, become friends with a family of Siberian bears, beat on caveman drums and float through the air. This uncanny yet welcoming world converges with reality through links acting as mediators connecting the human and the sacred, the real and the imaginary.

Toronto's own Geoffrey Pugen's Aerobia is a whimsical interactive piece that seeks to identify a person's inner animal and manifest it spiritually and physically. Participants enter a lycra-enclosed cocoon-like structure where they are prompted to discover their inner animal through a video that is reminiscent of a 1980s instructional workout video. This playful piece promotes the rediscovery of human beings� primitive urges to revisit their deepest subjective animal desires.

Finally, Texas based Alyce Santoro plays with notions of past lives and other world life. With Sonic Dress, communication with the past is made easy through this playful piece created out of woven audio cassette tape that, when rubbed with a special glove, culls forth voices of other times. Likewise, in Satellite Dish Hat, the participant is able to connect with otherworld beings through pseudo scientific interaction. For Santoro, anything in our everyday life can be interacted with as a sacred object that inspires us spiritually and connects us with the spiritual world.

InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Centre.

9 Ossington Avenue

Toronto, Ontario

416-599-7206

www.interaccess.org

notes from colleen

I just found the email from colleen about our reviews.. she took good notes. Here they are...

Carrie Mae 

Colleen: Very clear and interesting concept! Focus on the site. Instead or before going phys/comp, really go for and investigate the site, how to make a proposal for an airport or respond to an RFP, and make many many mandalas to really work with the material and mounting. (studio time, yay!) 

Eric: Art making background -- is user surveys/design process all new to you? How has it influenced your work? (a project that could relate to more people, larger scale). Large-scale public installations are on the border between design and art. Need to think about a commission of people who are not artists, look at how to make a big commission to work. Not one to undermine the security apparatus. Need to think about the viewers and the people with the $. Christo, ephemera, to be in galleries. Maquettes, prototypes, sketches. Better when the scissors carry the aesthetic weight of the piece. Choose your battles. 

Bobby: on board with the physical manifestation of protection in the yantra with the confiscated objects, think it is smart and very clear. Use of technology feels like a veneer. Like there's expectation of this here. How does tech relate to your idea? Number of scissors in a work could relate to the amount of scissors confiscated in a year, etc... use statistics. Terrorism is the anomaly. Don't do it in a gallery. Do it in the hyper-protected airport space. To put sacredness in a non-place is a really nice move. Christopher Janney.  

Zach: Agree with reviewers about technology. Not to think about tech in the final output, but in the in-between point. Coding, interaction, etc. to produce the visual output. Interested in the context. the interaction is asking the question of the person in the airport. What are you asking the person in the airport to do? Meditate? Specific meaning to the interaction and installation. What is it that you ask of people?

new DOMAINS DIAGRAM

click on diagram to see it larger