superficiel in depth

When I was a kid, like many other kids of my generation, I watched Japanese anime on TV. Names like Candy, Goldorak and Albator are common references in France. And one of the reasons is that many of those anime were co-produced between France and Japan. We were not really the Sesame Street culture.
There was one particular anime that stood out among dozens of them. I was 8 or 9 and hooked to the end (actually I never got to watch the very last episode). It bore the most exciting title: "Les Mystérieuses Cités d'Or" (The Mysterious Cities of Gold) and with a mix of history, poetry and science-fiction, it tells the most exciting story - In 1532, Esteban, an orphan believed to have the power to call the Sun (he would be the "son of the sun"), leaves Spain at 12 to follow an intriguing sailor and adventurer, Mendoza, to the New World to look for his father. On the road, he befriends two kids his age: first, Zia, an Inca and then Tao, the last descendant of the Mu empire. In Peru, they travel on the path of the cities of gold while trying to escape the pursuit of the Conquistadors who believe they are the keys to immense treasures.
I'm pretty much convinced that this anime triggered most of my life callings: traveling, history and politics.
Maybe I'm being simplistic but I can't remember before that time this intense need I had pretty early to expand my horizons widely, and this awareness of the links, bridges and breaks between civilizations and of the wastes and damages a conquering people could provoke upon a defeated one.

Admire the construction of the opening credits, a sort of Powers-of-Ten that builds up the excitation to a dramatic resolution carried by the song.
The first seconds and the narrator's voice still have quite the same commanding effects on me.



--Joëlle

Labels: Anime, History, Politics, Traveling

It's already the 4th one and somewhat since my first post about it in January, I managed to skip mentioning it in this blog.
Yet, it's been exciting in general to see people from different backgrounds come together and it's been a real pleasure in particular to work with Jocelyne, David, Stefane, Jean-Baptiste, Vincent, Maurin and other people around this event. We got a lot of feedback from people interested to get involved in such a community bridger for Paris and around.
The Dorkbot Paris website give some accounts of each event: #1 in Ars Longa, #2 at La Pêche, #3 at Mains d'Oeuvre. #4 will take place at Confluences. Jean-Baptiste documented the first 2 with pictures, there's a video of Emmanuel of the 3rd and more pictures of Dorkbot Paris on Flickr.

Here's the program for #4 at Confluences:

Thursday the 24th of May from 7 to 9pm
Confluences - 190 bd de Charonne, 75020 Paris
(métro Alexandre Dumas)

- Larsen magnétique, by Vincent Bondet
- Dessin animé en temps réel, by Renaud Chabrier
- House Of Natural Fiber, by Vincensius ‘venzha’ Christiawan
- Monkey_Party, DVD interactif et générateur vidéo aléatoire, by Projectsinge
- Opendork (for whoever wants to show something)

In collaboration with CC Network festival, we're also planning 2 workshops around the same time:

- Initiation aux studios modulaires logiciels, with Jere, Elektrokami and Kro
24th, 25th and 26th of May at Ars Longa - 67, avenue Parmentier, 75011 Paris
Inscriptions : 01 43 55 47 71 - eric.genissel [at] seeusoon.net
Free entrance

- Circuit bending, with, among others, David Steinberg and Emmanuel Ferrand
25th of May at Confluences - 190 bd de Charonne, 75020 Paris
Inscriptions : 01 40 24 16 34 - vincent.rioux [at] confluences.net
Free entrance (bring your toys or instruments to modify)


Dorkbot Paris #5 will take place the next 20th of June at Ars Longa.
Of course, if you'd like to show something for this session or another one, let us know!


--Joëlle

Labels: Dorkbot Paris

Last fall and last winter, I traveled to Japan and to Israel, along with small trips here and there.
It took me some time to develop the pictures, select them, put them online. Now it's done.
I hope you'll enjoy the 3 different sets, without music this time. I invite you to set your own mood and let me know what fit well according to you.
The first set, In the garden of light and dark, follows some of my paths into the Japanese gardens I went to film for my Abstract project.
The second set, Faces and shadows, introduces you to some of the incredible people I met in Japan, along with faces of strangers I just glanced at.
The third set, Color me good, starts in the Sinaï where I went to spend holidays with Bertrand and Martin and back in Israel where the Mitzpe Ramon crater and the Dead Sea offered strange colors to catch.
All pictures were taken with my Contax T2, except for the pictures taken in Normandy from the last set that were shot with my Lomo camera.

Finally, I chose to use my Flickr account to only host the pictures I take with my camera phone. It's not always significant but I find some of the results interesting, especially the ones with light effects.

--Joëlle

Labels: Flickr, Israel, Japan, Photography, Traveling

The Passages Installation developed at Media Lab Europe in the Human Connectedness group will be exhibited from the 9th to the 16th of May 2007 between La Maison Pop in Montreuil (France) and the Distance Lab in Forres (Scotland).
Passages is a public space installation that aims to connect intimately people in different cities. This installation presents the random passer-by with a moving and transiting experience where he/she has to engage the entire body to uncover the possibilities of a relationship with a stranger.
More info on the project
More info on the exhibition (in French)

At this occasion, a conference between myself and Wolk Ka, artistic director of Res Publica, digital Performance art Company will take place at the Maison Pop on Friday the 11th of May at 8pm.
We will discuss the new types of relationships emerging from the mediation of technologies.

Looking forward to see you there.

--Joëlle.

So now that we have our own Bush/Berlusconi/Aznar mix, we can finally concentrate on not repenting ourselves, on being healthy and in shape, on being beautiful, on learning strictly market-useful knowledge, on having high morals, and on respecting the law and order. I'm so excited to join the world where I will know the difference between the good and the evil, the beautiful and the ugly, the true and the wrong. I personally can't wait.
Also, I can't wait to work more to earn more. I'm surely not working enough because I don't earn a lot of money. Really I need to understand how to do it. I mean I work about 7 days a week, and I wake-up turning on my computer. And I also go to sleep with it. Well, of course, I know it doesn't count when my computer plays music or a movie. But really I try to keep the distractions as occasional as possible. I know what I'll do. I'll stop going on vacations and I'll stop meeting up my friends for drinks or for dinners. I'll stop going to exhibitions where there's anyway only ugly art exhibited, and I'll stop taking singing lessons because we all know I can't do a business out of it. Shall I keep yoga though? I was advised by my new president that sport is good for me. But wait, if I have to work more, when will I find the time? Maybe I should sleep less too and stop making love 'cos well, it's time taken away from my computer. It'll be hard to explain to my boyfriend that I can't see him as often because of my work but I'm sure he'll understand. And if not, well, that's OK cos I have my work to hang out with.
I'm so glad I don't have children because I'd have to explain to them why I have to stop spending time with them because I have to work more to earn more.
I'm convinced now: I want to live to work. That's my goal for my life. To live to work. Isn't there a more beautiful purpose, a stronger accomplishment, a higher ambition than that? To work, to make money? No certainly there can't be.
Thanks Mr Sarkozy to have taught me the real values of life.

--Joëlle

People get tensed around here. I have a hard time focusing on my work, my life. We're all floating. Even at my yoga class, we had to talk about it. Sunday, we'll know. And we'll be able to resume our lives. In what world... we don't know yet.
That people can vote for Sarkozy I really don't get.
I don't get how they can vote for someone who wrote the French publication foreword for Gianfranco Fini's book.
I don't get how they can vote for someone who wrote in his program "Work is Freedom" when we know what it refers to.
I don't get how they can vote for someone who said we have to make the difference between the beautiful and the ugly - he'll have to tell me what "beautiful" means exactly.
I don't get how they can vote for someone who spent months dragging the extreme right-wing voters.
I don't get how they can vote for someone who offers to work more to earn more when we know it's not a question of working more but of working better.
These are just a handful of reasons. Most other ones lie in the Socialist party program. You have to hear and see her defending it. She's tough. She's righteous. From education and research to environmental issues and employment, what she proposes is a breath of fresh air, a strong vision for our future. She clearly stated that our task is to build our society based on innovation and knowledge. I'ts ambitious, it's long-term, it's broad. None of Sarkozy's little scheme to reduce whatever big corporations can save out of nothing. Ségolène Royal is defending a creative and imaginative enterprise. Sarkozy is all about same ol', same ol' recipe we already know about that is a perfect plan for failure. The danger there is that more than failure we'll have to bear 5 years of retrograd politics that we'll take us back way behind where we are now, which is already so fragile.
Should there be any doubt, just wonder about the political achievement you care for the most and imagine it being taken away from you. Nothing should ever be taken for granted, especially in politics.

--Joëlle.