a negative capability scrapbook
These trees are disappearing into the gloom of an autumn sunset and not even the rainbow can engolden them.
But there are trees great (some very great) and small waving in the wings. Leaves of many colours (and sizes) coating land and water. Pot-scourers, pining pines, pricey purple, poetry, prose, even some very sibilant sound.
If you want to join in the Festival of the Trees send a link to your arborial entry by the close of day, October 30th, to festival [dot] trees [at] gmail [dot] com.
I posted these pictures late last night, very tired, and this morning think they probably need some explanation.
They were taken on the coach from Fredrikstad to Oslo airport.
The first is of the young woman sitting across the aisle from me. She and two friends were heading off, somewhere, full of excitement and laughter, energy and optimism.
The second is me.
Yes, I am neither young nor full of energy (old and knackered!); I am not launching on new adventures. But although I might appear melancholy “thoughtful” would be more accurate – I’m listening to the divine Joan As Police Woman in concert in Amsterdam. Superb, despite the heavy cold she picked up in England.
And I’m optimistic and excited having, I think, succeeded in enthusing a new group of people about the current wonders of the Global Voices project and its future potential.
I’ve spent a lot of time mourning the young, glossy, happy and excited, energetic and optimistic self I never had/was. It changes and achieves nothing. Grasping and inhabiting the present is full of wonder.
Well there are no doubt many, many reasons. But what I’m thinking of here is my colleague Ethan who went to the Pop!Tech 2006 conference and appeared to manage to blog the entire event verbatim, in real time, with witty observations and links to and discussions of others’ coverage. How does he do that?
I, on the other hand, at a small and intimate conference in Norway, find myself far more inclined to blog about the picture in the main space at the Norwegian Institute of Journalism. Here it is, all four panels.
Now I find this rather ominous. Crows are considered birds of ill omen in many cultures across the globe and the bringer of the news of death.
Anyway, let’s get a little closer to the bird on the right of the picture…
… still can’t see it? let’s go right close up to that wing…
Yes. The harbinger of doom, the portent of death is composed of…. news(papers).
UPDATE Had I actually read through the above Wikipedia link to the end I might have worked out what I have now been told, which is that these birds are actually Hugin and Munin, raven servants to the chief god of Scandinavian mythology:
Hugin and Munin travel the world bearing news and information to Odin. Hugin is “thought” and Munin is “memory”. They are sent out at dawn to gather information and return in the evening. They perch on the god’s shoulders and whisper the news into his ears.
This sounds too much like the secret police for comfort so despite the greater relevance to journalism I still think the artist is subverting the profession. /update
So that distraction explains why I haven’t written up my notes to the (very interesting) afternoon sessions about journalism in Africa. The unvarnished outline appears, for the record, below the fold.
Well I am now, prompted by the question from one of the organisers.
I’m in Fredrikstad in Norway at the Norwegian Institute of Journalism conference on Free Media. (The conference will be blogged, apparently, but starting only on the second of the two days.)
The morning sessions were fascinating – veteran Nepali journalist and media activist Kanak Dixit talked about the role of journalists in the so-called Rhododendron Revolution and Babita Basnet talked about women’s participation in media.
Kanak Dixit talked about the egalitarian nature of Nepali print journalism – how everyone from a minister to a rickshaw driver might read the same paper and it would be in Nepali, not English; that the class split in journalism seen over most of South Asia (English for the aspiring middle and upper-middle classes, other languages for the rest) is not the case in Nepal where, he says, journalists are very close to the people. He asked whether journalists were leading the people in their thirst for democracy and peace or whether the people were leading the journalists.
Babita Basnet talked about the extreme under-representation of women in the media environment in Nepal but said there were more women entering the radio field which was a positive development.
Nepal has fallen off the mainstream media agenda since the events of April/May this year but Global Voices is still passing on what the bloggers are saying.
Now there is a debate entitled “Media Support, a viable path towards democracy?”. I am finding this less interesting, to be perfectly honest. A panel of three men standing up one after the other and reading prepared talks. Empower the people, say I. Citizen media. But then I would.
In an institute of journalists it wouldn’t be entirely surprising for a citizen media activist to be seen as something of an enemy. I’m here to talk about Global Voices and Blogging and Democratic Values but I’ve been told journalists here are particularly interested in the “gatekeeper” role between blogs and the mainstream media. Which in some circles can be code for “will you bloggers be putting us out of a job?”
Such a contrast to last week’s conference in Hungary which I still haven’t really written about. Here there is a small lecture theatre with eight rows of seats. In Tihany we were in a converted squash hall, 1000 delegates, two large auditoriums, parallel sessions. I’m such a nooob on the conference circuit it’s all fascinating to me.
This afternoon – sessions about Africa. Off now to lunch, if there’s any left.
Well I am now, prompted by the question from one of the organisers.
I’m in Fredrikstad in Norway at the Norwegian Institute of Journalism conference on Free Media. (The conference will be blogged, apparently, but starting only on the second of the two days.)
The morning sessions were fascinating – veteran Nepali journalist and media activist Kanak Dixit talked about the role of journalists in the so-called Rhododendron Revolution and Babita Basnet talked about women’s participation in media.
Kanak Dixit talked about the egalitarian nature of Nepali print journalism – how everyone from a minister to a rickshaw driver might read the same paper and it would be in Nepali, not English; that the class split in journalism seen over most of South Asia (English for the aspiring middle and upper-middle classes, other languages for the rest) is not the case in Nepal where, he says, journalists are very close to the people. He asked whether journalists were leading the people in their thirst for democracy and peace or whether the people were leading the journalists.
Babita Basnet talked about the extreme under-representation of women in the media environment in Nepal but said there were more women entering the radio field which was a positive development.
Nepal has fallen off the mainstream media agenda since the events of April/May this year but Global Voices is still passing on what the bloggers are saying.
Now there is a debate entitled “Media Support, a viable path towards democracy?”. I am finding this less interesting, to be perfectly honest. A panel of three men standing up one after the other and reading prepared talks. Empower the people, say I. Citizen media. But then I would.
In an institute of journalists it wouldn’t be entirely surprising for a citizen media activist to be seen as something of an enemy. I’m here to talk about Global Voices and Blogging and Democratic Values but I’ve been told journalists here are particularly interested in the “gatekeeper” role between blogs and the mainstream media. Which in some circles can be code for “will you bloggers be putting us out of a job?”
Such a contrast to last week’s conference in Hungary which I still haven’t really written about. Here there is a small lecture theatre with eight rows of seats. In Tihany we were in a converted squash hall, 1000 delegates, two large auditoriums, parallel sessions. I’m such a nooob on the conference circuit it’s all fascinating to me.
This afternoon – sessions about Africa. Off now to lunch, if there’s any left.
A guest post from the as-yet blogless Lucy Kempton for the forthcoming Festival of the Trees.
Meeting Tane mahuta was one of those jaw-dropping, lump-in-the throat moments.
In Maori cosmology, Tane Mahuta is the god of the forest, the son of the sky father and earth mother, who tore his parents apart, breaking their primal embrace, bringing light, air and space, so allowing life to flourish.
This avatar of Tane is a 2000 year old kauri tree in Northland, New Zealand. It is impossible to convey the scale of these trees in a photo; their feeding roots are near the surface and delicate, and you cannot approach them too closely, which seems only appropriately respectful. The movement of the dappled forest light on the texture of the bark seems to be emanating from the tree rather than simply reflected, and a whole unattainable world exists in the branches.
Some days later, walking on a headland overlooking the Pacific, I met Tane Mahuta again in microcosm, this time in this lichen covered old fence post!
Yesterday we had a reunion of the meditation course taught by Alistair on Holy Island in August.
London rather than Scotland was the venue this time, the highlight of the day being meditating in the beautiful shrine room at the Kagyu Samye Dzong Tibetan Buddhist Centre.
People came from Dallas, New York, Germany, Scotland, north London. Childcare duties meant I was late, very very late, joining the proceedings but I made it to the shrine room just as the meditation ended. And everyone there was wearing a mala! I noticed this particularly. The reason soon became clear as Jonathan uncurled from his cushion like a cat, holding out the string of beads pictured above. He had brought one for everyone, each different, each with individually designated recipients.
Alistair talked about the importance of individual practice and not relying on the group, which makes a lot of sense both in practical as well as spiritual terms. But there is something very special about the gestalt of this group of people which came together around the course.
Just as each of the beads on this mala is individually exquisite – the graining luminous as tigers eye, the perfume of sandalwood, the smooth sheen of the surface almost soft to the touch in its lustre – so with everyone in the group.
But before I get too carried away with extravagant similes I have to confess that the real world soon took its toll on my beautiful mala. Originally the cords at the end were much, much longer. Unfortunately that night the cat got into my room, found the beads on my bedside table and chewed the cords. I had to cut them off short.
A feline lesson in the dangers of attachment I suppose.
I was too young to see The Ascent of Man by Jacob Bronowski when it was first broadcast. But I am definitely old enough to shake my head and tut sadly about the appalling decline in standards of science programming since my youth. Look at this for a profound and thought-provoking example of engaging with the audience without the slightest sign of patronising its collective intellect.
This reminds me of a fascinating conversation I had with my friend the artist Ruth Maclennan about her work We saw it – like a flash which looks at the presentation of science on BBC television between 1954 and 2003. She confirmed, from her experience of watching hundreds of hours of such programmes, that the standard has indeed declined alarmingly over the years.
I came across the link for this powerful piece of programming on Pharyngula, part of the Seed Media Group : Science is Culture, and whilst poking around also found the excellent blog SEED – seeking dialogue between art and science which despite its name is not as far as I can work out connected to the Media Group.
I was too young to see The Ascent of Man by Jacob Bronowski when it was first broadcast. But I am definitely old enough to shake my head and tut sadly about the appalling decline in standards of science programming since my youth. Look at this for a profound and thought-provoking example of engaging with the audience without the slightest sign of patronising its collective intellect.
This reminds me of a fascinating conversation I had with my friend the artist Ruth Maclennan about her work We saw it – like a flash which looks at the presentation of science on BBC television between 1954 and 2003. She confirmed, from her experience of watching hundreds of hours of such programmes, that the standard has indeed declined alarmingly over the years.
I came across the link for this powerful piece of programming on Pharyngula, part of the Seed Media Group : Science is Culture, and whilst poking around also found the excellent blog SEED – seeking dialogue between art and science which despite its name is not as far as I can work out connected to the Media Group.
Ok, this fairtytale-sounding adventure is another not-entirely-work-related post from the Internet Hungary conference.
Below you will see one of the contributors, the humungously talented and charismatic Zephyr Teachout, (best known for being the Director of Internet Organizing for Howard Dean’s presidential campaign, now National Director of the Sunlight Foundation) and our charming host, conference president Ákos Csermely. Press play for the full story. Almost.
As a conscientious former journalist I have to issue a disclaimer – the dialogue may not be exactly verbatim since I had already had a shot of the unicum myself – Say Yes to Life! Unicum. The Positive Answer.
Er, yes. Possibly. I wouldn’t know. Unlike the others, who had already given their presentations, I had to attempt to make sense the following day and staggered went to bed at a reasonable time. Reports from reliable sources who wish to remain nameless suggest that the party continued until the small hours.
frizzyLogic 