a story about songs

There is a tribe in Africa called the Himba tribe, where the birth date of a child is counted not from when they were born, nor from when they are conceived but from the day that the child was a thought in its mother’s mind. And when a woman decides that she will have a child, she goes off and sits under a tree, by herself, and she listens until she can hear the song of the child that wants to come. And after she’s heard the song of this child, she comes back to the man who will be the child’s father, and teaches it to him. And then, when they make love to physically conceive the child, some of that time they sing the song of the child, as a way to invite it. And then, when the mother is pregnant, the mother teaches that child’s song to the midwives and the old women of the village, so that when the child is born, the old women and the people around her sing the child’s song to welcome it. And then, as the child grows up, the other villagers are taught the child’s song. If the child falls, or hurts its knee, someone picks it up and sings its song to it. Or perhaps the child does something wonderful, or goes through the rites of puberty, then as a way of honoring this person, the people of the village sing his or her song. In the African tribe there is one other occasion upon which the villagers sing to the child. If at any time during his or her life, the person commits a crime or aberrant social act, the individual is called to the center of the village and the people in the community form a circle around them. Then they sing their song to them. The tribe recognizes that the correction for antisocial behavior is not punishment; it is love and the remembrance of identity. When you recognize your own song, you have no desire or need to do anything that would hurt another. And it goes this way through their life. In marriage, the songs are sung, together. And finally, when this child is lying in bed, ready to die, all the villagers know his or her song, and they sing—for the last time—the song to that person. You may not have grown up in an African tribe that sings your song to you at crucial life transitions, but life is always reminding you when you are in tune with yourself and when you are not. When you feel good, what you are doing matches your song, and when you feel awful, it doesn’t. In the end, we shall all recognize our song and sing it well. You may feel a little warbly at the moment, but so have all the great singers. Just keep singing and you’ll find your way home.

eating

Marije Vogelzang

privatisierung des öffentlichen raumes.
"die angst hat 1000 augen" auf 3sat

judge me

“Value judgments are destructive to our proper business, which is curiosity and awareness.” (john cage)

art gotta do

"Die moderne Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts hat eine sehr, sehr gute Arbeit geleistet. Welche Arbeit? Die Augen der Leute zu öffnen. Was Besseres hätte man da machen können? Aber jetzt müssen wir unsere Aufmerksamkeit anderen Dingen zuwenden, und diese Dinge sind sozial." (John Cage, 1986)

DLDcities London 2012

Carlo Ratti (MIT SENSEable City Lab) on Code of the City
Ricky Burdett (LSE) on The Urban Age and the Olympics
Ole Scheeren (Architect) on Building Asia
John Rossant (New Cities Foundation) "transition from century of nation states to century of the cities" on Cities as promise of the 21th Century
Muck Petzet (Architect) "don't build new, use what's there", Hila Oren (Tel Aviv Global City) "when you put on the light at night the violence goes away"+"the power of the creative class", John Reades (Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, Oyster Card 25:00) on Cities of the Future.

sisters

Kevin Slavin: Laughter from nowhere from iMMovator on Vimeo.

time

by john clang

selbstausbeutung

"Verweigerung ist tatsächlich nur gegenüber einem fremden Zwang möglich, den ich ablehnen kann. Die Selbstausbeutung ist viel fataler als die Fremdausbeutung, weil sie mit dem Gefühl der Freiheit einhergeht. Sie ist gleichzeitig effizienter, produktiver als die Fremdausbeutung, weil man sich freiwillig ausbeutet, bis man zusammenbricht. Darin besteht offenbar die List des Systems. Wir haben heute keinen Herrscher, keinen Souverän mehr, dem wir unser Nein entgegensetzen könnten. Wir sind einem systemischen Zwang, einer systemischen Gewalt ausgeliefert, die das Leistungs­subjekt dazu zwingt, ja verführt, sich selbst auszubeuten. Stéphane Hessels Empört Euch! bringt hier nicht viel. Die List des Systems besteht darin, dass sie gerade das zum Verschwinden bringt, wogegen man sich empören könnte. Es ist sehr schwierig, sich zu empören, wenn jeder Täter und Opfer, Ausbeuter und Ausge­beuteter zugleich ist."
Byung-Chul Han im FREITAG

not what they appear to be

next time i am in nyc, i want to go to 58 joralemon street in brooklyn

is that a meme?

type "tilt" into google.com.
and now "let it snow"

colonia dignidad

thinking

"The Wright Brothers, when having a heated discussion, used to break off and swap arguments."

reality

be the change you want to see

Intervention Cindy Gallop MasterClass 15-11-11 von iabfrancetv

peers

http://www.exactitudes.com/

aging

in turkey, i was told, people don't celebrate their birthdays anymore once they become adults. so they forget their date and year of birth. and therefore their age.

aging

hokusai changed his name several times. each time he gave his name to his best student, found a new one for himself and entered a new artistic period.

and his mangas are kind of the japanese equivalent of didero's encyclopedia.

amazing images
via fresser