***  Haus der Kulturen der Welt: Forum1 Archive  ***
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
   [Date]: Mon, 13 Dec 1999 12:13:54 +0200
   [From]: rbo@icon.co.zw
     [To]: forum1@herz.kbx.de
[Subject]: Information Art

Hi,

Radio Bridge Overseas would like to share this finding:

The Global Vision Project is conceived as a giant work of information art.
 
Produced and directed by the Irish artist Michael O'Callaghan, the 
project was inspired by an astroarcheological field trip to a 6,000 year-old 
megalithic art-work on a mountain by the sea in Ireland. The artist's 
principal interest is to evoke the pattern that connects the world 
situation to our own way of seeing.

Visit http://www.igc.org/glencree/index2.html

Michael O=92Callaghan says:

My basic idea is that the global crisis we face cannot be solved by 
attacking its symptoms, but only by changing the way we humans see 
ourselves and the biosphere on which our survival depends. This 
requires an artistic approach to the use of information. 

The notion of art as a social healing instrument goes back to very 
ancient times in European culture. For example, the immunity from 
income-tax which artists and musicians enjoy in Ireland today is a 
continuation of the high regard in which Celtic European people held the 
creative spirit, before the Roman Conquest and the beginning of urban 
civilisation. This is because the Celtic artist was a kind of priest, who 
undoubtedly inherited much of his or her wisdom from the far older 
shamanic traditions of the People of the Goddess. This tradition 
continued from Neolithic times right up into the late Celtic era, when the 
authority of the Druid musicians was such that their high priest, the 
Olave, held legal veto power over the King or Queen! According to the 
anthropological field notes of one observer, the Greek historian Diodorus 
Siculus who travelled across Celtic Gaul with marauding Roman legions 
in the first century BCE, "these bards have the ability to so enchant their 
listeners with music that they can bring them into direct communication 
not only with the mineral kingdom, the plant kingdom, the animal 
kingdom, and their own people, but also with their enemies as well. " He 
then goes on to say: 
    "In matters of war too the Druids and singing bards are readily 
    obeyed, and this by their enemies as well as by their own 
    people. Often, in fact, when battle lines are drawn and armies 
    close ground with swords and spears poised, they will step out 
    into the middle and stop both sides as if enchanting wild 
    beasts. Thus the spirit yields to the Arts, and Mars reveres the 
    Muses."
The global crisis cannot be solved by attacking its symptoms. To 
address the underlying cause, we must pay more attention to the pattern 
that connects the world situation to our own way of seeing it. This 
requires a whole systems, artistic approach to the use of information.

That's it from Klaus Juergen Schmidt / RBO
---------------------------------------------------------------------
                           Radio Bridge Overseas
                             98 Ridgeway North
                            Borrowdale / Harare
                                  ZIMBABWE
                      phone / fax : +263 - 4 - 882483
                      http://members.vavo.com/radiobridge
ATTENTION:
The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or priv
ileged material. Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this information 
by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you received this in error, please contact the sender and de
lete the material from any computer.