Light Through - Electronic Stained Glass

There are some days that seem to be filled with colour.

Last week, shortly after my return from the Liwa Desert, I visited a centre in Dubai called Wafi and experienced such a day. Camera in hand, I clicked away. When selecting a few of the images to share in a gallery, I noticed that most of those I had chosen involved light shining through glass.

I was immediately reminded of an interview I had been listening to, in which Jeremy Johnson discussed the terms “light on” and “light through” with John David Ebert. 

Light can shine on something or light can shine through something. Marshall McLuhan, a communications theorist, used the terms “light on” and “light through” to highlight the media that went hand in hand with various cultures throughout the ages.

In the west, in the Middle Ages, light had shone through.  The stained glass windows of many cathedrals are testimony to this. They told stories to the beholder and were meant to point the one looking to a Presence beyond. The dominant belief at the time was that the light of Spirit was shining through all that was taking place.  

The invention of the printing press by Gutenberg in the 15th century had ushered in the Renaissance, an age of “light on”.  The printed word had to be looked at.  Light had to be shone on the printed word so that the eye could read it.  

The digital age has once again ushered in “light through”, and the gadgets we currently use are like electronic stained glass. Their high resolution makes them luminous and beautiful, with light shining in from behind.

These gadgets make it possible for you and I to meet and exchange information immediately.  Even right now, our spaces are overlapping. We are sharing a common boundary and an exchange is taking place.

When two entities interconnect, be they systems, concepts, devices, cultures or human beings, the common boundary they share and where an exchange of information and/or energy takes place is known as an interface. 

The place where we are currently meeting, I have chosen to call here2here. In it, we are able to “interface” - which I will translate as - meet in the space between our faces. here2here is the common boundary we share right now, a space where our subtle energies meet. In this space, you somehow shine through to me and I shine through to you, with webcams and apps such as facetime providing a possible enhancement of this meeting. 

Aaron Koblin in his TED talk, quotes: “The culture of the 19th century was defined by the novel, and the 20th century by the cinema. The culture of the 21st century will be defined by the interface.”

I am of the opinion that the interface will again allow us to become aware of a special light shining through, a light symbolizing the transcendent.

Already the miracle of this is becoming apparent as, for example, interfacing is making it possible for east and west to allow light to flow through to each other. 

Special online museums are enabling us to view each other’s art and so learn more about the culture of the other. The resulting fusion is producing new masterpieces. 

The exhibition, “Through The Looking Glass” by Syrian artist, Mouteea Murad, is currently running in Dubai. When I viewed the exhibition, I was immediately reminded of stained glass, not knowing then, that this would be the topic of this blog!

I include the picture I took of one of his artworks here, because it symbolizes for me in image, that which I have attempted to say with words. 

I include too, a video featuring the music of Jon Hopkins. The piece is entitled, “Light through the veins” and the sounds and images of this video speak too, where words fail. 

Mirror World

Over the last few months I have been fascinated with the floors of Dubai. Often in marble, they lend themselves to capturing beautiful reflections. I find myself drawn to photographing them, enchanted by the patterns and pictures that result when domes, arches, skylights, structures, escalators or even feet, meet inlaid designs.

Imagination takes me back to the time when as a child, I would often dream of being able to build dwellings under the ground, places where people could drink tea and socialize. The “underworld” to me was a fascinating place.

So too, was the world “up there”. Enid Blyton’s “The Folk of the Faraway Tree” was my favourite childhood story. I loved the fact that when one got to the very, very top of the tree and climbed through the last branches, one could visit magical lands which came past at various intervals.

Recently I discovered, that in certain bygone cultures, there was a belief that under the world there existed a mirror image of the world we inhabit.  This world was a shadow world and was upside down. It could only be entered at certain special places.

You are currently online, a special place, beyond the limitations of distance and time. Other scenes can be entered into with a simple click. 

Please accept an invitation to tour the “Mirror World” I have discovered in Dubai. Step on the escalator and ascend or descend (it’s all a matter of perspective, anyway!) into the images of my new gallery.

There is always more to see than what first meets the eye. Mindful looking opens up new worlds. 

Centre of Now

Downtown Dubai recently launched a campaign entitled “The Centre of Now”. It aims to highlight this area as the hub of what is seen as a global cultural movement focusing on fields such as architecture, business, cuisine and culture.

Currently living in this area, I am often subjected to the advertisement banners for “The Centre of Now”.  

Words are wrapped in layers of meaning waiting to be unfolded. For me, the words “centre” and “now” have connotations of mindfulness and so I look at the banners with perhaps an added appreciation.

Jon Kabat-Zinn states, “Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way; on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally”.

Mindfulness calls us to be present right where we are. It invites us to be centered in our current now and to be aware of it. This practice assists us in arriving at what may be termed the “Centre of Now”.

Each person’s Centre of Now is unique, influenced by location, state of mind, feelings, culture, upbringing and worldview.  At the same time, there is a collective Centre of Now shared by us all. It is a place of stillness beyond it all, a whirlpool of possibilities, an invitation to creativity.

As I write from the city of Dubai, I am reminded of the Bedouins who knew what it was to have a centre which was always changing as they wandered through the borderless desert. Immediate movement was always a probability and wandering was an act of connectedness. The ecology of the desert was a reminder that life was interconnected. 

This is a century of mobility. Habitation is no longer seen as being fixed and global citizens are on the move. 

This century also brings with it a technology unheard of before. Connectivity and communication have been made possible in ways that boggle the mind.

As citizens of a global village, we need to seek in newfound ways, as global nomads, the centre the Bedouins were very aware of.

It will bring us to the Centre of Now, the heart of the present moment.

You are invited to watch the following video. I view the scene in it from my balcony. At the foot of the Burj Khalifa, the Dubai fountains dance to the music of “Baba Yetu” by Christopher Tin. The lyrics are in Swahili and are a translation of the Our Father. It epitomizes for me the hope I find present in a global city, where I daily experience amazing diversity and at the same time a feeling of great unity. Surely this will be present at the Centre of Now.

Ahlan Wa Sahlan

Presently living in Dubai, and feeling that the time is ripe to start up my own website, I begin this process by welcoming you to my blog, here2here, with the words, "Ahlan Wa Sahlan".

A very old Arab greeting, it is a phrase used when welcoming guests.

Ahlan literally means family or kinfolk, Sahlan literally means easy, and so translated loosely this greeting means, "May you arrive as part of the family, and tread an easy path (as you enter)." A door is opened for the other to become part of the family with the acknowledgement that the rights of the other will be respected to make the entering as trouble free as is possible.

One explanation I found put it this way:

Ahlan is to say "you're like my family";

Sahlan is to say "take it easy"

Conclusion: "you're like my family so take it easy"

I was immediately reminded of my late father when I discovered the meaning of Ahlan Wa Sahlan as one of his favourite sayings to me was "Take it easy, my girl".

Through globalization or alienation, many of us find ourselves living in countries other than the ones we were born in. The whole question of identity in a global family needs to be investigated.

Where is home? Is home a place? What does it mean to belong? What is the meaning of family? Who is my family?

These are all questions that invite new interpretation and reflection in the 21st century.

here2here will encourage online hospitality - sharing and listening in ways that promote trust, and encourage broadening of perspective and making place for the other in a growing global community.

In this special we-space, as we blog and comment on a plane beyond space and time, we are unable to hear the voice of the other or read body language as we communicate. The words of Saint Benedict become most applicable in this situation: Listen and attend with the ear of your heart .

It is from such a space that a new collective consciousness can arise, bringing with it potential for a new type of creativity.

Mindful of each post and comment along the way, may we all feel at home in here2here.

Ahlan Wa Sahlan.