The Anniversary Dinner - A Story

“The young app, although not used to taking her meals this way, sat down at the table for the celebratory anniversary dinner of her grandparents. She dearly loved her grandparents, two successful web companies, and they had taught her much. She considered herself especially fortunate to have grandparents who always listened to her ideas, discussed them with her and acknowledged that she lived in times different to the ones they had grown up in.

She knew too that not all her friends were that lucky.  Many complained that they were written off as being young upstarts with no idea of what they were talking about.

Her grandparents were an exception, in that most web companies of their age, were used to presenting the data they had created to viewers who received the content passively with no ways of responding. “This is how it is; take it or leave it” was the motto often heard in the corridors of their upbringing. There were traditions that had to be followed if they were to succeed.  Search engines puffed through the countrysides of their days. 

Their brothers and sisters in the entertainment industry had known that in return for their hard work, the passive viewer could be subjected to commercials. It was the price that had to be paid to view what one was interested in. 

Also present at the dinner were her parents, both successful social websites in their different ways. It was her father who suggested that as an after dinner event they share stories of the worlds they grew up in.  Hearing circumstances and world views across generations often led to heated discussion but could also lead to better understanding. 

Social connections were the “in” thing for her parents. In their youth, they had developed emails and blogs before going on to become social websites, always however, with the aid of the trustworthy tool used by their parents - the computer.. 

Her grandparents, the 1994-2001 generation, had friends called Yahoo, Google, Amazon and eBay.  Her parents, born between 2002 and 2009 liked to hang out with guys like Facebook and LinkedIn. They ran their own blogs, posted their pics on Flickr and were recently Twitter experts. She, although only almost three years old, knew what it was to make it possible for people to communicate with each other even when away from their desktops and laptops.  She thought topless was a cool concept, much to the shock of the other generations present! 

The young app looked around her, aware that she was totally mobile.  With the aid of smartphones and tablets she could help people reach an audience and communicate with them in ways unheard of only two years ago! Mobile interaction lay at the core of what she stood for. Only yesterday she had met her cousin Instagram to discuss the benefits of being born an app.  Reachability was her second name, something that had not always been possible with computers.  Many of her friends had no intention of ever launching a website!

Some of her grandparents’ friends had tried to adapt to the times but their apps were only simple versions of the desktop experience. Some, and only some, of her parents’ friends had more easily adapted but were still trying to make the subtle shifts required of them. 

She was fully aware that the tech world was speeding up. Soon she too would bear offspring.  What the child would be she was not totally sure.  Perhaps, she thought, as she excused herself from the confines of the dinner table, she should ask Siri!”

The chances that you have just read the above story on a mobile device are great.  The concept of here2here is ever evolving and always fascinates me. 

Eric Jackson in a recent article in the Forbes Magazine has suggested that Google and Facebook might disappear in the next five to eight years. His article, which I invite you to read, set off my thinking and resulted in the above story as an alternative way of looking at technology.  

There will always be previous stages present no matter what stage a technology has reached.  That is the nature of evolution.  Learning to transcend and include what has gone before is key to healthy development and failure to do so can lead to regression. 

These are challenges that face both the creators and users of new technologies, as the evolutionary train of technology speeds up to reach what only appears to be a futuristic destination.

Compassion and a here2here perspective

This week Karen Armstrong will speak on “The State of the Charter for Compassion”. Having completed her book “The Spiral Staircase A Memoir” last night, I got to thinking again about the Golden Rule and the need for compassion in the world today. 

Deciding to participate in an edit activity on Instagram this morning, I was inspired to try to convey these thoughts through an image.  The photograph to be edited was of the city of Honfleur in France.  

Recently I had come up with two edited photographs combining the cities of Dubai and Cape Town. I decided to attempt a similar edit with the photograph at hand as I suddenly realized that in a sense a theme was developing in these edits.  

Bringing cities together in an image was a reminder of the need to take the perspective of others no matter where they may live, no matter what they believe, and no matter how different we might think they are. 

Compassion does not mean feeling pity but “feeling with”.  It is a stepping into the shoes of the other until the self is totally suspended and we are able to see the world with the eyes of the other and feel with them their joy and suffering.

Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity - Charter for Compassion. 

The image is a powerful tool and one that I believe can assist in an opening of the heart to compassion. (taken from “Linda in Wonderland”). 

As I worked on this edit, fusing as it were Dubai with Honfleur I was reminded again of the wonders of technology, but at the same time was overwhelmed by the opportunities it offers to meet others and bridge gaps.  With the aid of social media apps we are catapulted into the here2here, where we meet people from all walks of life.  And the other we soon discover is not as different as we thought them to be.  In fact we have more similarities than differences. 

I was born in South Africa, have lived for almost ten years in Europe and am now living in the Middle East. The whole experience has encouraged me to take different perspectives and widen my embrace. 

Aware of the value this has brought to my life, it has been my wish when using Instagram that my photographs will encourage the taking of different perspectives. I was honored this weekend to have two of my photographs exhibited at an Instagram exhibition in Padova, Italy, and this wish formed part of the short biography which appeared next to my work.  

And so, my love of writing is beginning to come together with my love of architecture and photography. What exact path this will take I am unsure of as yet. I write of it now to put it out into the world and to express my willingness to step out into the unknown. 

Linda in Wonderland

The calendar year was 2012, one hundred and fifty years since Lewis Carroll first began writing “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”.  Sitting next to a stream, Alice was still pretty much aware of the fact that even though she sometimes thought she knew who she was, she was also conscious of having changed several times over the years, not to mention since that morning. Bored, she had peeped into her sister’s book, but it had no pictures or conversations. Alice found that weird.

All of a sudden, a white rabbit with iphone in hand, alarm going off rather loudly, attracted Alice’s attention. Following the sound of the alarm playing one of her favorite hits,  Alice ran after him. He passed a digital stream, and as he popped down a rabbit-hole Alice followed him further, only to find herself soon tumbling into what seemed to be a very deep well.

 

Whether the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, Alice did not know. What she did notice after a while were the symbols on the sides of the well depicting the various portals available to those entering this world of wonder. 

She did not know it yet, but by clicking on a link, the traveler in cyberspace can be transported from one place to another. By downloading an app, the user is offered tools and information unheard of before. 

As she fell, Alice remembered what she had learnt at school that week.  Her teacher, a forward thinking wonderful lady, had introduced her class to mindfulness. Sitting in a circle each morning the children focused on their breathing and the feelings they were experiencing. Alice decided that this was as good a time as ever to put this all into practice, and so, taking a deep breath, she allowed herself to be fully aware of herself, her feelings, her muddled emotions and her surroundings, which were rather strange to say the least.

She felt she must have reached the centre of the earth when she suddenly landed with a thump. She thought she spotted the white rabbit but he soon disappeared out of sight. 

Alice found herself in a room with a little table.  On it lay a tablet. To examine it she picked it up, swiped its screen and squealed with delight at what she found. There were stories with pictures that were interactive when she touched them.  There were conversations going on in real time! There were maps and dictionaries, newspapers and magazines. She could play games and even draw using her finger.

She noticed a camera and a special app and before long was taking pictures of herself which transformed her at once into someone tall, someone short, someone with a huge funny face and then someone all squashed up. She squealed with delight.

Swiping the screen yet again she found an app called Instagram. She realized that she had not landed in the centre of the earth, but was somehow in all places at once, as she watched photos from all over the world appear on her screen in real time. This was truly here2here! People commented on these photos and she noticed that many of the comments said Linda!!!

Linda? She thought her name was Alice! But then anything was possible when time was no longer linear and she felt herself so close to the other and the other felt as she.

To find out more about who she could possibly now be, she clicked on wikipedia to discover that the name Linda might be derived from the same root as the linden tree, with a German and ultimately Celtic root.  The image of the tree is often used to indicate a gentle personality. 

Alice was confused but read on. Linda could come from the “Celt Lindworm”, another variation of the mythical concept know as the ouroboros, the serpent biting its own tail. The ouroboros represents the perpetual cyclic renewal of life. More worlds of wonder were possibly awaiting her, whether she be Alice or Linda or whoever. 

Muchalinda was also the name of a snake-like being who protected the Buddha from the elements after his enlightenment.

The name Linda in Xhosa means “wait” and that perhaps made a little sense. Perhaps if she waited long enough it would all become clear to her.

This was getting curiouser and curiouser, until for now at least, it all suddenly made sense.

Linda was also used in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese to mean beautiful, pretty or cute.  People on Instagram were indicating that they liked a particular photo!!!

Alice looked up and saw the Mad Hatter laughing at her. She was not sure whether time had stopped or it had been transcended. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the Cheshire Cat smiling.

---

When starting this website, it was my intention to explore the concept of here2here through word and image and thereby promote a shared vision of diversity within unity. My blog and my presence on twitter are, and share, my explorations through word. To explore here2here through the use of image I have recently entered the world of Instagram.

I often feel like Alice, as a world of everyday happenings, memories and creativity appears on my screen in real time. In the gallery, “Some Instagram Pics”, you can see some of the images I have shared. If of course, you are on Instagram you can see more of these pics there. If not you can follow them here.

The image is a powerful tool and one that I believe can assist in an opening of the heart to compassion. 

 

We live in wonderful times. Wonder is there when we stop to see it. What is more, modern technology is making it possible to share these moments if we so choose.

I end with one such example. On New Year’s Eve, the Burj Khalifa, lit up with fireworks.  Standing on my balcony directly opposite the Burj Khalifa, overwhelmed at one stage by tears, I witnessed an event of beauty. You may not have been with me, but in a sense you are as I share with you a video of the event made possible through moving imagery and the world of youtube. Take a few minutes to step into this wonderland.

The Gathering

Visiting the Pavilion in Downtown Dubai yesterday, I noticed that there were workers completing the installation of a new sculpture on the sidewalk.

After the installation was completed I went outside to photograph the figures from various angles, before going inside to continue what I was working on. 

As sunset approached the pink fingers stretching across the sky to embrace the Burj Khalifa drew me outside again. The chatting figures of the sculpture seemed happy in their new setting. 

While photographing them a gentleman and lady approached. Seeing me photograph the figures, she told me that the gentleman was the artist. I was privileged to meet architect and sculptor Xavier Corbero. 

A man with incredible vision, Corbero has built a dream home whose spaces are linked by underground passageways.

“His original vision of the property has since expanded to include a retreat for artists, studio spaces, workshops, a foundry, dozens of surreal chambers for residents and guests, sprawling galleries, living rooms, a myriad of hobbit nooks all connected by serpentine stairways filling over 10,000 square meters.”

Salvador Dali was Corbero’s first patron and Corbero is now considered to be Spain’s most important living sculptor. 

"You must leave things open so the person enjoys or looks," says Corbero. "I feel that when people look at a piece of art they become artists, they see what they see not what there is. What there is helps them to see something else and they feel better because they see something they were not seeing before seeing that. That's what I like to do.”

Standing next to his work, he seemed to effortlessly blend in with the figures, even unintentionally perhaps, replicating the pose of the figure he was standing next to.

 

In her piece on Corbero’s work in Beirut, Micheline Hazou, @mich1mich writes,

“Perhaps it’s the way the figures are positioned, in relation to the space and to one another that is as important as their bulk and mass…”

Corbero has said, "What is good is the scale, if you get the scale right, space stops being space to become mind. And this happens in a sculpture and it happens in architecture."

The sculpture, called The Gathering, invites one into its circle. The chatting figures capture for me the mix that is Dubai, a city where  many different nationalities and cultures meet.

The figures lean into each other with attention. They are accommodating of each other’s space and seem to acknowledge the other, while at the same time forming a unit. The energy flowing between them as they connect is almost palpable.

There is the sense that more personalities are about to join the gathering and engage in conversation. This excites me as non-judgmental listening and peaceful dialogue is so crucial in the world right now.

I immediately think too of this here2here space where we are all gathering now. What does it matter where we are physically situated in time and space. We can gather, be present here together, converse and share. We might all be different but we are more similar than we can imagine.

Whether gathering on sidewalks of cities, or sensing our interconnectedness in a large web made possible by technology, together we bear witness to Presence.

A Voyage into Hyperspace

Not so long ago, being in a space which had more than three dimensions was considered the domain of science fiction.

Today we speak of spaces unheard of before. And what is more, we are now able to meet in them. Physical geography is no longer the determinant for meeting to take place. 

Human beings interconnected through computers and telecommunications find themselves in cyberspace, which has its own special architecture. Units of information are organized into connected associations known as links or hypertext links. By clicking on a link the traveller in cyberspace is transported from one place to another. 

As each individual location is connected to many others, the resulting web consists of the total number of individual locations and all of their interconnections, and is referred to as hyperspace. 

In the world of science fiction, hyperspace refers to a space with four or more dimensions. In this multi-dimensional environment the conventional space-time relationship does not apply, making it possible to travel at a speed faster than light. 

I came across the use of the word “hyperspace” in a recent review of an event held this past weekend in the Burj Park at the foot of the Burj Khalifa. 

Having performed live at the Acropolis, Taj Mahal and the Forbidden City in China, composer and musician Yanni chose the Burj Kahlifa as his latest concert venue. 

On a stage lit up in blue and purple, Yanni told the crowd that he and his musicians came hoping to take the audience away from their everyday lifestyle if only for a short while. 

“And as if on cue the band burst into Voyage, a flamboyant and extravagant song that could have been made in hyperspace.” 

In hyperspace, each location is interconnected to many others. Enter me.

Watching the event from our balcony, I picked up my iPad when I noticed the Dubai Fountains dancing, and began to film. Although set to some other piece of music, it appeared to me as if they were dancing to Yanni’s Voyage. 

I was transported into another world, a world where synchronicities are not uncommon. I have written about synchronicity elsewhere, but since this weekend I have wondered much whether synchronicities are not there all the time but we cannot always see them. 

@conscire tweeted recently: “Kairos is the time of the sacred, the time of Synchronicity. Chronos, clock time, is nothing more than a construct of the mind.”

Voyages into hyperspace will become more common. They require an acute awareness, a mindfulness of all that is around and within us. The voyages will be both inward and outward and to nowhere, as we discover that every space and every moment is everywhere. Some call this everyhere. I call it here2here.