world-making ... "the emerging conversation on the idea of the world"

www.dreamstime.com



found at the DJC.com - Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce Building Green Blog



Bloesem blog posted on the Corona globe by Japanese design studio Nendo which gives all countries the same colour and makes borders disappear....the idea being we are one globe not many countries. Read more here.



1ststoptravelstore.com -illuminated desk top globe... display planet earth by day and at night the illuminated night sky with 88 constellations

























World-processing is Ingo Gunther's sculpture/data processing business.
The top image at this post is from the remarkable worldprocessor.com and the image above shows nations numbered with their average life-expectancies.  Gunther makes hundreds of globes of the world, with the graphics and labels tweaked to overlay social, technical and political relationships to geography.



Earth in 80 languages -the languages are not identified other than by their position (where they are most commonly spoken). The size of the words is proportional to the amount of speakers.



Shamanism and Traditional Beliefs Primitive Religions.



Wetlands is the collective term of marshes, swamps, bogs and similar areas. About 75% of all endangered species are native to the world's wetlands.



Hannover all over. Places that bear the name Hanover after the German town of "Hanover".






The book above can be found at the website. The globes were created between 1988 and 2004 as far as I can see. Presently I cant say form the website if it continues. If anyone knows I'd be interested to know more.

This is my favourite image of all! The illuminated globes all carrying a statement about some aspect of the planet.



Why did I title this post world-making? This is a concept every now and then I have heard ... floating into my consciousness... from who know's where... and causing me to ponder. 
Tonight I am posting these images of globes and the fascinating text below I accidently just found googling world-making to see what might surface. Well... I caught a big fish one might say... I found  precisely in this text something of what I wanted to intimate in my post tonight which is actually celebrating the first 365 days of being in the blogsphere with all you wondrous passers-by,  ships in the night, dear friends and followers and sometimes visitors!
Its a birthday party and its titled world-making because that's what this last year has been for me... an amazing conversation out into a bigger, more vibrant sense of the world... and what did I discover?
That we pretty well all like sweet things much more than we are supposed to all around this globe (I'm not the only one!) ... and that you are amazing my blogosphere friends!

Humanities Research Centre, Research School of Humanities The Australian National University

The World and World-Making in Humanities and the Arts

Along with interdisciplinary debates on globalization, the last few years have witnessed a resurgence in the idea of the ‘world’, and markedly so in humanities and the arts. ‘World History’, ‘World Literature’, ‘World Art, and ‘World Music’ are now frequently cited sub-disciplinary rubrics. As market categories, of course, these have circulated for a while now to signify cultural productions from the non-West. But the idea of ‘world’ we wish to invoke here transcends this cultural divide and speaks to a domain of human connectivity, a form of relationality, a being-with-others that cannot be wholly contained within the economic and political systems of globalization. 

While both globalism and worldmaking connote an orientation to a domain larger than one’s immediate affiliations – kinship, ethnicity, race, region, nation – the distinction between the two concepts, ‘globe’ and ‘world’ is only just beginning to receive increasing attention, with the former marked by the material flows of capital and the space-time compression these bring in their wake, and the latter by a more idealist dimension marked by human labour, creativity and expressivity. Thinkers/writers from Goethe, Marx, Kant and Leibniz to Heidegger, Arendt, Derrida and Nancy have provided much of the philosophical and critical bulwark to this body of contemporary scholarship. 

Questions about world making have ranged from its disjunctive temporality in relation to the time of global capital to its normative capacity to arrive at yet another vision of the universal, to enter into yet another compact with humankind in this era of hyperconnectivity through advances in information and communication technology. Questions of scale and scope, given our primarily nation- or region-centric paradigms of knowledge making, are not surprisingly part of this scholarly repertoire, as are questions of its affinity with other global concepts such as cosmopolitanism, international relations and world-systems theory. Of particular import is the special resonance the idea of worldmaking has had in the predominantly aesthetic fields of literature, music and the arts. 

We propose to dedicate the year 2011 to exploring this emerging conversation on the idea of the ‘world’ 

tradesman's entrance, communications ramped up and congrats to Jay Dee!

On the weekend I was reading a most enjoyable memoir by Eugenia Jenny Williams titled 'Jenny's Coffee House'. In 1968 she and her family escaped Soviet occupied Czechoslovakia for Vienna and  a year later arrived in Tasmania to settle into a new life. Her fascinating account of this reminded me of many things - like the curious tradition alive in Australia decades ago of visiting friends via the back door of their homes - what perhaps the English might have called 'the trademan's entrance' but in australia was often the preferred point of connection. This European woman described her amazement at her new neighbours coming into her messy laundry at the back of her house to introduce themselves for the first time, past the dirty washing and chaos of jobs 'to do'! Times have changed for many. Doors are locked and bolted, fences have become high walls and communities are often a lot less relaxed that they used to be! One still comes across neighbourliness and people who's idea of community is alive and strong!

The photo below triggered these thoughts... I was leaving the Seed Lab at the Gardens the other day by the back entrance and spotted this wheelbarrow parked idly beside the potting area at the day's end.
I was reminded of the fact hat the most interesting finds are often out the back, through the tradies' entrance so to speak.

Below is the new header for my Homage to the Seed blog. 

OH NO! Thats old hat now! A day later I have gone for the very minimal look of this subdued pale header below: sketches of seeds and pods carried out quickly in the Seed lab whilst cleaning seeds last year. The lab is the most amazing centre of activity... often tiny seeds being carefully, sometimes painstakingly released from their capsules with rather fascinating methods needing to be employed at times. You can hardly see it here... but as a header its quite fitting for the homage image. Whoever is in the lab is usually pointing out something absorbing for the others to see!

I got a little carried away after Blogger emailed new template designs. Weary of the chaotic, crowded look I had been going with a spruce up felt timely. It was a weekend of writing artist statements, brochures, letters, planning events - all kinds of communications - so why not rethink templates at the same time. I also had a few visitors through giving thoughts and impressions of recent studio work... feed back can be SO valuable!

Sunday's event at the Gardens went really well and I'll have photos to post soon. I was joined there by some familiar faces - and new - so it was a most delightful day completed with birthday dinner for a family member at the wonderful Mecca Bah with its middle eastern flavours, warm ambience in an outdoor setting looking onto frangipani trees and a fountain.

Here is the Residency artist's statement reworked into a brochure below with contact details. Click to enlarge if you wish to read it properly. I'm starting to get my head around running workshops again soon and the details are getting fine tuned for the exhibition next month at Noosa. Stay tuned and if you think a trip to Noosa the weekend of April 17th  and 18th is on the cards then let me get back to you with more information VERY SOON!

I must not forget to mention the lovely Jay Dee Dearness has opened her fabulous Myrtle St Studio to the public as of last friday night's exciting launch. Congratulations Jay Dee! Its an impressive multi-purpose space, so cleverly designed to be many things for all purposes. Printmakers especially will adore what will be available at this artist-run-facility!

Read more here about Jay Dee and Myrtle Street Studio.  

Article courtesy of Jorja Orreal and images courtesy of paul Guy - City North News

Oh...I spy Sandra Pearce's prints in the backgound!

HARVEST FESTIVAL SATURDAY 20TH MARCH

 If you are in Brisbane this Saturday come to the Northey Street City Farm where you'll find 'Permaculture in the Heart of Brisbane' and a great festival taking place in the afternoon - the organic market is held there every Sunday. Read an earlier post I wrote on this here.

when the occasion calls for it - Part 2

The tail end of a cyclone seemed to be the state of things on the Sunshine Coast on the weekend. Grey, squally weather, a churning ocean glimpsed from our apartment, the most extraordinary bands of angry sea colours - greys and muddy browns and lots of foam! Luckily the 50th birthday celebration was taking place  30 minutes in from the coast and yes there was some rain with intense humidity, but we were happily ensconced in this superb marquee decorated beautifully I must add with lanterns from Vietnam (via the lovely Karen at Dragonfly Interiors). The Band was impressive, luring us on to the floor and adding to the wonderful ambience. Lara-Jane, my gorgeous niece joined them for some great numbers. I wrote a post on her here after she recorded an album of her own songs. As an aunt one could be accused of fondness colouring one's view - however this girl indeed has talent...in spades!

and now... for the cake!

Recipe for Chocolate Sacher Torte utilised by mother Olivia on friday (she did the baking) in readiness for trip up the coast - a good foundation for my innovations. She also made 50 copy-cat cupcakes we served rather than create a cake big enough for the crowd - a wise move! Saturday afternoon was spent melting chocolate and watching the gale outside. Concern over humidity led me to make a ricotta filling with fruit, nut and chocolate chopped into it. A modest layer of cream on top of that worked well (next day we SO enjoyed this cake!) and then chocolate ganache icing with shavings of roast almond chocolate I'd made plus toffee shards and chocolate shards. OK... it was no candidate for the Martha Cake of the year award - but with the candles matching all the wonderful garden finds it actually felt quite tropical and worked a treat! 

Jana, the birthday girl, going for the last candle. I think she will have wonderful memories - it was one of those times where all went absolutely beautifully,  her friends travelling from far and wide enjoyed the excellent reunion and some of us even stayed up very late singing good old favourites from the 70's. The garden glistened in the rain and the weather  didn't cause a moment's concern - all was so carefully planned by Jana and Roberto and hosts Tristan (their wonderful son) and wife the lovely Renee- truly a night to remember!

Son Tristan and daughter Lara-Jane making a speech - these 2 have always been adored by their Aunt! Sorry bout the less than fab image here!