Filippo Minelli

Here at SuperForest we are admirers of street art, good street art in particular.
A while ago I visited the homepage of the Italian conceptual artist Filippo Minelli and I must that I'm very impressed. In an interesting manner he combines the digital word and the real world. Take a look at what he did to the wall separating Israel and Palestine.

For the people who have spent their entire lives on Macintosh computers: 'CTRL + ALT + DELETE' is Windows-slang for 'stop this ill-considered process'. What Minelli is obviously trying to say here is: "tear this thing down, and be quick, eh".

I find it fascinating to see someone combine the fast, digital, computer world that we live in today with the somewhat less digital, 'realer' world.
Minelli did something comparable in Cambodia, there he heavily made use of the Web 2.0 concept.


It's part of his series named Contradictions, and I think the contradiction here is very clear.
In our Western world every toddler has got their own space on the internet but in places like Cambodia people sometimes don't even have their own space in the physical world.

Not all of Filippo Minelli's works are as issue-related as the above examples, nonetheless they're all worthwhile to look at. Visit his website for his portfolio and some more information on the man himself (the one-line-character series are worth taking a look at in particular).

Seeds of Peace Summer Program

We just got an email from SuperForester Blair, who works with an amazing summer camp, Seeds of Peace.

"Superforest,

I love reading your blog, and I thought that you might find a summer program that i did in 2007 interesting. It's an international camp in Maine that has teenagers from the U.S., Israel, Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, India, and Pakistan. We were placed in bunks, table groups, and dialogue groups that blended people from different sides of a conflict (either the Middle East of India and Pakistan). We had dialogue sessions for two hours almost every day and then played sports and did team building workshops. I found it to be an incredible experience, and it could certainly prove to help creating real peace in the Middle East. Applications for it are due sometime in January, and it is really only for teenagers, but it would be great to get the word out as the organization could use any contributions to the cause.

http://www.seedsofpeace.org/

Thanks,

Blair Hunt"

Sweet! Camp plus conflict resolution.
Special thanks to Blair for the intel.

G.ho.st

Afternoon All,

The NYtimes has a very interesting article up about a web start-up called G.ho.st.

G.ho.st is interesting for two reasons. Firstly, they are working on a site that you can sign in to and access not only your desktop, but any programs and software you've got, and use it from any PC.

Secondly, half of the team working on G.ho.st is Israeli, and the other half is Palestinian.

“We are doing something across cultures and across two sides of a tough conflict,” Dr. Schreiber said. “I was prepared for the possibility that it might be difficult, but it hasn’t been.”

Communication as a method for growth and understanding.
A thought that's both revolutionary and as old as sand.

Here's the article: NYtimes - Israelis and Palestinians Launch Web Start-Up

An interesting thought just popped into the ol' head:

Few celebrate the building of a wall.
Everybody celebrates when one is torn down.

Thoughts?