Barry Lewis

Bamboo

Mon, 21 May 2012 09:11:00 -0400

Bam

#bornin1987

Mon, 21 May 2012 08:29:30 -0400

#bornin1987

At Swim 2 Birds

Mon, 21 May 2012 08:17:00 -0400

Looking forward to an escape to the country

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 17:15:44 -0400

Looking forward to an escape to the country

This apocalyptic extract from the film “Of Leonardo”...

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 08:25:52 -0400

This apocalyptic extract from the film “Of Leonardo” made as a collaboration between David Toop (score & libretto based on Leonardo da Vinci’s accounts of his dreams), singer Elaine and Barry Lewis and being released on DVD in April 2012. This version is without the live performance of E.Laine whose extreme vocal range and butoh dancing in front of the huge screen transforms the space. In the final piece a woman considers the nature of life and its history as it moves ever closer to its end: like a sibyl, an oracle, a shaman, she voices the spirit of Leonardo da Vinci, is caught up within his memories, prophesies and visions.

A few days ago I was watching carp & goldfish struggle for...

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 07:22:00 -0400

A few days ago I was watching carp & goldfish struggle for food, space & oxygen in a small pond and could not avoid seeing it’s parallel in mankind …

London Bridge 15th March 2012 This is less a photo entry, more a...

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 08:25:00 -0400

London Bridge 15^th March 2012

This is less a photo entry, more a sharing of despair.

Perhaps its my age where I have less friends to turn to as I struggle with dealing with both an increasing invisibility and an erosion of optimism in the future for mankind.

I had just finished Sebold’s book, The Rings of Saturn, a masterpiece but with little hope, which focussed the inevitability of cycles of decline & decay, when I heard of the death of Sherry Rowland. He was an outspoken hero scientist who, in 1974, discovered that chlorofluorocarbons, or CFS (then a common ingredient in air conditioners and refrigerators & aerosol sprays) would destroy the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere, which protects Earth from the Sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation, unless their release was quickly phased out.

One evening in 1974 his wife, Joan, had asked Rowland, a man of extraordinary calm, about his work. “It’s going very well,” he replied. “It just means, I think, the end of the world.”

He fought against the chemical industry, which tried to discredit him to the extent that he was branded a KGB agent out to destroy capitalism. Then in 1987, over a decade later, observations of a huge ozone hole over the Antarctic finally resulted on an international ban of CFCs.

This picture was taken one smoggy morning; the week of his death, the day that air pollution hit record levels due to a combination of traffic fumes, relatively still weather and an influx of dirty air from the north of England and northern France.

Last month, the environment secretary, Caroline Spelman, was criticised by an influential group of MPs for rejecting their recommendations to cut pollution on the grounds that it was too costly. Poor air quality has been linked to nearly one in five deaths a year in London. The capital’s poor air quality, caused largely by traffic, has seen the UK facing £300m in fines for breaching EU targets. The government has successfully lobbied Europe to push back the deadline for meeting the targets.

Tower Bridge surrounded by record levels of smog. Thursday 15...

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 08:20:00 -0400

Tower Bridge surrounded by record levels of smog. Thursday 15 March 2012

Simon Birkett, director of the Clean Air in London campaign, said: “The failure by the mayor to warn Londoners about five smog episodes in a row proves he is desperate to avoid the air pollution issue ahead of the mayoral election.

I watched a TED talks this week by Paul Gilding titled “The Earth is Full”, arguing a major economic crisis was now being triggered by humanity passing the limits of the earth’s capacity to provide cheap resources, especially soil, climate and water. The techno-optimists– those who believe that technology can solve everything, are more used to being uplifted with stories of optimism and endless opportunity.

Gilding’s thesis is that humanity was good in a crisis and we’d get through it:

“My message is a tough one for this audience – that sure technology will do wonderful things for us, but the reality is we are going to face some very difficult consequences of our overloading of planet earth and its too late now to stop those consequences. I argue strongly that humans are amazingly capable and will recover from this inevitable crisis and indeed in the end build a stronger and happier society.”

I’m afraid I disagree. History shows greed and tribalism rule. The complexity of the problems, their immediate invisibility to most of the worlds population, and the bitter legacy through colonization of over half the world population make decisions that need world control neigh impossible. The stabilization of mankind’s balance with the earth will only happen through death and destruction, probably by a combination of nuclear wars, viral devastation and infertility. Then when the population gets back to one of a few billion, perhaps, we can start again.

Not a good week.

WHAT MAKES YOU FEEL BETTER WHEN YOU ARE IN A BAD MOOD?

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 08:53:03 -0400

making something

either physical, virtual or connections

I am conflicted at this time between stills &...

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 08:29:17 -0400

I am conflicted at this time between stills & film….the former is like breathing, the latter like drowning.
But I’m slowly learning to swim
I am immersed in the book by Sebold, Rings of Saturn ….he touches parts of your heart, mind and soul that you unconsciously suppress.
It’s such a dark journey but I find I emerge with fragments of a clearer vision of the connections that hold our lives together.

At earlier times, in the summer evenings during my childhood...

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 08:21:00 -0400

At earlier times, in the summer evenings during my childhood when I watched from the valley as swallows circled in the last light, still in great numbers in those days, I would imagine that the world was held together by the courses they flew through the air.

W.G. Sebald, The Rings of Saturn

From the Southwold Sailors Reading Room “It is better than...

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 08:06:58 -0400

From the Southwold Sailors Reading Room

“It is better than anywhere else for reading, writing letters, following one’s thoughts or in the long winter months simply looking out at the stormy sea as it crashes on the promenade.”