After Seven

Revolver012 is out on vinyl now with a digital release on abunchofcuts and beatport coming soon. Martyn & Marcus Intalex "After Seven", backed with two solo tracks by me, "JW On a good night" and "Storm Watch". Still coming out this year: 3024-003 (remixes by Flying Lotus and 2562), 3024-004 and 005, and remixes I've done for Flying Lotus on Warp, Scuba on Hotflush, and a track on Crunch Recordings' CD compilation City of Light. In the meantime I've started work on my debut album on 3024, pencilled for release early 2009! Hope all is well with everyone.. M

Laws of Identity Iterations - or: The Nexus Between Morality, Subjectivity, and Empirical Knowledge

Kim Cameron has recently tried to shorten his "Laws of Identity". This started an interesting semantic process, which I will address at the end. But first, let's have a look at the iterations.

Here are Kim's original laws:

1. User Control and Consent: Digital identity systems must only reveal information identifying a user with the user’s consent.
2. Limited Disclosure for Limited Use: The solution which discloses the least identifying information and best limits its use is the most stable, long-term solution.
3. The Law of Fewest Parties: Digital identity systems must limit disclosure of identifying information to parties having a necessary and justifiable place in a given identity relationship.
4. Directed Identity: A universal identity metasystem must support both “omnidirectional” identifiers for use by public entities and “unidirectional” identifiers for private entities, thus facilitating discovery while preventing unnecessary release of correlation handles.
5. Pluralism of Operators and Technologies: A universal identity metasystem must channel and enable the interworking of multiple identity technologies run by multiple identity providers.
6. Human Integration: A unifying identity metasystem must define the human user as a component integrated through protected and unambiguous human-machine communications.
7. Consistent Experience Across Contexts: A unifying identity metasystem must provide a simple consistent experience while enabling separation of contexts through multiple operators and technologies.

Here are the new and shortened ones:

1. People using computers should be in control of giving out information about themselves, just as they are in the physical world.
2. The minimum information needed for the purpose at hand should be released, and only to those who need it. Details should be retained no longer than necesary.
3. It should NOT be possible to automatically link up everything we do in all aspects of how we use the Internet. A single identifier that stitches everything up would have many unintended consequences.
4. We need choice in terms of who provides our identity information in different contexts.
5. The system must be built so we can understand how it works, make rational decisions and protect ourselves.
6. Devices through which we employ identity should offer people the same kinds of identity controls - just as car makers offer similar controls so we can all drive safely.

Pamela Dingle still thinks this would not "resonate with people like my Mom". So she came up with the laws in even more colloquial terms:

1. Don't do anything with my data unless I say so.
2. Don't ask for or keep my data unless you have to.
3. Don't let anyone see my data unless there is a good reason.
4. I get to choose whether my data in one place is connected to my data everywhere else.
5. I get to choose who speaks for me and I reserve the right to change my mind.
6. If the easiest way to use the tool isn't the safest way to use the tool, the tool isn't built right.
7. Agree on one way to do things so that I can be successful everywhere regardless of the tool I use.

But Pamela has more.

"If I could use any terms I wanted and assume that everyone understood them, I could get even shorter":

1. Don’t share my information behind my back.
2. Don’t take more information than you need.
3. Don’t expose my information unnecessarily.
4. Don’t link me or allow others to link me unless I want to be linked.
5. Don’t lock me into silos.
6. Don’t tell me to RTFM in order to be secure.
7. Don’t let the product interfere with the ceremony.

The interesting thing I noticed is how the meaning of the laws changes along the way.

Kim's original laws have the remainders of empirical laws in them. This important aspect is much clearer in the very long version, but you can still see that the laws are meant as something that is based on observation, like the laws of physics: If you don't keep them in mind, stuff just won't work.

Kim's short version has exchanged a lot of the "must" wording with "should", which makes it sound much more like a moral statement.

Pamela's "for my mum" version goes further down this road. It takes a radically subjective perspective and tells the world what she wants to happen to her data, and how the systems she deals with should be built.

Her "favourite" version again changes the attitude and only works with "don't", which is clearly directed to the technology community from a user perspective, implicating the annoyance with many current systems.

So in the end, we have arrived full circle at the start, but know a bit more about the whole thing:

If the users don't want it, it just doesn't work. And there is even some morality behind it.

Why TiVO and YouTube terrify the broadcasters and carriers

[Despite the availability of hundreds of channels, anybody who has tried to
find anything interesting on TV these days, other than the Olympics, will
cheer these developments. Personally I cant wait to ditch my cable TV
subscription once I get can access to Hulu and a host of other video
services over the Internet. Some excerpts from Lauren Weinstein's excellent
Network Neutrality blog and GigaCom --BSA]

Why TiVo and YouTube Terrify ISPs

http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000412.html


Greetings. TiVo is in the process of introducing a direct interface to
YouTube for their Series 3 and TiVo HD units. I saw it in operation for the
first time yesterday. It is seriously slick. You can browse YouTube on any
old connected TV, watching full-screen with surprisingly high quality,
completely acceptable resolution in most cases (apparently an H.264 codec is
in use).

TiVo has a variety of other broadband content facilities, including
downloading of movies, but the availability of the vast range of YouTube
content, along with the familiar search and "more like this"
features, strikes me as something of a sea change.

Suddenly now, there's always going to be something interesting to watch on
TV. Anyone who can't find anything up their alley on YouTube is most likely
either not trying or dead.

But if viewers are reduced to counting bits by draconian bandwidth caps,
such wonders will be nipped in the bud -- and that's apparently what the
large ISPs would like to see (unless they can get a piece of the action, of
course, in addition to subscriber fees). The sorts of convergence
represented by a broadband TiVo terrifies ISPs whose income streams depend
on selling content as well as access.

If a critical mass of viewers becomes comfortable with the concept that
"bits are bits" -- whether they're coming from ISPs' own video services or
from outside Internet sources -- the ISPs' plans to cash in on content are
seriously threatened.

It's becoming increasingly clear that bandwidth caps are being eyed by ISPs
largely as a mechanism to "kill the competition" -- to limit the mass
migration of viewers from traditional program sources to the limitless
bounds of Internet content.

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren at vortex.com or lauren at pfir.org


http://gigaom.com/2008/08/12/can-online-video-support-its-next-generation/

Can Online Video Support Its Next Generation?

Hayden Black is nice, funny, quotable and makes two critically acclaimed and
modestly popular web shows. He may not have a face for television, but that
hasn't stopped him from becoming the poster boy for a market of online video
producers that has a growing crowd of early-stage startups looking to meet
its needs.

Black, who has never signed an exclusive deal and whose shows - Goodnight
Burbank and Abigail's Teen Diary - are distributed on some 15 different
hosting sites, says he gets pitched at least once a week to try the services
of any number of new online video platforms, video converters, video ad
networks or analytics providers.

Multiple startups are building on what portals such as YouTube, Revver,
Vimeo and Veoh provide to serve people like Black, who are trying to build
an audience and a business around online content. These days, that could
mean anything from citizen journalism like The Uptake to an online
personality like iJustine or a TV network like MTV. Once such potential
customers create their content they need to distribute, organize and promote
it - things existing tools do, just not particularly well.

Earlier this year, Emeryville, Calif.-based TubeMogul raised $1.5 million
from Knight's Bridge Capital Partners, and it's currently trying to raise
more funding. New York City-based blip.tv, a video portal that hosts
independent episodic shows and actively works to foster a community among
its creators, raised money from Ambient Sound Investments and Lauder
Partners last year and is also looking to raise more.

More recently, a crop of new, emerging competitors has been receiving small
chunks of funding as well. Episodic, which promises to be similar to blip,
but with richer web-based tools, raised $1.5 million from Granite Ventures.
Another, 750industries, barely has a web site up for its video marketing
service but was able to raise $1 million from Maples Investments and
Baseline Ventures.

Also notable is Trendessence, a bootstrapped startup founded and staffed by
current and former Stanford students that's currently in stealth mode. The
young company, which has built a platform for online video producers and
advertisers to find each other, has scored meetings with top advertisers
including Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Kraft and Motorola by promising it can
hook them up with the brave new world of online video producers. Other new
and newish players include Viddler (hosting), Zadby (product placement
marketplace), Castfire (hosting) and Video Breakouts (analytics).

Turkey trip and afterwards: more details

Mersin - Ankara - Istanbul - Bursa - Pamukkale - Antalya - Cappadocia

First note that we were 4 buses, I'm talking especially about our bus, that was the most unlucky but usually when it got broken another bus had to stay with us.

2 Days in Mersin:
They took us to Taksim, a 5 star hotel.. The rooms were very nice and comfortable. We had many shops surrounding us but we never got past the first three because we always had a bus to wait for.
Why they chose a crappy mall and an old amusement park to be our only destinations in Mersin, nobody knows.. I can proudly say that the amusement in Duhok - Iraq is much better.
I don't like amusement parks at all but it was fun with all the girls in our group, and we only had an hour and a half there so it didn't feel very boring.

1 Day in Ankara: We arrived at the afternoon, went directly to the zoo where we found that it doesn't open on Friday.. then we went to Ankara tower and took a look at the city at night.
The next day we went to the zoo, spent about three hours there and that was that, we left Ankara at noon.

4 Days in Istanbul: The first day was spent on the road (an AMAZING road), we arrived at sunset but lost the way to the hotel and checked in at night. In the remaining three days we made a sea trip in Marmara sea, that was amazing, visited the Grand Bazaar (Kapali Çarsi, or Covered Market), visited one of the Prince's islands (there I rode a bicycle with dad leading!), visited Taksim bazaar.. Taking the tram was an amusing thing, and we got lost so many times because we weren't sure which one to take and where to stop. We also visited Sultan Ahmed mosque, Aya Sofia museum (but we didn't enter the latter), and the Topkapi palace.

1 Day in Bursa: We went all the way up Uludag mountain at night.. it was very dark, the road was not lighted and we had no idea how much higher we were going. The next day we went down the mountain with cable cars and headed towards the beautiful Yalawa bathing area where we spent around an hour only!

2 Days in Pamukkale:It took us a whole day to get to Pamukkale, the bus broke on the road and a new smaller bus came after about 6 hours of waiting in an isolate area (6PM to 6AM). The rest of the road was very tiring, most of the men had to stand up or sit at the floor of another bus because ours was too small, ours was too crowded that some of the women had to sit on the floor as well. We arrived at 6 AM the next day and headed straight towards our beds.
Pamukkale was all about pools and swimming, that was very refreshing for the men.. but we skipped visiting the hot springs and went to the bazaar at Denizli because we didn't spend more than an hour shopping in any city.

2 Days in Antalya: Instead of departing from our hotel in Pamukkale at 8 AM, we had to wait due to some problems with our bus allegedly.. the tourism company people (who did nothing but get us lost and have a nice time spending our money the whole journey) tried to run away to Syria and leave us since we clearly caused so much trouble with the crappy bus and the repair expenses. Following the accident were boring hours of waiting, dealing with the police, rejoicing on the arrest of the tourism company people and finally hitting the road to Antalya at 4 PM in 2 small buses instead of our usually-broken one.
Our small bus broke on the way, not surprisingly, but it got repaired relatively quickly. We arrived to Antalya at around 12 AM but, as it turned out, we had no hotel reservations.. also the two small buses, having done what they were paid to do, left us with our luggage to wait in the roads.. Little by little the ashamed tourism people found places in different hotels but we were 185 persons and it was not easy to find a place for us all.. We ended up sleeping in the road till we finally got a room at 6:30 AM in a cheap hotel.
Our room's door just wouldn't close and so we put the luggage in front of it to stop it from opening.. the few hours of sleep I got and that whole day before were like a nightmare. Next day they transferred us to a 3-star hotel..

We took a rest and then decided to walk in the streets only to realize there were beautiful free resting areas near the beach and near where we were left to sleep in the street.. We took some group photos near the beach and were all determined to have fun. At night we walked as well but were surprised with very heavy rain. We started running towards the hotel, the streets started to flood, and by the time we had reached the hotel, the electricity was out and we spent around an hour in the darkness.

2 Days in Cappadocia: Naturally the first day was spent in the road.. and the second day we started our journey towards Iraq stopping every now and then for few minutes of sightseeing..

One would think that when going with a tourism company he can just let go and ENJOY the trip.. we thought dad was finally going to get to relax after his operations.. instead we had an expensive lesson on patience.
It wasn't what we have planned for but it was, even in the worst moments, and according to us - the girls in the group who rarely get to go out of the house in the break, better than staying at home doing nothing.

I started reading a book called "Don't sweat the small stuff" (sent to me by my blogger friend Fayrouz) sometime in the middle of the trip, it helped me look at things more positively and get through it all patiently.. My mp3 player was a lot of help as well!

After 35 hours in the road we arrived to Mosul.. The windows in our house were opened due to an explosion and thanks to the dusty weather the house had become unlivable and we had so much work. Also the wire from the generator to our house had a problem and we didn't have electricity.. It was unbearable considering the fact that we didn't have cold water and the house was very hot. Only a day later we got the wire fixed and the house started to return to life.

I visited college the Sunday after our arrival to meet my friends.. there were so many students at college that one would think it isn't the break yet. I showed my friends the photos and we talked about the vacation.. We visited our department's new building, which looks very cool!
I didn't feel like actually going to college and studying until now.. now that I can't get myself to return to learning Java and am getting addicted to wasting time.

The Roller Coaster

I came back from Turkey on Thursday, had the internet connection back yesterday, but didn't have the time or the energy to post.

Our trip to Turkey has been so enjoyable, so tiring and sometimes even nerve racking. Some moments were so great I didn't want them to end, other times I just wanted to give up and come back home.

The Turkey tourism company that was in charge of our trip assigned another Syrian company to do the job, the latter turned out to be quite a newbie and we like to call it Tulip Company for torturing tourists.

Turkey was great, a piece of heaven, so dreamy and unreal.. but the bus that transferred our group had a habit of breaking down every now and then that we spent about an hour of waiting for every quarter an hour of fun. Out of the 15 days in Turkey at least 5 were spent on the road all in all. The schedule was very busy and we spent so much time on the road that we barely had time to walk in the cities we visited.. I really needed more time in Ankara for example, I loved its streets looking very GREAT and foreign. Oh I really really wanted to walk on them and feel them, but I had to settle for watching them from the window.

I met so many nice people, made friends with some really great girls from our group..

We were 185 persons with the medical association, four buses, anywhere we went it became crowded, rows of people waiting for food, rows of people waiting in front of the WC, rows of people waiting for their turn in whatever.. waiting all the time.

We had so many problems with and because of the tourism company it's unbelievable, I don't think any other group had to call the police for their tourism company like we did; they were about to run away and leave us alone on day 10! Twice we checked into the hotels past 6 AM while we should arrive at noon the day before! Once it was because our bus broke and they didn't call another bus to transfer us until they lost all hope in getting the first one fixed (trying to cut the expenses of transfer), even then they brought a small bus and most of the men in our group had to spend 6 hours in another of the four buses with no seats, either standing or sitting on the floor. I had to sit in a very crowded place that I soon became nauseous and was quite happy to spend the rest of the road sitting on the floor with the luggage that didn't fit in the luggage area of the small truck. I spent the night talking with another unfortunate girl and though it wasn't very bad my back wasn't happy with the situation at all.
The other time our bus broke, we've just had called the police on the company for trying to run away, the governor of the city saw the crowds of Iraqis frustrated and he called two small buses for us.. By the time we arrived the company has canceled the reservation and we had to wait in the street with the luggage for over six hours.. That was an unforgettable night.

It was like an Indian movie, so many unfortunate surprises it was unbelievable. However, as I said, there were some great moments, and amazing sights to see.. Crossing the amazing Bosphorous bridge to the European side felt incredible. Seeing the night and the city lights for the first time was also great.. Watching Ankara from Ankara tower, walking in the beautiful gardens of the Blue Mosque and Aya Sophia, the sea trip along the shores of Istanbul, the green amazing road from Ankara to Istanbul, going up Uludag mountain at night with our crappy bus (I lost breath from laughing at the jokes then, dad ended up sitting beside me and didn't let me take a look at the road!), those were all moments to remember.. It all passed so quickly, like a roller coaster ride with so many ups and downs. Reaching Iraq we could see the drastic difference in everything. Mosul has become so unbearable, the streets are destroyed and there's a heart-breaking sight in every direction you look, but that's just our life. Now we're left with the friends we've made, the photos and videos we've taken, and the many memories and pictures in my head.

There's so much more to say but I've grown tired from talking about the trip. I may write more about the program and the places we visited soon.

Here are some photos I have taken.

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Sculptural presentation of young Kanta Kishore

Kanta Kishore was born and continued his childhood in a traditional carver(maharana) family near Bhubaneswar, Orissa. His father, elder brothers all are related with artistic work for their livelihood. From his childhood Kanta kishore has played with carving tools , wood and other materials. Practicing sculptures is only job from childhood; he has played with many more different mediums to create different sculptures. He has got a bachelors degree in Fine Art from B.K.College of Art and Crafts and studied master degree at Govt. College of Art and Crafts Kolkata. At his time at Kolkata, he has experimented with different local mediums with his own concepts and got appreciated among all his contemporary sculptors. Now a days he is mostly fascinated towards social issues, human daily life related problems, like urbanization and globalization.

Artist is realizing this problem of society because he/she is a element of base not that glorifying supper structures. Mother feeding, women violence, labor rally , child labor, starvation, unemployment and recent terrorist activities in Indian social life etc. are the sculptural presentation of Kanta Kishore. If you see his conceptual works on news paper series, everybody just falling in love at first sight, He is mastered in carving and when he picks marbles, it produces some wonderful pieces. Now a days he is working on books , carving white marbles and adding some metal to it, those are just lovable.

In this lovely medium Marble, Kanta kishore has started with News Paper series and then got some installations on Labor Rally, by installing carved marble chapels at Tina Ambani’s Harmony Show 2007 he expressed his concern on this social issue. Besides his skill in Marble, he has worked in many different materials like wood, granite, fiber and bronze. His work gives situational thoughts, one of his news paper series shows child labor and other with other issue, it’s just like reminding you everyday about these social issues and it will eradicate only if society will come up.

When his works were exhibited at New Delhi this year at India Habitat Centre, art lovers and critics were just got surprised, everybody puzzled, asked many questions about how many days it has taken and how much patience you have etc. Then his work ‘Golden Chili’ was the centre of attraction at Ashok Art Gallery’s stall in Art Expo India 2008 Mumbai. Kanta Kishore is a very talented young Indian sculptor; you can see his recent original works on display at India Art Summit 2008.

The Ashok Art Gallery is internationally known for one of its most important holdings: more than 2000 major works by the world's most significant Artists.Over the past years, as Ashok Art Gallery has become a major centre for contemporary visual art, the Gallery has built a strong collection of contemporary work of different artists. Last year we became a sponsor of the STANDUP-SPEAKOUT Artshow, Organized by Art Of Living Foundation and United Nations.Organized an International Contenmporary Art Exhibition including artists from USA, The Nederlands, Pakistan and India.We have also participated at Art Expo India 2008 Mumbai and India Art Summit 2008 New Delhi.

An Eclectic Life

Autobiography is my least favourite literary genre, too easily prone to posturing and self-exoneration, or else heavy woe-is-me tales about the author’s suffering at the hands of a cruel world. Life is already too full of braggarts and whiners to have to be subjected to them in books. I remember only two autobiographies that I loved and learned from: Fathi Radwan’s Sira Dhatiya (written in parts and collated in one volume published in 1994), and Edward Said’s Out of Place (1999). Galal Amin’s autobiography piqued my interest because I’ve always enjoyed his elegant prose, “clear as a window pane,” to use George Orwell’s nice phrase (Orwell happens to be a major inspiration for Amin). So I was pleased to find that What Has Life Taught Me? (2007) is neither disingenuous nor ponderous, but refreshingly honest for the most part, deliciously mordant in parts, bland in others, and frustrating on occasion. Which is to say it’s a worthwhile read.

The book is divided into 19 chapters that trace the arc of the author’s interesting life, from birth in a household headed by one of Egypt’s intellectual luminaries of the first half of the 20th century to higher education at Cairo University’s Faculty of Law, on to England for a doctorate in economics and marriage to an Englishwoman, then a long career in Egypt as a university professor and public intellectual, and finally grandparenthood and a pervasive sense of disappointment after the onset of old age. An appendix contains an arrangement of lovely family photos that tell their own story of the life cycle.

Amin is an utterly charming raconteur and a compulsively readable writer. His autobiography is peppered with fascinating details, evocative portraits, and wonderful sparks of humour. The stories about his mother’s reaction to an Italian abortion doctor and his elder brother Husayn’s headstrong resistance to having his tonsils removed are especially delightful. Occasionally, Amin inserts extracts from his letters to family members over the years, a device that I found to be little more than filler that doesn’t enrich the quality of the narrative.

The most inspired parts are Amin’s descriptions of his parents and older siblings (he is the youngest of eight). His modernist father Ahmad Amin wanted only two or three children but his headstrong mother insisted on more, finding in her many children a refuge from an unloving husband and a perfect provocation to her hostile sisters-in-law. Amin’s chapter “The Seven Siblings” is an insightful study of character contrasts, including portraits of the eldest Muhammad (17 years the author’s senior and the mother’s clear favourite), to the frustrated Hafez (a talented playwright who never achieved the recognition he deserved), to the two sisters Fatima and Na’eema: Fatima is modern and adventurous, constantly butting heads with her father, while Na’eema is conventional and uncurious, with no interest in school and no qualms about marrying a suitor who had initially courted but been rejected by Fatima.

Reviewers have noted Amin’s unusual candour in discussing private family dynamics, particularly the details of his parents’ stable but loveless marriage. His account is indeed frank but also sympathetic, lovingly portraying two people of remarkably different temperaments joined in a curious union. Ahmed Amin, the Sharia court judge, university professor, prolific author, and friend of such luminaries as Taha Hussein and Abdel Razzaq al-Sanhuri, was a man with a highly refined ethical sense and an unwavering commitment to the liberal education of his eight children, but at home he was a distant father and a dour, remote husband. He rarely spoke to his wife, never addressed her by her first name, and in several places in his diary (from which his son quotes verbatim), confided an abiding regret that “my wife is not very beautiful,” writing these words in English to hide the sentiment from his wife in the event she laid hands on the diary.

It’s no wonder that Amin’s mother suffered from a palpable sense of insecurity throughout her life. She coped by tenaciously clinging to her favourite son Muhammad, at one point even enlisting the aid of Taha Hussein to prevent her son’s travel to England for doctoral education. She was also fiscally shrewd, saving up enough to eventually buy the house in which the Amin family lived. And she even started charging her husband rent, which he obligingly paid! Zaynab Fahmy emerges as a spirited and remarkably wilful woman in her youngest son’s affectionate telling. Orphaned at an early age, she went to live with her maternal uncle but ran away when he forbade her to marry her beloved cousin (son of his brother), a loss from which she never recovered. In one of the book’s most moving passages, Amin recounts the coincidental way his mother reunited with her first love in 1956, two years after her husband’s death. A short while after the aged lovers reconnected, they died within weeks of one other.

The writing in the rest of the autobiography doesn’t approach the lyricism of the first few chapters (with the exception of the book’s final paragraph), as the author shifts to more public matters of his professional and intellectual trajectory. Here Amin is keen to enfold personal experiences into broader sociological contexts, the same technique he employed to such good effect in Whatever Happened to the Egyptians? (2000) Thus his experiences as an undergraduate at Cairo University and then a graduate student at the London School of Economics are occasions for sobering reflections on the tragic handicaps of Egyptian institutions of higher learning, compared to their thriving cognates abroad. Amin also contrasts his experience as a faculty member at Ain Shams to his later experience as a professor at the more autonomous, resource-rich American University in Cairo, a comparison that is again extremely unflattering to Egyptian national universities. I really didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at his detailed description of the unbelievable exam marking procedures at Ain Shams University.

The most enjoyable parts here are several well-crafted, very moving portraits penned by Amin recalling famous and not so famous work associates, including Cairo University economics professors Labib Shuqair and Saïd al-Naggar, Ain Shams law professors Helmi Murad and Ismail Ghanem, and UCLA professor Malcolm Kerr (later President of AUB before his assassination in 1984). I also particularly enjoyed reading two choice tid-bits recalled by Amin, one a tragicomic episode on June 9, 1967 featuring Rif’at al-Mahgoub, then a professor of economics at Cairo University and later Speaker of Parliament before his assassination in 1990. And another describing Amin’s run-in with Ottoman historian and Orientalist Bernard Lewis while Amin was interviewing for a position at the University of London (he wasn’t offered the job).

Amin is not classifiable within the conventional currents of contemporary Egyptian thought (Islamist v. secularist, Nasserist v. liberal, Marxist v. capitalist), and an important chapter titled “The Neo-Traditionalists” explains why. For a brief spell in the 1980s, he was a member of an intellectual salon that brought together historian-judge Tareq al-Bishri, late activist Adel Hussein, journalist Fahmi Howeidy and a handfl of others to deliberate on religion and modern life. Each in his own way, these influential public intellectuals began to “provincialise” Western institutions and notions of progress, i.e. contextualise them as products of particular histories that are not universal nor always desirable. The recovery of Islamic heritage is part and parcel of this project, and Amin’s chapter gives a thoughtful rendering of what this entails, with fitting mention of his father Ahmed Amin’s lifework.

Throughout the book, Amin is a congenial, engaging narrator, but he does have a very frustrating tendency to make throwaway claims about serious matters without requisite elaboration. A couple of examples are particularly glaring; on p. 190, Amin says he “doesn’t rule out” that Nasser’s nationalization of the Suez Canal in 1956 was supported or even backed by the American government, but gives no defence of this statement. On p. 300, he says that university and parental intervention to protest AUC professor Samia Mehrez’s teaching Muhammad Shukri’s novel For Bread Alone was justified, but only pages before Amin had praised the academic life he has chosen for the freedom it allows instructors to teach and write without external interference. In these and a handful of other places, Amin’s refreshing eclecticism turns into stubborn self-righteousness, since he simply announces his opinions but does not defend them.

To his great credit, however, Amin does cast his unsparing eye on himself and not just others. He forthrightly recalls and regrets some of his decisions and past behaviour, and again and again confides his lifelong need for the attentions and approval of others, particularly beautiful women, be they students, acquaintances, or perfect strangers. Amin attributes this to an unshakeable sense of insecurity about his own looks, a disarming confession I didn’t expect from a major public intellectual.

And yet for all his voluble recollections of childhood, Amin is puzzlingly reticent about some central subjects in his adult life. He writes plenty about his siblings and their marriages and offspring, but next to nothing about his own happy 40-year marriage to his English wife Jan and their three children (the book is dedicated to them). Family photos make clear that Amin loves being a grandfather, yet he doesn’t write about his experience of becoming a grandfather (nor a father, for that matter). The autobiography ends on a depressing note, with Amin feeling nothing so much as disappointment and indifference in his autumnal years. While this is refreshingly honest, I had hoped for some more introspection about why he feels this way.

George Orwell opened his withering review of Salvador Dali’s autobiography with the now-famous words, “Autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful. A man who gives a good account of himself is probably lying, since any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats.” Galal Amin’s account of his life is much too gentle and self-regarding to meet Orwell’s severe standard, but I think that his straightforward telling of the disappointments and listlessness of late life Orwell would have surely trusted.

Art of Concern:Indian Young Artist Vinod Manwani

A clock with no hands, a rocking horse with scratch marks, a rocking chair – these are the central theme for Sindhi artist Vinod Manwani. Concerns for the environment, the sudden rise of India’s “Nuclear Family”, family values and a more personal story all of which are displayed in all of the paintings.Vinod Manwani is the third child to Mangharam and Gopi Devi Manwani. Born in 1966 at Avantika, Ujjain a holy religious town near the bank of Kshipra river in Central India.

Each item has story to tell. The clock with its missing hands tells us how we need to STOP rushing in our lives. The rocking horse with scratch marks are of a more intimate nature displaying the scas of what he saw on his father’s forehead and his grandmother’s eyes and how they lost everything.

However, his passion for painting came from his trips to the temples of across ujjain with his mother. The brightly painting ceilings and domes of the Gods, Goddesses and other intricacies of workman ship displayed for all to view, to be inspired. When Vinod Manwani sits down to paint these days in his residence cum studio in Malad, two feelings concern him and his canvas. Nostalgia and empathy for metros escalating multiplex culture and more importantly, ‘Tiger Conversation’. These two series can be seen at his studio.



A casual conversation got translated into a series of paintings that keep the kitsch-ness of Bollywood film posters animated in the 18 paintings. “I wanted to make the paintings in a simple manner. I painted whatever I could recall in my memories, just as I saw it,” he explains about his style of painting.An active member of the BNHS, Manwani feels strongly about the declining numbers of the tiger species. “My paintings will perhaps work as references for my children when they grow up. I show a clock without hands to show that the time to save these glorious species is over. We have reached a sad stage where nothing much is happening to preserve tigers,” he says. Manwani also reasons on physical spaces that a congested city like Mumbai lives in. Manwani’s narrative style that makes a comment on the decline of the tigers and the multiplex culture is sure to get viewers to ponder. His works are showing online at Ashok Art Gallery and you can see original on display at India Art Summit 2008

Contemporary Artist Review: Ashok Art Gallery.

The Ashok Art Gallery is internationally known for one of its most important holdings: more than 2000 major works by the world's most significant Artists.Over the past years, as Ashok Art Gallery has become a major centre for contemporary visual art, the Gallery has built a strong collection of contemporary work of different artists.Last year we became a sponsor of the STANDUP-SPEAKOUT Artshow, Organized by Art Of Living Foundation and United Nations.Organized an International Contenmporary Art Exhibition including artists from USA, The Nederlands, Pakistan and India.We have also participated at Art Expo India 2008 Mumbai and India Art Summit 2008 New Delhi.

It is a sad day..

Over the last 3/4 years, Burial stunned the music world with some beautiful music. His self titled album and the follow up "Untrue" were very well received by music lovers worldwide. His ghostly soundscapes and beats from a distant future have a mysteriousness that appeals to many, including myself. "I'm a lowkey person and I just want to make some tunes" is what Burial says on his blog. Therefor he chose not to reveal his identity to the world. It's about the music, not the person on the cover of a magazine.

Our generation has grown up in a society that is very visually oriented. From the 50s onwards, music started to be accompanied by images of the artists. The introduction of TV music shows and music magazines boosted the visual aspect of music even more, making it as important as the music itself. In the 70s and 80s, labels and media discovered that mediocre artists could do well with a great visual presentation. Although the rise of electronic music raised a slight problem for the music media initially, as these new musicians were not performing on stage, in this millennium we've caught up and electronic artists are now presented in the same way as their 80s rock counterparts were. Image is everything.

Burial has said more than once that he feels connected to those areas of the music world that remain anonymous and image-less: the white labels, pirate radio, illegal raves. But the success of "Untrue" and a Mercury Music Prize nomination made the press and some of the fans eager for images.

Under the moniker of "investigative journalism", the ridiculous speculations by Gordon Smart of tabloid The Sun about Burial's identity went over the top. Burial posted a blog revealing his name and his face, bringing the silliness to an end, before someone decides to sell a picture of him to the newspaper.

Although Burial made his own move at the right time, I still think it's a sad day. It still feels like the need for an image won, and music lost, or should I say The Sun won, and music lost.

I already knew who Burial was from the start. Not his name, his face, or if he has a cool hat or not. But by listening to the music. Music tells you much more about the person than any amount of pictures could ever do. I can't say that I'm not interested to see an artist's face, but i don't need it to enjoy the music. In Burial's case I really did not need it at all. Can't wait for the next album.

Working on Global Warming and the nature’s fight against digital cosmopolitan life, India Young Artist Pradosh Swain

Not very long ago, many scientists and researchers were hoping that global warming would have a positive effect on the agricultural yield because of the role that carbon dioxide plays photosynthesis. However, on the contrary, it has been resulting in the destruction of several crops. In Iceland, rising temperatures have made sowing of barley easier and more effective than it was twenty years from now. This is expected to cut the area under maize - the country’s staple crop - by at least 33 percent. The reduction in rainfall has turned vast expanses of land into deserts.

It is important to understand that the effects of global warming that we are experiencing today are moderate compared to what the future will see if we do not take preventative action. Researchers and environmental experts are stressing that the effects of global warming will continue on a constant inclined curve over the next century. Temperatures will continue heating up a little bit each decade until the earth’s temperatures reach the sweltering levels. They believe that the earth’s temperatures will rise between two to nine degrees Fahrenheit by 2050. Increase in temperature will trigger the rise of sea level, which in turn result in salt-water intrusion into groundwater in some regions. This will reduce the availability of water for drinking and agricultural purposes in coastal zones. Further, increase in evaporation will reduce the effectiveness of reservoirs. The retreating of glaciers will have a number of different effects on water supply. A reduction in runoff will affect ability to irrigate crops adversely.

This is the subject Indian young artist Pradosh Swain working on.

At the very beginning of his art career, he started the nature study, and over the years it has become a part of his daily life. City of Temples, his native town Bhubaneswar, has greatly inspired him to study and create a new spread of water colour technique, for which he has been honored with Orissa State Award in 1995. “This technique has fascinated me after college years”, he says. He has traveled different states in India and Nepal. Pradosh has the credit of doing the highest number of water colour paintings amongst contemporary artists in Orissa. In this journey, he also did a series of smallest different templescape size (1cm x 1cm) and the longest 8ft x 160ft on FIFA World Cup Year 2006, which found a proud place in Orissa State Museum and has been published by different print media and aired by various TV channels. Pradosh has organized and participated in numerous art exhibitions across the country and is attracted towards contemporary art field from 1997. He came to Delhi and started photo realism with surrealistic touch. “It was a big challenge for me to enter this contemporary art world, but my simple concept and visual approach made me very close to my viewer”, he recalls.

He has been well appreciated by viewers and it has motivated him to create more and more art works. Pradosh Swain came to limelight when art curator Dr. Alka Pandey discovered him and recognize him as an upcoming young artist by including his works in her curatorial show this year. Pradosh’s work has been showcased in a number of private galleries in India like Ashok Art Gallery, Mon Art Gallery and Galleria at their shows in recent past.

Now-a-days he is working on Global Warming and the nature’s fight against digital cosmopolitan life. Use of the commonly used day to day elements make his paintings interesting and unique. After showcasing his works at Art Expo India, Mumbai, Ashok Art Gallery is going to put his works as a special exhibit at forthcoming India Art Summit 2008. He is an Indian young artist to watch for sure. Pradosh Swain lives and works in New Delhi.

Contemporary Art Reviews: Ashok Art Gallery

The Ashok Art Gallery is internationally known for one of its most important holdings: more than 2000 major works by the world's most significant Artists.Over the past years, as Ashok Art Gallery has become a major centre for contemporary visual art, the Gallery has built a strong collection of contemporary work of different artists. Last year we became a sponsor of the STANDUP-SPEAKOUT Artshow, Organized by Art Of Living Foundation and United Nations.Organized an International Contenmporary Art Exhibition including artists from USA, The Nederlands, Pakistan and India.We have also participated at Art Expo India 2008 Mumbai and India Art Summit 2008 New Delhi.

The young women painter has shown considerable aplomb and conception of significant form.Priyanka Gupta

An artist’s life and images are often responses to some pressing cultural and historical needs of the time one lives in and the artistic motivation drives the mind into a journey of discovery, exploration and learning. Priyanka Gupta comes from Kolkata, India, also called the ‘City of Joy’ for its people and the passion with which they lead their lives. This passion has undoubtedly found its way into her own conception and expression of the colors of life through the Art. Images unfold themselves in her works showing at Ashok Art Gallery clearly shows the assimilation of what environmental experiences have to offer in concentrated form. Whenever she confront a blank surface, she goes through all the terror and agony of stepping into an ‘unknown’. What become the directives to the birth of an image are Priyanka’s

thoughts and emotions, her readings and observations, her beliefs and values and the vast compilations of past experiences. Once she said,” When I do my abstracts, I am curious about the possibility of exploring myself.”

Some artists seem to have gained from lack of formal training in handling the brush. Priyanka Gupta happens to be one. She is an abstract artist and has done some real impressive work of that genre. Priyanka has a strong visual perception of the structural aspects of abstract imagery. She is mature enough to see her way through the interpenetrating tangle of shapes directly visible, and those imaginable but not present physically. There is some evidence that Priyanka sought first to explore the world of the visible and saw possibilities of subjecting images to aesthetic distortion. This was the first step in her journey towards virtual reality, composed of non-representational but visually/ cerebral persuasive bits and pieces of imagery. The young painter has shown considerable aplomb and conception of significant form. She has exhibited internationally number of times at different major cities with a great response and her works will be at special exhibit in coming India Art Summit 2008 by Ashok Art Gallery. - Samir Dasgupta

The Ashok Art Gallery is internationally known for one of its most important holdings: more than 2000 major works by the world's most significant Artists.Over the past years, as Ashok Art Gallery has become a major centre for contemporary visual art, the Gallery has built a strong collection of contemporary work of different artists. Last year we became a sponsor of the STANDUP-SPEAKOUT Artshow, Organized by Art Of Living Foundation and United Nations.Organized an International Contenmporary Art Exhibition including artists from USA, The Nederlands, Pakistan and India.We have also participated at Art Expo India 2008 Mumbai and India Art Summit 2008 New Delhi.

Hello Turkia :)

By the time you're reading this, and if all goes as scheduled, I should be in Turkey! I know because this is a scheduled post and we're leaving on the 31st :)

We're going with a group of physicians and their families, the date of departure was kept a secret for security reasons.. See how secretive I am?! I'm so proud of myself and it's so cool to use scheduled posts and actually need it ;)

The trip is supposed to last 15 days, 7 different hotels in 7 different cities! We're going to try to stay longer if it wasn't too tedious because we all need a serious rest after all this tension at home. We'll see!
In the meanwhile, I wish every one is enjoying and making the best of his/her time, myself included :)