The Butchart Gardens (Summer 2007)

The Butchart Gardens (Summer 2007)
Originally uploaded by M.Mortazavi

Music, Video and Creative "Mixing"

I originally wrote this entry on October 3, 2004, and published it on blogs.sun.com.

Professor Lawrence Lessig of Stanford Law School, whose weblog is always worth a diligent read, points to some recent mixes (including this video mix by DJ Spooky and some musical mixes) and reports from the Wired Magazine's Creative Commons Concert. In the meantime, it may be worthwhile to check out some other pieces of music, particularly these songs. I'm not sure if these songs are released under CC, but still they sound quite wild and full of mixing of the Brechtian style.

One of the main arguments of Lessig's most recent book, Free Culture, is that burdening creative mixing with prohibitively strict copyright laws will have seriously adverse effects on all kinds of ceativity, particularly of the artistic kind. Ultimately, such a burden will stifle "free" evolution of culture. (I've written a short and still unfinished critique of the "free" in "free culture" here. Elsewhere, I have written regarding Lessig's view on the operating taboo against political discourse.)

Cat Stevens, Terror Suspect

I originally wrote this entry on September 22, 2004, and published it on blogs.sun.com.

My wife (my best source of news) informs me that Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam) was denied entry to the U.S. today.

Photo from: www.kyaz.com

Reports of this incident appear on Reuters, The International Herald Tribune, the BBC, The Malaysia Star, CNN, Washington Post, San Jose Mercury News, Seattle Post Intelligencer, The Australian, Gulf Daily News, NBC, U.S. Newswire, The Independent, Guardian, Culcutta Telegraph, Billboard, Houston Chronicle, Cat-Stevens.DE. . . You may find more on this incidence on Yusuf Islam's web site: www.yusufislam.org.uk. This should be about "Art," and I'm posting it under that category, but it belongs in its real unfolding to my "Society" category, a mismatch which simply demonstrates the limits of categorization.

When we deal with real-world events, they can only be understood in their totality and fail to fit into artificial digital divisions.

In the aftermath and in a wonderfully written essay for Asia Times Online, Maliha Masood, a graduate of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University started with Yusuf Islam's story and moved onto Rumi's popularity in the U.S.

To each sex its own door hammer!

I originally wrote this entry on August 25, 2004, and published it on blogs.sun.com.

Proper greetings require prior identification of the person one greets before one opens the door for the purpose of greeting that person.

Electronics has solved this problem for apartment buildings. Curtains and little spying eye pieces on doors have done the same for detached homes. In some cases, when the detached home has a fence or a wall surrounding it, people may resort to electronics instead.

Matters stood differently when people lived quieter, more meditative lives.

	To the left, you can see a picture of the Boroujerdis' Mansion. It was built about 200 years ago by a famous merchant of Kashan, Iran, named Haj Seyed Jaefar Boroujerdi and bears great importance in view of its architectural style and paintings. The frescoes of this mansion were painted by Sani-ol-Molk Ghaffari Kashani (founder of a painting school in Iran) and the great Kamal-ol-Molk, the miniaturist. There are scores of these mansions in Kashan, many of them under repair and maintenance work.
	Women knocked on this door as they entered the Boroujerdis' mansion.
	. . . and men on this one . . . The two different door hammers make different sounds to inform the residents of the house so that appropriate welcome could be given and received. I distinctly remember our ancestral home in Ardabil, where I visited during the summers until I was 12 or 13. It had exactly the same two-hammer door panels, one for the ladies and one for the gentlemen. That ancestral home was sold when I came to the U.S. I visited it last summer. On the land, where the old house once stood, a monsterous (to me, not the builder) modern building had been erected. It was the 3rd house on the same land since its sale 25 years ago.
	One of the surviving side doors of the Boroujerdis' mansion has the same two-door, ladies' and gentlemen's sides.
	Negin, my daughter, hammers on the ladies' side of yet another door in Kashan.

Wheelchair Robots in Love

I originally wrote this entry on August 16, 2004 and published it on blogs.sun.com.

Reuters television has posted a video report of some Wheelchair Robots in Love. The wheelchairs are designed by artist Mari Velonaki and developed by scientists from the Australian Centre of Field Robotics. (By the time you read this, the video may not be on the top of Reuters' video stack but you may be able to search and find it. If the links here don't get you to the video clips, look under the Life video series at Reuters Television.)

To each sex its own door hammer!

I originally wrote this entry on August 10, 2004 and published it on blogs.sun.com.

Proper greetings require prior identification of the person one greets before one opens the door for the purpose of greeting that person.

Electronics has solved this problem for apartment buildings. Curtains and little spying eye pieces on doors have done the same for detached homes. In some cases, when the detached home has a fence or a wall surrounding it, people may resort to electronics instead.

Matters stood differently when people lived quieter, more meditative lives.

	To the left, you can see a picture of the Boroujerdis' Mansion. It was built about 200 years ago by a famous merchant of Kashan, Iran, named Haj Seyed Jaefar Boroujerdi and bears great importance in view of its architectural style and paintings. The frescoes of this mansion were painted by Sani-ol-Molk Ghaffari Kashani (founder of a painting school in Iran) and the great Kamal-ol-Molk, the miniaturist. There are scores of these mansions in Kashan, many of them under repair and maintenance work.
	Women knocked on this door as they entered the Boroujerdis' mansion.
	. . . and men on this one . . . The two different door hammers make different sounds to inform the residents of the house so that appropriate welcome could be given and received. I distinctly remember our ancestral home in Ardabil, where I visited during the summers until I was 12 or 13. It had exactly the same two-hammer door panels, one for the ladies and one for the gentlemen. That ancestral home was sold when I came to the U.S. I visited it last summer. On the land, where the old house once stood, a monsterous (to me, not the builder) modern building had been erected. It was the 3rd house on the same land since its sale 25 years ago.
	One of the surviving side doors of the Boroujerdis' mansion has the same two-door, ladies' and gentlemen's sides.
	Negin, my daughter, hammers on the ladies' side of yet another door in Kashan.

Henna Arts

I originally wrote this entry on August 6, 2004 and published it on blogs.sun.com.

Catherine Cartwright-Jones of Kent State University has put together a brief but interesting history of henna. Her website also includes an encyclopedia of henna. Henna has now become part of the Americana with followers from New England to Hollywood.

Here's a picture of my daughter Yasmine on her 10th birthday. (Sunday 04-04-04, April 4, 2004. How uncommon is that?) The henna design on her hand is a rather simple pattern.

Here's a picture of both my daughters (Negin is the 6-year-old) on the same day. On the top left corner, a friend of Yasmine's is drying her hennaed hand.

Economist Photo Essay on the Iranian Revolution

The Economist has hosted a photo essay on the Iranian Revolution.

Modern Rendition of a Classical Theme

Hamed Nikpay, a local Persian artist in the Bay Area, has rendered a modern poem in classical tradition on a Persian-Spanish instrumental fusion. You can watch the video below. (Links to the CD are given on YouTube.)

Emad Khorasani is the poet, and his poem is well-rooted in the classic "modern Persian" ("modern" as opposed to "middle" or "old" Persian of pre-8th century days).

Self and the Other

In The Analects (or Lun Yü), one sees Confucius' developing various ideas about the self vs. the other. Here is an example:

The Master said, "If one learns from others but does not think, one will be bewildered. If, on the other hand, one thinks but does not learn from others, one will be in peril."

-The Analects, II.15, trans. by D. C. Lau.

Confucius' Life Through His Own Words

The Master said, "At fifteen I set my heart on learning; at thirty I took my stand; at forty I came to be free from doubts; at fifty I understood the Decree of Heaven; at sixty my ear was atuned; at seventy I followed my heart's desire without overstepping the line."

-The Analects, II.4, trans. by D. C. Lau.

What a glorious life !

References: Confucius, A Great Philosopher-Prophet

Simply Leaves

Home, California (December 2006)
Originally uploaded by M.Mortazavi

Nature offers some of the best works of art ever.

What's Art

The ancient Greek conception of "Art" is very similar to the more continuous Persian concept of "Honar" although, unfortunately, modern post-industrial notions of "Art" have corrupted the original meaning of both conceptions.

In the modern conception, "Art" is about consumption or purchase of something to be kept for purposes of display or pleasure of one form or another. In the ancient conception, it is primarily about a mode of knowing and doing that relates to skill and that can be acquired through simple repetition, as can be learned by a disciple from a master in any trade, but which does not exclude ability for individual "creativity," and in all senses, for productivity.

Often, the Persian--even in their more modern epoch--title their artists the Ostad or literally the "master," in the sense of the word that occurs when we speak of master and disciple or of mastery. Ostad is the one for whom you can be a disciple and one who has attained a level of individual creativity which distinguishes the ostad from all other. (In the same context, unfortunately, the word disciple has been used to refer to a zealot "follower," as if there's anything wrong with being a follower of a master. (See here.) But what I mean here, is "following" for the purpose of discovery and learning the skills of the master.)

You can be an ostad or a masterful artist in anything: playing soccer, writing programs, throwing a frisbee, painting or managing people. The important thing is mastering the art of whatever it is you're doing.

Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. 
We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, 
but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. 
We are what we repeatedly do. 
Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. 
- Aristotle (student to Plato (student to Socrates))

The hunter prepares and meditates

The hunter prepares and meditates
Originally uploaded by M.Mortazavi

What will she hunt?

A Corner for Art

Tehran, Iran (Nov. 2006)
Originally uploaded by M.Mortazavi

In a busy city, art finds a little patch of land, a little corner, where it may show itself.

Bobak's Paintings, Tehran, Iran (Nov. 2006)

Bobak's Paintings, Tehran, Iran (Nov. 2006)
Originally uploaded by M.Mortazavi

A painting on display in the artist's home.

Experimenting with New Ink

Experimenting with New Ink
Originally uploaded by M.Mortazavi

The calligraphy says classical music. Once, when I was 7 or 8, I received two lessons from a master Persian calligrapher who used to work at my fathers' advertising company.

What is inside

Tehran Bazaar (August, 2006)
Originally uploaded by M.Mortazavi

A design, even if it gives a glimpse of what is outside, can enclose the observer and make them focus on what is inside the object of observation, and what is inside them.

What is inside becomes central when one is enclosed properly.

Glasswork and Pottery

Glasswork and Pottery (Tehran, July 2006)
Originally uploaded by M.Mortazavi

Most of these pieces are handmade.

The prices were incredible by international standards.

Glasswork and Pottery

Glasswork and Pottery (Tehran, July 2006)
Originally uploaded by M.Mortazavi

A young artist in a northwestern suburb of Tehran makes the pottery shown in this photo.