apr _25

▲ highlights: postcard from Egypt // new glitch art // and a few more things

Hello there,

this month I am sharing some bits of my trip to Egypt (what a surreal experience!), a new glitch artwork, and a few things I’ve seen offline and online. Without further ado, let’s jump on it ↳

hugs,
ål // ≧◉◡◉≦

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// things to share » 

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⍟ <artwork spotlight: Stairquake/> How would shaken stairs look like?

Stairquake is this month’s glitch art on the spotlight. I took the photo at the Acropolis Museum in Athens. Since then, I was wondering how would these perfect straight lines would look like if shaken a bit. With these digital processings, I loved the liquidity of the look, as if the stairquake is somehow soft and fluid.

// available as a digital file or print // contact me if interested in purchasing at aaaalnik@proton.me

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⍤ <postcard from Egypt/> I still find it surreal that I had the chance to visit Egypt! We went there for 3 days, a very short and compact programme, but super dense and full of experiences.

Khufu pyramid // remixed ;-)

_The things that impressed me the most // I knew to expect a culture shock, but when you experience it yourself, it’s more than what you can imagine. At least this is how it was for me.

⍟ The chaos, the dirt, the contrasts between rich and poor - it's shocking there... We stayed in a clean and tidy little villa hotel in Giza, right next to the pyramid of Khufu (a.k.a. Cheops). But once you get out, it’s dirty, the buildings are semi-dilapidated, 2-3 story houses reminding of ruins. We only went everywhere by car.

Giza // a view towards the Khufu pyramid (a.k.a Cheops)

⍟ The traffic. A shock for me. They have their own rules (nothing to do with ours, I am a driver, too). Imagine a highway with 8 lanes that the cars make 11. No turn signals, no fast/slow lanes. Everyone goes around the other as it happens. They're using the car horn to communicate with each other. There's no yelling, no hate, no pressure - everyone knows how it is, they're calm and they drive - just going forward (no traffic lights, no roundabouts, no crosswalks - you drive forward and you don't stop).

My biggest horror was if we had to cross a street (thankfully we didn't) - you just go between the cars as they go...

⍟ The people are kind. Everyone in tourism is polite, of course. But they radiate warmth, kindness and calmness (it doesn't feel hypocritical). Very welcoming and try their best to please you. Very good salesmen, they know how to sell you things :) But when you talk to them more deeply, you see they are good people, they are fully aware of the specifics of life there and how different it is from where we come from. The ones who knew Bulgaria, with them we found things in common (one of the guides was 29 and we talked quite a bit with him outside of the stories and pleasantries to tip).

Cairo seen from the Giza pyramids

⍟ The colours of Cairo and Giza are beige, brown, pastel tile red, and pastel dark green. This very specific palette gives the impression of not being bright (compared to Cyprus) but rather heavy, dingy, worn, and dirty. And the air is a heavy one - it contributes to these colours. But it didn't smell bad anywhere even though there is garbage everywhere.

⍟ The Grand Egyptian Museum. I want to see it fully open - I've never seen such a grand museum (even the Louvre didn't impress me that much). Beautiful architecture, the interior is remarkable - huge spaces; everything laid out diagonally (with pyramid references) - halls, roofs, etc. Looking out to the pyramids, very nice touch.

A lot of things in Egypt are very well thought out, though it all looks like it's just chaos. But they've mastered it beautifully.

⍟ The pyramids are real (I touched them). One of the tour guides said that lots of Americans come to see them because they don’t believe they’re real and think that they are photoshopped. Now, what’s under them, we don’t know. No one can confirm or deny the most recent sonic scans and theories, so let’s watch and see :D

Menkaure pyramid

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★ <exhibition visit log: Guerrilla Girls in Sofia/> Last month, I was in Sofia to run some errands, and I was super lucky to catch this exhibition there. I think this is the most major feminist show that includes international artists happening there during the last years (there is remarkable local work done there, for instance - ▶▶the Pink Cloud by Rada Yakova & Emprove). I brought my mum to see it with me and it was probably one of the few times we visited an exhibition together - loved the conversations we had during and after it. I also took some notes and ▶published them on my docu space.

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⍟ <open call: Worksession - Otherworldly Communications/>

Otherwordly communications will look at interspecies coexistence and their different arrangements of life. By life in this context we mean biological, geological, digital, immaterial, time/space or beyond.

With a wish to find other ways of relating and engaging with technology than through damage, we look closer at the less obvious communication streams and currents happening around us.

We will use the harbour of antwerp as a starting point with special attention given to the life organized in and around water. In this friction zone we want to highlight the various extraction flows and interrelations involved.

We invite participants to come to take part in a week of listening, tuning into and making vibrations.

▶▶Find out all about the call here.

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★ <old web art blast from the past: remember the Singing Horses?/> I was thinking of old stuff I found on the web in my teenage years and randomly remembered that funny singing horses Flash thingy that my sister introduced to me. I searched for it and was surprised to find a version working even today (most of the things made on Flash disappeared). ▶▶Have a look here - by clicking on a horse, it sings a tune on a loop, thus you can make a small orchestra and compose your own song :D Love it!

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