Wednesday, July 7, 2010

“Would You Wear A Bell-Shaped Dress Like Kristen Bell’s?” plus 2 more

“Would You Wear A Bell-Shaped Dress Like Kristen Bell’s?” plus 2 more

Would You Wear A Bell-Shaped Dress Like Kristen Bell’s?

Posted: 06 Jul 2010 12:45 PM PDT

Group Show 'Default State Network' at Morgan Lehman

Posted: 06 Jul 2010 09:08 AM PDT

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What is consciousness? Religion, philosophy, even science can't give us an exact definition. Yet this is the questions posed by curator Ryan Wallace in his group show, Default State Network, now on view at the Morgan Lehman Gallery.

Wallace chose work from 12 artists (including himself) that offer a visual interpretation of consciousness. Drawing inspiration from science, spirituality and philosophy, the pieces range from coffin photos by Glen Baldridge to Alex Dodge's sculpted self-portrait as an android, from geometric symbols by Elise Ferguson to Hilary Pecis' status symbols.

Read the full review here and watch the video below or click here.


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Dudley visits Senegal

Posted: 06 Jul 2010 10:03 PM PDT

David Dudley, a professor and Chair of the Department of Literature and Philosophy at Georgia Southern University, is recently back from a two-week trip to the West African nation of Senegal. The trip was part of a grant won by two GSU History Professors, with the goal of increasing international content and awareness in the curriculum of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. Dudley, a resident of Twin City, and about 20 other GSU faculty members left Savannah May 13. After some travel misadventures that took him to Africa by way of Atlanta; New York; Manchester, England; Paris; and Casablanca, Morocco; Dudley arrived in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, on May 16. His luggage caught up with him on the 19th!

The first part of the trip centered in Dakar, a city of 2 1/2 million people on the Atlantic Ocean, and the western-most point on the continent of Africa. Highlights of Dudley's time in Dakar included visiting Goree Island, the point of departure for hundreds of thousands of slaves during the era of the international slave trade. The travelers visited the notorious slave house, including the "door of no return"-through which slaves were sent to the waiting ships. The slave house features separate cells for men, children, women, and virgins, who were among the most highly prized slaves for sale. He reports it was sobering to see firsthand the place where so many people were forced to leave their homeland forever.

Also in Dakar, the professors visited the capital building and the presidential mansion, the history museum, which features an impressive collection of African masks and native costumes. The also toured the national university, where some 70,000 students attend classes on a campus originally built to accommodate 13,000. A typical lecture class holds 750 students, all of whose exams are graded by one professor. Dudley notes that Senegal is home to many young people desiring an education, but the nation's poverty makes it nearly impossible to give all its students the quality of education we often take for granted here in the States. The university's buildings are not air conditioned, and there are no computers in the library; still, the study areas of the library were absolutely full of students working in complete silence on their course work.

A different kind of school offers instruction to young boys who want to learn the Qur'an by heart. Rather than attending public school, these boys (some of whom have come from distant villages) devote themselves to memorizing the Qur'an. In the school the GSU professors visited, there is no building, just an open field in a Dakar neighborhood. The boys live in the open air, with one small latrine for their use. About fifty boys, ranging in age from seven or eight to older teenagers, learn to read and write Arabic and study only the Qur'an. Some schools of this kind compel the boys to beg in the streets to help earn money to pay expenses, including food and clothing for the students. Seeing children begging in the streets of Dakar was perhaps the most disturbing thing Dudley saw on his trip.

Everywhere in Senegal, people are making a living by vending from small sidewalk shops or from whatever they can carry with them. Westerners are assumed to have a lot of money to spend, and everywhere the group stopped, vendors crowded around them, offering cell phone minutes cards, sunglasses, watches, shirts, and all kinds of food. He bought socks from a boy who kept his "inventory" in a school backpack. Buying from vendors or from shops in the markets can be both intimidating and after some experience is gained fun. Nothing has a fixed price, and the buyer is expected to haggle over the price of everything. The seller begins by asking a price that he knows is much too high, more than the buyer will pay, and the bargaining goes on from there! Dudley felt that he got better at bargaining as the trip went on, but he's sure he probably paid to much for almost everything he bought. He brought home scarves, necklaces, T-shirts, and wooden sculptures for his family.

Outside of Dakar, the GSU professors traveled to the cities of St. Louis, the old French colonial capital, now the home to hundreds of people who make their living fishing the rivers and the ocean in small, colorfully painted traditional boats. Some of the daily catch is sold immediately as fresh fish, but the docks are lined with drying racks for huge numbers of salted fish, which are a staple of the Senegalese diet. Near St. Louis, they visited the bird sanctuary of Djoudj, one of the most important migratory bird sites on earth, and now a World Heritage protected site. During the migration season, millions of birds stop at Djoudj on their way to or from Europe. During a long boat trip, the professors saw many kinds of birds, including large flocks of pelicans, geese, cormorants, herons, and cranes.

At Touba, the religious center of Senegal, he and his group toured the Grand Mosque and learned of the enormous power that Islam wields in this nation where about 94% of the people are Muslims. Touba is a virtually autonomous zone within the country, ruled not so much by the national government as by religious leaders who have banned smoking, drinking, and banking from the city limits. There are no hotels and no tourism. Yet once a year, about two million pilgrims from all over the world converge in Touba for a religious festival. The pilgrims live in the open air or are housed by local residents, who sometimes offer hospitality to many other people, most of them strangers.

Near the small city of Toubakouta, Dudley and his colleagues toured the enormous mangrove swamps. The river offers world-class sport fishing, which draws tourists to the hotels along the river's banks. The professors visited a traditional fishing village where the people still live in thatch huts and draw water from a communal well, and where they were all greeted with a kiss by the 84-year-old queen of the village. The village has a small but modern school, which is open only about half the year because the teacher has teaching responsibilities in other villages, as well. Two other highlights of the visit to Toubakouta were dancing to traditional music and drums at an evening program of Senegalese dancing, and witnessing a traditional wrestling match. Dudley danced, but he didn't try the wrestling!

Dudley reports that the trip was the most extraordinary experience of his life, and that he hopes never to complain about anything in America again, for he now has seen firsthand how wealthy and comfortable we are, compared to millions of other people in our one global family. Despite differences in culture and customs, he found the people of Senegal to be friendly, hospitable, and eager for the same things we Americans value, including good jobs, education, and hope for our children and our nations' futures. Dudley is grateful for the opportunities he experienced on his trip and recommends international travel to everyone who wants a vision of the larger world beyond the boundaries of Georgia and our United States.




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