The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Photographing a city’s century – in a single shot Posted: 18 May 2014 08:33 PM PDT That is the question behind the latest "thought experiment" by the American conceptual artist Jonathon Keats, whose past endeavours include a bid to genetically engineer God, and porn films for houseplants – complete with close-ups of bees pollinating flowers. Using ultra-long-exposure cameras, he has set out to document Berlin's shifting urban landscape over the next 100 years. The 42-year-old, based between San Francisco and northern Italy, invited people from this week to take one of 100 small pinhole cameras and place it in a strategic Berlin location. To add to the fun, he's asked them to keep mum about where they have hidden their "photographic time capsule", only revealing its location in their old age, to a child who could in turn wait until adulthood to retrieve it. Keats is promising that whoever returns a camera 100 years from now to his partners in the project, Berlin-based Team Titanic gallery, will see their photo go on display – and get their 10-euro ($14) deposit back. A date for the "CenturyCamera" exhibition's opening is already in the diary – May 16, 2114. "I will not be in attendance," the artist said, dryly, in an interview with AFP for the project launch. But he doesn't mind at all. The self-styled experimental philosopher wants to probe how "putting a camera in the hands of the unborn" can make people scrutinise the legacy of the decision taken today for their city. "The first people to see these photos will be children who haven't yet been conceived," Keats said. "They're impacted by every decision we make, but they're powerless. If anyone has the right to spy on us, it's our descendants." Like 'ghosts' of houses He describes what he is doing as, effectively, "surveillance" – intentionally using the "highly loaded" word. But his aim is to provoke discussion, especially following the uproar caused by recent revelations of mass US spying. "This surveillance is completely out in the open, and that encourages the conversation about surveillance to be completely out in the open, as it needs to be." "Nothing is hidden here, except for the cameras themselves." So how will the 100-year photographs work? With simplicity and, of course, durability uppermost in mind, Keats' steel canister cameras use black paper, instead of photographic paper, that will fade with the highly focused and very low light trained through the pin hole. "If you have a camera directed towards some houses and those houses get bulldozed after 25 years and they build a skyscraper, what you'll see are just the ghosts of the houses, a shadow of the houses. "The skyscraper will be bolder in the same image. It'll be a double exposure in effect," he said, adding that minor changes in the image, such as day-to-day human activity, would not register. Dressed in an everyman sweater and jeans, the bespectacled Keats, whose past projects include ballet for honeybees and a travel documentary watched by plants, admits there is plenty that could go wrong. "First of all the technology hasn't been tried and as a result we are working based on some assumptions," he said. But plans are already afoot to organise the project in other cities and Keats even hopes the United Nations could get involved. The German capital has undergone rampant change in the almost quarter century since the Berlin Wall fell, one of the reasons it was chosen for the photographic project. The challenge for those hiding the cameras is to choose a spot worthy of century-long observation, said Julia Schulz, of Team Titanic. "It'll be interesting to see if people choose a well-known place such as the Berlin Wall – or their own little plot of garden." – AFP, May 19, 2014. |
| Battles take shine off the beautiful game Posted: 18 May 2014 07:47 PM PDT Four years ago in South Africa, Spain earned legions of admirers as their attractive passing style helped them to a maiden World Cup triumph. But the Spanish victory was so nearly derailed by a bitterly contested final which saw the Netherlands try to disrupt their opponents with an overtly physical approach. Nigel De Jong was lucky to stay on the pitch after planting his studs in Xabi Alonso's chest with a wild tackle, while Johnny Heitinga joined the elite band of players to have been sent off in a World Cup final for two yellow cards. In all, the final produced some 47 fouls and 14 yellow cards, more than any other game in the 2010 tournament. Yet in many ways, the 2010 final was tame compared to some of the more notorious episodes in the World Cup's wilder early history. Since Placido Galindo was sent off for Peru at the 1930 World Cup – the first player in tournament history to be dismissed – a total of 159 players have been given their marching orders. It was not until 1938 however that a World Cup match earned the dubious distinction of being branded a "battle", when Brazil and Czechoslovakia collided in a stormy quarter-final in Bordeaux. A bruising encounter ended with three players sent off, while Czechoslovakia's forward Oldrich Nejedly suffered a broken leg and goalkeeper Frantisek Planicka was left with a broken arm. Brazil was at the centre of another notorious brawl in Switzerland in 1954, when their quarter-final against Hungary became immortalised as the "Battle of Berne." The result, a 4-2 victory for Hungary, has become a footnote of a match which is a strong contender for the dirtiest game in World Cup history. The match was marred by three sending off and several mass brawls, and was interrupted by several invasions from Brazilian officials and media. "This was a battle, a brutal, savage match," recalled Hungary's coach Gustav Sebes, who himself ended up with four stitches in a facial wound after being struck by a broken bottle in a post-match brawl. The violence was taken to a new level at the Battle of Santiago eight years later in Chile, when Italy and the host nation met in a foul-tempered group match. The first foul occurred within 12 seconds, and Italy's Giorgio Ferrini was dismissed after only 12 minutes, needing to be dragged from the field by police after protesting vainly to English referee Ken Aston. Another Italian, Mario David, was sent off for kicking Chile's Leonel Sanchez in the head. Sanchez was lucky to escape censure after breaking Humberto Maschio's nose with a punch. Police intervened repeatedly as the two teams continuously clashed. While isolated incidents of violence have peppered World Cups since – most notably German goalkeeper Toni Schumacher's flying challenge on France's Patrick Battiston in 1982, and Zinedine Zidane's headbutt on Marco Materazzi in 2006 – there have been few games to rival the wildness of the matches in Berne and Santiago. One exception is 2006's "Battle of Nuremberg" between Portugal and the Netherlands. Russian referee Valentine Ivanov issued four red cards and 16 yellows, a World Cup record and Portugal were fortunate not to lose captain Luis Figo too. Figo should have been sent off for a retaliatory head butt after being elbowed by Khalid Boulahrouz. "Jesus Christ may be able to turn the other cheek but Luis Figo isn't Jesus Christ," Portugal's then coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said. – AFP, May 19, 2014. |
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