the mark of unity

everything will

come together

with chance

and choice

 

balanced

and designed

with integrity 

and hope

 

yes

we can

Filed under: art, community, creativity, design, education, experience, future, life, love, philosophy, poetry, politics, social community networks, sustainability, work

revolution finished

 

GOD and HUMAN

MOTHER and NATURE

CHICKEN and EGG

MAN and ROOSTER

INVENTOR and INNOVATION

can’t go backwards

LIFE is always forward

and equal.

 

be born

re-birth

revolution

sex

acceptance

Filed under: activism, art, city, community, creativity, cycling, design, education, experience, future, humanity, iran, life, love, music, nature, philosophy, poetry, politics, school, student life, sustainability, work

Maya Angelou on CBC

Recommended to me by my professor Keith Rushton:

Watch this amazing poet answer questions about politics.

Filed under: poetry, politics, video

Super powers

I don’t believe in super powers. I believe in the power of people. Ghandi had no super powers, Jesus had no super powers, Mohammad had no super powers, Dalai Lama has no super powers. They are wise people who stood up and spoke through their knowledge. They were leaders and they could communicate and lead their nations. People want love. If someone is a wise and truly loving person, and if he speaks up about what people care about, then he will have followers. I don’t care if there were ‘holy’ books that came after them. To me, they are wise books. They are documents written through wisdom. Just like Lao Tzu wrote Daodejing 5000 years ago. Wisdom is truth. ‘Truth is God’, like Ghandi says. And you know how many wise people there are? Tons. We are all wise, we just let society cover our wisdom. It’s not about Islam, Christianity, Jeudaism etc etc. To me, it’s all one thing and you don’t have to label yourself as anything. You just need to be you and live to be happy until you die. Energy and spirit is where it all is. That’s how we grow and that’s how we move.

 

Everyone is human and everyone has the same senses. Who cares if someone eats pig, a rat, a bug, or becomes gay or a lesbian? None of it matters. It’s all just perception. Truth is what is in your true nature. Everyone’s true nature has a different lens. This doesn’t mean it’s right or wrong: it’s just conditioning based on your environment. Truth to me, is different than truth to someone in a village in Iran. Truth to you is different than someone in Tibet. Truth to George Bush is different than truth to the president of Vietnam. We haven’t all been through the same experiences and we act based on the knowledge that we have and the situations we put ourselves into. We are all connected by heart. We follow our senses and we want the best for ourselves, our family and our values and beliefs.

 

It’s through people’s decisions that the world is the way it is. Not enough wise people have spoken up and decided to become leaders. Politicians aren’t wise, they are corrupted. They are knowledgeable of the political system, just like economists are knowledgeable in the bank system, or lawyers knowledgeable in the law system. When you study any system and practice it, you become knowledgeable in it. Just like how priests know about Christianity – they are knowledgeable because they’ve practiced and followed a designed system.

 

More and more people step into the world of corruption and corporations and don’t follow their true nature. Living means doing what you love and caring for others. The purpose of life is happiness and harmony. We can do that with whatever we wish and choose to do. We just need to expand our mind and increase our awareness. We need to spend less time worrying and more time learning through doing. We need to stop just talking about horrible things in the world and find ways to do what we love doing. Life gets harder and opportunities increase at the same time. We are limited by our physiological bodies that determine our health, our age, our physical attributes that reflect our visual identity. We need to use that. We need to figure out how to use our bodies and the energy inside them. We need to live with ourselves until we lose our operating system as a body. It’s a game! Why not play?

 

It’s up to each individual to decide how strong they want to stick to their true nature – not someone else’s definition of truth.

Filed under: life, love, philosophy, politics

ZEITGEIST – It’s time to wake up!

Forwarded to me by my friend Eg, this is what you should be watching. We need to think for ourselves. We need to “zoom out” as Eg says. We need to wake up and understand that there are people guiding our lives and we don’t even know it.We need to read more BOOKS not NEWSPAPERS! Television is not the truth! Leave it! Stop believing illusions!

This is part 3 of 3 – watch the entire thing when your eyes pop out. watch the full movie

Filed under: city, community, documentary, education, politics

Ceramics no more at OCAD

I am taking a Virtual Communities class at OCAD as an expansion studio course. One of our projects was to document a story that we found interesting in our community and create a virtual (audio/video) presentation. Mine was ofcourse on the OCAD name change issue and a short audio collage of the student voice at the Forum. You can listen to it here.

Here is the link to our class blog where you can see all the posts and projects as a class.

I found another story that Kat O’Shaughnessy — a Material Art and Design student and Student Union Board of Director of the department — who took on the initiative to video document the voices and opiions of students in the major to really show what the concerns have been around this issue. Here is the link to her page. Great work Kat!

Filed under: activism, art, creativity, design, politics, school, student life

Choppy video of OCAD Student Forum 2007 (first half)

FORUM CONTINUED ON AUDIO

Here is the presentation that I had projected for this Forum.

Here is the document from Student Forum 2006.

Here is the first email ever received during the summer (August 1) notifying us of a decision made (to rename) without our input or concerns. The subject line read “Call for Creative Input from the OCAD Community”

And here is another note attached in the same email as above from the Chair of the Board.

This is the audio from the Town Hall meeting on Monday September 10 (first week back from school) — the first chance we had to meet as bodies given the guideline to contribute more names and support suggested names. It wasn’t about discussion, it was about stepping up to the podium with 1.5 minute to speak. Halfway through, people begin to speak up and question this decision; I suggest you listen to the second half, it relates more to the reason why Forum 2007 was conducted ASAP.

Here is the list of schools that OCAD should be looking at “competition”, not at UofT, Ryerson, York, Guelph, Waterloo, Concordia etc etc.

Royal College of Art
Rhode Island School of Design
Art Center College of Design
School of Visual Arts
Basel School of Design
CalArts
Otis College of Art and Design
Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design
Minnesota College of Art and Design
Maryland Institute College of Art
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Parsons the New School of Design
Ringling College of Art and Design
Rietveld Academy of Art
Glasgow School of Art
College for Creative Studies
Laguna College of Art and Design
Savannah College of Art and Design
Pratt Institute
Academy of Art Univeristy (with 13 Schools)

I wrote this letter on Monday September 24th after I received an email from a member of the Communications Committee on the Board of Governors who wasn’t present at the Forum and wanted to know what had happened and have a better understanding of what the students brought up. She wanted to have more information before she stepped into the Board of Governors meeting later on in the day.

I thanked her for contacting me and I began to write her an email:

—
…

I will summarize the majority of the content discussed at the forum on Wednesday.
I presented a lot of research that I had gathered from talking to countless amount of concerned and even apathetic students about the name-changing procedure that has been drastically dropped on us as students; we really felt like we are not having much of a voice in this decision. Students are concerned about the current state of the school. People who have a thorough knowledge on Art and Design education understand that we are not in competition with other universities in Ontario but we are in competition with other art and design institutions on an international level. Yes, the term “College” in US doesn’t mean community college — not to mention that US holds the majority of the Art and Design schools in the world.

I am representing students who are participating “vicariously” through me due to their high apathy and many other highly intelligent students who were present at the Forum and came out to really speak up about this issue.

You can easily fool first and second year students and the general public with the excuse that “since we are degree granting, we must enforce that in our name with the word ‘university’”. I see so much potential for this school and I have appreciated it even more when I did a study abroad, but with this decision to suddenly out of the blue come up with a solution to a problem that had never ever crossed my mind or any other student in this institution. The problems that have crossed our minds are, “hmm, the administration doesn’t give a SHIT about students”, and I say this harshly because this is the mentality of the majority of OCAD’s population (the one’s who’ve been around to see how things happen). — excuse the language.

What we really want is more attention to detail. We want more of a community; we want your attention when we say “fix this”, because ultimately we are right about what needs to be fixed. Part of the problem here is…there are lots of things that need to be fixed and doing something quite as drastic as RENAMING this historic institution that has NO need to RENAME itself but to learn how to MARKET itself better in every sense — due to lack of great marketing team, thought as to HOW to market and what caliber of students we want to attend this school. It’s about the students that do great work, the ones that graduate from here who will only come back if they love their school. They will only come back if they are proud to contribute to a school that contributed to their experience…and the only reason I see myself coming back is because of my amazing teachers; I would do anything for them.

We are worried about the MONEY, not the name. We’re worried about why the administration would make this decision without asking us if it’s a good decision in the first place. If you had ASKED us if we wanted to change a name, took a vote and actually CARED about what we think, then more students would actually appreciate the fact that you had done THAT at least.

Name change? If you’re going to do it, make it OCAD U. It’s stupid, there’s no need for it, it doesn’t change anything OCAD is and if you were to rebrand it AGAIN and remarket it again JUST BECAUSE of the “university” that is added to it, it’s even more stupid and a big shame. I will leave OCAD and say what a dumb decision and how sad it was that I tried to state the facts, do research, listen to people from all avenues, communicate to the public and take an intelligent, articulate stance on something and actually see NOTHING come out from it, I would be highly disappointed.

We are worried with that term “university” itself and how THAT itself is misleading…truthfully, from an international standpoint. I can support all that I say here if you give me more time to gather more students. I’m willing to do another forum before your next meeting, this time with more time to plan it and also more research. I don’t see a rush for a need to change OCAD’s name…period.

I just care too much about the future of Art and Design in Canada and what OCAD can really become because I have been here for FOUR YEARS and I have always LOVED school; I’ve always loved homework; loved learning; loved throwing myself into risks and I love the fact that I did not go to another generic “university” in Ontario, but I went to a specialized College (with studio based education and liberal studies) to become the creative power-house I am today. I have changed as a person at OCAD and I want the school to get credit for it. If I do big things, I want to tell everyone I went to OCAD: the best art and design school in Canada and I must say, it is at the TIP OF THE ICEBERG in international acclaim for it’s exceptional education IF WE DON’T SCREW UP and ask the right questions and LISTEN to our faculty, our students and INVEST time, money and energy into doing that.

Look INSIDE OCAD for your answers. It’s all there. THROW MONEY INTO OCAD, don’t go OUTSIDE looking for more students…they will come to you. I came to you, and so did everyone who is already here. It’s not about enrollment percentages, it’s about the quality of the student’s work once they get out of here. Why not help them more? Ask faculty what they think, I’m sure they have lots to tell you.

The forum is video-taped. I’ve yet had time to put it all content together and publicize it. (Mind you this is very valuable voluntary time of my own breath I am putting into this as a thesis student with a full course load).

I am also very confused for the making of this decision. It’s very twisted for me and I sure never want to be a politician. I never thought institutions were just as bad as the real world with their politics, systems and decision making.

If you have more questions, I would be pleased to answer.

Thanks for your time,

ghazaleh

—

She agreed with a lot of the things I had mentioned and strongly supported my case.

Filed under: activism, art, creativity, design, politics, school, student life

OCAD Student Forum 2007: What’s In A Name?

After some commotion at the last Town Hall meeting, it is evident that OCAD’s renaming needs a lot more assertive debate and critical problem solving. There are many issues that have arisen with the OCAD administration’s drastic decision to re-name and re-brand the school, without any genuine communication, research and discussion with the OCAD internal and extended community for the making of this decision.

A completely student organized event, this meeting is an opportunity for students, faculty, alumni and professionals to truthfully address their opinions, concerns, suggestions and visions for the future of this school. We have a lot to talk about. Wise action will not be made if we do not dig into the root of the problem here. It’s time to bring our voices together and listen to one another if we want to make any change that is for the best interest of this thriving community.

This heated session will be documented and its recording has the possibility to be publicized. Make a presence, voice your opinion, listen and be receptive to people with perspectives different than your own. It’s time to be realistic, intelligent and more importantly democratic about this decision.

Supported by the Student Union
Hosted by Ghazaleh Etezal (Graphic Design 4th year thesis student) and Mohammed Mohsen (Drawing and Painting fourth year student and SU President)

These are questions that we will be discussing…

1. Is the renaming necessary? Why and for what purpose?

2. Is it wise for OCAD to put “University” in its official identity name considering its studio based education and current circumstances?

3. If the re-brand and renaming is an absolute, what thinking must we go through to consider a new name and identity? How do we problem solve with our creative abilities to embrace the education and community here at OCAD?

Read Globe & Mail’s report
Here is OCAD Student Forum 2006

Filed under: activism, art, creativity, design, politics, school, student life