Diébédo Francis Kéré || Serpentine Pavilion

via Dezeen:

Serpentine Pavilion glows at night to "attract people to come and celebrate" says Diébédo Francis Kéré

Wole Soyinka || Of Africa

Wole Soyinka - Of Africa

…

“On arriving in the land of the mortals, all the deities, like our well-endowed tourists, went their different ways, each encountering a different adventure. Ogun ended up at the town of Ire, where the people adopted him as theirs and, intuitively, crowned him king. Then came war. Yielding to the people’s importuning, he led them into battle. At the very height of victory, his sight clouded by an overindulgence in palm wine, he slew foe and friend alike. When his vision cleared he grieved, abandoned his throne, and retreated into the hills where he continued to mourn his day of tragic error, cultivating a farm patch and converting his terrible discovery to peaceful use.
Do we see here why the Yoruba would in no way be overexcited by the moral lessons of the horrors of, followed by the peaceful conversion of, atomic energy? Today Ogun is guardian deity of all workers in metal—the truck driver, the engineer, the airplane pilot or astronaut. All human adventure is prefigured—symbolically, not as textual dictation—in the history of the Yoruba deities. Thus, there is no surprise, no inhibition created from scientific encounters, no impurity in their digestive system. Some new phenomenon, friendly or hostile, is encountered, and from within the armory of Ifa and the accommodative narratives of the gods, an understanding is extracted. Even more crucial for the harmonization of mortal society, an ethical principle has been inserted here—and this applies to nearly all the deities: even the gods must express remorse for infractions, and make restitution. Only then can they be rehabilitated and society undergo healing. The annual festival of Ogun features this fatal dereliction of Ogun in a procession of remorse. Perfection is denied the deities, including Obatala, the paradigm of saintly virtues.

…

…“Ifa is tolerance. Ifa takes issue with any religion or faith that denies tolerance a place in its worship. Ifa embodies the principle of the constant, spiritual quest, one to which the notion of apostasy is unthinkable. How could it be otherwise when the source of knowledge, Orunmila, the mouthpiece of the supreme deity who directs the feet of the seeker toward a spiritual mentor or guardian deity, is not granted the status of infallibility even within Ifa, the very source of his wisdom. The Supreme Orisa, or ultimate godhead—Orisa-nla, also known as Olodumare—is nothing like the Christians’ “jealous god,” but the Orisa are nonetheless the true embodiment of that Christian dictum: Seek and ye shall find.”

…
“We need to remove the veil over these invisible religions and ask again: Why is it that the Orisa has never, in all these centuries, spawned an irredentist strain? Orisa separates the regulation of community from spirit communion even while maintaining a mythological structure that weaves together both the living community and the unseen world. But that world of the spirit does not assume any competitive posture whatsoever over the pragmatic claims of the real world. B’enia ko si, imale ko le e wa. If humanity were not, the deities would not be. And very much in the same frame of apportionment is the seeming paradox that, while every mortal is believed to have brought his own ori, or portion, destiny, into the world, that same view of existence declares: Owo ara eni l’a fi ntun t’ara eni se (With our own hands do we redirect our destiny). Volition, not submission, sums it up. Humanity, not deity, is the begetter of metaphysics.”

…


“The Yoruba logos, Ase, in its variants among African belief systems, unites Nature, as both nurturer and healer, with the human psyche for the body’s and community’s well-being. Thus it is appropriate to wind up this section with a verse of Ase, a word that is so difficult to translate out of the Yoruba language but perhaps is best rendered as the vital or animating pronouncement—one that invokes the full authority of whichever is the presiding Orisa at an event, the cosmos, and the forces and energies that are represented in Nature:”

“Aase, ko ni s’aise; Nitori awise ni t’Ifa,
Afose ni t’Orunmila
Ase egunmo nii se l’awujo efo
Ase ijimere nii se l’awujo eranko
Terekese naa nii se l’awujo owu
Gbogbo igi ti legbede ba f’owo ba nii dun
Ko se, k’o se ni t’ilakose”

“Yee a ba wi han ogbo ni ogbo i gbo
Yee a ba wi han igba ni igba i gba
Oro okete ba le so ni ile i gbo
A ba alagemo ba da l’Orisa i gba
Aro oun abuke ki i p’ohun Orisa da
Sango ki i ko ohun orogbo
Orisa ki i ko ohun obi
Obatala ki i ko ohun seseefun”



“So shall it be, it shall not fail to be / For fulfilment of the word is Ifa / Fulfilment of the voice is Orunmila / Egunmo holds sway at the harvest of vegetables / The baboon holds sway at the gathering of the beasts of the forest / The frosted cotton holds sway at the gathering place of cotton / All trees resound at the mere touch of the orang-outang / So shall it be, that it shall be is the portion of the river mussel / It is what we whisper to the keen-edged grass to which the grass listens / It is what we say to the tapper’s cradle that the cradle receives / What the bush rodent tells the earth is what the earth undoubtedly hears / The mutations of the chameleon find approval among the deities / The lame and the hunchbacks do not neglect the voice of the deities/Sango never rejects the bitter ritual nut / No deity ever rejects the voice of the kola nut / Obatala will never reject the voice of the white coral bead. A-a-se. So shall it be.”

Excerpt From: Wole Soyinka, “Of Africa”

FOLLOWING THE HORSEMEN

FOLLOWING THE HORSEMEN from HAVE A GOOD ONE on Vimeo.

A JOURNEY THROUGH SOUTHERN AFRICA’S FORGOTTEN MOUNTAINS

There are few roads in Lesotho. There are even fewer mountain bikers. Here the horse is supreme and the myriad horse trails that have been carved through its steep and rugged mountains are its lifeblood. Horsemen ply these trails, just as they have for generations, riding between villages that have remained unchanged over centuries. Amidst this scene frozen in time is Isaac, a twenty-two year old horseman who is bridging the gap between old and new. For a week in April 2017, Isaac - or Leputhing Molapo to use his Basotho name - rode a 180 Kilometre traverse of the mountains of his home country. It was a ride like his father had done before him, but this time he was leading two mountain bikers.

Following Isaac were Canadian freerider Kevin Landry and Swiss ex-downhill racer Claudio Caluori, both embarking on a journey that will showcase the beautiful unknown landscapes of this small country. Riding only horse trails, it’s a journey laden with physical challenges for all, but it’s a journey that will cement friendships between a traditional blanket-wearing horseman and two state-of-the-art bike-wielding mountain bikers.
For two pioneering mountain bikers this ride is the most adventurous undertaking they have ever made. For one horseman, its a ride that heralds a new dawn.

HAVE A GOOD ONE conceived and co-ordinated this unique adventure. In April 2017 they travelled to Lesotho and working with Sky Adventures to provide support and logistics, they set out to document this journey and the unique chapter in Lesotho’s history it represents. Driven by their passion to create a unique film, Tobias Steinigeweg and Maximilian Stolarow shared the rocky trails and high mountain passes and abandoned trading post accommodations with the riders.

Following The Horsemen is a film that not only highlights the potential of Lesotho as a new adventure destination, but also provides an invaluable glimpse into its heritage through the country’s iconic horsemen.

Story, Film, Gallery, Credits, Tour: followingthehorsemen.com

Houdini Ghosting Effect Concept-Sprite Workflow || Soumitra

Houdini Ghosting Effect Concept-Sprite Workflow from Soumitra on Vimeo.

This was a presentation I did for LAHUG back in February. It gives a brief overview of a quick way of generating animation sprite sheet using Houdini 16. The sprite sheet can then be used in Unreal or Unity to generate the desired effect.
Hope you find it useful.

Knitting in 3d - Building a UV Deformer || Entagma

Knitting in 3d - Building a UV Deformer from Entagma on Vimeo.

Manuel shows you how to make use of the UV space to project 2D knitting loops to 3D surfaces of an animated geometry. For more resources please visit entagma.com

Le clitoris - Animated Documentary

Le clitoris - Animated Documentary (2016) from Lori Malépart-Traversy on Vimeo.

Les femmes sont chanceuses, elles possèdent le seul organe du corps humain qui sert uniquement au plaisir : le clitoris! Dans ce documentaire animé drôle et instructif, découvrez son anatomie ignorée et son histoire méconnue.

Film website : lorimalepart-clitoris.tumblr.com

I did not Know I Believed In God, Now They Call Me A Muslim

I never found how to deal with Stupid/Crass people.
But ignoring them is not the Best thing, has not been…

Terry Riley

Joanna Mattrey • Sean Ali • Leila Bordrueil

Joanna Mattrey :: viola
Sean Ali :: bass
Leila Bordrueil :: cello