Keys to Whatever

Watch: If an angry bear was treated like rape, this is how absurd it would sound.

Atena Farghadani is a 28-year-old Iranian artist. She was recently sentenced to 12 years and 9 months in prison for drawing a cartoon.

This cartoon, that she posted on her Facebook page last year, depicts members of the Iranian parliament as animals. It was drawn in protest of new legislature in Iran that will restrict access to contraception and criminalise voluntary sterilisation. Atena’s charges include ‘spreading propaganda against the system’ and ‘insulting members of parliament through paintings’.

Last August, 12 members of the elite Revolutionary Guard came to Atena’s house, blindfolded her and took her to the infamous Evin Prison in Tehran. According to Amnesty International:

“While in prison last year, Atena flattened paper cups to use them as a surface to paint on. When the prison guards realised what she had been doing, they confiscated her paintings and stopped giving her paper cups. When Atena found some cups in the bathroom, she smuggled them into her cell. Soon after, she was beaten by prison guards, when she refused to strip naked for a full body search. Atena says that they knew about her taking the cups because they had installed cameras in the toilet and bathroom facilities – cameras detainees had been told were not operating.”

She was released in November and gave media interviews and posted a video on YouTube detailing her beatings, constant interrogations and humiliating body searches. She was then rearrested possibly in retaliation for speaking out and has been imprisoned ever since. In January, Atena went on a hunger strike to protest the horrible prison conditions. Her health suffered dramatically, and after losing consciousness and suffering a heart attack in February, she was forced to eat again.

The quote used in the comic is taken from the speech Atena gave at her trial. It has been translated into English by the Free Atena Facebook page. You can read the whole thing here.

Time is now against her, she has just two weeks to lodge an appeal. Michael Cavna, comic journalist for The Washington Post, has launched a campaign appealing to artists to help bring awareness to Atena’s case by creating their own artwork in support of Atena and using the hashtag#Draw4Atena. Can a bunch of artists and a hashtag really make a difference and put pressure on the Iranian Government to release Atena? Probably not. But just remember that Atena is currently in prison enduring horrible conditions, and if her appeal isn’t successful, she will be there for another twelve years. FOR DRAWING A CARTOON AND POSTING IT ON FACEBOOK. Don’t we owe it to her to at least try?

Alot worse actually happens out there.. once Being a soldier (which turned me into an activist) showed me..

Signal boost.

This definitely deserves a boost

Just nasty….

#IF YA WENT HARD FOR CHARLIE HEBDO YOU SHOULD GO HARD FOR THIS

President Obama after Oregon shooting: “Our thoughts and prayers are not enough.”

Hours after today’s massacre in Oregon, President Obama took the podium for the 15th time after a mass shooting. Sounding stern and appearing frustrated, Obama challenged Americans to respond more forcefully to this shooting. His full, impassioned statement is one every American needs to hear. 

Baptiste Debombourg - Aggravure

seriously…..

I fucking love art

Palmyra: A Sculptured Capital, Syria Original photographer: Félix Bonfils

ca. 1870 albumen print 23.2 x 28.4 cm.

Seeing this breaks my heart. We're being robbed of our history due to senseless violence. These photos are even more invaluable now.

Amanda Palmer as a statue for a children’s book benefit at the New York Public Library.

And here’s David Hirst’s Verity, that she’s recreating.

I want to conclude the Pakistan series by spotlighting a very special change agent who is working to eradicate one of the nation’s most pressing social ills. Over 20,000 brick kilns operate in Pakistan, supported by millions of workers, and the system is largely underpinned by an extremely close cousin of slavery—bonded labor. Throughout rural Pakistan, illiterate and desperate laborers are tricked into accepting small loans in exchange for agreeing to work at brick kilns for a small period of time. But due to predatory terms, their debt balloons, growing larger as time goes on, with no possibility of repayment, until these laborers are condemned to work for the rest of their lives for no compensation. If the laborer dies, the debt is passed on to his or her children. The practice is illegal. But due to the extreme power and wealth of brick kiln owners, the law is often unenforced in rural areas. It is estimated that well over one million men, women, and children are trapped in this modern feudalist system.

Meet Syeda Ghulam Fatima. Described as a modern day Harriet Tubman, Fatima has devoted her life to ending bonded labor. She has been shot, electrocuted, and beaten numerous times for her activism. Quite literally, she places herself between the workers and their owners. The organization she leads, the Bonded Labour Liberation Front, is small but determined. It is working to set up Freedom Centers throughout rural Pakistan so that every bonded laborer has access to advocacy and legal aid. Fatima operates on a very small budget. So as we learn her story over the next few days, anyone wishing to help empower Fatima can donate to Bonded Labour Liberation Front here:

http://bit.ly/1N9W3Ts

Between 9 P.M. and midnight on Saturday, the southern face of the Empire State Building became a giant projection screen filled with images of a snow leopard, a manta ray, and other imperilled land and sea creatures. The event, “Projecting Change: The Empire State Building,” devised by Louie Psihoyos, the executive director of Oceanic Preservation Society, and the filmmaker and photographer Travis Threlkel, was a union of art, activism, and ambitious publicity stunt, designed to call attention to the plight of endangered species.

Watch the full video, produced by Nathan Fitch, on newyorker.com.

A super interesting way to use art and architecture for awareness. -Ariel

Sleep project by Maryam Ashkanian.

Lustik:  twitter | pinterest | etsy

“I just have this phone because I like small phones. It’s not really a good symbol of conservation. Conservation isn’t some huge sacrifice. It doesn’t mean you can’t have nice things. I’ve got a nice flat screen TV at home, great furniture, a sauna, sporting goods, and all the clothes I can wear. Conservation just means that you aren’t constantly getting rid of perfectly good stuff to replace it with stuff that you don’t need. A perfect table is perfect for hundreds of years. You don’t need a new one every couple years. Our culture is called ‘materialistic,’ but that’s not even correct, because ‘materialism’ implies that we value our possessions. And we don’t. We get rid of them, then we destroy Africa to get more shit that nobody needs. There’s no more pressing problem right now than the depletion of the earth. The earth can tolerate a lot of punishment, but if there isn’t a change in the way we consume, there is no way it can survive. We will gladly give money help people in need. But we can’t equate the act of conservation with helping billions of people for generations to come.”

Check out what #nceca2015 International Residency recipients Matt Czibesz and Jessica Brandl have been up to! Congrats you two, the posts have been amazing and can’t wait to see/hear more! RG: @zibes: Part of “Excavations” installed at Palazzo Cenci in Rome. Collaborative project with Jessica Brandl @brandltown combining hand and digital processes with historical references to form, use, and material. Thanks to @nceca and @cretarome for the generous support, and #RISD for the lovely venue. Also, #ceramic3dprinting #3dprinting #regramapp

Bryan! One of my professors from undergrad 😄 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

Inside the Orion Nebula

js

This is seriously awesome.

Never thought I would see this on Fox.

Indeed.

the news casters next to her are just nodding silently because that lady’s got passion and if anyone gets in her way she is gonna steam roll them.

LOVE RULES.

Congrats, ladies! (via Heather Hogan on Twitter)

mostly nature

You might think you know what frogs sound like — until, that is, you hear the symphony of amphibians that fills the muggy night air at Nokuse Plantation, a nature preserve in the Florida Panhandle.

There, about 100 miles east of Pensacola, a man named M.C. Davis has done something extraordinary: He has bought up tens of thousands of acres in the Florida sandhills and turned them into a unique, private preserve.

In the largest block of privately owned conservation land in the southeastern U.S., Davis is restoring ecosystems that agriculture and timbering have destroyed.

“I’m a self-proclaimed, devout conservationist,” Davis says. “I’ve been dedicated now for about 20 years.”

Davis is thinking 300 years into the future with his wildlife restoration project, even though he knows he doesn’t have much time left. He was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer in November.

Gambler-Turned-Conservationist Devotes Fortune To Florida Nature Preserve

Photo credit: Matthew Ozug/NPR