The Daily Render by Nikolas R. Schiller » Israel

My Brash poem from Artomatic 2009

Nikolas Schiller — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 03:34:01 +0000

Inverted scan of the poem

Brash is a poet that goes around Artomatic and leaves each participating artist a poem taped on to their exhibit wall. This week I noticed that my poem had been taped up to my exhibit space, so I decided to take it home, scan it, and post it here on-line like I did with last year’s poem. However, unlike last year, where Brash wrote about my entire exhibit, this year Brash wrote specifically about my Israel / Palestine 1993 map. From my understanding, Brash will probably write a poem for EVERY artist (thats over a thousand poems!) at Artomatic 2009. Brash, if you are reading this, thank you! I sincerely enjoy your creative spirit!

Related Artomatic Entries:

In today’s Washington Jewish Weekly newspaper

Nikolas Schiller — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 21:05:55 +0000

My piece at the JCC is mentioned in an article in today’s Washington Jewish Weekly:

The piece by D.C. resident Nikolas Schiller portrays the Palestinian refugees’ perspective and, he says, “dissent.” He is dissenting from the 1993 map of Israel and the Palestinian territories, upon which he based his kaleidoscope image, because he sees it as “biased” in showing the territories in stripes, he says.

He also has included an image of Handala, an iconic Palestinian cartoon that he found on the Internet, on the map. Handala, which means “bitterness” in Arabic, “represents the abused Palestinian refugees,” he says.

I don’t remember saying the word “abused” the entire time I spoke with the reporter, but I’ll let it slide.

Read the entire article:

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Mapping it politically’L (A) ttidtudes’ exhibit features interpretivemaps of Israel, Palestinian territories

by Aaron Leibel, Arts Editor

It’s an exhibit that “screams political.”So says Wendy Fergusson, director of the Ann Loeb Bronfman Gallery at the Washington DC Jewish Community Center and curator of L(A)ttitudes, explaining that the exhibit deals with artists’ interpretations of mappings of Israel and the Palestinian territories.

“Mapping is inherently political, especially in this region,” Fergusson says.

The exhibit’s 73 pieces by 10 artists from the U.S., Israel, France, Italy and Canada tries to capture “many authentic voices” in dealing with Israel. “Whenever we speak about an Israeli perspective, there isn’t one voice,” the curator says.

Fergusson says the exhibit tries to capture viewpoints as divergent as those of Palestinians living in Israel and of Palestinian refugees, as well as voices from the Israeli right.

Two local artists who have contributed to the exhibit illustrate those varying political perspectives in their work. Anna Fine Foer’s “Vayikra” was done for a relative whose bar mitzvah Torah portion of that name can be found in Leviticus. That parsha deals with sacrificing cattle as an offering to God.

“The cow is raised up on the state of Israel as if the country is the altar and in modern times, as we know, the land itself is what is being sacrificed” in terms of territorial compromise, she says.

This is not necessarily meant as a protest against territorial compromise, but depicts “reality in a symbolic way,” the Annapolis artist explains.

The piece by D.C. resident Nikolas Schiller portrays the Palestinian refugees’ perspective and, he says, “dissent.” He is dissenting from the 1993 map of Israel and the Palestinian territories, upon which he based his kaleidoscope image, because he sees it as “biased” in showing the territories in stripes, he says.

He also has included an image of Handala, an iconic Palestinian cartoon that he found on the Internet, on the map. Handala, which means “bitterness” in Arabic, “represents the abused Palestinian refugees,” he says.

Other highlights include 55 photographs by Alban Biaussat of people living on the Green Line; a 25-foot-high “Orange Map” by Avner Bar Hama; and Yoav Galai’s black-and-white photos of the wall/fence separating Israel from the West Bank.

The purpose of the exhibit is to get people to think about maps and ponder such questions as: If the map doesn’t agree with what they see on the ground, is the map right or wrong? Can we trust maps? Are there other ways of mapping?

The exhibit’s political nature, according to Fergusson, led the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington to rule that its Israel@60 logo, used to distinguish events celebrating Israel’s 60th anniversary, could not be used to promote L (A) ttitudes.

Explaining the federation’s decision, Stuart Brown, the Israel@60 chair, says in a statement that there are limits on the kinds of activities that can be promoted under its banner.

He continues: “For example, we have not allowed the Israel@60 logo to be used in connection with fundraising events. And, most fundamentally, the Israel@60 label cannot be used for events that feature a political perspective.”

Yet, the federation’s list of Israel@60 exhibits includes a wide variety of events, including one titled, “Lost Years: Bush, Sharon, and Failure in the Middle East,” a talk by Mark Matthews, based on his book and described as “how two risk-taking leaders worsened the Middle East situation by pursuing parallel preemptive wars that destabilized the region.”

A federation spokesperson described such events as “educational in nature.”

Fergusson, meanwhile, sees the L (A) ttitudes exhibit as “a reflection of Israel at 60,” but not necessarily a celebration of Israel’s 60th anniversary. For that reason, she has no problem with the federation’s decision.

The exhibit will be on display through June 2. In conjunction with the exhibit, there will be opportunities to engage in dialogues on Israel and the Middle East. For information, go to www.washingtondcjcc.org/center-for-arts/gallery or call 202-777-3208.

Related Entries:

The Astro-Theological Overlays for Google Earth

Nikolas Schiller — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 16:14:38 +0000

Click on the image below to download the .kmz file [888 Kb] for Google Earth:

Instead of just wrapping the Astrological Calendar from 1544 around the earth, today I decided to place the calendar alongside the 3 holy locations of Catholicism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. This geographic juxtaposition of pagan symbolism with established religion makes this series of overlays one of the more interesting cartographic creations I’ve ever made.

Continue reading:

What I like best about these overlays is the quasi-Droste effect I was able to capture by using Google placemarks with the calendar’s central satellite image. The Droste effect is named after a Dutch company who’s advertisements featured a recursive graphic within the graphic. Such as a woman holding a box and the picture on the box is the same picture you are viewing. By placing the “Blue Marble” satellite image over the location of Google’s placemark, you get a sense of location. Above you see that the placemark for Mecca is at roughly the same location of where it should be in the satellite image. Thus its not so much Droste, but reverse scale, where you are able to see where the locations are on a larger map when close-up.

The .kmz file contains 3 locations:
1) The Vatican
2) Mecca
3) Jerusalem

Release Notes:
– The Vatican does not have a placemarker like Mecca or Jerusalem and it’s been scaled so that one must zoom in to see the calendar. Since the Vatican is not in the Eastern Hemisphere the use of the placemarker is not needed. I chose to place it over the obelisk in the center of St. Peter’s Square because of the geometry Bernini employed when designing it. It looks as if it’s in the center of a pagan cross.
– For some reason Jerusalem is not always showing up in Google Earth. When I made the first version it would show up when playing the tour, but in this current version it’s showing up invisible. I was considering not releasing this layer, but I think it might just be a bug in the Mac OS X version. If it doesn’t show up on your version, please contact me. I am thinking of releasing the 3 individual layers instead of one bundled layer.
– I’d like to add a few other holy places like Salt Lake City or possibly some place in India. These locations might be included in the second release.

Any feedback would be much appreciated.

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Related Google Earth Entries:

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Related Israel Entries:

Israel / Palestine 1993

Nikolas Schiller — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 20:59:46 +0000

On Saturday day on I obtained a scanned map of Israel & Palestine from the “Atlas of the Middle East”, published in January 1993 by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. I was thinking of using the map for something quasi political, but this last week Israel blew up the only power plant in Gaza. An act identified as an international war crime where women, children, the sick, and eldery were all collectively punished through this illegal act on civilians. Israel also abducted 8 elected members of parliament. I can only imagine what it would be like if my city council members were kidnapped. Worse, my good friend was supposed to be going to Beruit next month and I don’t think she’ll be able to go now. I chose to add Naji al-Ali’s cartoon character Handala to this map as my way of showing shame.

From Wikipedia on Handala:

Handala is the most famous of Naji al-Ali’s characters. He is depicted as a ten-year old boy, and appeared for the first time in Al-Siyasa in Kuwait in 1969. The figure turned his back to the viewer from the year 1973, and clasped his hands behind his back. The artist explained that the ten-year old represented his age when forced to leave Palestine and would not grow up until he could return to his homeland; his turned back and clasped hands symbolised the character’s rejection of “outside solutions”. Handala wears ragged clothes and is barefoot, symbolising his allegiance to the poor. In later cartoons, he sometimes appears throwing stones or writing graffiti. Handala became the signature of Naji al-Ali’s cartoons and remains an iconic symbol of Palestinian identity and defiance; the artist remarked that “this being that I have invented will certainly not cease to exist after me, and perhaps it is no exaggeration to say that I will live on with him after my death”.

Yesterday I did run into a wayward and former Seeds of Peace camp counselor at the U-Haul. This did give me some hope…

View Map details:

Of interesting note, the map states clearly:
“The 1950 Israeli proclamation that Jerusalem be the national capital is not recognized by the United States Government”

I chose the placement of Handala so that his head surrounds Israel to point out focus of shame. By adding the character to the map, he becomes a cartoon cartouche. I am not aware of any contemporary maps that have iconic cartoon characters on them.

The points of the found star in the map are interesting. The confluence of the West Bank creates the tips and for some reason the C.I.A. chose to use odd stripes to show the West Bank as a country. Why not a normal whole color like every other country? Cartographic bias?

The best line from this section of the map is:
GAZA STRIP – Israeli occupied- status to be determined.

: zoom out from center :

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UPDATE 2/1/08

I am offering ten signed prints of ISRAEL / PALESTINE 1993 for sale at the gallery. Printed at 48″ x 32″ with archival inks on stretched canvas, the map is printed large enough so that you can read the tiny print on the original map.

If you are interested in attending the opening night reception, I have added an event invitation on Facebook where you can RSVP.