Random Thoughts .. and Memories ...
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A 15 ton steel structure, made of about 37 metres of steel which is laser cut, with 7.09 metres high and 10.33 metres wide weaving a ribbon like structure. Houses 396 important discoveries inscribed in their language of origin, accompanied by the names of their discoverers. The first inscription starts at the base of the sculpture, about sexagesimal calculations, discovered by the ancient Mesopotamians in around 1500 BC and ends (for the time being) with the discovery of the Higgs boson at CERN .. the structure looks incomplete as if symbolizing the awaiting of future scientific events... I took photo of some inscriptions like discovery of Raman effect and inscriptions in sanskrit/hindi ..... The story behind this work in the words of the Canadian sculptor, Gayle Hermick :"After visiting the CERN site for the first time in 2005, I was captured by the enormity of what the Large Hadron Collider represents — experimentation based on centuries of scientific exploration. Current physics theories are based on those that came before, which were, in turn, based on other precedents. The connections between theories weave together the story of science, creating a fabric of complex detail. I was struck by the seemingly abstract and ethereal nature of the experiments being conducted at CERN. With a background in the visual arts, the language used by the scientific community was completely foreign to me—but its elegance was remarkable and intriguing." Funding: Fondation Meyrinoise du Casino. Steel: Swiss metalwork firm SENN-AG Reminded of Richard P. Feynman : "Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns, so each small piece of her fabric reveals the organization of the entire tapestry."
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The Question Mark at Meyrin: For last 3 months I pass by this big "?" on the ground, on my way to office in the morning, it seems to ask what am I going to do today and on my return to home asking, what did I do today ... 5 days a week constant monitoring ... :-) Anyway, it prompted me to find who was the person who invented the Mr. "?", to my surprise the origins of the question mark are clouded in myth and mystery! Myths associate it with "the shape of an inquisitive cat’s tail", some link it with the Latin word quaestio written at the end of a sentence to show that it was a question. But I learn that the most accepted story behind the origin of punctuation came about when the idea of reading aloud from an unfamiliar document led to meanings getting mangled and emphasis on words placed incorrectly. The one credited with the origin of "?", is Alcuin of York, an English scholar and poet. Alcuin created the punctus interrogativus to signal an inflection at the end of a clause. But the exact notation of "?" underwent several changes .. Eventually, most languages picked up the question mark and used it as their own. Now the question mark is a sort of international super-star, being used by billions of people every day. By the way, there are very interesting histories related to the Comma, Dot, & Exclamation mark as well and the role played by Aristophanes (a librarian) of Byzantium, and Aldus Manutius .... But very soon in the era of FB, WhatsApp, twitter .. the emoji may become a new form of punctuation ? .. ah again the "?" ....
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Assembly Hall in the United Nations office in Geneva is the biggest in the campus with seating capacity of 1939 .. it was great to get this chance to enter to that room where for example - the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was devised and in December 1988, in order to hear Yasser Arafat (denied visa to go to UN head quarters in New York), the General Assembly organized its 29th session in the Palace of Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland. The main architect in the initial phases was Broggi with help from several others. Logo: "A map of the world representing an azimuthal equidistant projection centred on the North Pole, inscribed in a wreath consisting of crossed conventionalized branches of the olive tree. The projection of the map extends to 60 degrees south latitude, and includes five concentric circles". Representing all are equal at this world stage. The design team was led by Oliver Lincoln Lundquist. The UN logo was approved on 7 December 1946. Each desk features a microphone and a special earphone which feeds simultaneous translations in one of the six official UN languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. The guide (who had a good rapport with my mother during the trip - see photo) during the tour said the most difficult thing to translate (in addition to emphasizing the challenge of online translation of important matters) is a joke .. most of them say .. "the person just made a joke"!
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Assembly Hall in the United Nations office in Geneva is the biggest in the campus with seating capacity of 1939 .. it was great to get this chance to enter to that room where for example - the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was devised and in December 1988, in order to hear Yasser Arafat (denied visa to go to UN head quarters in New York), the General Assembly organized its 29th session in the Palace of Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland. The main architect in the initial phases was Broggi with help from several others. Logo: "A map of the world representing an azimuthal equidistant projection centred on the North Pole, inscribed in a wreath consisting of crossed conventionalized branches of the olive tree. The projection of the map extends to 60 degrees south latitude, and includes five concentric circles". Representing all are equal at this world stage. The design team was led by Oliver Lincoln Lundquist. The UN logo was approved on 7 December 1946. Each desk features a microphone and a special earphone which feeds simultaneous translations in one of the six official UN languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. The guide (who had a good rapport with my mother during the trip - see photo) during the tour said the most difficult thing to translate (in addition to emphasizing the challenge of online translation of important matters) is a joke .. most of them say .. "the person just made a joke"!
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One of the most beautiful and technologically best rooms (among those I saw during the visit) in UN, Geneva is the LA SALLE DES EMIRATS (renovated Conference room XVII). Two renowned architects, Siavosh Adeli, from Lausanne, and Joakim de Rham, based in Dubai, worked on the project from July 2015 and was completed in May 2016 with total cost of $22 Million by UAE. Ceiling: represents the sky of the Emirates which evolves above the heads, reproducing in real time the brightness of a day (dawn to dusk : 9 AM to 8PM Emirates sky). This is done by using LEDs (300 square meter area, with 10.4mm pixel pitch). It weighs 20 tons, contains a round metallic structure showing the name of the United Arab Emirates written in stylized Arabic calligraphy. Walls: Made of wood panels with curved shapes to represent the wind in the dunes. Floors: Carpeting reproduces the orange hues that represent the unique colors of the sand of the desert of Abu Dhabi There are also nice artistic representation of horses .. as white lines ....
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The Salle du Conseil or Council Chamber in United Nations in Geneva, a place where the Council of the League of Nations used to sit and now used by the Conference on Disarmament (India has a permanent representative to the United Nations Conference on Disarmament in Geneva) and deals with all multilateral arms control and disarmament problems. The Council Chamber hosted the negotiations to end the 1991 Gulf War and held several special sessions of the Security Council. The construction of the square shaped Council Chamber started in 1936 by the Parisian decorator René Prou and later by architect Jacques Carlu. What is striking when I entered it was the walls and the ceiling were decorated with gold and sepia murals, painted by the Catalan artist José Maria Sert, depicting the progress of humankind through health, technology, freedom and peace, and offered by the Government of Spain to the League of Nations. The yellow sections in the murals depict the political scenes and messages the artist tries to convey. At their edges, they appear to unfurl like curtains or banners and between these edges are grey sections of human figures. The walls have murals that show the mixed history of human civilisation and how we can go on to an idealised future. One of the paintings (you can see the person with long hat - Abraham Lincoln) depicts folly of slavery and social progress.. other shows folly of war or conquerors lording over the conquered, technological progress. One of the walls shows the five continents (represented by the muscular human figures) trying to overcome difficulties to build a good future. The final one (where a person holds a baby and shows it to the world) depicts hope and the overthrow of war. The celling mural describes the mechanism by which we can achive our end goal - the La lección de Salamanca (The lesson of Salamanca), the the five continents – represented as muscular humans … – join hands in cooperation.
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The Human Rights and Alliance of Civilizations Room is one of the biggest hall with 754 seats in the United Nations Office in Geneva. The room where the Economic and Social Council and the Human Rights Council meets has a unique ceiling which symbolizes the value of art in the dialogue of civilisations. The roof is really amazing and is actually a sculpture consisting of many layers of coloured paints composed of pigments from across the globe, sprayed across the ceiling to create stalactites. The colors vary depending where you stand, symbolizing there could be multiple views/prespective on the same matter. It represents the themes of multiculturalism, mutual tolerance and understanding between cultures. How was it build, the story goes like this: On the occasion of the visit to Geneva of their majesties King Juan carlos I and Queen Sofia of Spain, on March 7, 2005, the Spanish government, presided by Mr. Jose Luis Rodriguez Zepatero, accepted the request of UN to refurbish Conference room XX and to decorate it with a work of art by one of the most important Spanish contemprary artists. On February 28th 2007, the agreement between the Kingdom of Spain and the United Nations was signed and a work of art by the Spanish artist Miquel Barcelo was commissioned. On 18 November 2008, the Secretary-General, together with the King and Queen of Spain, inaugurated the Human Rights and Alliance of Civilizations Room (named such with the suggestion of Spain). The renovation and the dome sculpture costed 20 million Euros (contribution from public and private - ONUART foundation), representing one of the laergest gifts ever donated to the United Nations. There is a short video on how it was created
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Peacocks in United Nations office in Geneva at the Palais de Nations: was pleasantly surprised when we encountered them and one of them obliged with this beautiful dance .....most of the peacocks are gifted by India. Came across an interesting story .. Gustave Revilliod a very wealthy person in whose mother's memory the Ariana park is named, having no descendants, bequeathed his land and most of his fortune to the city of Geneva in 1890. However it is said that there were three conditions: (a) that he be buried at the park after his death, (b) that the peacocks should be allowed to roam freely in the park and (c) the park should allow access to the masses. All three conditions are honored by the City of Geneva. The cost of keeping these peacocks is borne by the United Nations Office at Geneva. They also came out with a collection of special stamps, which included these peacocks, during its 45th anniversary. So the national bird of India has become very special guest here. Thanks to Gustave Ravilliod for ensuring that these birds would be there as long as the Palais de Nations exists !
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The 5 feet Bronze statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the Ariana Park in Geneva, Switzerland. It is built by Shri Gautam Pal (Kolkata) and gifted by India to the City of Geneva for its role in promoting peace, harmony and friendship. The statue unveiled in November 2007 commemorated the 60th anniversary of Indo-Swiss friendship. This statue with the engravings "Ma vie est mon message" in French and "My life is my Message" in English is unlike any other Mahatma Gandhi Statue, this one has him reading a book. In fact Mahatma Gandhi visited Switzerland from 6th December to 11th December in 1931, and was in Geneva on 10th December. He was asked at Lausanne to define what he understood by God. He explained how, among the noblest attributes which the Hindu scriptures ascribed to God, he had in his youth chosen the word “truth” as most truly defining the essential element. He had then said, “God is Truth.” “But,” he added, “two years ago I advanced another step. I now say, ‘Truth is God.’ Several interesting things happened - if you are interested then look at the following website: http://www.gandhi-manibhavan.org/eduresources/chap23.htm For more work by Mr. Gautam Pal : http://www.gautampal.com/images/works-installed-abroad.pdf
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Learned a bit about history of Geneva during the visit to Reformation Wall - at the Parc des Bastions. It is roughly 100 meters long and ~ 9 meters high. The wall was sculpted by Bouchard and Landowski The monument has the words "Post Tenebras Lux," which are Latin words for "After the darkness, light." The wall recounts the history of the Calvinist Reformation and its dissemination throughout the world, shows Geneva's role in the history of religions. In the centre are four big statues - From left to right : Guillaume Farel, Jean Calvin, Theodore de Bèze, and John Knox. The six smaller statues to the sides of the central group are those of political figures favourable to the Reformation of the Church. Calvin sought exile from 1536 to his death in 1564 in Geneva. The reformer wanted Geneva to be like the kingdom of God on earth. His ministry attracted other Protestant refugees and over time made Geneva a major force in the spread of Reformed theology. However in that period Calvin seems remained, the object of great admiration and intense devotion on the one hand, of bitter dislike and even hatred on the other.... it is an interesting read of the detail history .. related to Calvin and Geneva ..
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Most refreshing sight to walk by these small flowers which fill the fields along the road I take everyday from home to tram station in Meyrin Village ... As Christina Rossetti said in her Poem - "Spring" - "... Young grass springs on the plain; Young leaves clothe early hedgerow trees; Seeds, and roots, and stones of fruits, Swollen with sap put forth their shoots; Curled-headed ferns sprout in the lane; Birds sing and pair again. There is no time like Spring, When life's alive in everything, Before new nestlings sing, Before cleft swallows speed their journey back Along the trackless track - .............. Before the daisy grows a common flower Before the sun has power To scorch the world up in his noontide hour. ....."
During the walk to the CERN laboratory one finds lots of interesting berries (wild ?) on the way ...
Recent (24th April 2019) early morning view from our house .. Today was the day of presentations related to the thesis work by our Integrated MSc students ..a Marathon ... attended from 5:30 AM through Skype .. went on for 400 minutes .. total slides = 278 .. total thesis pages = 760 ... they all have done excellent projects ... presentations were very professional ... Integrated PhD and pre-doctoral presentations will follow in the coming days !