My bookshelf in the Ancient Library of Alexandria

My grandfather told me the story of The Ancient Library of Alexandria. It has been present in my mind with a sense of loss since childhood.

I imagined the burnet scrolls.

What was in them? What have we lost?

I imagine the toga-wearing scholars wondering about the gardens, conversing with each other, discussing Aristotle’s philosophical questions, quoting Sappho, watching the 70 scribes translating the Hebrew Bible into Greek word by word. I imagine the tireless writers copying papyrus scrolls and rolling them into on the shelves.

This blog was created as a gesture to the lost library. It is a metaphorical artistic attempt to fabricate a mark and recreate it from ashes. I wish us to realize our humankind stupidity of losing so much knowledge, effort and love that was scrolled there. This memorial blog is here to acknowledge all our useless wars and fights.  So, on my tiny naïve scale, I mark that event and collect pixels onto virtual shelves.

For that matter, I have also invented a figure named Moundhacker, who creates clay ostracons and dispenses them mainly at archeological sites. The ostracon has a handwritten link leading to this blog.

It is a flickering memorial candle of pixels in the memory of the ancient library. A person who finds a shard might print the link and visit the blog. Ostracons are collected on a Google Earth Map.

The Internet is used as a means of creating our own present-day Alexandria library.

Now, this:

Over the past few years, I have been managing a large learning community for pedagogues and art therapists. It is based on my concern for our social and educational condition and the next generation we are raising.

Are we building the Tower of Babel again? Are we burning another library?

I relate to the Studio Visits Community as part of the education shelf of the ancient Alexandria Library.

Educators and therapists wonder about the halls, leaf through books, study and pass things on.

The library is fragile and depends on people’s goodwill to share knowledge, their ability to translate words into actions, and their understanding that our time is short and there is much to reconstruct and create.

All this is based on a delicate net of pixels.

You, too, are invited to wander through the library, using translators, join those walking in the gardens wearing white togas, discussing the genuinely significant issues of our lives here and the better world we may be able to create. Feel free to join us through this door. 

 A dream , Grandfather