December 15, 2008

Lighting Up Beirut.

Here is an absolutely wonderful idea, especially in the time of all these festivities (Adha and Christmas, and Hanukka coming up.) coming from Edwin Gardener, a designer who spend last month in Beirut. It was first published it on this web site. day time & night time

He writes 'All across Beirut you can find walls covered with bullets holes. Reminders of past violence, conflict and war. Moving through the city they are an all too familiar backdrop for any urban scene. This proposal that I called ‘bullet lights’ is reversing the meaning and experience of the ‘bullet hole wallpaper’ at diverse locations in the city. Introducing unexpected poetic moments of beauty. Beauty, ambivalently mixed with the physical testimonies of violence. The project doesn’t want to make a point it just invites people to look at things differently. Seeing things from more than one perspective is the starting point for empathy.'

I’d love to see that one. I’d like to make one addition. The lights should be color-coded, depending on the conflict. So they early holes, from 1975 and later would be green, early 1980 would be red, post 2005 lights blue (just a suggestion), and then the town would be not kust lit but colorful as well. Gives you a better perspective in the history of the conflict.

Now as to where we should purchase these light, may I make a suggestion . . . .

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