In the past years I was a member of an other online community and one of the people there was Lars Hasselblat Torres, who is protector of the Peace Tiles Project. This is an art and inspiration project, dedicated to furthering knowledge about HIV and Aids. The Peace Tiles Project is a international platform where young people can express their feelings about HIV and Aids, but it is not exclusively for young people. We all can share feelings about the virus and the concequenses.
Peace Tiles are made on 8 by 8 inch tiles, made from wood. You use paint, but also newspaper cuttings, and other materials that have a meaning for you, each tile is a personal message to the whole world, a tiny voice. Together the tiles are made into mureals. There have been mureals since 2005, december 1 - World Aids Day - and they are in many places around the world.
I will give you the url of two webpages, that tell you more about the background on the Peace Tiles Project and how it became a Global project now.
The reason why I am telling you about this is this: Each of those tiles on wood, is in essence a little photoshop, but then made with real paper cuttings and real paint. Perhaps as PSC community we could get together, and create a mureal of our own. By using the mixed media of photoshop and paint and glue on a tile made of wood.
Come 1st December there will be an new World Aids Day. And this year, as last year and the year before, the only thing we can say for sure is that there will be 12 more months, in which far too many children loose their parents to Aids, where far too many children get infected by the HIV virus, where there are still countless thousands babies born, who will get infected at the moment of birth (!!), whithout the possibility of a medical treatment to prevent them falling ill. For sure there will be thousands or even millions still suffer from the antiquated and outdated folklore, that Aids can be cured by very strange and cruel treatments, strange potions, virgin babies or just by saying that it does not exist.
In those 12 months, if things would stay the same as in 2006, 39.5 million people would be living with aids (31 to 47 million est.)
New HIV infections will be 4.3 million (3.6 - 6.6 million est.)
Deaths due to Aids will be 2.9 million (2.5 - 3.5 million est.)
(figures from
http://data.unaids.org/pub/EpiReport/2006/12-Maps_2006_EpiUpdate_eng.pdf)
And even if you live in a country that does not have many people suffering from HIV or Aids, even then it does matter to you. Because it is one of the things that, left unattended, will one day be the ruin of our global economy. Think of all the countries where 30 to 50 percent of adults are already infected, without proper treatment in the forseable future. What do you think will happen to their economy, when there is nobody around to do the work or to educate the children?
Killer pandemics cause wars. And we don't need wars. What we need is a moment of time, to pause and think about what HIV and Aids mean, to us, to the people who suffer from it and to the people who are depending on us to provide them with the chance of a brighter future.
Read more about it here.
http://mixedmedia.us/peacetiles/
and here
http://mixedmedia.us/peacetiles/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=55&Itemid=32
Send me an email (pm) if you want more information on how to get started on making the tiles. Feel free to set up workshops of your own, like there have been many all around the world already, with young people, homeless people, in prisons, in hospitals, anywhere you can get together a group who would like to talk about and learn more about HIV and Aids.
And email (pm) me, with your own ideas about a tile, for our own PSC workshop.
This forum is open for questions, discussions, thoughts and ideas on HIV and Aids. And it is a forum to exchange information on how to create our PSC Peace Tiles.
The more people we get together here, the bigger our mureal will be. And the more delighted Lars Hasselblat Torres and his internationals group will be. All the tiles that are send to the exhibitions around the world, will continue to travel around the world - joining the thousands already on tour, to voice concern and care - to voice hope and dispare. But all of them sound out the hope that things will change.
The final link I want to share with you is this one that is for children all over the world under 18 years old. Maybe you know some creative young people at home.
http://mixedmedia.us/peacetiles/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=55&Itemid=32
The 2007 Archive Institute Poster Competition: with the subject HIV/AIDS is inviting young people to create a Poster, that responds to the widespread AIDS epidemic and its influence on our lives.
The deadline to enter the competition is November 1, and the latest entry date for the creations is November 24, 2007. So, plenty creativity to go around.
Anna
