Killer Application, Marketing

In marketing terminology, a killer application (commonly shortened to killer app) is any computer program that is so necessary or desirable that it proves the core value of some larger technology, such as computer hardware, gaming console, software, a programming language, software platform, or an operating system. In other words, consumers would buy the (usually expensive) hardware just to run that application. A killer app can substantially increase sales of the platform on which it runs.
 
Examples
 
One of the first examples of a killer application is generally agreed to be the VisiCalc spreadsheet for the Apple II series. Because it was not available on other computers for 12 months, people spent $100 for the software first, then $2,000 to $10,000 on the Apple computer they needed to run it. BYTE wrote in 1980, "VisiCalc is the first program available on a microcomputer that has been responsible for sales of entire systems", while Creative Computing's VisiCalc review was subtitled "reason enough for owning a computer". Others also choose to develop software, such as EasyWriter, for the Apple II first because of its higher sales, helping Apple defeat rivals Commodore International and Tandy Corporation.

Lotus 1-2-3 similarly benefited sales of the IBM PC and compatibles, including to Apple owners. Noting that computer purchasers did not want PC compatibility as much as compatibility with certain PC software, InfoWorld suggested "let's tell it like it is. Let's not say 'PC compatible,' or even 'MS-DOS compatible.' Instead, let's say '1-2-3 compatible.' "Another killer app is WordStar, the most popular word processor during much of the 1980s. Once the Internet became more widely available to consumers, email was seen as a killer app that drove people to purchase computers, even though email is a genre of applications rather than a single "app."
 
Usage

The first recorded use of the term in print was 1987, in PC Week 8 Sept. 107/2. "Everybody has only one killer application. The secretary has a word processor. The manager has a spreadsheet."

The definition of "killer app" came up during Bill Gates's questioning in the United States v. Microsoft antitrust suit. Bill Gates had written an email in which he described Internet Explorer as a killer app. In the questioning, he said that the term meant "a popular application", and did not connote an application that would fuel sales of a larger product or one that would supplant its competition, as the Microsoft Computer Dictionary defined it.
 
Selected applications for computer systems

    AmigaOS: Deluxe Paint, Video Toaster
    RISC OS: Sibelius (before 1998)

Video games

The term has also been applied to computer and video games that cause consumers to buy a particular video game console or gaming hardware over a competing one. Examples of a video game killer applications are:

1.) The first generally agreed example of a "killer app" in gaming is Space Invaders, released for arcades in 1978 and ported to the Atari VCS (Atari 2600) console in 1980, quadrupling sales of the then three-year-old Atari 2600 platform.
2.) Star Raiders, released in 1979 on cartridge for the Atari 8-bit computer, was considered to be a "killer app" for a computer platform.
3.) Donkey Kong was the killer app for the ColecoVision console in 1982.
4.) The video gaming website GameTrailers considers the Super Mario Bros. games to be the killer app for nearly all Nintendo home consoles, Tetris as the killer app for the Game Boy, Grand Theft Auto III for the PlayStation 2, Super Smash Bros. Melee for the GameCube, and Wii Sports for the Nintendo Wii.
5.) Computer Gaming World stated that The Legend of Zelda on the Nintendo Entertainment System, Phantasy Star II on the Sega Genesis, and Far East of Eden for the NEC TurboGrafx-16 were killer apps for their consoles.
6.) John Madden Football's popularity in 1990 helped the Genesis gain market share against the Super Nintendo.
7.) Sonic the Hedgehog, released in 1991, was hailed as a killer app as it revived sales of the (by then) three-year-old Genesis.
8.) Street Fighter II, originally released for arcades in 1991, became a system-seller for the Super Nintendo when it was ported to the platform in 1992, boosting the console's sales.
9.) Myst and The 7th Guest, both released in 1993, could be considered killer apps for their influence on CD-ROM drive sales for personal computers, leading to widespread market adoption of the format.
 10.) Final Fantasy VII is considered a "killer app" that the original PlayStation had along with Metal Gear Solid. These were immensely popular exclusives for the system. Other games that could be considered killer apps for the system included Resident Evil, Gran Turismo and Crash Bandicoot.
11.) Pokémon Red and Blue could be classified a "killer app" for the seven-year-old Game Boy as a craze evolved around the series in the late 1990s, and it was only available on that platform.
12.) Pokemon Gold and Silver were released at the height of the Pokemon craze alongside the Game Boy Color, and fueled the sales for the console all the way to the release of the Game Boy Advance two years later.
13.) Super Mario 64, GoldenEye 007 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time could be considered killer apps for the Nintendo 64, with Super Mario 64 being one of two launch titles for the console and the main factor behind the platform's initial success.
14.) Quake could be considered the killer app for 3dfx's Voodoo Graphics 3D accelerator card for home computers.
15.) Halo and Gears of War are considered to be the killer apps for the Xbox and Xbox 360.

(Source Wikipedia)

Στην κοινωνική δομή Πειραιά της Unesco

Στο πλαίσιο ευαισθητοποίησης των ανθρώπων στα προβλήματα των προσφύγων, των άστεγων και των άπορων, επισκεφτήκαμε την Κοινωνική Δομή Πειραιά της Unesco. Μιλήσαμε με τον πρόεδρο κύριο Μαρωνίτη αλλά και με εργαζόμενες, ακούσαμε τους ανθρώπους που ζουν εκεί και συγκεντρώσαμε υλικό για να δημιουργήσουμε καμπάνια ευαισθητοποίησης στα Social Media. Τα παραπάνω έλαβαν χώρα ως κομμάτι της εκπαίδευσης των σπουδαστών του Future Business School, υπό την εποπτεία της καθηγήτριας Ναταλία Στεφανίδη και με στόχο την ενημέρωση των ανθρώπων, να νιώσουμε τα προβλήματα και όχι μόνο να σταθούμε σε πληροφοριακό υλικό. Φωτογραφικό υλικό φαίνεται παρακάτω:

Αριστοτέλης, Μελαγχολία & Ιδιοφυία

"Υπάρχουν κείμενα που δεν διακρίνονται ούτε για το ύφος ούτε για την έκταση ούτε για την πυκνότητα της σκέψης τους. Ωστόσο, η λάμψη τους δεν σβήνει. Ένα από τα μεγάλα μυστικά των έργων αυτών είναι ότι αρχικά μάς είναι ερμητικά κλεισμένα: εγγράφονται σ' έναν πολιτισμό που έχει εξαφανιστεί. Κι όμως, ένα αίσθημα οικειότητας μας δένει μαζί τους. Μας μιλάνε για πράγματα προφανή ή μάλλον για ιδέες που έχουμε ήδη προσλάβει - δεν ξέρουμε πια από πού. Μας επαναφέρουν σε κοινούς τόπους της δικής μας κουλτούρας και μας επιβάλλουν μια αρχαιολογική εργασία στο φαντασιακό πεδίο του πολιτισμού μας."
Jackie Pigeaud, Εισαγωγή από το βιβλίο: Αριστοτέλης, "Το 30ο πρόβλημα, Μελαγχολία και Ιδιοφυία"

πολιτισμός: το σύνολο των υλικών και πνευματικών προϊόντων της δράσης ενός συνόλου ανθρώπων (κοινωνικού, εθνικού, θρησκευτικού κ.λ.π) σε ορισμένη ή μη εποχή και ο ιδιαίτερος χαρακτήρας του όπως εκφράζεται μέσα από αυτά.

The Applied Theatre Program By NYU

Applied Theatre refers to the practice of theatre and drama in non-traditional settings and/or with marginalized communities. It encompasses theatre practices which tackle areas of social and cultural policy such as public health, education, housing, social welfare, and juvenile and criminal justice. The NYU Steinhardt Program in Educational Theatre is recognized as a major contributor to research and praxis in applied theatre.  Faculty has devised and written numerous applied theatre projects which have been profiled at our NYU Forum series in theatre and public health, teaching artistry, citizenship, multiculturalism, and theatre for social change. Faculty serves on major peer reviewed editorial boards dedicated to applied theatre, including Applied Theatre Researcher, ArtsPraxis,  Journal of Applied Arts and Health, Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance.

Applied Theatre is multi-disciplinary and involves links with other research disciplines and agencies in the humanities, social sciences, and wellness and health. The focus is on the uses of theatre to educate and to grapple with complex social issues. The Program’s Applied Theatre experiences have included projects about immigration and refugees, racism and prejudice, domestic violence, queer voices, bullying, youth suicide and adolescent identity. Students of Applied Theatre have worked in a range of locations – from homes for the elderly, community and recreational sites, to prison facilities. Students who focus on Applied Theatre become active creators in the areas of political and guerilla theatre, theatre of the oppressed, theatre in prisons, and theatre for development, as well as with social service and community agencies.

The Program in Educational Theatre provides course offerings in Applied Theatre at all levels. Students engage in numerous outreach theatre projects under mindful supervision. The program offers students the chance to develop their own practical work and skills, and apply these to projects of their choice.  Students have studied applied theatre at our global centers in Africa, Brazil, Europe, Mexico, and Puerto Rico, and collaborated with major leaders in the applied theatre. Doctoral graduates have written impressive studies in applied theatre especially in gender studies, justice and rehabilitation, queer theory, adolescent’ rights of development, and theatre of the oppressed.

Graduates hold senior university posts worldwide; they are teaching artists; they develop artist in residency programs; they write and implement issue-based curriculum resources; they author ethnodramas; and they lead educational and community outreach programs in urban and rural landscapes, including major cultural institutions.

Baccalaureate through doctoral students study how they can create, implement, evaluate and research Applied Theatre in community, educational and vocational contexts. The program is committed to developing future leaders and artist-practitioners who study the:

• purposes and contribution of Applied Theatre to cultural life
• major scholars and practitioners in the field of Applied Theatre
• design, application and scholarship of applied theatre in diverse contexts

Source http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/music/edtheatre/programs/appliedtheatre/ 

Σκέψεις, ιδέες, με απαρχή τη νέα χρονιά

Αγαπητοί μου φίλοι Καλή Χρονιά, Ευτυχισμένος Ο Καινούριος Χρόνος και εύχομαι σε όλους εσάς οι ευχές σας, οι κόποι σας αλλά και τα όνειρά σας να πραγματοποιηθούν, αν και το τελευταίο αυτό μερικές φορές είναι παραπλανητικό, ακόμα κι εγώ μερικές φορές το φαντάζομαι μόνο κάτω από ειδικές προδιαγραφές μόνο και μόνο για να αναφωνήσουμε στο τέλος όταν κάνεις σχέδια ο Θεός γελάει! Καλή Χρονιά λοιπόν, μακάρι το 2015 να μας βρει όλους μας πάνω σε στέρεα βήματα, για άλλους η δουλειά, για άλλους η προσωπική αποκατάσταση, για άλλους οι γνωριμίες και για άλλους το New Year Resolution να τους οδηγήσει μερικά βήματα πιο κοντά στις πιο βαθιές τους επιθυμίες, στο όραμα!

Φέτος ξεκινάω να ασχολούμαι με το συγγραφικό μου Forum στην ProBoards με τίτλο Writer’s PlayBook! Role Playing, αν και τα παιχνίδια ρόλων εμφανίζονται ως παιχνίδια, στο θέατρο αλλά και στην εκπαίδευση, λέμε ταυτόχρονα This was a good Play, όπου εδώ το Play σημαίνει θεατρικό έργο, κινηματογραφικό έργο. Ορμώμενος από το Facebook όπου εμείς οι Έλληνες το λέμε «Φατσοβιβλίο», τη δική μου σελίδα θα τη λέμε «Εργοβιβλίο»! Σημαίνει και Role Playing την ίδια στιγμή, όπως επίσης προσφέρει και ένα Infrastructure δυνατό για σελίδες ανεξαρτήτως μεγέθους, μπορεί να φιλοξενείτε ένα Forum με 10-12 άτομα από τους κολλητούς σας ή μπορεί να πρόκειται για μία σελίδα Scalable και μάλιστα χωρίς Size Limit και αυτό προσφέρεται με το καταρχήν από τα βασικά Forum Features!

Μ’ αρέσει η ιδέα του να προσελκύω άτομα! Όπως επίσης μ’ αρέσει και Το Πλατωνικό Όνειρο! Θέλω όμως η νέα χρονιά να με βρει πιο ώριμο, πιο υπεύθυνο αλλά και πιο κοινωνικό…

Πολλά φιλιά σε όλους σας!

El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos) Bio

El Greco's dramatic and expressionistic style was met with puzzlement by his contemporaries but found appreciation in the 20th century. El Greco is regarded as a precursor of both Expressionism and Cubism, while his personality and works were a source of inspiration for poets and writers such as Rainer Maria Rilke and Nikos Kazantzakis. El Greco has been characterized by modern scholars as an artist so individual that he belongs to no conventional school. He is best known for tortuously elongated figures and often fantastic or phantasmagorical pigmentation, marrying Byzantine traditions with those of Western painting.

Early years and family

Born in 1541 in either the village of Fodele or Candia (the Venetian name of Chandax, present day Heraklion) in Crete, El Greco was descended from a prosperous urban family, which had probably been driven out of Chania to Candia after an uprising against the Venetians between 1526 and 1528. El Greco's father, Georgios Theotokopoulos (d. 1556), was a merchant and tax collector. Nothing is known about his mother or his first wife, a Greek woman. El Greco's older brother, Manoussos Theotokopoulos (1531 - December 13, 1604), was a wealthy merchant and spent the last years of his life (1603-1604) in El Greco's Toledo home.
El Greco received his initial training as an icon painter of the Cretan school, the leading centre of post-Byzantine art. In addition to painting, he probably studied the classics of ancient Greece, and perhaps the Latin classics also; he left a "working library" of 130 books at his death, including the Bible in Greek and an annotated Vasari. Candia was a center for artistic activity where Eastern and Western cultures co-existed harmoniously, where around two hundred painters were active during the 16th century, and had organized a painters' guild, based on the Italian model. In 1563, at the age of twenty-two, El Greco was described in a document as a "master" ("maestro Domenigo"), meaning he was already a master of the guild and presumably operating his own workshop. Three years later, in June 1566, as a witness to a contract, he signed his name as Master Menegos Theotokopoulos, painter.
Most scholars believe that the Theotocopoulos "family was almost certainly Greek Orthodox", although some Catholic sources still claim him from birth. Like many Orthodox emigrants to Europe, he apparently transferred to Catholicism after his arrival, and certainly practiced as a Catholic in Spain, where he described himself as a "devout Catholic" in his will. The extensive archival research conducted since the early 1960s by scholars, such as Nikolaos Panayotakis, Pandelis Prevelakis and Maria Constantoudaki, indicates strongly that El Greco's family and ancestors were Greek Orthodox. One of his uncles was an Orthodox priest, and his name is not mentioned in the Catholic archival baptismal records on Crete. Prevelakis goes even further, expressing his doubt that El Greco was ever a practicing Roman Catholic.

Italy

Christ Healing the Blind 1570s

Crete having been a possession of the Republic of Venice since 1211, it was natural for the young El Greco to pursue his career in Venice. Though the exact year is not clear, most scholars agree that El Greco went to Venice around 1567. Knowledge of El Greco's years in Italy is limited. He lived in Venice until 1570 and, according to a letter written by his much older friend, the greatest miniaturist of the age, the Croatian Giulio Clovio, was a "disciple" of Titian, who was by then in his eighties but still vigorous. This may mean he worked in Titian's large studio, or not. Clovio characterized El Greco as "a rare talent in painting".
In 1570 El Greco moved to Rome, where he executed a series of works strongly marked by his Venetian apprenticeship. It is unknown how long he remained in Rome, though he may have returned to Venice (c. 1575-1576) before he left for Spain. In Rome, on the recommendation of Giulio Clovio, El Greco was received as a guest at the Palazzo Farnese, which Cardinal Alessandro Farnese had made a centre of the artistic and intellectual life of the city. There he came into contact with the intellectual elite of the city, including the Roman scholar Fulvio Orsini, whose collection would later include seven paintings by the artist (View of Mt. Sinai and a portrait of Clovio are among them).
Unlike other Cretan artists who had moved to Venice, El Greco substantially altered his style and sought to distinguish himself by inventing new and unusual interpretations of traditional religious subject matter. His works painted in Italy were influenced by the Venetian Renaissance style of the period, with agile, elongated figures reminiscent of Tintoretto and a chromatic framework that connects him to Titian. The Venetian painters also taught him to organize his multi-figured compositions in landscapes vibrant with atmospheric light. Clovio reports visiting El Greco on a summer's day while the artist was still in Rome. El Greco was sitting in a darkened room, because he found the darkness more conducive to thought than the light of the day, which disturbed his "inner light". As a result of his stay in Rome, his works were enriched with elements such as violent perspective vanishing points or strange attitudes struck by the figures with their repeated twisting and turning and tempestuous gestures; all elements of Mannerism.
By the time El Greco arrived in Rome, Michelangelo and Raphael were dead, but their example continued to be paramount and left little room for different approaches. Although the artistic heritage of these great masters was overwhelming for young painters, El Greco was determined to make his own mark in Rome defending his personal artistic views, ideas and style. He singled out Correggio and Parmigianino for particular praise, but he did not hesitate to dismiss Michelangelo's Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel; he extended an offer to Pope Pius V to paint over the whole work in accord with the new and stricter Catholic thinking. When he was later asked what he thought about Michelangelo, El Greco replied that "he was a good man, but he did not know how to paint". And thus we are confronted by a paradox: El Greco is said to have reacted most strongly or even condemned Michelangelo, but he had found it impossible to withstand his influence. Michelangelo's influence can be seen in later El Greco works such as the Allegory of the Holy League. By painting portraits of Michelangelo, Titian, Clovio and, presumably, Raphael in one of his works (The Purification of the Temple), El Greco not only expressed his gratitude but advanced the claim to rival these masters. As his own commentaries indicate, El Greco viewed Titian, Michelangelo and Raphael as models to emulate. In his 17th century Chronicles, Giulio Mancini included El Greco among the painters who had initiated, in various ways, a re-evaluation of Michelangelo's teachings.
Because of his unconventional artistic beliefs (such as his dismissal of Michelangelo's technique) and personality, El Greco soon acquired enemies in Rome. Architect and writer Pirro Ligorio called him a "foolish foreigner", and newly discovered archival material reveals a skirmish with Farnese, who obliged the young artist to leave his palace. On July 6, 1572, El Greco officially complained about this event. A few months later, on September 18, 1572, El Greco paid his dues to the Guild of Saint Luke in Rome as a miniature painter. At the end of that year, El Greco opened his own workshop and hired as assistants the painters Lattanzio Bonastri de Lucignano and Francisco Preboste.

Spain

Immigration to Toledo

In 1577, El Greco emigrated first to Madrid, then to Toledo, where he produced his mature works. At the time, Toledo was the religious capital of Spain and a populous city with "an illustrious past, a prosperous present and an uncertain future". In Rome, El Greco had earned the respect of some intellectuals, but was also facing the hostility of certain art critics. During the 1570s the huge monastery-palace of El Escorial was still under construction and Philip II of Spain was experiencing difficulties in finding good artists for the many large paintings required to decorate it. Titian was dead, and Tintoretto, Veronese and Anthonis Mor all refused to come to Spain. Philip had had to rely on the lesser talent of Juan Fernandes de Navarrete, whose gravedad y decoro ("seriousness and decorum") the king approved. However, he had just died in 1579; the moment should have been ideal for El Greco. Through Clovio and Orsini, El Greco met Benito Arias Montano, a Spanish humanist and agent of Philip; Pedro Chacon, a clergyman; and Luis de Castilla, son of Diego de Castilla, the dean of the Cathedral of Toledo. El Greco's friendship with Castilla would secure his first large commissions in Toledo. He arrived in Toledo by July 1577, and signed contracts for a group of paintings that was to adorn the church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo in Toledo and for the renowned El Espolio. By September 1579 he had completed nine paintings for Santo Domingo, including The Trinity and The Assumption of the Virgin. These works would establish the painter's reputation in Toledo.
El Greco did not plan to settle permanently in Toledo, since his final aim was to win the favor of Philip and make his mark in his court. Indeed, he did manage to secure two important commissions from the monarch: Allegory of the Holy League and Martyrdom of St. Maurice. However, the king did not like these works and placed the St Maurice altarpiece in the chapter-house rather than the intended chapel. He gave no further commissions to El Greco. The exact reasons for the king's dissatisfaction remain unclear. Some scholars have suggested that Philip did not like the inclusion of living persons in a religious scene; some others that El Greco's works violated a basic rule of the Counter-Reformation, namely that in the image the content was paramount rather than the style. Philip took a close interest in his artistic commissions, and had very decided tastes; a long sought-after sculpted Crucifixion by Benvenuto Cellini also failed to please when it arrived, and was likewise exiled to a less prominent place. Philip's next experiment, with Federigo Zuccaro was even less successful. In any case, Philip's dissatisfaction ended any hopes of royal patronage El Greco may have had.

Mature works and later years

Immigration to Toledo

Lacking the favor of the king, El Greco was obliged to remain in Toledo, where he had been received in 1577 as a great painter. According to Hortensio Felix Paravicino, a 17th-century Spanish preacher and poet, "Crete gave him life and the painter's craft, Toledo a better homeland, where through Death he began to achieve eternal life." In 1585, he appears to have hired an assistant, Italian painter Francisco Preboste, and to have established a workshop capable of producing altar frames and statues as well as paintings. On March 12, 1586 he obtained the commission for The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, now his best-known work. The decade 1597 to 1607 was a period of intense activity for El Greco. During these years he received several major commissions, and his workshop created pictorial and sculptural ensembles for a variety of religious institutions. Among his major commissions of this period were three altars for the Chapel of San Jose in Toledo (1597-1599); three paintings (1596-1600) for the Colegio de Dona Maria de Aragon, an Augustinian monastery in Madrid, and the high altar, four lateral altars, and the painting St. Ildefonso for the Capilla Mayor of the Hospital de la Caridad (Hospital of Charity) at Illescas (1603-1605). The minutes of the commission of The Virgin of the Immaculate Conception (1607-1613), which were composed by the personnel of the municipality, describe El Greco as "one of the greatest men in both this kingdom and outside it".
Between 1607 and 1608 El Greco was involved in a protracted legal dispute with the authorities of the Hospital of Charity at Illescas concerning payment for his work, which included painting, sculpture and architecture. This and other legal disputes contributed to the economic difficulties he experienced towards the end of his life. In 1608, he received his last major commission: for the Hospital of Saint John the Baptist in Toledo.
El Greco made Toledo his home. Surviving contracts mention him as the tenant from 1585 onwards of a complex consisting of three apartments and twenty-four rooms which belonged to the Marquis de Villena. It was in these apartments, which also served as his workshop, that he passed the rest of his life, painting and studying. He lived in considerable style, sometimes employing musicians to play whilst he dined. It is not confirmed whether he lived with his Spanish female companion, Jeronima de Las Cuevas, whom he probably never married. She was the mother of his only son, Jorge Manuel, born in 1578, who also became a painter, assisted his father, and continued to repeat his compositions for many years after he inherited the studio. In 1604, Jorge Manuel and Alfonsa de los Morales gave birth to El Greco's grandson, Gabriel, who was baptized by Gregorio Angulo, governor of Toledo and a personal friend of the artist.
During the course of the execution of a commission for the Hospital Tavera, El Greco fell seriously ill, and a month later, on April 7, 1614, he died. A few days earlier, on March 31, he had directed that his son should have the power to make his will. Two Greeks, friends of the painter, witnessed this last will and testament (El Greco never lost touch with his Greek origins). He was buried in the Church of Santo Domingo el Antigua. (From Wikipedia)

Source http://www.el-greco-foundation.org/

On The Merchant of Venice from Shakespeare..

Antonio, the merchant of Venice, lends three thousands ducats to his friend Bassanio in order to assist him in his wooing of the wealthy and beautiful Portia of Belmont, an estate some distance from Venice. But Antonio's own money is tied up in business ventures that depend on the safe return of his ships from sea, so he borrows the money from Shylock, a Jewish moneylender whom he has previously insulted for his high rates of interest.
Shylock lends the money against a bond whereby failure to repay the loan on the agreed date will entitle Shylock to a pound of Antonio's flesh. Portia's father has decreed that she will marry whichever suitor makes the correct choice when presented with three caskets, made of gold, silver and lead. His friend Gratiano marries Portia's lady-in-waiting Nerissa at the same time. News arrives that Antonio's ships have been lost; he is unable to pay his debt. Shylock's claim to his pound of flesh is heard in the law court before the duke. Unknown to their husbands, Portia disguises herself as a young male lawyer acting on behalf of Antonio, Nerissa as a clerk. Portia's ingenious defence is that Shylock is entitled to his pound of flesh but not to spill any of Antonio's blood; she argues that the Jew should forfeit his life for having conspired against the life of a Venetian. The duke pardons Shylock on condition that he gives half his wealth to Antonio and half to the state. Antonio surrenders his claim on condition that Shylock converts to Christianity and leaves his property to his daughter Jessica, whom he has disinherited for running away with her Christian lover Lorenzo. Portia and Nerissa then assert their power over Bassanio and Gratiano by means of a trick involving rings that the men have promised never to part with. Finally there is good news about Antonio's ships.
William Shakespeare, Complete Works, Bate and Rasmussen, Macmillan.

Ο βυθός σου, Χατζηγιάννης..

)

Λόγια του Ποιητή-Φιλόσοφου Αουρομπίντο για τον Σαίξπηρ, Από το Δραματικό Στούντιο του Εσωθεάτρου!

Σρι Αουρομπίντο

…ο Σαίξπηρ που εφηύρε τον τρόπο να κρατά έναν καθρέφτη απέναντι στην Φύση, ήταν ο ποιητής που δεν καταδέχτηκε ποτέ να σκαρώσει μια απλή κόπια, μια φωτογραφία, μια σκιά. Ο αναγνώστης και ο θεατής που βλέπει στον Φάλσταφ, στον Μάκμπεθ,  στον Λήρ ή στον Άμλετ απλά και μόνο μιμήσεις της φύσης ή δεν έχει εσωτερικό μάτι της ψυχής ή έχει υπνωτιστεί από κάποιο μαγικό ξόρκι.

Σκέψεις για την Μορφή, το Περιεχόμενο και την Εκφορά του Λόγου στο Αρχαίο Δράμα, Από το Δραματικό Στούντιο του Εσωθεάτρου!

Από το βιβλίο του Τ. Προύσαλη «Το αρχαίο δράμα για φυγόπονους σπουδαστές υποκριτικής»

Τις τελευταίες δεκαετίες παρατηρείται στην υποκριτική τέχνη μία στροφή σε μια ακραία λιτή, πιο καθημερινή, όπως λέγεται, εκφορά του λόγου. Το κύριο χαρακτηριστικό αυτής της εκφοράς, που αποτελεί και το πρόβλημα, είναι η παντελής της αδυναμία να νοηματοδοτήσει σωστά ένα κείμενο, ώστε να γίνει πλήρως κατανοητό το περιεχόμενο των σκηνικών του δράσεων. Εάν η τέχνη αντανακλά την εποχή της, δικαιολογούνται να συμβαίνουνε τούτα διότι η εποχή που ζούμε είναι αλήθεια εντελώς πεζή, στείρα και αβαθής, με επόμενο και ο σύγχρονος δραματικός λόγος, ενταγμένος σε ένα τέτοιο περιβάλλον να έχει ανάλογο ύφος, ποιότητα και ήθος.

Ωστόσο, ο θεατρικός λόγος οφείλει να λαμβάνει υπ’ όψιν του, όχι μόνο το σήμερα, μα πιότερο την χωροχρονική συνθήκη που επιβάλλει η τέχνη γενικότερα αλλά και το ίδιο το έργο ειδικότερα. Και εξηγούμεθα. Στο θέατρο συμβαίνει μια μετακίνηση μέσα και πέρα από τον χρόνο και το ζητούμενο είναι, αυτή η μετακίνηση να συνεπάρει τους θεατές, να τους συν+κινήσει, ώστε να ταξιδέψουν από το σύγχρονο στο διαχρονικό και από το διαχρονικό στο άχρονο. Αυτό το ταξίδεμα μπορεί να συμβεί, όταν ο λόγος δονείται, πάλλεται όπως επιβάλλει η ιδιοσυχνότητα, ο εσωτερικός ρυθμός του κάθε θεατρικού είδους. Στην περίπτωση τώρα του αρχαίου δράματος, ο λόγος, ο αναγκαία μεταφρασμένος στην νεοελληνική, καλείται να εκφράσει μια εποχή που είναι εδώ, που πρέπει να είναι εδώ· μια εποχή ηρωική, μεγάλη, οπότε πρέπει να λάβει τέτοιες διαστάσεις και χαρακτηριστικά. Γίνεται επομένως αντιληπτό πως η μετάβαση από το ένα θεατρικό είδος στο άλλο, πέραν της χρήσης της γλώσσας και του ορθά δοσμένου περιεχομένου της, επιβάλλει την χρήση διαφορετικού φάσματος υποκριτικών μέσων. Και είναι σημαντικό για τον σπουδαστή της υποκριτικής τέχνης, όχι μόνο να ασκηθεί στην ανάπτυξη ποικίλων και πολλαπλών εκφραστικών μέσων, αλλά και να εντρυφήσει στην διάκριση και επιλογή των κατάλληλων και ταιριαστών -ανά περίσταση- τρόπων.

Στο Αρχαίο Δράμα και ειδικότερα στην τραγωδία, ο ηθοποιός οφείλει να «ενδυθεί τα γιορτινά του» εκφραστικά μέσα. Κι αυτό, γιατί πρόκειται για κείμενα διαχρονικά, με λόγο συμβολικό και κορυφώσεις που αγγίζουν το αρχετυπικό. Αν ο  υποκριτικός λόγος εκφέρεται «πρόχειρα», καθημερινά,  και δεν είναι αντάξιος μιας (μίμησης) πράξεως σπουδαίας και τελείας -κατά τον Αριστοτελικό ορισμό της τραγωδίας-, το τραγικό δεν αποδίδεται· και η Μήδεια για παράδειγμα, από τραγικό σύμβολο υποβιβάζεται σε ζηλότυπη απατημένη σύζυγο, από τραγική ηρωίδα, καταντά χαρακτήρας που χρήζει ψυχαναλυτικής προσέγγισης και ερμηνείας. Άρα, όταν ο λόγος μέσα στη σκηνική δράση δεν είναι μεστός, διαυγής και πλήρης όγκου, όταν στερείται κι απογυμνώνεται απ’ ό,τι σπουδαίο, μεγαλειώδες και ηρωικό, τότε η έννοια της τραγωδίας παύει να υφίσταται.

Δυστυχώς, στις μέρες μας, ερχόμαστε συχνά αντιμέτωποι με μια απολυταρχική ιδεολογία στο θέατρο, η οποία προσπαθεί να επιβάλλει τον απέριττο, καθημερινό, «κινηματογραφικό» λόγο, όχι μόνον στα σύγχρονα θεατρικά έργα, αλλά ακόμα και στο αρχαίο δράμα. Όμως, αυτού του είδους ο εκφερόμενος λόγος, είναι εντελώς ακατάλληλος για την ερμηνεία αρχαίων δραματικών ρόλων. Γιατί αλήθεια, πώς είναι δυνατόν, ένας λόγος π ε ζ ό ς  να υπηρετήσει  και να ανταποκριθεί στις απαιτήσεις της δραματικής π ο ί η σ η ς; Πώς το «λιτό» μπορεί να αποδώσει το μεγαλειώδες; Η προαναφερόμενη ιδεολογία απ’ όπου κι αν προέρχεται, συντηρεί και συντηρείται, από ένα καθεστώς «θεατρικής ορθότητας», που βαφτίζει έναν ηθοποιό με πενία υποκριτικών μέσων,  που άλλοτε θα χαρακτηριζόταν «αχαμνός», ως άμεσο και λιτό, μετατρέποντας έτσι το έλλειμμα σε προσόν. Την ίδια στιγμή, αν ένας καλά εκπαιδευμένος στην τέχνη του ηθοποιός, χρησιμοποιώντας τα πλούσια εκφραστικά του προσόντα αποδώσει τον πρέποντα όγκο στον λόγο και στο παίξιμο του εν γένει, τότε είναι πιθανό να χαρακτηριστεί «βέκιος», υπερβολικός. Είναι γεγονός βέβαια ότι ένα υπερπαίξιμο σε ένα σύγχρονο έργο φαντάζει φτιασιδωμένο. Όμως, γιατί δεν στηλιτεύεται εξίσου η χρήση στην αρχαία τραγωδία ενός λόγου τόσο απλουστευμένα καθημερινού, που καταλήγει να είναι εύκολος, αβασάνιστος, άχαρος, επίπεδος έως και χυδαίος;

Στην πραγματικότητα, η μειονεξία είναι αμάρτημα (με την αρχαιοελληνική σημασία του όρου) εξίσου με την υπερβολή. Σε κάθε περίπτωση, ζητούμενο είναι το μέτρο. Και το μέτρο στην εξωτερίκευση της υποκριτικής δύναμης είναι άλλο στον κινηματογράφο και άλλο στο θέατρο, διαφορετικό σε ένα μεταμοντέρνο δράμα με αποδομητικό λόγο, αλλιώτικο στο αστικό δράμα, και τελείως διάφορο στην αρχαία τραγωδία, που χαρακτηρίζεται από ιεροπρέπεια και συνιστά  τελετουργική μυσταγωγία. Σ’ αυτήν την μυσταγωγία, ο θεατής πρέπει να οδηγηθεί σε μια ψυχοπνευματική διέγερση και τελικά στην κάθαρση και λύτρωσή του. Για να συμβεί αυτό, πρέπει να επιτευχθεί ο συντονισμός· η μέθεξις. Ο συντονισμός ηθοποιού-κειμένου, θεατή-ηθοποιού και δρώμενου.

Όλα τα εκφραστικά εργαλεία του ηθοποιού, η φωνή, το πρόσωπο, ολόκληρο το σώμα, πρέπει να λειτουργούν αποτελεσματικά.  Ανάμεσα σ’ αυτά τα «εργαλεία», ο ρόλος του λόγου κρίνεται καθοριστικός. Κάθε δραματικό είδος αξιώνει μια ξεχωριστή αριστοτεχνική ποικιλία και ευελιξία ρυθμού, έντασης, όγκου, ύφους και  χροιάς του λόγου, γιατί ο από σκηνής αποδιδόμενος λόγος είναι και μουσική. Κι έτσι, θα πρέπει να απαγγέλλεται και να αποδίδεται με όλα εκείνα τα στοιχεία, τους όρους, που θα συναντούσαμε σε μια μουσική παρτιτούρα π.χ. presto ή andante για την ταχύτητα, piano, forte και άλλοτε crescendo για την ένταση, ή επισημάνσεις του τύπου allegro ή allegro ma non troppo σχετικές με το ύφος και τον ρυθμό.

Αξίζει να σημειωθεί ότι στο θέατρο οι εναλλαγές αυτές επιβάλλονται, όχι μόνο από το είδος, αλλά και από τον χώρο που εκτυλίσσεται το δρώμενο. Έτσι, για παράδειγμα, όταν ένα έργο παίζεται π.χ. στην Επίδαυρο, είναι αναγκαίο ο λόγος να μεγεθυνθεί για να ακουστεί και να φτάσει, μέχρι και τον τελευταίο θεατή του τελευταίου διαζώματος, ενώ αντίθετα, σε ένα μικρό κλειστό θέατρο, ο ηθοποιός αρκεί και μόνο να αρθρώσει τον λόγο σχεδόν στις πραγματικές του διαστάσεις. Η χρήση μικροφώνων  που παρατηρείται τελευταία σε παραστάσεις αρχαίου δράματος, ακόμα και στο θέατρο της Επιδαύρου, με την γνωστή εκπληκτική ακουστική -με το σκεπτικό ότι ο ηθοποιός, απαλλασσόμενος από την προσπάθεια να διατηρήσει σε δεδομένη ένταση την φωνή του, θα καταφέρει να γίνει πιο εκφραστικός- δεν συμβάλλει διόλου στην επίτευξη της μέθεξης. Απεναντίας, η προσπάθεια τεχνητής κατάργησης της απόστασης ηθοποιού-θεατή, επιφέρει τελικά αποτέλεσμα αντίθετο από το επιδιωκόμενο. Τα μικροφωνικά ηχοχρώματα δεν είναι κατάλληλα για να ενεργοποιηθούν οι θεατές και να γίνουν συμμέτοχοι, ούτε είναι ικανά να θραύσουν τον «τέταρτο στανισλαβσκικό τοίχο».

Αυτές οι πεποιθήσεις, απηχούν την διδασκαλία που λάβαμε ως παρακαταθήκη από τους δασκάλους μας στο θέατρο και ειδικότερα στο αρχαίο δράμα· και θα είμαστε πάντα ευγνώμονες, γιατί στην πράξη αποδεικνύεται ολοένα και σωστότερη. Στον δρόμο τους πορευόμαστε, πιστοί στις ιδέες αυτές, προκειμένου να μεταφέρουμε αυτούσια την γνώση εκείνων, στους δικούς μας μαθητές.

[1]: Γι’ αυτό  «ο μεταφραστής πρέπει να είναι όχι μόνο ποιητής, όχι μόνο γνώστης βαθύς και της αρχαίας και της νέας γλώσσας αλλά και φωτισμένο πνεύμα που αντιλαμβάνεται ποιο είναι το πέρα από τις εποχές στοιχείο του αμήχανου κάλους…  …Ο ποιητής σαν μεταφραστής πρέπει ν’ ανήκει μονάχα στην σχολή της αδιαίρετης ομορφιάς. Και δεν υπάρχει αμφιβολία ότι μια ευλογημένη γνώση του στοιχείου αυτού αθανάτισε την αρχαία Ελληνική Τέχνη.» Από τα «Θεατρολογικά» του Τάσου Λιγνάδη, σελ 173.

[2]: Πρόκειται για τον ιδεατό τοίχο , που χωρίζει την σκηνή από την πλατεία και αναφέρεται σ’ αυτόν ο Στανισλάβσκι, όταν μιλάει για την ποθούμενη επικοινωνία του ηθοποιού με το κοινό.

Το υπόγειο, Εσωθέατρο

Η Παράσταση

Το ΕσωΘέατρο παρουσιάζει την θεατρική ομάδα «Θεατρόραμα» στο έργο
«ΤΟ ΥΠΟΓΕΙΟ»

του Φιοντόρ Ντοστογιέφσκι

«Είμαι ένας άρρωστος άνθρωπος…είμαι ένας άνθρωπος κακός, είμαι απεχθής…»

Μετά την επιτυχημένη θεατρική μεταφορά του μυθιστορήματος «Έγκλημα και Τιμωρία» πριν δύο χρόνια,το ΕσωΘέατρο επανέρχεται στον αξεπέραστο Ντοστογιέφσκι, αυτήν την φορά, παρουσιάζοντας την θεατρική ομάδα Θεατρόραμα, στο έργο «το Υπόγειο», το πιο underground κείμενο του μεγάλου Ρώσου συγγραφέα.

Ο ήρωας του έργου –αντιήρωας στην πραγματικότητα- είναι ένας υπάλληλος στην Πετρούπολη του 1864, ο οποίος αποφασίζει να αντιδράσει στα «ως τώρα», αποσυρόμενος… στο Υπόγειο. Εκεί, στην απομόνωση του εθελούσιου πολυετή εγκλεισμού του, αυτός ο αξιοθρήνητος δημοσιοϋπαλληλίσκος αυτοπαρατηρείται και αυτοσαρκάζεται από το  αλαζονικό φιλοσοφικό άλλο του μισό. Το ένα Εγώ κομματιάζεται σε δύο Εγώ, που  το ένα καταφρονεί και εξεγείρεται ενάντια στο άλλο. Προς στιγμήν, το παραλήρημα διακόπτει η θύμηση μιας γυναίκας, μιας πόρνης… Θα τον γλιτώσει η Λίζα από την πάλη με τους εσωτερικούς του δαίμονες που καραδοκούν στις σκοτεινές υπόγειες διαβάσεις του μυαλού του; Η θα προτιμήσει ο έγκλειστος να καταβυθιστεί και πάλι σε μια οδύνη που έχει επιλέξει να τον συντηρεί στην ζωή; Επί σκηνής λοιπόν, σε νουάρ κλίμα και φόντο, η απόπειρα του Ντοστογιέφσκι να διεισδύσει στα μύχια της ψυχής για να αποκρυπτογραφήσει τα μυστικά της ανθρώπινης ύπαρξης.

    Η θεατρική απόδοση είναι της Μάρως Βαμβουνάκη και
    η σκηνοθεσία του Χρίστου Τσάγκα.

Το σκηνικό επιμελήθηκε η Ελίντα Κράγια ενώ τους φωτισμούς ο Σ. Ιωάννου.

Ερμηνεύουν οι:

    Στέργιος Ιωάννου, τον έγκλειστο του Υπογείου
    και η Ελλάδα Μεσβελιάνη, την Λίζα.

Bobok of Dostoyevsky by Esotheatro!

 

 

 

 

We Choose Our Inventive Path: A Creative Person's Survival Manual by Pen Densham, Studio System News Part 5 of 5

The Tilted and Glass-Ceilinged Playing Field

We face unfairness in our lives. That’s especially true for women, minorities and outsiders. Some of us are forced to run uphill more than others. Only 19 percent of produced feature films are written by women—a grossly unfair statistic. How to cope?

I asked screenwriter/director Robin Swicord for her perspective on creativity to share in my book.  Reading her words got me teared up. Their humanness and power apply not just to women but anyone who is treated as a minority or an outsider. I share some of her thoughts here:

“Dr. Lauzen’s 2009 report shows that women comprised 16% of all directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers and editors working on the top 250 films the previous year.

Would it have been better to know all of this before I dedicated myself to becoming a filmmaker? Or is it better not to be aware of the obstacles we face? I found myself having to constantly weigh similar thoughts when I became a parent of two daughters. How do I help my two intelligent, creative daughters be strong and mentally free in the face of subtle bias? How do I prepare them to thrive in a world or a career where they might not be fully valued? Anyone who has ever overcome a seemingly impossible obstacle knows the simple answer that silences these questions: Do it anyway.

Write your script anyway. Direct your movie. Is there a barrier? Go around it. Ignore conventional wisdom if it doesn’t serve your goal. Use your own judgment. Break the rules, if the rules don’t make sense for you. When you succeed, no one will mind that you didn’t do things “their way.”

When you fail, accept the blame. Apologize and begin again. Keep going. I don’t believe that ignorance is always bliss: I like to know what I am up against, so that I can ignore it. Make alliances, if you can. There’s strength in a common goal. Whatever is impeding you eventually becomes irrelevant when you follow your intention, and do good work.

Not sure that you know how to do good work? Do it anyway.”

Own That We Chose Our Inventive Path

The world is speeding up. Inventions are avalanching into all phases of human experience. Technology is pushing us to frontiers both positive and negative that we never dreamed of. Nobody knows where this is all going.

Here’s an example: There are going to be 5 billion media consumers out there using everything from Google Glass to iWatches and goodness knows what else, alongside the traditional film and TV delivery systems. With business support, USC just inaugurated the Edison Project, which involves fourteen professors from multiple disciplines trying to find a sense of direction for entertainment production, new media and new distribution platforms.

In all endeavors and industries there will be obsolescence, loss and change. For we, the creative, navigating these new and uncharted and sometimes stormy futures, all seems chaotic. But in chaos, I see opportunity.

Those steeped in the safety of their old ways will still be trying to teach blacksmithing in the automobile age. Others, meanwhile, will embrace change using crowdsourcing incubators. Change is the new gold rush.

Work hard at what you love. Trust that the human animal will not change its emotional make-up and create from your heart. Dynamic people attract others. When you do what you love, when you work from passion, it is not so much work anymore.

If you don’t attempt something distinctive, different and dangerous, how will you get noticed? Ask yourself: Is it better to occasionally face going down in flames than being hidden in the shadows guessing at what others want and making Xerox copies?

My Passion?

When asked where did I grow up? With quiet pride, I say I haven’t yet. I left school at 15, a stigma at that time, but I think it saved me from being academically processed into a “useful” worker. It has taken a woefully long time to call myself an artist, give myself pure permission to play, explore, be eccentric.

Yet since childhood, when I witnessed my parents making theatrical shorts at age four, it is what I yearned for the most: to cast spells with a camera and my imagination. In filmmaking, I have tried to avoid the critics’ opinions, both good and bad. Neither is correct, only time will finally judge. I have come to see the true test of what I accomplished is simply to ask myself, “Knowing the outcome, would I do it again?” Surprisingly, my usual answer is yes.

And about my creativity goals in the future? I have three of them. One: I have film projects that impassion me enough to “spend” my time on them, including a script that makes me tingle when I work on it. It’s a character study of a white detective with a tragedy in his past, re-discovering his humanity and spirituality learning from a Navajo Tribal police woman struggling with her own beliefs. Two: I am on a personal journey of photographic discovery. I love cameras and wanted to make images that cause the eye to dance. For most of my life, I followed the “rules” and failed my aspirations. And then I stopped obeying and starting asking “What if?” I am making stunning impressionistic, in-camera, nature images that are unlike anything I have ever seen. Some exclusive editions are selling for as much as ten thousand dollars.Three: Increasing my knowledge of creativity by sharing experiences with impassioned people, young and old, from my tribe.

I was inspired to write this article because a close and encouraging ally of mine was feeling the blues. It could just as easily have been the other way round. So, I dedicate this to all of you who have similar yearnings and deeply wish you the greatest of creative adventures!

I may be tempting you to become Van Gogh, who only sold one painting in his lifetime. There is that risk, which is why it is vital to see your daily work as your passion being fulfilled. But, if there is an afterlife, the old Dutch dude has to be looking down and laughing his ass off right now.

The only time I feel alive is when I’m painting.
-Vincent van Gogh

We all have to be Salesmen, A Creative Person's Survival Manual by Pen Densham, Studio System News Part 4 of 5

We All Have to Be Salesmen

I believe we have a responsibility to expend equal creative energy, if needed, to bring our ideas to the market. I call this Creative Entrepreneurism.

The word “selling” can negatively remind us of gimmicks and sales manipulation. How about we reframe it as: “Effectively communicating about what you have created so others are more able to understand its value and buy it?

Those whose support we need may have different perceptions than ours. Promotors, marketing executives, financial investors and, yes, the gatekeepers who are just plain incompetent.

Market analysts have told me consumers crave novelty. The problem with selling a creation or invention that’s truly novel is it can scare the crap out of a lot of sales executives. There are no benchmarks to measure the risk. It is far easier to sell last year’s hit dressed up with the word NEW slapped on it and claim it’s what the buyer/audience wants.

Apple does the opposite. They invent new products to replace successful old ones before the latter run out of steam. And Apple is frequently pilloried by the so-called experts. Speaking on the introduction of the iPhone, Microsoft’s CEO Steve Balmer prophesied: “There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance.”

Be diplomatic with decision makers. Make clear the value and abilities of what you originated is a winning strategy. Help your potential allies with mile markers and freeways signs. At Trilogy, we enthroned this process as: “Building a bridge backwards.” Or, to put it more impolitely, “Asshole proofing.”

Use psychology. Explain your vision with reference to significant successes that they understand and value. For example, I pitch movies that way. “This story combines the box office potential of Alien and The Exorcist. A priest is flown to a moon-base because NASA has found the devil’s bones up there!” Our goal is to gain incentivized and informed supporters in our quest.

Maintain a dialogue with your enterprise collaborators and financiers. Have patience and avoid anger. Anger only entrenches both parties. Interpret what “they say” to the best of your skills. Sometimes there are good points hidden in subtexts. Share your problems—it can define you as empathetic and trustworthy.

I once took a sales training course sponsored by Kodak, and I still remind myself to use a major technique I learned in the course: “Eliminate the objections.” Dig for them, answer to your buyer’s satisfaction, then dig for more. People tend to hold back their biggest, most personal reasons for making a rejection. When we have built trust by being reasonable, those final, most suppressed doubts and objections will usually be revealed. Often small insightful changes accomplish their needs and ours.

And when the objections are answered, the only thing left is to buy.

I overcame major objections at MGM to financing Moll Flanders, a film I wrote and eventually directed, by gentle persistence and reframing areas of my spec script to overcome the objections. And then I begged for a second read.

Want a tip on how to get the most from a creative person?

Don’t tell them what to do. You short-circuit what you might gain. Define your need and ask them to help achieve it by using their imaginations.

Emissaries, Ambassadors and Evangelists

When we aim to land an agent, manager, a salesperson, choose the honorable to represent you. Humans buy from people they like and can trust. Deception is a short-term ticket to oblivion. Morality is part of selling yourself and your creations. It will be worth it.

You don’t want a hard-core car salesman. They are too likely to abandon you as soon as they see resistance to a sale. Seek an all-weather friend. A philosophical fan of your work you can talk to. And who will be there when times are tough.

In the most subtle and diplomatic of ways, sell your “sellers” on the passion you have and the values of your work. But be sure to listen in return. We need the information and instincts of our salespeople who are experienced in the buyer’s ecosystem. They can give us realistic appraisals of how our product will fit the market. What we should fight for and what to give up in order to give our work it best chance to thrive.

Spend heartfelt time with the people who support your sales heads. Assistants are there daily and observe all, but they’re seldom given the respect they deserve. They have knowledge of the market and their bosses moods and availability. Many are on a growth track and may be fantastic allies. Taking a sincere interest in their lives and goals can be fulfilling and instrumental in building a team.

Holding Yourself Back Is 100 Percent Self-Created Failure

What do you yearn for in your life? Are you aiming at it? The Huffington Post recently ran an article on the top regrets of the dying. Their message can give people like us comfort. Faced with the end of their path, they reflected and wished they had the courage to be their true selves. They wished they hadn’t worked so hard, that they had the courage to express their feelings and had let themselves be happier. These are choices.

I am sure I am one of the pinnacle achievers of procrastination. In fact, I feel like I put the “pro” into the word! Looking back, my “errors of omission” are my greatest mistakes. Where I allowed doubt to make me a coward. Where I let my fear, vanity and lack of faith in myself hold me back, it cost me more pain and self-retribution than my “errors of commission”—that is, when I tried to create or sell something that caused myself occasional embarrassment.

I do let my passion loose and push my work—once in a while I pull off amazing feats. I went back to Les Moonves, the head of CBS four separate times over a period of years, before I got his permission to revive a show I adored, Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone. By number four, I felt more like a giant idiot than an emissary. But I was still excited enough to find a way to ask one last time. Les had taken over the UPN network, and I suggested Twilight Zone as a companion show to Star Trek. I was writing the pilot within days.

Every attempt to create is a roll of the cosmic dice. Sometimes, it is just quantum mechanics screwing us up. Yep. Science says success is random. It rolls around chaotically. But luck comes best to the prepared.

And if it doesn’t come? Frankly, I always worry that too many of us fail to realize we must enjoy the journey, not judge our success by an end result that is often in the hands others. Not everything sells. But every attempt teaches you.

Barry Mann and his wife, Cynthia Weil, said they had written many songs that never sold. But felt they needed to have written them to evolve the ones that did become timeless standards like, “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling,” the song that BMI said was played more times than any other in the twentieth century.

Reportedly, when Mann and Weil sang this for The Righteous Brothers, low-voiced Bill Medley loved it but Bobby Hatfield was puzzled. He asked, “What do I do while he’s singing the entire first verse?” Phil Spector, who was there, replied, “You can go directly to the bank.”

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”
- Chinese Proverb

Mistakes are inevitable, A Creative Person's Survival Manual by Pen Densham, Studio System News Part 3 of 5

Mistakes Are Inevitable

Aim for imperfection! You can clean it up later. I call my first draft in script writing the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Any f—ing way to the coast is the right way! It is unfair to criticize ourselves for taking a few wrong turns on a journey of exploration that has never happened before.

When we have roughly mapped our new territory, the next step is to prune out the failed branches of the journey, put the freeway through and erect helpful direction signs. This is also called a re-write.

Apart from the occasional brilliant “eureka” gestalts, most great ideas have to be raised like tiny babies into the adults they will become. Expect some throwing-up and diaper changing, some falling down and bruising, some tears and tantrums.

Professor Robert W. Weinberg of Temple University studies problem-solving and creativity—or, as he describes it, “The cognitive processes involved in the intentional production of novelty: solutions to problems, works of art, scientific theories, and inventions. He examines creative geniuses like Edison, Charley Parker, Frank Lloyd Wright and Picasso. He feels they are not born geniuses. Instead, he says, “Most creative giants work ferociously hard and, through a series of incremental steps, achieve things that appear (to the outside world) like epiphanies and breakthroughs.”

You and I may have a chance yet. As Einstein said, “It’s not that I am so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”

Seek Out “Creative Midwives”

Ideas are like small children. Avoid letting anyone shout at them, it can make them run away. Seek out men and women with spiritually supportive souls, who value your work and who can help you push through the pain of birthing something new. They are there for your child and not to impose their prejudices. The best can give you truthful insight on how to strengthen your progeny for the hard scrabble world it will have to grow up in.

Dr. Ericsson is the researcher who concluded that spending 10,000 hours at a skill is required to become a true expert—a statement that might ignore the many good works and breakthroughs accomplished by the young. He assessed research on top performers in fields ranging from violin performance and surgery to computer programming and chess. And in a 2007 Harvard Business Review article, he stated that true expertise requires teachers who give “constructive, even painful, feedback.” And he found that all of those who reached a pinnacle of accomplishment deliberately picked unsentimental coaches who would challenge them and drive them to higher levels of performance. A committed tough-loving but sympathetic ally to share your philosophies and fears with can be astonishingly helpful.

Conversely, do not share your early intuitions carelessly. Especially with the selfish, desperate, arrogant or self-absorbed naysayers. They can suck the optimism and energy out of your vision by casting their ignorance and prejudices over the glowing embers of what might have been a blazing discovery. Consider Steve Jobs words.“Your time is limited, don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living the result of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinion drown your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Don’t Judge Beginnings by the Finished Work of Others

It’s like looking at the brightness of a light bulb and assuming that it was an easy creation for Edison. It was not. It took more than 4,000 attempts to get the darn thing to work! And he’s quoted as saying he “ached to give it up!”

Annoyingly, after all the blood and tears have been invested to get them “right,” finished works can look deceptively obvious and simple. Blaming our early ragged progress for a lack of instant perfection, by comparison with completed successes, is a cruel and unnecessary punishment.

We need to give ourselves rewards and encouragement along the journey. We need to see ourselves as heroes and enjoy the challenges in our lives. And sometimes we need to rest and build up strength because inventing the future involves brief inspiration followed by a lot of perspiration. We can exhaust ourselves without being aware of it. I have often felt guilty about taking a break and then been stunned how quickly solutions flew into my head afterward.

Rejections Have to Be Expected

Being right doesn’t always make a breakthrough inevitable. Kathryn Stockett’s smash success The Help was rejected by 60 literary agents. The Beatles were rejected—”We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.”—and this poetic statement about a scientific breakthrough:”Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?” That was Harry Warner of Warner Bros. in 1927. The list of brilliantly abysmal rejections is laughable—except when it hits home.

Do not surrender your beliefs. We are often dynamically much stronger than we think we are. There are courageous models of unusual stamina all round us—soldiers, firemen, people with debilitating illnesses—who find the spirit to endure more obstacles than we can imagine.

I was very moved by Diana Nyad. She swam for 53 hours to make the 103-mile crossing from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage. This was her fifth attempt to make this swim! “All of us suffer heartaches and difficulties in our lives, Nyad says. “If you say to yourself, ‘find a way,’ you’ll make it through.” Then she adds. ”You never are too old to chase your dreams.” She is 64 years young.

We homo-sapiens are pretty cool creatures. There is a spark of that courage in all of us. But we may not know it until we call on ourselves for it.

Oprah Winfrey was fired because she was “unfit for TV,” J. K. Rowling was a divorced mother on welfare and 12 publishers rejected Harry Potter. Steven Spielberg was rejected by USC Film School three times and never got in. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. Winston Churchill was cast to the wildness, as he described it, for many years before being called in to become prime minister and lead England during World War Two. We should be honored to be in their company.

People Who Accept Rejection Better than Me!

I have immense respect and empathy for those willing to act. I hold them in awe. As a writer-director I get to hide behind the camera and send my scripts out to audition for me! I collect my rejections by remote control.

Actors are visibly and personally exposed from the audition to the edit and frequently sacrifice control of their final work to people like me. That is courageous, and I respect that trust immensely. Without them, there’d be no one to make my words sound much better than they are.

Like actors, we cannot control whether we get the role. The variables are too random. But we cannot fail when we use auditions as opportunities, ones we control by exploring our personal best and, thereby, making ourselves stronger for the future.

Celebrate your rejections. You got up to bat, and that’s the only route to win the World Series. Babe Ruth was the king of strikeouts as well as home runs.

Stay in the game somehow. I have seen the unexpected come to the rescue. This year, I was one of the producers, along with John Watson and Julian Adams on RCR’s Phantom, starring Ed Harris, David Duchovny and Will Fichtner. A great project, written and directed by good friend Todd Robinson. When it seemed we hit a major road block, our team at the Paradigm Agency made a generous gesture that enabled the movie to go foreword. There are businesses out there, run by people with hearts.

Caring is a powerful business advantage.
- Scott Johnson

Surrender to your Intuition: A Creative Person's Survival Manual by Pen Densham, Studio System News Part 2 of 5

Surrender to Your Intuition

Do not censor. Explore. Sometimes the most bizarre ideas have meaning hidden within them like dry kindling. Remember: It took a whacked-out epiphany to spark the discovery of penicillin.

Actors taught the wonderfully liberating skill of improvisation discover they can make up insightful characters and situations in an instant. They are guided to trust themselves and their companions. Encouraged not to hold back. Any idea no matter how grotesque, socially inappropriate or strange can transform into a wild comedic treasure.

Daydreaming is not goofing off. It is a healthful, problem-solving brain practice. In fact, a recent broad study stunned scientists in its implications about how active the brain is. Psychological scientist Mary Helen Immordino-Yang and colleagues stated: “We under-appreciate the impact of introspection and daydreaming on our cognitive life and individual wellness.” They coined the term “constructive internal reflection” and strongly suggest that there be a standard educational practice to promote it.

Have Faith the Answers Will Come

I suffer from a common form of doubt called Impostor Syndrome. My fear as a writer-director is that my flaws will be exposed, that I will be seen for what I fear I really am: an unskilled impostor. Hence, I am surprised when an outside questioner, like an actor, forces me to focus on a point I had never considered.

Evolved and appropriate answers often come instantly. We can be unaware how much our experience and knowledge our brains have stored up .

When asked to estimate the scale of our aware, conscious brain compared with our unconscious brain, people very much over-estimate what they can actively feel. In truth, the unconscious is like an ocean and our awareness is merely the boat on it. It is a weird deep, unreachable place where dreams, DNA and life dynamics mingle and occasionally bubble up a brilliant solution.

Be patient, be open and ask your unconscious to help. Be eccentric! Put yourself in the place where you create best. It is said famed 1930s musical director Busby Berkley devised his innovative dazzling geometric dance patterns by sitting in a hot bath every day before going to the set. MRI research says our brains exhibit the same activity when we take a shower as when we experience a breakthrough epiphany. I have made many great discoveries in my shower and none has to do with my anatomy.

Ideas Are Capricious Spirits

We must make a space for them to nest in our minds. Giving an idea time to gestate is natural. Sleeping on it is not just an old saying—it is a functional truth. Changing your environment, watching movies, exercising, tying up your physical body can sometimes free the unconscious. I live with Post-Its everywhere—in the bathroom, my car, on my treadmill. They’re idea flypaper.

Occasionally nothing comes. I have read that the desperate fear that our creative output is at a dead-end may itself be a necessary part of the creative process. Crashing our old reliable day-to-day left-brain processor can push it into the background and unchain our right brain, the source of unconscious epiphanies.

Mysteriously, we don’t always know what we are going to invent, but we can feel something ripening! Like the tip of an iceberg. For two years after our breakthrough Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, I had this certainty in my gut—like a metaphorical story-sausage—that I was going to write a historical female story.

Despite trying to kick-start or rush it out of me, it wouldn’t come. Then suddenly my unconscious was ready. I was ripe. The script poured from me onto the page like a gusher from my soul. It was like taking dictation, and it was intoxicating. It became Moll Flanders, and it took just five weeks to write. Conversely, I have agonized for years over some of my other passion projects!

A tip: When solutions surface, be smart and grab ‘em before they sink again.

Don’t Give In to Your Inner Bully

A public confession: I’d like to commit a murder! I want to obliterate that damn gremlin that floats inside me whispering, taunting me about my imagination’s inadequacies. It’s a bit like the monster outside the plane in that famous Bill Shatner Twilight Zone episode. This gremlin’s attempting to tear pieces off my emotional wings.

I call this insidious creature the Golem. Almost everyone trying to create anything seems to suffer from these critical parasites. “You are wasting your time.” – “Your ideas are so awful, they’ll go into the dictionary under ‘excrement’.”

Bizarrely, I think our Golems are really an evolutionary defense mechanism. They are trying to help us avoid taking risks, because we’ll survive longer.

I’ve found that I cannot judge what I write at the moment of creation. Like it’s from another part of the head. But the old Golem is there, unafraid to spout scorn.

Despite a strong homicidal desire—you can’t seem to kill a part of yourself—I have trained myself to ignore the voice of doom. After a cool-down period, I am frequently amazed how strong the stuff that it damned and lambasted really is. If I had listened to my inner critic, most of my achievements would never have found their way to existence.

Problem-Solving Is Seldom a Straight Path

It can be depressing when solutions don’t unfurl like a magic carpet. There is no organic “on” switch. When X-rayed, Leonardo Da Vinci’s paintings show many earlier layers of work, scratchings-out, compositions that were abandoned. Sometimes it took him years to finish a piece, thus proving that Leonardo was an inefficient idiot who had no idea what he was doing. Yeah, right!

Creativity is imprecise, chaotic, instinctual—but just as often, delicious and amazing. Choosing its path is a great excuse to flow with our curiosities and engage in an omnivorous, explorative life. Ideas build on each other, build on the discoveries of others, then fall apart and rebuild stronger. There is no wrong. Just doing anything creative exercises our inspiration muscles and strengthens our unique voice.

And, just like the weather, we fog in. Expect to plough through the murk. To struggle.

“Inventors Block”

It is in our nature to want to be perfect because we fear judgment by others. But that can freeze the ability to explore the real way ideas often evolve: randomly. When answers don’t come, we must not beat ourselves up. It is like whipping a dove to try and make it kill. Not good!

When writing my book on screenwriting, Riding the Alligator, I searched the web looking for cures for “Writer’s Block.” One Australian, Andrew Cavanagh, had evolved a powerful solution:“Write any old CRAP! A pile of steaming crap, no one would ever read.”

Labeling our new work “crap” cunningly disables our perfectionism by saying we’re just playing in a mud puddle. Splattering creative clay where ever it flies. There are no consequences, hence no failure.

“The biggest mistake most writers make is that they confuse the creative process with the critical process,” says Andrew Cavanagh. “And that leads us to secret no 2: The biggest secret of great writing. Re-writing.”

When we step back, our stream-of-consciousness crap pile is often the foundation for a pretty good sculpture. We can see how to give it greater definition, even if it is a tad lopsided.

I was surprised when I recently discovered the identical “crap” axiom being used in a blog for computer program originators who feared going forward. I realized geeks really are my tribal cousins.

The first draft of anything is sh*t.
-Ernest Hemingway

Passion, Creativity & Success: A Creative Person's Survival Manual by Pen Densham, Studio System News Part 1 of 5

Our media business involves a zillion layers of invention, including every craft and art seen credited on those end-title crawls. Each credit connotes an innovator and creative problem-solver bringing his or her talent to bear in the creation of movie magic.

Across the spectrum of vocations—whether you’re an actor, writer, director, inventor, chef, computer programmer, research scientist or, God help us, a weapons creator—we struggle with the process of bringing forth what has never existed through the mysterious process called creativity. For many, this exploration toward the ultimate joy of accomplishment has a cost: anxiety!

First Rule: Ignore All Rules

I share these thoughts, aware of how ignorant I am of the true spectrum of your inspiration process. Which I consider pretty close to sacred. I want to dialogue “with” you and not at you. Please ignore everything here that goes against your instincts. They are usually right!

My observations come from the privilege of a longish career. A few wild, giant successes and many rejections (many!) Experiences that have given me the one thing I didn’t have when younger - “perspective”.  I have discovered the scripts I’ve written from the heart have gotten them made more frequently than the projects the studios paid me to write. But, as an artist and businessman I have never been far from the pain of uncertainty, when attempting to make concrete what has flitted around inside my head.

As a curious young documentary filmmaker I explored some amazing game-changers in various fields. Like revolutionary Media Guru – Marshall McLuhan, Master Magician and Psychic debunker, The “Amazing” James Randi. Brilliant Canadian Architect Raymond Moriyama. Malcolm Bricklin the car entrepreneur who built a gull-wing sports car before Delorean. Toller Cranston the first international figure skater to perform his sport as Ballet on ice and not just muscular gymnastics – and my own mentor Norman Jewison who’s list of amazing films is humbling.  People who have the habit of pushing beyond the limits in their fields.

What did I learn? They have a universal sense to think freely and uniquely outside their current boxes, but it didn’t prevent stress and outside criticism. They cared so much about their goals that despite the negatives they headed where their guts told them. It was infectious. I don’t think of myself as particularly gifted… More a dreamer and not a great employee, but they made me feel that pursuing my own dreams was possible.

I have never escaped stress

It comes from our imaginations trying to help us define the future – but without any compass for that untrod path. Stress is normal, it evolved alongside the imagination as a protective problem solving mechanism, igniting our body’s fight or flight system. A kind of psychic radar, bouncing negative things out and reflecting on how we might defend against them. But, when it is not attached to solving a real issue, it can bounce all over the place unnerving us in the process.

I saw the world’s most renowned stress pioneer speak. The late Dr. Hans Selye. He stated that being mugged or experiencing a surprise birthday party can create an identical adrenalin rush. Heart rate increases. Tension tightens. Breathing speeds up. But, in the mugging, the effect is felt as fear and the birthday surprise, as joy. – “Anxiety”, when it is in the service of something we value is embraced as “Excitement”.

Selye said, our adrenalin glands disturb us less when we are impassioned, pursuing goals that fascinate us. Even more strongly if we feel those goals benefit others!

Alternately, working on projects that are against my nature. (Maybe I sold out a little?) – Trying to cash in on someone else’s goal can be painful. I have done it as a writer. And it was like trying to pluck words out of my flesh. I didn’t like the end result and failed to have the incentive to fight for it.

When I am going in the direction my instincts support, the fear of failure is still there – but mitigated with the magical excitement of discovery.

We should have come with a manual

Most schools are teaching from the past, or worse, teaching to the test, ugh! Production line thinking. They don’t usually do a great job of discovering ugly ducklings and inspiring us to become swans.

Einstein did not speak until he was four and did not read until he was seven, causing his teachers and parents to think he was mentally handicapped. Many educational institutions forget that the root word of “education” is EDUCE – Greek for to bring forth.

The man with the most watched of all TED talks is Sir Ken Robinson. A natty British author, with an amazing sense of humor.  (TED is a brilliant source of inspiring videos by a myriad of passionate experts.)

With subjects such as “Schools kill Creativity,” Sir Ken challenges the education system to find our strengths and skills as children. To help us to understand ourselves and strengthen who we are naturally supposed to be — musician, painter, engineer.

He says it is vital we relate with others who share our path. He calls this finding our “Tribe”. Nerds need to hang with each other and gain from their mutual unique perspectives. Within our tribes we no longer feel like crazed loners.  It is like coming home, leading us to more fulfilling lives.

The essential part of creativity is not being afraid to fail.
-Edwin H. Land

Ο Μπρεχτ σχετικά με την παρατήρηση

Οι σχολές θεάτρου τείνουν να παραμελούν την παρατήρηση και την μίμηση του παρατηρούμενου. Έτσι, οι νέοι έχουν την τάση να εκφράζονται χωρίς να παίρνουν υπόψη τους τα ερεθίσματα που δέχονται, στα οποία όμως χρωστούν τον τρόπο έκφρασης τους. Ο ηθοποιός δεν αρκεί να παράγει ποιητικές μορφές, πρέπει ν’ αποτυπώνει και να επεξεργάζεται συνέχεια πραγματικούς τύπους που βρίσκονται τριγύρω του ή ανήκουν στο ευρύτερο περιβάλλον του. Για τον ηθοποιό ολόκληρος ο κόσμος μεταβάλλεται κατά κάποιο τρόπο σε θέατρο και ο ίδιος σε θεατή.

(Από το έργο του Μπέρτολ Μπρεχτ: Για το επάγγελμα του ηθοποιού)
Από την ιστοσελίδα του Εσωθεάτρου

LeoDiCaprio Foundation on Protecting Antarctica's Ocean

PROTECT ANTARCTICA'S OCEAN
10,000 species live in the arctic. Tell decision makers to protect Antarctica's Ocean!

The oceans around Antarctica are the only oceans on this earth still relatively untouched by human activity. They are home to almost 10,000 unique and diverse species, many of which cannot be found anywhere else on the planet. But today the Antarctic waters are under threat. You can help us to ensure Antarctic Ocean habitats and wildlife are protected from human interference.

HOME TO ALMOST 10,000 UNIQUE SPECIES
The Antarctic oceans are an essential ecosystem for the survival of Adelie and emperor penguins, Antarctic petrels and minke whales, Ross Sea killer whales, colossal squid and Weddell seals, to name a few.

ESSENTIAL FOR SCIENCE
Antarctica's Southern Ocean is a critical laboratory for scientists studying the effects of climate change as the global impacts increase and threaten the region.

ANTARCTIC OCEAN LEGACY: A VISION FOR CIRCUMPOLAR PROTECTION
This latest research by AOA has identified over 40% of the Southern Ocean that warrants protection and the Alliance has called for the establishment of the world's largest network of Marine Protected Areas and no-take marine reserves to protect 19 key Antarctic marine habitats.

ROSS SEA: UNIQUE INTACT ECOSYSTEM
While other marine ecosystems are threatened and devastated by development, pollution, mining, oil drilling and overfishing, Antarctica's Ross Sea remains one of the most intact on the planet - the ocean equivalent of Africa's Great Plains.

TOOTHFISH: GOING, GOING, GONE?
As the world's oceans continue to run out of fish, due to decades of overfishing, more and more fishing vessels are traveling to remote areas such as Antarctica's Southern Ocean to fill their holds. Commercial harvesting, particularly of the slow-growing and long-lived Antarctic and Patagonian toothfish (also known as the Chilean sea bass) is rapidly on the rise. As well as threatening this pivotal species, the large-scale removal of toothfish would threaten the very balance of Antarctica's marine ecosystem.

FACTS FROM THE WILD SOUTH
 
The oceans around Antarctica are some of the most precious in the world. They're one of the last places on Earth still relatively untouched by human activity.
 
1.) "This beautiful, icy ocean environment is home to almost 10,000 species, many of which can be found nowhere else on the planet.
 
2.) Adelie and emperor penguins, Antarctic petrels and minke whales, Ross Sea killer whales, colossal squid and Weddell seals all thrive in this inhospitable climate.
 
3.) While many other marine ecosystems in other parts of the world have been devastated by development, pollution, mining, oil drilling and overfishing, Antarctica's Ross Sea remains the most intact marine ecosystem on the planet.
 
4.) About 70% of our earth's surface is ocean, yet less than 1% of it is fully protected from human development.
 
5.) 85% of the world's fisheries are classified as over exploited, fully exploited, depleted or recovering from depletion, so commercial fishing vessels are moving to remote waters such as Antarctica's in search of fish (according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation).
 
6.) Antarctica's species are now under increasing pressure from commercial fishing for the slow-growing and long-lived Antarctic and Patagonian toothfish, (also known in parts of the world as the Chilean sea bass). These toothfish have become an expensive delicacy, sold in high-end restaurants as well as speciality seafood markets, primarily in the United States, Japan and Europe."
 
7.) "Fishing by illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) vessels, often using "flags of convenience" is on the rise. In some parts of the Southern Ocean, unsustainable fishing methods such as deep sea gillnets are in use in some areas. These gillnets can reach more than 100 kilometres in length and are a threat to almost all marine life, including marine mammals and non-targeted fish species such as rays.
 
8.) Then there's krill - an essential part of the food chain that supports the region's whales, penguins, seals, fish and birdlife. Growing demand for krill as a health supplement and as food for fish farms has put it at risk. Climate change has already been linked to a significant decline in krill numbers - up to 80% in one region around the Scotia Sea (Atkinson et al 2004).
 
9.) Poor management and the large-scale removal of toothfish and species like krill would threaten the very balance of Antarctica's unique and fragile ocean ecosystems.
 
10.) In 1991, the international community made a courageous decision to protect the Antarctic region as a natural reserve for peace and science. This included a ban on mining but this protection does not extend to Antarctica's magnificent marine environment, leaving it at risk."

THE ANTARCTIC OCEAN ALLIANCE
The Antarctic Ocean Alliance (AOA) is a coalition of leading environmental and conservation organisations working to establish a network of designated, no-take marine reserves and marine protected areas in the Antarctic. This will be the most comprehensive regime of its kind on the planet. With such a network in place, key Antarctic ocean habitats and wildlife would be protected from human interference.