Toronto+Vancouver City of Labyrinths Project

Behold!

Found in my Labyrinth Library at home,

Holding Janet Bord’s book, Mazes and Labyrinths of the World in my hand…

Sometimes I include the word for Labyrinth in different languages within or around my Labyrinth designs.

Often in chalk,

Sometimes in paint.

Yet always spellchecked against this list in the back of my Labyrinth Designs notebook . . .

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I had no idea my Labyrinth appeared in the Graphic Novel, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

So I went and finally watched the movie for the first time tonight.

My Labyrinth wasn’t in the Movie.

If I am not mistaken then,

My Christie Street Traffic Island Labyrinth appears in the opening pages of VOLUME ONE TWO of the Scott Pilgrim vs. the World Graphic Novel . . .

“The Scott Pilgrim-age.

The Christie Station Labyrinth from the opening spread of vs. The World.

Located on the street island right outside the Christie Subway Station”

Happily found one more instance of Labyrinths in Islam…

This Ramadan Activity Book by including a maze ( yes yes yes I am anti-Maze person and pro-Labyrinth Person but put that aside for the moment! ), brings two of my worlds, my separate City of Labyrinths project and my 30 Masjids in 30 Days of Ramadan project together…

This is my Second time blogging about Mazes and Masjids and Ramadan coming together.

First it was a greeting card in Indonesia, and now this My Ramadan Activity Book from Denmark and The UK.

“I think—the hero observes that nothing is so frightening as a Labyrinth with no centre.”

― Jorge Luis Borges, Selected Non-Fictions

In a world of juggling emails, texts and social media, the rise of stress and anxiety seems to be by-products of our non-stop, connected world. How to combat the effects?

Enter the world of games and play.

Ian Bogost, Georgia Institute of Technology professor and author of Play Anything: The Pleasure of Limits, the Uses of Boredom, and the Secret of Games, tells The Current‘s Anna Maria Tremonti how boredom plays a role in fun.

“In boredom there’s a sense that you’ve expended the obvious capacities of your situation.”

Bogost says that boredom gives you two choices. One is to seek something else out. And the other is to pay attention to boredom as new terrain and go deeper.

He sees boredom as necessary to pursue fun and says the experience of play is richest when you approach it with questions like, “What else is possible and how can I kind of collaborate with this object?”

This edition of The Current caught my attention. The Labyrinths I have been making in recent years have more to do with Fun and Play than Reflection or Meditation.

There is much overlap with Ian Bogost’s point of view about Fun and Games, and my decision to create chalk or painted Labyrinths in Public Spaces where Children are usually found, like playgrounds.

This interview helped explain a number of behaviours I have observed in people walking my Labyrinths, providing vocabulary which until now had remained elusive.

Cool. I’ll now have to go read his book.

“It used to be the backyard of The Grange House (now part of the AGO).

The timeless feeling to this little park contrasts nicely with the modern blue wall of the AGO on the north side, and the upbeat architecture of the OCAD on the east.

Grange Park includes an old-fashion wading pool, a playground and a permanent Labyrinth drawn on the paved path.”

– TORONTO STREET ART STROLLS – Nathalie Prézeau

“It is said by men worthy of belief (though Allah’s knowledge is greater) that in the first days there was a king of the isles of Babylonia who called together his architects and his priests and bade them build him a labyrinth so confused and so subtle that the most prudent men would not venture to enter it, and those who did would lose their way.

“Most unseemly was the edifice that resulted, for it is the prerogative of God, not man, to strike confusion and inspire wonder.

“In time there came to the court a king of Arabs, and the king of Babylonia (to mock the simplicity of his guest) bade him enter the labyrinth, where the king of Arabs wandered, humiliated and confused, until the coming of the evening, when he implored God’s aid and found the door.

“His lips offered no complaint, though he said to the king of Babylonia that in his land he had another labyrinth, and Allah willing, he would see that someday the king of Babylonia made its acquaintance.

“Then he returned to Arabia with his captains and his wardens and he wreaked such havoc upon kingdoms of Babylonia, and with such great blessing by fortune, that he brought low his castles, crushed his people, and took the king of Babylonia himself captive.

“He tied him atop a swift-footed camel and led him into the desert. Three days they rode, and then he said to him,

“O king of time and substance and cipher of the century! In Babylonia didst thou attempt to make me lose my way in a labyrinth of brass with many stairways, doors, and walls; now the Powerful One has seen fit to allow me to show thee mine, which has no stairways to climb, nor walls to impede thy passage.”

“Then he untied the bonds of the king of Babylonia and abandoned him in the middle of the desert, where he died of hunger and thirst.

“Glory to Him who does not die.”

“The Two Kings and the Two Labyrinths” – Found in Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges, translated by Andrew Hurley, Penguin Books, 1998, p. 263-264.

“This project emphasizes once again on the power of calligraphy and its crucial role in Islamic art. I though the first project (ALLAH calligraphy) was not enough to explore the rich universe Islamic calligraphy has to offer.

“For this project, I mixed calligraphy with the lecture about Qur’an (by using Surat Al-Fatiha) and that about interpretations…

“In fact, for this project, I created a labyrinth out of the first Surah in the Qur’an (Surat Al-Fatiha) by using a very unique type of calligraphy.”

“The reason why I mention interpretation is that the way the Surah was represented is full of meanings. I believe the Qur’an is a very powerful work of art where the readers get lost, just like Alice did in the wonderland…

“In fact, this sheds the light on the importance of interpretations and ijtihad in Islam since once ayah in the Qur’an can have many meanings. Getting lost in the Labyrinth and finally seeing the light and finding the way out with a rational interpretation is what makes the Qur’an experience very unique for Muslims and non-Muslims.

“As a side note, I wanted the calligraphy style to be one where there is no obvious end in the words to represent some situations we can face nowadays, where some debates are endless and where you can see neither the end of the arguments nor that of the debate…

“I hope you enjoyed the labyrinth of Qur’an. Please read it. You might get lost. But hopefully, you will find yourself fast enough. That is all that matters.”

— Mohamed Mehdi Aourir, Harvard

T.V. Rots Your Brain – Elevator passing floors 3 5 7

I was in an elevator this past winter in one of the office towers which inhabit the concrete canyons of Toronto’s financial district.

The panelling of the windows on each of the four sides (once the doors were closed) of the elevator were slightly off, causing a visual ripple and infinity effect.

I took three photographs and used autostitch freeware to create the mirror image you see.

Of note, is that each of the three prominent reflections of the floor number, they are different, showing ‘3’, ‘5’, ‘7’, hence the title of the photograph.

“My other nightmare is that of the mirror.

“The two are not distinct, as it only takes two facing mirrors to construct a labyrinth.

“I remember seeing, in the house of Dora de Alvear in the Belgrano district, a circular room whose walls and doors were mirrored, so that whoever entered the room found himself at the center of a truly infinite labyrinth.”

— Jorge Luis Borges, “Nightmares,” Seven Nights, 1984, pg. 29.