For this project I tried to imagine how an individual's spirit can hold up in times of extreme adversity and deprivation. Those small respites from the grinding routine such as a glimpse of sky or a message from the outside world are the things that keep the spark of hope alive.
I played a simple piano line into Fieldscaper on the iPad and did a rough jam with the loop slowed and filtered. The clanks and low murmers are from a recording made from inside a prison.
Disquiet Junto Project 0271: Prison Sky
Mark the 5th anniversary of open-source software engineer Bassel Khartabil’s detention.
Step 1: Familiarize yourself with Bassel Khartabil. This coming Wednesday, March 15, 2017, will mark the fifth anniversary of open-source software engineer Bassel’s March 15, 2012, detention in Syria. It’s been more than a year since anyone has heard from him. Three times in the past the Disquiet Junto has done projects to raise consciousness about his predicament. We did the first one in January 2014, creating a soundscape to go with Bassel’s CGI reproduction of the ancient city of Palmyra:
disquiet.com/2014/01/23/disquiet0108-freebassel/
More on this 271st weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Prison Sky: Mark the 5th anniversary of open-source software engineer Bassel Khartabil’s detention” — at:
http://disquiet.com/0271/
More on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://disquiet.com/junto/
Subscribe to project announcements here:
http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/
Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:
llllllll.co/t/prison-sky-disquiet-junto-project-0271/6877
There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.
Image associated with this project is a detail that Bassel Khartabil wrote to Jon Phillips on January 31, 2014, from the Damascus Central Jail. More on Bassell’s detention at freebassel.org. Major thanks to Christopher Adams, Niki Korth, Jon Phillips, and Barry Threw. See the full letter and information about actions to mark the fifth anniversary at:
http://freebassel.org/ca
