camminando | Walking as Healing: Beach Walks in Ostia and Garbatella

My healing walks in Rome continue, as strategy to cope with stress, which has now arrived to extremely high levels. One of my stressors du jour are dealing with a delayed and not well done renovation of my late parents apartment in Rome, which will become my home: I am currently sleeping on the bedroom floor surrounded by boxes and covered by dust. The other stressor is the recurrent problem of progress with my doctoral research, dealing with egos and dysfunctionality: the latest is the  exceptional rejection of approving funding for my presentation at the Symmetry conference in Vienna.
I keep repeating in a mantra-like fashion Nietzsche's popular statement "That which does not kill us makes us stronger". My steps take to the A metro and then to the train to Ostia Stella Polare.

Returning to the city, I got off at San Paolo fuori le mura (IV century AD) the basilica erected in the burial place of San Paolo. The sun starts setting behind the pines at north-west side of the basilica.

My following wanderings encounter Garbatella, the former working class neighborhood which presents harmonious urban planning, inspired by the garden city movement. Wikipedia says:

Garbatella is a quarter belonging to the Municipio XI of the commune of Rome, in the Ostiense district. Its population counts nearly 45,000.It was founded in the late 1920s on an estate bearing the same name lying on a hill adjacent to the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls. The older section of the area is divided into project units (Italian: lotto), each of them made of several buildings grouped together around a common yards: this design was borrowed from the Garden city movement. This kind of architectural agglomeration in Rococo style, consists of a common garden area which serves as an informal meeting point for all the families that live in the lotto.

My walk ends by the Garbatella metro station, with views of the Roman industrial archeology: the Gasometro framing the setting sun.

 

The sun is setting framed by the Gasometro

Quite a Year...Will 2015 Bring Back Humanity?

2014 has been a quite remarkable year from the series "that which does kill us makes us stronger". Survival has been the recurrent definition of ways of existence. Art and creativity have as usual been survival means.


Collective tragedies and violence have been observed from my personal troubles and sorrows. I have been "officially" confirmed as victim of emotional and psychological violence. My research has been trashed by academic politics but is well and alive even if access to adequate facilities has been denied or restricted and rushed

I am still here, ready to get up and continue, although bruised and in pain. I have been blessed with reasonable good health and ready to continue in my hope for a better world, which I hope to continue to contribute

I would like end this troublesome year with a positive note, with an Italian song by Francesco Guccini, made famous by Nomadi. The title is aphorism by Nietzsche and Ginsberg's "Howl" translation marks the beginning of the lyrics. A collaborative work to express the hope for a better world in 2015.

Ho visto la gente della mia età andare via
lungo le strade che non portano mai a niente.
Cercare il sogno che conduce alla pazzia
nella ricerca di qualcosa che non trovano
nel mondo che hanno già.
Lungo le notti che dal vino son bagnate
dentro le stanze da fastidio trasformate
lungo le nuvole di fumo di un mondo fatto
di città essere pronto ad ingoiare la nostra
stanca civiltà e un Dio ch’è morto:
ai bordi delle strade Dio è morto,
nelle auto a presa rate Dio è morto,
nei miti dell’estate Dio è morto.
Mi han detto che questa mia generazione
ormai non crede in ciò che spesso è mascherato
con la fede, nei miti eterni della patria e dell’eroe
perché è venuto ormai il momento di negare tutto ciò
che è falsità, e per il fatto di abitudine e paure, una politica
che è solo far carriera, il perbenismo interessato,
la dignità fatta di vuoto, l’ipocrisia di chi sta sempre con la
ragione e mai col torto è un Dio ch’è morto:
nei campi di sterminio Dio è morto,
coi miti della razza Dio è morto,
con gli odi di partito Dio è morto.
Ma penso che questa mia generazione è preparata
a un mondo nuovo e una speranza appena nata,
ad un futuro che ha già in mano, a una rivolta senza armi
perché noi tutti ormai sappiamo che se
Dio muore per tre giorni e poi risorge,
in ciò che noi crediamo Dio è risorto,
in ciò che noi vogliamo Dio è risorto,
nel mondo che faremo Dio è risorto.
Dio è risorto, Dio è risorto,
Dio è risorto, Dio è risorto..

Dio è morto (se Dio muore, è per tre giorni poi risorge)

Francesco Guccini & Nomadi, 1967 

My last walk of 2014, right after the Sun passed the meridian in NYC

Self Help | When the Whole is Greater than the Sum of Its Parts

“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

― Aristotle

Aristotele's observation ---often used to indicate a synergetic, positive, outcome--- is unfortunately true also for the idiocy and frustrations of life. I spent almost all the past week dealing with individually small things whose sum turned into a whole huge frustration. Besides my personal situation  ---abandonment from spouse--- I had to deal with professionally related nuisances, mainly dueto 3D printing. It was so frustrating experiencing the failure of my desktop printer which has had a very poor performance, terminated with total failure, since from its purchase of less than two month ago —especially after reading the recent article in The New Yorker, narrating the marvel of 3D printing applications in medicine. Researchers in material science collaborate with medical practitioner to 3D print in bio-compatible materials not only prosthetics and exoskeleton but also parts of internal organs.

Shapeways, the 3D printing service I often rely on for finer resolution design also failed, in the missed delivery of several design I was planning to present during my visit to Milan. Of course my personal frustrations are marginal, considering what is going on at a collective level with all the cases of racial discrimination, but when combined with my personal/professional rumination left me with little energy 

Walking provided healing as usual: my 14 km walk in the relentless was cathartic, clearing the tension and frustration.

To conclude with popular wisdom, adopted by Nietzsche: "That which does not kill us makes us stronger".

camminando | A Sunny Spring Day in Melbourne

It is finally Saturday: my week was of the series which can be synthesized by  Friedrich Nietzsche's quote "That which does not kill us makes us stronger." Unfortunately these weeks are getting increasingly frequent in my PhD journey. This one was topped also by a very painful episode of ingratitude which I found extremely upsetting for my present state of vulnerability. Creativity has always been a survival means throughout my life but I am learning that probably is a personal process and often in academic environment cannot be shared. Another famous quote, by Oscar Wilde “No good deed goes unpunished” can be used as description.
Spending the day in Melbourne offered a welcomed distraction in the change of scene. I never thought I would crave cities and density so much!

 "Sound Bites" at the RMIT gallery

 Pro Choice and Anti Abortion rallies clashing in Flinders Street

 Public Art along the Yarra River

The ACCA is showing a Tacita Dean's installation

 A polyhedral sculpture at National Gallery of Victoria

 Demonstrating against GMO

 Views along the Yarra River