The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Index of Democracy 2010

This is the third edition of the Economist Intelligence Unit’s democracy index. It reflects the
situation as of November 2010. The first edition, published in The Economist’s The World in 2007,
measured the state of democracy in September 2006 and the second edition covered the situation
towards the end of 2008. The index provides a snapshot of the state of democracy worldwide for
165 independent states and two territories—this covers almost the entire population of the world
and the vast majority of the world’s independent states (micro states are excluded).

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Index of Democracy is based on five categories: electoral process and pluralism; civil liberties; the functioning of government; political participation; and political culture.

Countries are placed within one of four types of regimes:
Full democracies
Flawed democracies
Hybrid regimes
Authoritarian regimes

Full PDF of the report can be downloaded from the Economist Intelligence Unit but requires registering, otherwise you can see it here.

'...interstitial, unoccupied spaces at the edges of the interstate...'

The Edge of Light: Wendover is a poetic study of landscape, environment, development and isolation in what the artists Brian Rosa and Adam Ryder describe as 'the border of nowhere and nowhere' in the US.

What is striking about these photos is the stillness and isolation in the images, confusing the viewer as to wether the subject is that which is being lit or the light itself. Though the exploration sought out the edge of light, its the degrees of dark that become most heightened. Light at dawn or is it dusk? Artificial or natural? Either way there remains a sense of deep sleep in the photo essay. It makes us question not only how we use light but how we use the landscape. Its no wonder its a result of a residency at the Center for Land Use Interpretation. 

For a comparable study of light and subject, see Peter Di Campo's photo study of Ghana at night via flashlight Life Without Lights recently published in the NYTimes. 

Memorial Mapping - For Olivier Ruellet

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.


Site space city system social sounds sights city same nonsense no sense sense senses sensing....
Was it Paris - London - New York? New York - Paris - London? London - New York - Paris?
There is magic in a city, creeping beneath the concrete pavements, behind metal and glass towers, running through rusted pipes and telephone wire.
We don't always see this current, that actually keeps us going. We go for surfaces.
Surface heat, surface texture, surface tension.
But then there's a viewpoint, a point of view, an opinion, an imagination.
A moment in time when we allow ourselves an expanded outlook and lift our eyes from our assumed roles, present positions, sought after goals, endless tasks and matters of consequence.
A moment when we remember this life we're living is the most engaging piece of theatre of all time, but we put it on pause.
And when we pause that streaming film of information our eyes glaze over, finally resting for one moment on the invisible.
The visible invisible.
The tangible intangible.
Sometimes we're lucky enough to stop the thundering of our critical egos marching in our heads and listen.
And we listen...
Listen...
That sounds....
Those sounds....
This moment when we become present, when we communicate in 140 characters or more. Some of which are inferred some of which are silent.
When the buzzing background of late night drinks and early morning alarm clocks is like a distant dream and we find ourselves floating in a sea of nothing.
And you were there.
And I was there.
But I didn't know it, I don't remember it, I just know I was.
I know because now you are still there and I am still here, we are still here and we know you are there, but we don't know where there is because we barely know where here is.
We're barely here at all.
And back to the present.
To this moment - To this city, this neighbourhood, this park, this construction.
And here we are, we know we're here but are you here?
Can you hear?
Hey, can you hear me?
...
I swim through the streets of New York, I swim through the streets of London, I swim through the streets of Paris and in this underwater world I breathe the air we breathed together.
And I see the city, the hard city gone soft, its shell cracked, its magic seeping through.
I take a moment....
Breathless...
Floating...
Watching...
Eyes wide wondering: if we just hang on to that magic we'll be able to see like this forever.
Eyes wide, forever.