Stolen from Wikipedia:
Menningarnótt or "cultural night" is a yearly event held in Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland, usually on the third Saturday of August. It was created by the Reykjavík city council, and has now become one of the largest festivals in Iceland, rivalling the celebration of Iceland's national day on June 17th.It is estimated that as many as 100,000 people attend the annual concerts and festivities conducted in central Reykjavík, a staggeringly high percentage of Iceland's total population of 315,000 and Reykjavík's population of nearly 118,000.
The festival often consists of a main stage in the city centre and many smaller events mostly in the city's centre but also spread over the city. The highlight of the festival is often an outside concert on the main stage by 3-4 of the most popular musicians in Iceland followed by a rather glamorous fireworks show.
I was walking down the sidewalk of the main street of downtown Reykjavik when I noticed a store, completely barren except for the turf that was laid out on the floor. My kinda thing...I thought. So I asked the guy inside what was going on. Next thing I knew, I was part of the crew and had a spot as an artist at this soon-to-be art gallery slash internet cafe slash indoor park for Menningarnott.
With some knowledge of the aluminum/aluminium* smelting plants, which have been protested against due to their adverse environmental and health effects, I created this piece:
http://savingiceland.puscii.nl/?language=en
*The confusion over the aluminum/aluminium spelling arose because of some uncharacteristic indecisiveness on [Humphrey] Davy's part. When he first isolated the element in 1808, he called it alumium. For some reason he though better of that and changed it to aluminum four years later. Americans dutifully adopted the new term, but many British users disliked aluminum, pointing out that it disrupted the -ium patterm established by sodium, calcium, and strontium, so they added a vowel and a syllable. (Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, currently reading :] )
*The confusion over the aluminum/aluminium spelling arose because of some uncharacteristic indecisiveness on [Humphrey] Davy's part. When he first isolated the element in 1808, he called it alumium. For some reason he though better of that and changed it to aluminum four years later. Americans dutifully adopted the new term, but many British users disliked aluminum, pointing out that it disrupted the -ium patterm established by sodium, calcium, and strontium, so they added a vowel and a syllable. (Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, currently reading :] )
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