Ski Dubai -

If you have money, everything is possible in Dubai. Traffic permiting, you can go from a camel ride in the desert, via a quick downslope on your snowboard to the beach, all in one hour! The bilingual typography in the Mall of the Emirates could still be improved on though;-)

Space Ship Hotel in Dubai -

This hotel looks like something form a cheap retro-sci fi series. It has internet on every room though. Good enough to discover that all the Mediamatic websites were blocked in the Emirates (2006)

Tent at AUD campus during Kitabat 2006 -

Here at th Unversity campus, our websites were perfectly accessible. And also in the neighbouring media city, access is not restricted.

Memento Mori: Dance Macabre dans l'Imprimerie by Mathias Huss, Lyon 1499 -

One of the first depictions of a printers workshop: New media associated with death. The "powers that were" in renaissance Europe were not always happy with the media innovation of movable type. Widespread literacy and affordable dissemination of subversive ideas are scary perspectives for authoritarian rulers. Of course the reformation was greatly accelerated by book printing in local languages. And actually the religious discussions gave a tremendous boost to the publishing industry in the 1530s

Index Librorum Prohibitorum -

"List of Prohibited Books" is a list of publications censored by the Catholic Church. The aim of the list was to protect the faith and morals of the faithful by preventing the reading of immoral books or works containing theological errors. The various editions also contain the rules of the Church relating to the reading, selling and censorship of books. (Wikipedia)

Sultan Bayazid II 1447-1512 -

When he was an 8 year old boy, Gutenberg did his first succesful book printing. In 1485 this same Bayezid II banned the printing press from the Ottoman empire. In those days 90.000 scribes were working in Istanbul only, a big industry to protect from the threat of disruptive new media! The Dutch publishing industry is greatly indebted to this man. By banning bookprint, the gave the publishers in the low lands a 300 year lasting export business opportinity!

Sultan Selim I (1665-1620) -

This is the little boy of Bayezid II. When his dad died he assumed the throne. The first thing he did was kill off all his brothers and his nephews. This was to make sure he could keep the throne. He also reconfirmed his fathers ban on movable type. He did greatly expand the Ottoman empire by conquering Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Persia and also the cities of Mecca and Medina. He almost tripled the empire of his father to a total of 6,500,000 Km2. No new media please!