Maand: mei 2012

Dear De Letters Van Utrecht,

We look forward to watching the letters turn into words, the words into phrases . . . and ever onwards into a poem of time and hope.

Greetings from Longplayer.
http://longplayer.org

Longplayer is a one thousand year long musical composition. It began playing at midnight on the 31st of December 1999, and will continue to play without repetition until the last moment of 2999, at which point it will complete its cycle and begin again.

In the past months a lot of work was done to prepare the start of the Letters of Utrecht. Hanneke Verheijke designed a font to be legible in the street and donated it to the project. Five poets wrote the beginning of the poem and Utrecht’s city works brought hundreds of stones. Gerrit Peele cut all of them to size, made year markers and coordinated that the correct letters were hewn by

• Anja Roemer
• Corry Kussendrager
• Esther de Waardt
• Frank Peele
• Gerrit Peele
• Geert Boersma
• Judith Groeneweg
• Michiel Deylius
• Rinus van den Belt and

• 

  Toon Rijkers.

This past week the numbers were engraved and the Letters were sorted onto pallets by Bart Elsinger, Gerrit Peele, Jonathan Schouten, Jurga Zelvyte van Avant La Lettre, Michael Munker, Peter Jelsma van Avant La Lettre, Peter Kloprogge and Roosje Keijser with the support of Centrum Natuursteen, Ernst-Jan de Vries and his team.

Many thanks to all!

In the past months a lot of work was done to prepare the start of the Letters of Utrecht. Hanneke Verheijke designed a font to be legible in the street and donated it to the project. Five poets wrote the beginning of the poem and Utrecht’s city works brought hundreds of stones. Gerrit Peele cut all of them to size, made year markers and coordinated that the correct letters were hewn by

• Anja Roemer
• Corry Kussendrager
• Esther de Waardt
• Frank Peele
• Gerrit Peele
• Geert Boersma
• Judith Groeneweg
• Michiel Deylius
• Rinus van den Belt and

• 

  Toon Rijkers.

This past week the numbers were engraved and the Letters were sorted onto pallets by Bart, Gerrit Peele, Jonathan Schouten, Jurga Zelvyte, Michael Munker, Peter Jelsma, Peter Kloprogge and Roosje Keijser with the support of Centrum Natuursteen, Ernst-Jan de Vries and his team.

Many thanks to all!

The Foundation for the Rights of Future Generations (SRzG) sent the following note to De Letters van Utrecht:

For the first time in history, the right of future generations to live on an ecologically intact, biologically varied planet is in danger. There is thus a pressing need to instil a long-term consciousness in humankind in order to safeguard the rights of today’s youth and future generations.

We therefore warmly greet the founding of The Letters of Utrecht as a creative solution to perspectivising the need for society to function intergenerationally. We hope that the long-term consciousness of visitors will be awoken through the contemplation of the project’s timescale, which spans far in excess of any of the founders or contributors.

As a political think-tank, we also hope that awareness of intergenerational justice and sustainability will be transformed into action inside the political arena as a result of the project.

We fully support this initiative!

Foundation for the Rights of Future Generations
(24.05.2012)

The Foundation for the Rights of Future Generations (SRzG / FRFG) was founded in 1997 in Germany as a research institute interconnecting science, politics and the business world. It deepens the knowledge about intergenerational justice and sustainability issues through its profound and practical research.

A stone from the 10,000 Year Clock site arrived. This clock is built by the Long Now Foundation to foster long-term thinking and responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years. Alexander Rose, the executive director of the Long Now Foundation, wrote:

The Long Now Foundation presents this stone from the site of our 10,000 Year Clock project in the Southwest United States in our year 02012. It is our hope that future generations find us worthy ancestors.

The Long Now Foundation had reported on the Letters of Utrecht in March. The 10,000 Year Clock concept was the original inspiration for the ideas for a stone clock that turned into the Letters of Utrecht. This stone will be placed in the streets of Utrecht next week engraved with the first letter of the poem.

Burgemeester Aleid Wolfsen zal De Letters van Utrecht openen op 2 juni als onderdeel van de stadsdag, die datum dat keizer Hendrik V in 1122 de stadsrechten van de Utrechters bekrachtigde en liet vastleggen.

Cor Brons, Wilco Stoopendaal, Jane Kalka en Michael Münker hebben de posities van jaarmarkeringen van de Letters bepaald. De markeringen zullen langs het gedicht lopen, een naast iedere eerste steen van een jaar, maar ook vooruit lopen: ieder jaar voor de volgende 10 jaren, iedere 10 jaar voor de volgende 100 jaren en ieder eeuw voor de rest van de bepaalde route. Binnenkort in de stenen van de straten van Utrecht.