#LIFEILLUMINATED By Stefania Accardo and Mars Denton

It was August 2014, when Mars and I started collaborating to create #LifeIlluminated. My artistic way to break down virtual geographic borders that were keeping people silent and detached from each other. The LED lights represent real geographic conversations, connected to a database of Twitter mentions of specific topics: Gaza, Ebola, Ferguson, GMO, Beyonce&JayZ. Showing on a global scale what matters vs. what should really matter. ...Imagine, if the Oceans were forests, would you feel closer to that Continent on the other side? Would you care more?   On July 8th, 2014, for seven weeks non-stop, Gaza was under attack. Seven weeks of rockets and ground invasions. Palestine and Israel, were fighting to have the upper hand on the opposite sides of religion and culture. This, is still going on today; an entire city has burned to the ground, hospitals and schools have been purposely attacked; a generation of youth, just like you, is getting lost. So, I started wondering…Why don’t we care?   Personally, I am shocked! Something inhumane is happening across the Ocean and I don’t know what to do, how to help! Haven’t we learnt from centuries of previous wars? Why are we still fighting then? I was looking for answers then I realized that in the 21st century: There are no excuses for inhumanity. This is not the time to accept justifications or pretend not to know what’s going on in this world. It’s the time to act, do, and change! Because by now, we should be evolved…as Sylvia Plath once said “You are the result of 4 billion years of evolutionary success. F***ing act like it!”     In August 2014: - 4,908,412 people all around the world were talking about Gaza - 10,166,592 people all around the world were talking about Beyonce and Jay Z Why? Why do we care more about Beyonce or Jay Z? Are their lives more important than people dying in Gaza or affected by ebola? In August, when the ebola outbreak was contained to West Africa with +2,500 cases, there were about 857,338 mentions on Twitter in US only. In October, when the total number of people infected by the virus almost doubled to +4,500 cases, of which 3 were people in United States, do you know how many people were talking about ebola by then? 6,206,109 Three cases of ebola in United States increased conversations by 624%.   This means that we start caring only after seeing people dying next door. That’s how long it takes us to acknowledge what’s happening around the world. Unconsciously, we believe that what is happening far away doesn’t involve us…therefore we don’t care. But this is not true! This detachment from reality is lack of global empathy, an essential quality of all civilizations. Empathy is care for yourself AND others, unconditionally. Global empathy is when you earn your global citizenship and embrace the change, from civilization to globalization.  This is the time to call out the injustices in our world and defining them as such is the first step to empower all of us! We must care, we must care more and equally. We need to think beyond our own lifetimes. What you do today will impact future generations and it WILL make a difference. Now, we can all decide what kind of difference we want to make. Just think, if you could really change this world, what would you like to be remembered for?