Tag Archives: Phoenix

A Thought For Ukraine At Boskone

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By Borys Sydiuk: We are grateful for fellow fans support at this time, as we approach a year since the abhorrent invasion of our beautiful country. Fans have struggled with war and it has been a hardship, we await the air raid sirens still in fear and I often think of my fan friends in peril and bravely fighting. 

At Boskone 60 in USA this year on Saturday the 18th of February at 1200, fans will gather on the 4th floor to have a thoughtful moment for Ukraine. 

Room to be confirmed.  

Fans are welcome to enjoy a warming cup of tea and some biscuits and share a contemplative moment for fellow fans in Ukraine. Sara Felix has brilliantly prepared a beautiful Tiara kit that celebrates the Ukraine colors that you can put together, and we welcome the national colors being worn and your warm thoughts. 

Tiara by Sara Felix

At the Boskone art show, data artist Phoenix will be selling prints of her Soviet Space Dogs: Data Visualization Art to raise funds for Shelter Friend, a Ukrainian non-profit organization and rehabilitation centre for the homeless animals in Dnipro city, who are dealing with an influx of abandoned dogs due to the current conflict. (https://www.phoenixdataart.com) 

Soviet Space Dogs: Data Visualization Art by Phoenix

Your thoughts are important to us, and as we come close to the anniversary of the invasion, such an evil repugnant act, I would like to mention those I am often thinking of, old fan friends who are fighting now. 

Kindrat, a fan since the Soviet time, a member of one of the clubs I organized (Pereval, 1988). He moved from Kyiv to Lviv, and after the war started he joined territorial defense, and now he is actually at the front line. Danila is another fan who I have known since the Eighties, he was a publisher and book seller and joined the army in the first days of the war. Olexander Surkov was a career officer with the Ukrainian Army, but is a Fan, writer, blogger, he rejoined twice, in 2014 and then rejoined in 2022 with this invasion. I think of them often, and welcome you all to think of Ukraine. 

Fans engage and work hard here to support the effort,  like Olena Glushchenko, fan and Lit-Teracon convention organizer who organized a whole project Varta to support the Ukrainian army, and one project is “One book for a soldier” to collect books and send them to the front line for Ukrainian soldiers for the times in between fighting. 

The war is a theme of Art and Creativity, as well as Comics, and Art, Murals and support, we have seen a series of incredible art on our stamps, 

Boris Groh (https://www.facebook.com/grohboris), author of the famous “Russian ship, go f…” continues to create art. 

Igor Baranko’s comic (https://www.instagram.com/igorbaranko/) was the ESFS Best Artist 2021 winner and he continues to support us as he lives now in Thailand. 

Myroslav Latyk’s film “Maksym Osa” a Ukranian Fantasy is available on Netflix. Witches, a mystical Dog Head, and stolen Royal Gold all feature in this work filmed by a Ukrainian film company. 

When the war is over, we look forward to organizing more conventions. 

We will welcome you all back here, to enjoy good company, and make many crafts in our colors. 

Maybe even another Eurocon. 

Just to mention, in 1990 our then very young fandom thought to get Worldcon, and we supported the Zagreb Worldcon bid for 1992.

Please wear the yellow or blue Ukraine colours! 

We will have supporters distributing ribbons and remind ourselves that elsewhere fans fight against invaders.

Thank you for your support and thinking of us, it is very important. 

Borys. 

(Notes: Thanks to Sara Felix, Phoenix Data Art and James Bacon for their continued hard work and support. First names only or pseudonyms used to identify frontline fighters) 

Space Dogs: Data Visualization Art at Chicon 8

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European fan Phoenix (she/her) recently announced her first data visualization art project about the flights and fates of the Soviet space dogs. Inspired by space, science and science fiction, Phoenix also loves animals, especially dogs, and has provided a forever home to several rescue dogs. Her Soviet Space Dogs project combines these two loves and is being sold to raise money for dogs abandoned due to the conflict in Ukraine.

The sad story of Laika, the first animal to go into orbit, is known amongst space enthusiasts around the world, but Laika was just one of many dogs that played a vital role in the Soviet space program. Their story is told eloquently by Olesya Turkina, Senior Research Fellow at the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, in her 2014 book Soviet Space Dogs. Phoenix’s dual language (English/Russian) digital artwork visualizes the data from the book and tells the story of the Soviet space dogs pictorially, from Dezik and Tsygan, the first dogs to leave the Earth, via Laika, the first animal to orbit the Earth; and Belka and Strelka, who were the first to survive orbit; to Ugolyok and Veterok, who survived the last and longest flight, spending 22 days in orbit.  

Laika
Belka & Strelka
Ugolyok & Veterok
Otvazhnaya

Prints and products featuring the Soviet Space Dogs visualization are being sold online via Redbubble, with all profits going to support Ukrainian charity Shelter Friend who are rescuing dogs which have been abandoned due to the current conflict. Copies of the book are available from the publisher, and currently include a 10% donation to the British Red Cross Ukraine Crisis Appeal. Direct donations to Shelter Friend can be made via PayPal to [email protected].

Borys Sydiuk from Kyiv said “Supporting Shelter Friend at this time is a wonderful thing to do, and Ukrainian Fans thank Phoenix for her beautiful work”.

A limited edition Soviet Space Dogs print will be on display in the art show at the upcoming Worldcon in Chicago, where signed prints will also be available in the print shop. Thanks to fannish generosity, the print production and art show costs have been covered, so all proceeds from sales at the convention will go to the charity in full.

[Based on a press release.]

How to interpret the graphics:

Not a Mock Turtle

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A convention ad flutters loose from my copy of Instant Message and declares, “The Turtle Moves.” Yes, and says it’s moved to Phoenix over Labor Day Weekend of 2009, where fans will hold The First North American Discworld Convention. Terry Pratchett will be a GoH. What is the right interpretation of this sign? Is another group joining Dragon*con in poaching the traditional (with increasing randomness) Worldcon weekend? Far from it.

Anticipation, the Montreal Worldcon of 2009, takes place almost a month in advance of Labor Day: August 6-10; the identical dates for this year’s Denvention, as a matter of fact. Is it only old fire horses like me who hear “Labor Day” and think it should mean a science fiction convention? Obviously my calendar is blank and I may have to give Discworld a whinny.

Discworld conventions have been held since 1996, never before in North America. Chair Lee Whiteside and Hotel Liaison Mike Willmoth, two leading committee members, have such impressive resumes after working many Westercons, NASFiCs, WFCs and Worldcons that even fans completely unfamilar with past Discworld-themed conventions will have every reason to gallop over to Phoenix for more fun in the desert.