This afternoon we visited the location where we will be staging the aerial art event tomorrow. Pnyx, at the base of the Acropolis, is the ancient site where Aristotle, Socrates and Plato shared their ideas about philosophy and democracy.



We met with our aerial photographer, Nikolas Kominis. He arrived with a grim face, slow to inform us of some last-minute red tape: our helicopter had been “grounded” until written approval from the Federal authorities was obtained. Considering that most officials had already gone home for the day, getting such approval would be almost impossible.

While our partners at Amnesty International got on the phone and began to spin their magic, we chose to move forward and begin discussions on flight plans, angles and altitudes to best capture the image from the sky the next day.

We then had to measure out the two flat areas at the site, eventually choosing the lower level to stage the “canvas”. We discussed what the messaging and graphic for the image should be, coming to agreement on “Rights For All” with the Chinese characters for “human rights” surrounding the Amnesty International candle.



Later in the evening we ate dinner by the Acropolis, and connected with our final team member, Dovrat, who brought us some pre-publicity fliers that were circulated for the event.



Back at the hotel we again connected with our team members in Los Angeles – Jeremy, Leslie and Nicole – to answer questions and provide coaching to the 28 other cities throughout the world that have committed to creating smaller aerial art circles tomorrow in solidarity and unity with Amnesty International. We also connected with Lisa in South Africa in preparation for our Mandela piece scheduled for next week.

Needless to say, we got very little sleep.

-Marc