September/October 1985 RAIN Page 19 Detail from PEACE TREK poster In the JanuarytFebruary 1984 issue of RAIN we ran an interview with Joel Schatz in which he described his efforts to build better relations with the Soviet Union through the use of computer and video technologies. He and his wife, Diane, had just returned from their first trip to the Soviet Union, where they were trying to arrange to conduct peace visualizaion workshops, similar to the ones they had been doing in the U.S. At these workshops they would ask people, "What would the world look like if peace broke out?" Diane was working on a poster that would show the collected visions of the people they spoke with. Since that time we have received many inquiries: What are Joel and Diane up to these days? Is the peace poster finished yet? The following article provides an update on their activities. The poster was completed earlier this year. PEACE TREK is a magnificent and colorful mandala, offering a lively collection of images showing peace as something more than the mere absence of war. Since completing the poster, Joel and Diand have been working to bring to life some of the images depicted in it. This article is adapted from journal writings Joel did while on another trip to Moscow in July. by Joel Schatz The arms race is a state of mind. It is fueled by hallucinations—each side imagining the worst about the other. Two complex societies poised at the edge of planetary suicide, we are victims of isolation, mistrust, and fear. This is a crisis in cultural diversity. Joseph Goldin, a Russian friend I've been working with for several years, has a novel orientation to the East-West struggle. After reading Jonathan Schell's Reflections Along the U.S.-Soviet Frontier "Fate of the Earth," he asserted that the task is not to save Humanity, since Humanity as a global system of communication and interaction does not yet exist. The task, Goldin says, is to create Humanity, using advanced communication technologies. Survival, he concludes, will take care of itself. Diane and I first met Joseph in 1983, on our first trip to the Soviet Union. His vision of giant video screens connecting major cities of the world via live interactive satellite has become part of our PEACE TREK painting. If fact, for those who have the poster, you can spot Joseph on the "Spacebridge" screen in the city park. He is holding the microphone at bottom, center. PEACE TREK is filled with a wonderful assortment of visions for the future, collected from hundreds of people in "Peace Visualization Workshops" begun in 1982. Visions of planetary communication are evident throughtout the painting—international language centers, videophones, work-study travel programs, computer conferencing, and so on. It feels a bit surrealistic to be here in Moscow—transforming some elements of PEACE TREK imagery into reality—moving from a painted image to the real world. What choice is there? As Norman Cousins puts it, "Visions and ideas are potent only when they are shared. Until then, they are merely a form of daydreaming." It was just last November that I bought my first computer, a Radio Shack Model 100. My intention was to test the vision and possibilities of East-West computer communications to accelerate scientific change. I was transfixed with the idea of being able to connect with the Soviet Union from my home in San Francisco, using j' 4 4 ■
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