Talk:Imagine Peace Tower

Towers in Iceland
I removed the article from the category Towers in Iceland. The Imagine peace tower is not an actual tower. The word tower is a metaphor for the beam of light that is cast in to the air and looks like a tower.--Jóhann Heiðar Árnason 04:02, 1 December 2007 (UTC)
 * I don't think you have to explain every little action you take unless someone disagrees with you. But thanks anyway, it's probably right that it's not an actual tower :D --Steinninn 10:02, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

McCartney Did Not Attend
I've edited this to say that Paul could not attend rather than did not attend, (he had a court case). I admit "did not attend" is the truth, but with the various John/Paul feuds, it might be misconstrued as did not want to attend. The reference to this comes from: http://beatle.wordpress.com/2008/01/26/yoko-discusses-johns-erotic-art-warming-up-to-paul-ringo/ but I don't know how to put this into the article, so please someone help with this. Yoko states that Paul could not attend. Thanks for the help. Jimaginator (talk) 14:07, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

Height of Beam
The article currently states: "The Tower consists of six searchlights with mirrors which act as prisms, reflecting the column of light upwards up to 30 metres into the sky".

This is clearly wrong. I live nearby and see the tower often. I was watching the tower from a very good viewpoint last week and I can reliably say it was reaching at least 4000m into the sky. I am an aviator and have experience of such judgments.

I suggest that this value is amended to more accurately reflect reality. We need to agree height and wording. May I suggest:

"The Tower consists of six searchlights with mirrors which act as prisms, reflecting the column of light vertically into the sky. It often reaches cloudbase and indeed can be seen penetrating the cloud cover. On a clear night it appears to reach an altitude of at least 4000m."Kirkjufell (talk) 21:41, 8 December 2008 (UTC)


 * I haven't been fortunate enough to see it in action at night, and didn't bring a ladder or even a mirror on a stick to look over the walls during my visit in February 2009, but what exactly is the optical setup? A prism is a particular type of transparent device that refracts light and can be used to reflect it, but a simple mirror whether front-silvered or back-silvered is not a prism.  The six searchlights may be in parabolic reflectors and may also have focussing lenses in front. The searchlights may be horizontal and use a mirror to shine the beams upward. So I'm asking if the terminology "mirrors which act as prisms" correctly describes the setup.  If indeed prisms are used, perhaps the statement should be "prisms that act as mirrors".Irv (talk) 17:56, 18 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Yoko referred to "prisms" in some of her early conceptual designs (scroll down to the "Light House" at http://imaginepeace.com/news/imagine-peace-tower) but I still doubt if there are any prisms in the actual device. Irv (talk) 18:01, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

Sequence of the 24 panels
I added the remaining languages. Some only inferred so corrections welcomed.

All should be listed in the order in which a visitor would encounter them (walking clockwise, I suppose, from wherever one enters the monument if there is only one logical entrance place), in case they had printed off this page as a guide.

Possibly this is the sequence of the 24 photos on the Wiki Commons page. I plan to visit in Feb 2009 (if the ferry is running) and will determine this if nobody else has yet. Surely the new book (USD 45 at Iceland Post's site) will give a lot of this info.

NB: I became interested in this after seeing a full page ad (which showed only the 24 phrases in their native scripts) in the New York Times 21 Dec 2008 pg 29 of First Section. I can scan and send copies to anybody interested. Perhaps this image could put up on the Wiki page, but it is probably copyrighted and as a minimum Yoko Ono's permission would be needed. (She paid for it, I assume, and signed it "love, yoko".) The ad didn't mention Iceland or the Imagine Peace Tower, and I learned of the monument only by google search that led to the Wiki pages.

Lonely Planet's 2007 Guidebook doesn't mention this either; I'll email them to be sure the next revision does.

Work yet to be done:

1) Obtain and put in the non-Latin scripts

2) Add the diacriticals where needed on Latin scripts and also cater to each language's style for Capitalization, inverted commas, etc.

3) Add a link to Wiki Commons page and vice versa. Irv (talk) 01:48, 29 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Yoko Ono said the order "...was totally and intentionally arbitrary" (see next section below), so I arranged the listing of 24 languages currently on the monument in the style as shown on the tower's official website (http://imaginepeace.com/news/imagine-peace-tower). Irv (talk) 16:57, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

Languages not represented?
I reverted the recent addition of the words in Afrikaans because there is no such panel. This section of this article is devoted specifically to these 24 panels. However, I think it's a wonderful idea to create a new section giving the words "Imagine Peace" in as many as possible of the worlds' other languages. So I ask our Afrikaans friend to do this, starting with that language. (The new list should be in alphabetical order and Afrikaans would be near the top anyway.) Irv (talk) 02:47, 4 April 2009 (UTC)


 * I just reverted a Slovenian entry. But if no objections, I'll start a new section below that presenting the official languages (now all rendered in the actual scripts) where we can accumulate the same message in various other languages of the world. Irv (talk) 17:51, 23 July 2009 (UTC)


 * New section inserted. I think it's worthwhile for this inspiring message to be in as many languages as feasible on this page. Irv (talk) 03:14, 8 August 2009 (UTC)


 * First, this message in other languages makes no difference to most English readers. Second, it is irrelevant to the article, as those languages are not represented on the tower.  Ishwasafishclick here!!!  20:05, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Whether the message in other languages "makes no difference to most English readers" is immaterial; surely many would find them of interest. Far more important is what Yoko Ono might think. She chose to have the thought expressed in 22 world languages other than, say, English and Japanese. I queried her about this earlier, receiving these answers in email reply on 14 August 2009: Other languages are not represented on the tower right now, but it's the message itself that is meaningful to all of humanity. Irv (talk) 05:09, 11 September 2009 (UTC)
 * An email isn't a reference. Additionally, I agree that the message is meaningful, but it is unencyclopedic even if some people find it interesting. As I said before it is irrelavent.  Ishwasafishclick here!!!  21:10, 24 September 2009 (UTC)

Mistaken inclusion of Thai language
Apparently the script appearing in this image is not Thai (or maybe it is, though stylized beyond recognition). It does look like an Indic script, but what it is exactly I don't know. --Paul_012 (talk) 07:11, 18 July 2009 (UTC)


 * I stand corrected in thinking it was Thai. It's Tibetan according to |"news/imagine-peace-tower" (scroll down quite a bit). Irv (talk) 18:14, 18 July 2009 (UTC)

Filipino or Tagalog
I reverted the substitution of Tagalog for Filipino for two reasons:

1) Filipino is the language group designated by Yoko Ono. (Scroll down at .)

2) Filipino is the official language of the Philippines.

Here's a message I posted on the Talk page of the person making this edit. (No response received.)

Irv (talk) 18:03, 16 August 2009 (UTC)