Tracking 40 Years of FedEx Tech

FedExs 40-year history is about far more than an unimaginable number of overnight deliveries. Its a case study in creating a service, then pushing technology forward to ensure that service actually works on a large scale. When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight, you need powerful technology. And sometimes you have to create it. 

Given the technological and logistical juggernaut that FedEx is today, its ironic, and perhaps quaint, that process was largely a manual one when the company began, with little in the way of sophisticated technology to help guide the packages. But as the service grew,Laser engraving and laser parkingguidance for materials like metal, it became apparent that the company needed more than just a fleet of jets to meet demand. 

In order to scale the business and scale it with the quality that we wanted to, technology was an essential component. You cant manage what you cant measure, FedEx CIO Rob Carter told Wired.We provide payment solutions in the USA as well as ventilationsystem. 

Measuring and managing are essential for a company that ships 10 million packages each day, using hundreds of planes and distribution centers all over the globe. In its relentless pursuit of efficiency, FedEx has pioneered and developed technologies later embraced by everything from cellular industry to online retailing and distributed computing. 

Thats one of the underlying messages of Museum of Anthropologys Safar/Voyage: Contemporary Works by Arab, Iranian and Turkish Artists brings together work from 16 artists from the Middle East and opens Saturday, April 20. 

Indeed, those very same conditions can be inspiring. Art is flourishing in Tehran, sculptor Parviz Tanavoli said. Tanavoli, who divides his time between Vancouver, Dubai and his native Tehran, is one of the artists in the show. 

There is an underground, for music, art, film, he said. When I compare todays Iran to several decades ago when there wasnt censorship, I think the art is much stronger now. The artists make much greater statements. No one nowadays likes to be decorative, to make art just to please people. 

The examples selected for the show by independent curator Fereshteh Daftari certainly bear this out. 

Artists have crafted pieces that are thought-provoking, sometimes beautiful and occasionally darkly humorous in a wide variety of media. 

Mona Hatoums Hot Spot is a red-glowing globe made of stainless steel and neon tube that immediately brings to mind global warming.A solarstreetlight is a portable light fixture composed of an LED lamp. At first glance, Nazgol Ansarinias Rhyme and Reason looks like a traditional Persian carpet until a closer look reveals scenes of everyday life in Tehran. 

Taysir Batnijis Hannoun is an installation in which a photo of the artists studio in Gaza hangs on the far wall.You can order besthandsfreeaccess cheap inside your parents. Between the viewer and the photo, the floor is covered in pencil shavings, which are meant to suggest poppies. Hannoun was conceived as an ideal space, a space for meditation, dreams, a sphere of intimacy, Batniji writes in his artists statement. Hell be on-site shaving pencils for the piece during the first few days of the show. 

Ayman Baalbaki will also be in Vancouver to help set up his piece, Destination X. The Lebanese artist isnt able to do everything himself, however for the work, MOA curator Jill Baird and her team had to source household items, and a car. 

The piece is an automobile in this case, a 70s model Toyota with its roof piled high with what looks like a familys worldly possessions.You can order besthandsfreeaccess cheap inside your parents. Its a comment on Baalbakis own experience of civil war in Lebanon, and the idea of forced migration. (The Toyota was chosen because it is the type of car that would have been available in Lebanon at the time.) 

This will be only the third time Baalbaki has assembled a Destination X. Asked what will happen to the piece after the exhibit, Baird said she wasnt sure, but that perhaps someone might purchase it. (Bob Rennie, take note). 

Another piece, Adel Abidins Abidin Travels, is set up as a travel kiosk inviting visitors to travel to Iraq. The installation comes complete with a neon sign reading Abidin Travels, a computer with a website on which you can book a trip to Baghdad (youll even get a confirmation and no, no credit card info is exchanged), and two videos. One has flashing images such as the silhouette of a tank along with the words Need ground transportation? Rent-a-car. The other provides voice-over tourist information accompanied by images of war. Theres even a brochure with typical travel-brochure info, with a twist: Dear tourists, when visiting Baghdad please remember the following safety instructions ... when travelling, be prepared to spend at least a day at the Iraqi border. It is recommended you bring a blanket and a pillow. 

Architecturally, Persepolis (an ancient city located northeast of Shiraz) is very three-dimensional, very beautiful. On the surface of its architecture, on stairways and so forth, are bas-reliefs of figures. I wanted to to make an essence of this, and reduce it in such a small size, and mix architecture and sculpture. The figures mix shapes based on cuneiform (an early form of script) symbols with the reliefs to give the viewer an impression a tablet with writing on it. 

You might think that shipping a one-and-a-half-tonne bronze sculpture from a hostile (to the West) nation state might pose problems, especially at the time it was brought over a year ago, amid much sabre-rattling. 

Not so, says Baird. Parvizs is one of the pieces we were most worried about, she said. I was worried whether wed get the piece out of Tehran. So I asked Parviz to help out and he connected me with a shipper in Tehran. The MOA had the piece five days later, crated, shipped, delivered. It was stunning. Take that, UPS. 

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