Day: March 22, 2022

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Pritzker Military Museum & Library Announces Selected Design in International Design Competition for the Cold War Veterans Memorial

“Orbits” by Oyler Wu Collaborative Selected for Cold War Veterans Memorial in Somers, Wisconsin

Somers, Wisconsin, March 22, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Contact: 

Erika Davis

Senior Communications Associate

erika.davis@tawani.net

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Pritzker Military Museum & Library Announces Selected Design in

International Design Competition for the Cold War Veterans Memorial

“Orbits” by Oyler Wu Collaborative Selected for Cold War Veterans Memorial in Somers, Wisconsin

SOMERS, WI (March 22, 2022) – In April 2021, the Pritzker Military Museum & Library, located in Chicago, launched an international competition for the new Cold War Veterans Memorial to be built in Somers, Wisconsin, as a part of the Pritzker Archives & Memorial Park Center (PAMPC) project. After reviewing an impressive number of inspiring design concepts, Orbits has been selected as the final design of the competition.

Orbits is designed by Jenny Wu and Dwayne Oyler of Oyler Wu Collaborative in Los Angeles, California. From its formal structure to its shaped surroundings, the memorial emerges from the ground to become an architectural tribute to Cold War veterans, embodying the dedication, optimism, and hope that is emblematic of their enduring spirit. Collectively, the memorial unifies these complex narratives through juxtaposition, recognizing its interconnected history – one of sacrifice, triumph, and innovation.

“Each submitted design was remarkable and very inspiring. The final decision was tough, but after much discussion, we believe that the Orbits design will truly resemble a place where everyone who contributed to the Cold War will be honored. This memorial is special and very dear to many because people who sacrificed during this era are not recognized enough. Our goal is to make sure that our gratitude to these individuals is signified through this project,” said Col. Jennifer Pritzker, Founder of the Pritzker Military Museum & Library.

The Design Competition was a two-stage juried process. Stage 1 was an open call to submit design concepts for the memorial. In Stage 2, the finalists evolved their concepts for the memorial to create fully defined designs. The design challenge was to provide a conceptual design for the Cold War Veterans Memorial that embraces the mission statement, exemplifies the guiding vision, and achieves the design goals authored by the Cold War Veterans Memorial Steering Committee. The finalists rose to the challenge and submitted designs that showed their passionate exploration of how to portray the scale and complexity of the Cold War for current and future generations.

As Dwyan Oyler and Jenny Wu stated in their submittal, “In recognition of the profound complexity of the Cold War, our design draws from a range of meaningful artifacts and imagery from the era to create an immersive experience — evoking a range of cultural associations organized as a set of circular ‘orbits’ through the landscape.”

The Cold War Veterans Memorial’s guiding vision is to create permanent recognition that stimulates ongoing thought and study that honors American military members and civilians who served and sacrificed during the Cold War era (1945-1991). In line with the Pritzker Military Museum & Library’s mission, the Cold War Veterans Memorial aims to increase the public understanding of military history and how its lessons have contributed to the history we create today.

“We are extremely honored to have received so many submissions from such talented national and international designers and seen the professional skill the finalists brought to the second stage,” said Susan Rifkin, Pritzker Military Museum & Library Interim CEO.  “We are really looking forward to working with Jenny Wu and Dwayne Oyler to create a memorial that honors the lives and legacies of those who served and helped during the Cold War.”

The concept Orbits by Oyler Wu Collaborative received the unanimous recommendation of the jury as the selected design and the design team. In their summary report, the Jury said the imagery of this concept invites discovery, the setting is respectful of the site, and a variety of paths and experiences can be explored and provide a palette for interpretation.

All information on the design competition can be found at coldwarveteransmemorial.org.

Please view the design submission by Jenny Wu and Dwayne Oyler of Oyler Wu Collaborative in Los Angeles, California, here.

Pritzker Archives & Memorial Park Center

The PAMPC was created out of a need for additional space to house some of the circulating book collection and the archival collections of the Pritzker Military Museum & Library and will be completed in phases over an estimated ten years.

The first phase of the PAMPC project will include the Pritzker Military Archives Center to house the collections and provide workspace for the continued curation for future exhibits; Commercial Archives based on demand where private collectors, public institutions, and others may store their archives; a facility specializing in firearms education and training; a Community Green Space expertly landscaped with walking and biking paths; and the Cold War Veterans Memorial.

About the Cold War Veterans Memorial

In line with the Pritzker Military Museum & Library’s mission, the Cold War Veterans Memorial aims to increase the public understanding of military history. It will be a lasting tribute to the courage and tenacity found in the U.S. Armed Forces and civilian personnel who faithfully and honorably served during the Cold War era, September 2, 1945, to December 26, 1991. The Memorial will be a publicly accessible display where citizens can honor, reflect, and learn about the bravery and sacrifice displayed to further our country’s freedom. To learn more, visit www.coldwarveteransmemorial.org.

About Pritzker Archives & Memorial Park Center 

Located in Somers, Wisconsin, The Pritzker Archives & Memorial Park Center supports the Pritzker Military Museum & Library’s mission of preserving the past, present, and future of the citizen soldier. This project has various components, the first being the Pritzker Archives Center, a state-of-the-art archive space to restore, preserve, and provide storage for the Pritzker Military Museum & Library’s collections that include books, artifacts, and other historical materials. Other components of the project include a Commercial Archives Center, a firearms education center, the Cold War Veterans Memorial, and community green space. To learn more, visit www.pritzkerarchivespark.com.

About the Pritzker Military Museum & Library

The Pritzker Military Museum & Library aims to increase the public’s understanding of military history, military affairs, and national security by providing a forum for the study and exploration of our military – past, present, and future – with a specific focus on their stories, sacrifices, and values. With national and global reach, these spaces and events aim to share the stories of those who served and their contributions as citizen soldiers, helping citizens everywhere appreciate the relationship between the armed forces and the civilians whose freedoms they protect. A non-governmental, non-partisan organization, the Museum & Library features diverse collections, scholarly initiatives, and public programs from its flagship center in downtown Chicago to its world-class research center and park currently under construction in Somers, Wisconsin.

Erika Davis
Pritzker Archives & Memorial Park Center 
erika.davis@tawani.net
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Hackers Hit Authentication Firm Okta; Customers ‘May Have Been Impacted’

Okta whose authentication services are used by companies including Fedex and Moody’s to provide access to their networks, said on Tuesday that it had been hit by hackers and that some customers may have been affected.

The scope of the breach is still unclear, but it could have major consequences because thousands of companies rely on San Francisco-based Okta to manage access to their networks and applications.

Chief Security Officer David Bradbury said in a blog post that the computer of a customer support engineer working for a third-party contractor was accessed by the hackers for a five-day period in mid-January and that “the potential impact to Okta customers is limited to the access that support engineers have.”

“There are no corrective actions that need to be taken by our customers,” he said.

Nevertheless, Bradbury acknowledged that support engineers were able to help reset passwords and that some customers “may have been impacted.” He said the company was in the process of identifying and contacting them.

The nature of that impact wasn’t clear, and Okta did not immediately respond to an email asking how many organizations were potentially affected or how that squared with Okta’s advice that customers did not need to take corrective action.

On its website, Okta describes itself as the “identity provider for the internet” and says it has more than 15,000 customers on its platform.

It competes with the likes of Microsoft, PingID, Duo, SecureAuth and IBM to provide identity services such as single sign-on and multifactor authentication used to help users securely access online applications and websites.

Okta’s statement follows the posting of a series of screenshots of Okta’s internal communications by a group of ransom-seeking hackers known as Lapsus$ on their Telegram channel late on Monday.

In an accompanying message, the group said its focus was “ONLY on Okta customers.”

Lapsus$ responded to Okta’s statement on Tuesday by saying the company was trying to minimize the importance of the breach.

Some outside observers weren’t impressed with Okta’s explanation either.

Dan Tentler, the founder of cybersecurity consultancy Phobos Group, earlier told Reuters that Okta customers should “be very vigilant right now.”

There were signs that Okta customers were taking action to revisit their security.

Web infrastructure company Cloudflare issued a detailed explanation of how it reacted to the Okta breach and saying the company did not believe it had been compromised as a result.

FedEx said in a statement that it too was investigating and “we currently have no indication that our environment has been accessed or compromised.” Moody’s did not return a message seeking comment.

Lapsus$ is a relatively new entrant to the crowded ransomware field but has made waves with high-profile hacks and attention-seeking behavior.

The group compromised the websites of Portuguese media conglomerate Impresa earlier this year, tweeting the phrase “Lapsus$ is now the new president of Portugal” from one newspaper’s Twitter accounts. The Impresa-owned media outlets described the hack as an assault on press freedom.

Last month, the group leaked proprietary information about U.S. chipmaker Nvidia to the Web.

More recently the group has purported to have leaked source code from several big tech firms, including Microsoft. In a blog post published Tuesday and devoted to Lapsus$, the software firm confirmed that one of its accounts had been compromised, “gaining limited access.”

The hackers did not respond to a message left on their Telegram group chat seeking comment.

Source: Voice of America

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Surprise Hit ‘Flee’ Tells Human Story of Refugees

An Oscar-nominated Danish documentary chronicling a gay Afghan refugee’s perilous journey to Europe tries to show that being a refugee is what happens to you, not who you are, its director told AFP.

“Flee,” an animated film which is up for three Academy Awards, is in the spotlight ahead of Sunday’s Oscars ceremony as the world witnesses another mass exodus, the millions of Ukrainians fleeing the war in their country.

“I really hope that we can give some nuance and some perspective,” director Jonas Poher Rasmussen told AFP in an interview held on the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Being a refugee is not an identity. It’s a circumstance of life.”

In 2015, “we had Syrian refugees on the highways here in Denmark, and all over Europe. And I felt a need to give these people a human face,” he said.

The idea for the documentary stemmed from a conversation between the 40-year-old director and his childhood friend, dubbed “Amin” in the movie to protect his identity.

Amin arrived as a teenage refugee in Rasmussen’s small village near Copenhagen in 1996.

“The story is told from inside a friendship,” Rasmussen said. In the beginning, “I didn’t think about making a political film.” But his perspective changed over the 10 years between the film’s conception and the start of production.

Combining 2D, sketch animation and archive newsreel footage, “Flee” is as much a reflection on the agony of a refugee’s flight as the universal theme of man’s quest for a place in the world.

“I think people can really relate to the universality of the story,” Rasmussen said. “Most people at some point of their life look for that place where they feel they can be, honestly, who they are.”

The film also evokes parallels with the Taliban’s seizure of power again in Afghanistan last summer.

As a young boy and teenager in the 1980s and 1990s, Amin donned his sister’s dresses and later fantasized about secret crushes, such as Hollywood muscleman Jean-Claude Van Damme.

But he was not able to freely express his homosexuality.

His situation grew even more untenable with the Taliban’s seizure of power in Afghanistan in 1990s.

“It’s really a story about someone who’s had to flee himself all his life,” said Rasmussen. It is “about looking for a place in the world where you can be who you are, with everything that entails, with your sexuality, with your past, and everything else.”

Amin spent years not daring to speak about his past and his secrets, building up walls that prevented him from opening up to others.

Now married, he is thrilled that animation allowed him to tell his story incognito, without everyone he meets having to know his personal traumas and his innermost secrets, the director said.

“Flee,” which won the Sundance festival’s jury prize, has been nominated for three Academy Awards: best international film, best documentary, and best animated feature.

Ironically, Denmark is known for its ultra-restrictive immigration policy, even if it has eased its curbs during the Ukraine crisis.

Rasmussen said he was surprised by the success of “Flee.”

A former radio documentary-maker, he has made several other films, but the success enjoyed by his Danish contemporaries Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg has thus far eluded him.

This is his international breakthrough.

“At the beginning … our criteria for success was going to be a national TV broadcast here (in Denmark). And then the project grew and grew and grew and all of a sudden here we are with three nominations for the Academy Awards,” Rasmussen said.

Source: Voice of America