When you illegally write stuff on walls, you generally have to distill it down to just the basics. Get your point across. (get it up quickly!) Or, put up some random bullshit, barely legible, waste spraypaint. Take your pick. This site has them all, fortunately much more of the former.
Just a random posting: one of my favorite physical/installation artists, Ernesto Neto, a Brazilian whose work I first encountered at the Venice biennial in 2001.
Stanford has an online (and downloadable) photo exhibit about damage to the campus from the 1906 earthquake.
A cartoon comes to life: somebody took the intro to the Simpsons and duplicated it with real life people and scenery. Very cool.
An interesting Dutch person who makes replicas of electronic devices and other precision electromechanical things.
Great 3 minute time-lapse video of a cross-country drive in a convertible set to some decent techno. Something like a music video. Love the rain and roof raising, and the breakdown and mechanic parts.
Since Grand Central Station will loom large in my life this year, let me start off with a beginning of the year blog entry about a cool time lapse video from inside the station.
Some electronics, a five foot tall Santa bought at Wal-Mart, and a twisted sense of holiday humor combined in the best possible way.
I came across this graphic in an article on genetic research in population distribution in Iceland for some research I am doing be in (of all things) transportation. If you are a fan of Edward Tufte, this is for you:
The colors on the top left show the genes of the original settlers in the counties of Iceland. The color wheels in the subsequent maps show the mixing of genes as the population moves around and inter-breeds. No text necessary, just an elegant way to show a complex idea.
David Byrne has a sound installation currently in Stockholm, Sweden, called "Playing The Building." An organ console is attached to the various structural and other elements of the interior of a building which are used to make the sound.
Should the Freedom Center building that they are planning for Ground Zero now be called the non-Freedom Center? The International Freedom Center and the Drawing Center are both gone from the building because they apparently are not "patriotic enough for some political officials or some of the ridiculously shrill 9/11 families. So now we have a great Norwegian architecture firm designing a building that will be filled with some bland Disney-like patriotic display? Even more shopping? How about more life-affirming empty space?
Whether or not you subscribe to the theory that Islamic terrorists dislike us in part because of the freedoms that our society allows, these freedoms - one of the most important being the ability to speak ones mind about politics and criticize the government - are what make us the great country we are. It is sad to see the heavy censorship of the proposed cultural programming at Ground Zero. One would like to think that this country honors itself through great free thinking art and architecture - not through propaganda like one sees in communist and fascist countries.
Update: this article from The Guardian newspaper in London gives a great view on the purpose and usefulness of art in trying times:
Three points. One, why caution? Why not brave iconoclasm? In the wake of 7/7, London does not need art to tiptoe around the imagined sensibilities of those possibly affronted by [the art]. We need to swagger, not crawl. Otherwise art becomes decadently decorative, the 21st-century equivalent of Nero fiddling while Rome burns.
ourmedia has a trailer for an interesting looking documentary called Alternative Freedom, about digital media rights.
Douglas Coupland has an exhibition in Montreal on building with Legos and Super City building sets. He wrote briefly about Legoland and is pictured in it on the cover of microserfs.
Photography I like: Scott Peterman
I have not heard much about it, so it seems that the MTA did not ban photography in the subways - at least the rules say it is still okay. Which is good, because it lets this guy take beautiful photographs on his way to work.
Down and dirty living room chairs. Probably not the best thing for your office, unless you're john. EatPES Short Film - Roof Sex (from Apartment Therapy).
The Gates opened the this Saturday morning in Central Park, my fiance and I went out to see the unraveling of some of the Gates. I don't think I have ever seen so many people in the park at 8:30 AM on a Saturday morning. On many levels, Christo and the Jean Claude have triumphed again, it is an absolutely beautiful transformation of an already wonderful outdoor spaces. In just the first couple hours alone, you could plainly see the power of public art to enliven and transform, as every one was smiling and talking and discovering the new and the old beauty of Central Park.
People are visiting from all over the world just to see this installation. We met a couple from Belgium having breakfast after our walk through the park, and we have a couple friends coming in from California just to see this. The New York City Police Department has even deployed their multilingual officers in the park for the next couple weeks to assist with all the visitors. Mayor Mike is quite proud of this event, and he definitely should be.
On the eve of the unveiling of the Gates Project, every one at the New York City Parks Department must be all smiles (and very busy). The Parks Department web site has a great multimedia presentation called the Bronx River Virtual Tour, with highlights of various parks and sights along the Bronx River.
I am not exactly sure of the details, since I do not read Japanese, but this site has the most beautiful and dynamic interface I have seen in a while: fotologue.jp
Former US poet laureate Robert Pinsky celebrates the pixel's 50th birthday with an ode to the digitization of our visual experience.
ALF is back
The Way The Music Died is a good hour long documentary in four parts about how the music industry changed from being about music to being about money and marketing. It is based heavily on the few points of a few artists: David Crosby, the band Velvet Revolver, and Sarah Hudson. Produced by PBS/WGBH/Frontline.
a cool new blog of New York photography: overshadowed
I guess this is what you do if you are rich, Chinese, live in Texas and feel like leaving a mark in the landscape. Texas' Little-Known 'Forbidden City'
Beautiful photorealistic painting by