A couple of them in this post on a blog I just discovered (in the Columbus, was-already-there sense), The China Beat. Particularly cool are the piece on Li Wei at 1000 Words and Virtual Shanghai. Plus why Jonathan Spence absolutely, totally rocks like a motherf*cker. (More here.) Listen to Spence’s Reith lectures here… even if you do skip the long (and iffy) question periods. Or download the MP3s (from links listed) here. I’m listening to lecture #1 now — which is about Confucianism, by the way, and thus of interest to all you Korea-watchers — and the big question is: …
Tag: art
No Art Ever Came From Such a Dulled Soul
A few weeks ago, Lime and I had argued about something — one of those dumb, petty, transient arguments that all couples have — and I went for a walk to cool off. As I walked along the street, I saw something awful happen. There was a thin black cat on the sidewalk, coming towards me, and it was so skinny that it reminded me of that poem of Basho’s about the girl cat, so thin on love and barley. Except that this cat wasn’t beloved, wasn’t fed on barley. It was so thin on rats and garbage, poor thing. …
Things For Looking
Via the flea king, a funky video on the inner lives of cells. (Though I’d love to see an annotated version.) And via Ellen Datlow, very cool book art. (I like it, anyway. Lime’s not impressed.)
They Didn’t React As Expected
In this fascinating piece titled Pearls Before Breakfast is discussed an experiment conducted by the Washington post regarding how people perceive music in public spaces. What happens when one of the best classical musicians in America puts on a baseball cap and goes busking in Washington, D.C.? The article raises some really interesting questions about American culture, about art, about contexts for art. It brings to mind a question that’s been bugging me: is the blog a good context for writing to be presented? I’m beginning to think it isn’t.
Stanley’s Slides
Great photoset on flicker: someone scanning her grandpa Stanley’s slides. Wonderful, and again, revelatory of the mystery of other peoples’ lives.
Space Art Gallery at Solar Voyager!
There’s a Space Art Gallery that might appeal to some of my readers. Also pointed out on a mailing list.
Oddunout: On the pain and pleasure of creating
In Laura’s post Oddunout: On the pain and pleasure of creating, I found something quite interesting. She discussed the offensiveness to her of sneakily using others’ creative works within her own works: So I had this conversation with the Dutch about the picture I was/am working on, and I was saying how I’d already spent like 20 hours on it, and I still didn’t have the map the way I wanted it to be. Being a programmer (or whatever it is he does, exactly), he suggested I could find a map I liked and just steal it for my own …
Elites, Expertise, and Aesthetics… and more
I’ve finally posted a response in the ongoing discussion Marvin and I are having about elites, rules and play, and aesthetics over at The New Sophists’ Almanac. Damn, I should post there more often, I kept him waiting a long time, and I think I even clarified a few questions I’ve been puzzling over about other things. If you have comments about the new post, please post them there. Really, all in all, it’s be going back to asking whether we can in any way acknowledge expertise on the part of connoisseurs, and whether ignorant reactions to art (or anything …
On Korea’s Pin-Up Girl Culture and One Artist’s Take On It
Of all the works of art I saw at the Kwangju Biennale, and all the names of artists and works that I scribbled into my notebook, only one has come up at all on my internet searching: a work called “The Pin-up Girl Project”, or, in Korean, “Pin-up girl 되기” (Becoming a Pin-up girl”. I’m feeding these photos from a news article on Naver.com because, seeing as this is a work of art by someone who assumably cares what is done with her images, I’m not going to copy them and provide them on my own page. (Unless Naver asks …
Lazy Eyes and Great Art