Art from pain

I have to admit that I have a bit of the old PTSD from my hospital experiences, but I was intrigued by this multi-artist project.

At Colossal: In Los Angeles, 70 artists transform a vacant hospital into a sprawling art experience.

What we were doing was rooted in that specific moment, but looking back, it also seems to resonate strongly with the present—particularly in terms of how we understand media, perception, and reality itself. This is something I’ve been thinking about again recently, especially with the renewed activity around Cabaret Voltaire. It brings into focus the extent to which earlier work now reads almost as a form of prefiguration. At the time, though, much of it was intuitive. We didn’t necessarily have a fully formed theoretical framework for what we were doing—we were artists, and we were working instinctively. It’s really only in retrospect that some of those ideas begin to take on a clearer shape and meaning.

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Exonym Atlas

An exonym is a place name used by outsiders—for example, English speakers using Germany for Deutschland. The Exonym Atlas explores how other languages name countries and groups those names by usage. Fascinating to see the derivations of names, which don’t always follow language families: for example, the Latin Germania gets picked up by English, Greek, Italian and Russian, variants on Allemagne (French) turn up in Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic, and the Slavic-in-origin Niemcy (Polish) gets picked up by Hungarian but not Russian or Bulgarian.

via MapRoom

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from this green earth

 

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Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop

Statue of a Danish author Hans Christian Andersen
Artist: Jens Galschiøt
Location: Submerged in the harbor of Odense, the author’s birthplace. Odense harbor, Denmark.

“Never stop reading.”

It is part of an art installation that uses the rising and falling tides of the harbour to change how much of the statue is visible, symbolizing the author’s legacy and the timeless nature of stories.

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Current Rothko

I’m a big fan, so I love Current Rothko  which shows you a Rothko painting selected based on the current weather outside your location.

The site’s collection of 89 paintings are “each tagged with a color register, temperature, and mood so the search engine can match it to your moment, no matter where you are in the world.”

 

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“Shut up, Ghost of Karl Marx.”

“Shut up, Ghost of Karl Marx.”
https://static.existentialcomics.com/comics/TechBrosUtopia.png

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This will not spare you tears

Once upon a time, Paco Pomet

* * * *

“You must, in order that it shall speak to you, take a thing during a certain time as the only one that exists, as the only phenomenon which through your diligent and exclusive love finds itself set down in the center of the universe and which in this incomparable place on that day the angels serve. This will not spare you tears, but will contribute to giving all your tears a meaning clearer and, so to speak, more transparent.”

~ Rilke

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We must not let the system control us

“If there is a hard, high wall and an egg that breaks against it, no matter how right the wall or how wrong the egg, I will stand on the side of the egg. Why? Because each of us is an egg, a unique soul enclosed in a fragile egg. Each of us is confronting a high wall. The high wall is the system which forces us to do the things we would not ordinarily see fit to do as individuals … We are all human beings, individuals, fragile eggs. We have no hope against the wall: it’s too high, too dark, too cold. To fight the wall, we must join our souls together for warmth, strength. We must not let the system control us — create who we are. It is we who created the system.”

― Haruki Murakami

 

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Best Novel of All Time

In the Guardian, Tom Gauld’s cartoon “on Middlemarch being voted the best novel of all time.”

 

 

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Iceland Centenary

I don’t usually promote commercial products at TBTP, however, I’m making an exception today.100 People: is a clever ad campaign for the Icelandic clothing brand 66 North celebrating its centenary this year. The brand did a photoshoot and accompanying ad campaign, with the following gimmick: “This year marks the 100th anniversary of 66°North. To celebrate, we’re highlighting the people who have shaped our brand. Following an open casting call, we spent the past year travelling across Iceland to meet and photograph each participant in person. We met 100 individuals born between 1926 and today, creating a living timeline of our community. Each participant is photographed wearing their own 66°North garment, where it is worn across generations. The final series brings together a cross-section of Icelandic society, including fishermen, farmers, doctors, musicians, athletes, and more. We’re grateful to be part of everyday life in Iceland and look forward to the next 100 years.”

I’ve been a fan of 66°North since my first visit to Iceland almost 46 years ago. Over the years, and many visits to Iceland, I’ve purchased many bits of 66°North kit. At the moment, my only remaining items are a battered decades-old cap (see up top) and a well-worn t-shirt somewhere in my closet. Icelanders are fond of telling visitors that there’s no bad weather, just the wrong gear. Almost any time of the year, you’ll find the locals wearing the famous lopapeysa sweaters and some item from 66°North.

 

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