Puddle of thoughts

The Buddha’s feet: art and ideas in a great age of pilgrimage.

2015-01-27T00:49:00.000-05:00

“We don’t think about pilgrimage in this country. … The idea of taking a six-week walk is totally foreign to most Americans. But it’s probably exactly what we need.” —Emelio Estevez.

Twitter essay: Invoking the master of planes to avenge boring nightmares

2014-08-13T02:13:00.000-04:00

Circle Limit III, M. C. Escher, 1959. Woodcut.

“The result of the struggle between the thought and the ability to express it, between dream and reality, is seldom more than a compromise or an approximation.” —Escher.

Where art leads: Syria’s extraordinary contemporary art goes global.

2014-08-05T00:42:00.001-04:00

“Engaged in the fate of their country as dissidents, witnesses, and cultural interventionists, Syrian artists have openly questioned the role of art at every turn, publicly discussing the ways in which form and representation can be used to communicate the consequent realities of war.” —Maymanah Farhat, “Syria’s Apex Generation” contemporary art exhibition.

Sand castles in the sand: playing with impermanence.

2014-07-27T14:15:00.001-04:00

“La Sagrada Familia.” © 2009 Funky Chickens. Rights: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. The nativity façade of the Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família bears a striking resemblance to sand castles built using the drip technique. Sagrada Família, as the Basílica is popularly known, was originally planned by Antoni Gaudí i Cornet in the late 1800s and has been under construction for well over a century.

“History is a child building a sand-castle by the sea, and that child is the whole majesty of man’s power in the world.” — attributed to Herakleitos of Ephesus, c. 500 B.C., known for his “panta rhei” philosophy of flow or transience.

Ghost music: the demaking of an invisible universe.

2014-06-30T03:40:00.002-04:00

When obsolete video games refuse to die, it can be argued that they become ghosts in the machine—as memes, they survive without material form.

Sometimes, ideas seem to develop lives of their own.

Latest pins: chiptunes, pixel art, the ghost in the machine, and why it’s too late to “move zig.” http://t.co/ugtdFzLSgw
— Desk of L. Riding (@leanneriding) June 26, 2014

Anyone know if this is by Space Invader? He/she is quite prolific around Shibuya! #streetart #8bit #tokyo #shibuya pic.twitter.com/blicC01dA4
— Tokyo Cheapo (@TokyoCheapo) June 24, 2014

Pondering the unsettling ghost in the machine.

Is it too late to “move zig?”

Further invasion of space.

Mario version of the world pic.twitter.com/Ku4UlILoXJ
— Arcade Sushi (@ArcadeSushi) August 9, 2014

#Ocean is busy. Read this #TBT #GeoZone blog so you won’t be a space invader http://t.co/KK5G4RiOdG #30DaysofOcean pic.twitter.com/ssSME6cjbN
— NOAA Digital Coast (@NOAADigCoast) June 26, 2014

That weird time two Twitter bots were talking, and Bank of America butted in http://t.co/b7LulTZPMC
— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) July 8, 2014

Google Street View cams tour museums and take accidental #selfies http://t.co/8H1LLipFTA #art #robots pic.twitter.com/R2dPngJ4He
— Luminato Festival (@Luminato) July 10, 2014

Bet you didn’t know you were doing a “demake,” though! OK maybe you did.

Mimicking digital arts practices through antiquated and analog textile processes: http://t.co/Cw5ZDF2phc pic.twitter.com/oGizcQthaC
— The Creators Project (@CreatorsProject) July 28, 2014

Social media performance: Artist, Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, retweeted.

2014-06-30T01:46:00.002-04:00

With the artist’s permission, on June 22 I performed a social media event featuring Michael Nicoll Yagulanaas, renowned for car-inspired art and for Haida Manga. As in a previous event, to preserve the artist’s voice and intentions, I retweeted the artist’s own tweets, and also added in youtube appearances. A display card was tweeted at intervals, for anyone who began observing somewhere near the middle. Following the retweet event, Yahgulanaas was available for some questions.

Gitga’at women install a symbolic blockade across the Douglas Channel—in crochet.

2014-06-29T23:34:00.001-04:00

In a traditional canoe, Gitga’at women protest the Northern Gateway by installing a blockade made of crochet across the Douglas Channel. Yarn activism is a familiar phenomenon in Canada, receiving a huge boost in 2009 after an influential book was published by authors Moore and Prain.

Outrageous art of the Japanese truck drivin’ maverick.

2014-06-07T14:37:00.002-04:00

“The whole world loves a maverick and the whole world wants the maverick to achieve something nobler than simple rebellion.” —Kevin Patterson.

Generative: the art that makes itself.

2014-06-07T12:50:00.000-04:00

“With a generative piece, you set a machine going and it makes itself…the act of listening is the act of composing.” —Brian Eno, describing generative music.

“I haven’t made a huge rabbit, I have made a smaller world.”

2014-06-06T12:47:00.000-04:00

“I haven’t made a huge rabbit, I have made a smaller world.” —Florentijn Hofman.

Social media performance: Artist, Christi Belcourt, retweeted.

2014-06-06T12:08:00.000-04:00

With the artist’s permission, on the evening of May 21 I performed a social media event featuring the art and practice of Christi Belcourt, artist and activist. To preserve the artist’s voice and intentions, I retweeted a large number of her own photo tweets chronologically. I also created a display card which I retweeted at intervals, to introduce the activity to anyone who started observing it somewhere near the middle. This surprise event was carried out over the course of an hour with no introductory or final statement to explain it—it simply “was.”

Bee crashes: trucks and hives.

2014-06-06T11:51:00.001-04:00

A brief history of bee truck accidents, and the reason why there are a lot of these in recent years.

Fritz Lang’s Metropolis: the story of a film as the story of a city.

2014-06-06T11:09:00.000-04:00

“To walk through the ruined cities of Germany is to feel an actual doubt about the continuity of civilization.” —George Orwell.

Fibre Arts, craftivism, and the horrendously adorable macramé owl.

2014-06-06T06:54:00.002-04:00

“Craft bloggers and enthusiasts attend the Craftivist launch night at Mary's Living and Giving shop in Primrose Hill on 16th October 2012 - World Food Day.” ©2012 craftivist collective. License: CC BY 2.0.

“Anybody caught selling macrame in public should be dyed a natural color and hung out to dry.” —Calvin Trillin.

A story in pins: “Snowglobe Jailbreak.”

2014-06-06T05:12:00.000-04:00

“…make miniature / Valhalla of my heart.” —Gwendolyn Brooks.

Monuments, memory and the new museums: Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

2014-06-06T04:05:00.000-04:00

“Without memory we cease to be human beings.” —Ivan Klima in Lahti, Finland, 1990.

Claude Monet and the science of not-seeing.

2014-06-05T18:20:00.000-04:00

Schäffer’s principal colors from 1769, suggests extra significance for red, yellow and blue. Source: S. Lowengard and National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

“Monet is only an eye, but my God, what an eye.” —Paul Cezanne.

Auto-debris: monumental recycling of wrecks.

2014-06-05T13:24:00.000-04:00

“I think that cars today are almost the exact equivalent of the great Gothic cathedrals…” —Roland Barthes.

Subterranean humans: the strangely spiritual art of inhabiting underground spaces.

2014-06-05T11:31:00.000-04:00

”…I believe the Magdalenians thought exactly as we do today.” —John Robinson.

Las magnolias iracundas: murals of San Francisco’s Mujeres Muralistas.

2014-06-05T10:06:00.000-04:00

“We represented a new generation of muralists depicting our own reality at that present moment of time, exploring new ideas and new styles, and speaking about the Latinas who lived in the Mission District.”

Insect photography: Teeny tiny observations.

2014-06-04T14:24:00.000-04:00

Photography of insects draws attention to minute details of life, revealing fascinating beauty in creatures that many of us shudder away from.

Contrast, dynamics, and the vibrant “space between.”

2014-06-04T13:26:00.000-04:00

Is self-expression about creating things, or about creating the space between things?

Collage art origins: the Dada knife of Hannah Höch.

2014-06-04T12:45:00.001-04:00

Hannah Höch, Schnitt mit dem Küchenmesser DADA durch die letzte weimarer Bierbauchkulturepoche Deutschland, 1919. Image source: Wikimedia Commons.

A popular technique among “zine” publishers, contemporary collage art owes a great debt to the Dada art movement and a fascinating rebel on its fringe—ground-breaking artist Hannah Höch.

“Everything starts from a dot.” —Wassily Kandinsky.

2014-06-04T11:14:00.002-04:00

Wassily Kandinsky, Composition VII, 1913. Image source: Wikimedia Commons.

In the continuum of art, there have been many influencers who have profoundly impacted all contemporary artworks existing today. One such influencer was Wassily Kandinsky, the great Russian painter and Bauhaus teacher.

Bunraku: the invisible storyteller

2014-04-12T01:10:00.003-04:00

“In most of the world's puppet theatres, great pains have been taken to hide the manipulation of the puppeteers from the audience. … But in Bunraku, the manipulators appear openly, in full view of the audience.” — “What is Bunraku?” Japan Arts Council.