A round of apologies to anyone who may have been waiting for the next morsel of internet packaged as a single serving here on zk. I am busy, and plan to be so for the next few weeks. To hold your interest until then, I will provide you with this, the second most frequently asked question of Brigham Young University’s Honor Code:
Q: What is the process for obtaining a beard exception?
A: The process is silly.
I’ve decided to read three books at the same time, so we’ll see how that goes. Starting this week:
1. Free Culture (Lawrence Lessig). Available for free under a creative commons license at www.free-culture.cc/.
2. Gifts of the Muse : Reframing the Debate about the Benefits of the Arts. Available for free from RAND Corporation.
3. Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring the Science of Flavor (Hervé This). Partially available from Google Books.
Notes forthcoming.
Last night I read a chapter of Creativity: flow and the psychology of discovery and invention (Mihály Csíkszentmihályi (yes)), and may pick that one up as well.
In the arts, the attraction is more to the centers of distribution, now primarily New York City, where the major galleries and collectors are located. Just as a century ago aspiring young artists felt they had to go to Paris if they wanted to be recognized, now they feel that unless they run the gauntlet of Manhattan they don’t have a chance. One can paint beautiful pictures in Alabama or North Dakota, but they are likely to be misplaced, ignored, and forgotten unless they get the stamp of approval of critics, collectors, and other gatekeepers of the field.
That was published in 1996. I’d be interested to know how true it is anymore. Though it certainly makes a huge difference to be in physical proximity to an artistic community, the internet has certainly changed the dynamics of what “physical proximity” means. Right, Internet?
Wikipedia took the idea of peer review and applied it to volunteers on a global scale, becoming the most important English reference work in less than 10 years. Yet the cumulative time devoted to creating Wikipedia, something like 100 million hours of human thought, is expended by Americans every weekend, just watching ads. It only takes a fractional shift in the direction of participation to create remarkable new educational resources.
From a WSJ article on whether the internet (what you are doing right now) makes you more smartful or not smarter. I generally dislike comparisons of the “it would take 18 million 12-inch squid to fill the basement of the Empire State Building” variety, but this makes an excellent point (I also like the idea of a “cognitive surplus”).
Important news from the field of the Evolution of Cooperation:
Researchers find that carrion crows’ social networks (not Beakfacebook) conspire to help each other when one of their own is disabled. Interesting results:
1. Typically the laziest, non-breeding crows are most likely to assist a disabled parent in the feeding of their offspring
2. The helpers are predisposed to caring for their relatives chicks.
3. Individuals seem to be pressured into action by the behavior of other members of their group.
4. Scientists can be obdurate! Based on personal experience (having had a bird chase me around the house), birds enjoy flying. Clipping their wings, even if they grow back, may have unintended psychological consequences, or worse, revenge! – For which crows have an unmitigated glee (watch around 4:24).
The abstract is here.
Check your local library for the full article.
Link to Nature article.
This:
Insert into a food processor (small):
-1/4 – 1/2 cup unsalted pistachios, less their husks
-An adult human’s handful of basil leaves
-An adult human’s handful of your favorite -cress. I used water-.
-Ground black pepper
-An adult monkey’s pinch of salt
-Two or three cloves of garlic. The garlic will remain mostly raw; use caution.
-1/4 cup oil from olives, or from a bottle of olive oil.
-1/4 cup grated parmesan
Process.
Boil your pasta as per usual, but with plenty of salt. I used campanelle. In the last few minutes of boiling, add a few ounces of chopped sun-dried tomatoes.
Meanwhile, you should have been doing this: saute in olive oil the chopped half of a small white onion. Cook until just brown, then add one or two chopped scallions. Cook for another minute, switch off the gas, and add the pistachio mixture you will have had made earlier. Mush it around with a wooden spoon, and add a few tablespoons of boiling pasta water until it reaches the consistency of thin paste. Combine this with the pasta and tomatoes. Garnish with style.
Notes: I made this with whatever I found in my kitchen. Had I planned it, I probably would add more basil, maybe some arugula, and grape tomatoes. As it is, it has a pleasant richness and is quite delicious, but doesn’t quite say ‘pistachio’ with enough conviction. I’ll look for a way to bring out that flavor (more pistachio, maybe). I have no pictures, because it is already gone.
In the Winter 2010 issue of The International Journal of Arts Management, Stephen B. Preece reports on a collaboration between Aeroplan, a frequent-flyer rewards company, and the Toronto-based Tapestry New Opera.
From the abstract:
The relationship began as a traditional sponsorship and evolved into a mutually beneficial collaboration that has taken both organizations in unexpected directions. The marketing team at Aeroplan participated in the development of a poster commemorating the 25th anniversary of Tapestry’s founding. Later, Tapestry played a central role in the development and execution of an Aeroplan management gathering at a crucial moment in the corporation’s history. The author discusses issues surrounding this kind of relationship, including partnership evolution, organizational chemistry, instrumentalism, risk-taking and transferability to other arts organizations.
Apologies that I can’t post the entire article (check your local library!). It is available here for purchase. Below are some key points.
Aeroplan executives met with members of Tapestry to develop a creative corporate retreat, during which employees were asked to write short vignettes about their significant moments with the company:
The organizers collected these vignettes in advance to be used as material for day two. As people arrived in the morning, they were assigned to one of twenty tables around which nine of their colleagues would also be seated… On each table lay a packet containing a written story idea (selected from among the Aeroplan Moment submissions), sheet music for five popular songs, and plenty of paper, pens, markers and other office supplies. The assignment was to create and perform an opera. The story and dialogue would be developed around the vignette provided; the popular songs would serve as melody for the lyrics (libretto) to be created. The exercise would culminate in the group’s performing its work – singing and all – for the assembled crowd.
The next day, Tapestry artists did the same with a vignette about a well-liked colleague who had recently died. The result was both cathartic and revealing for Aeroplan: since each of them had just completed and shared their own small operas, their attention and emotional involvement in the final performance was absolute. The healing it provided was indescribibly substantial.
Though this is probably not a new idea, I have never heard of an arts organization that engages their sponsors on this level. Instead of presenting their craft to an audience, they encouraged them to participate in the process of discovery. Tapestry’s benefit was substantial in kind:
Be who you are, it’s a mistake to do something you’re not. In the arts we’re used to trying to turn on a dime every which way to Sunday in order to turn ourselves into what we think the person on the other side wants us to be, and I think the thing that’s so refreshing about our collaboration [with Aeroplan] is that we looked at what we do, how we do it, and used that as the way to have the conversation. (Tapestry)
Fab@Home is a 3d printer capable of producing objects out of any material you can push through a syringe, including food, PlayDoh, and Koba UVG-1, an acrylic that has been used to create chainrings.
I can imagine that these machines will eventually be the end of mass production, or at least the start of a self-manufacturing or fix-it culture. The cost is not exorbitant (especially for a relatively young technology), the plans are totally open-source, and the machines are relatively easy to build. This could do to manufacturing what the internet did for publishing: democratic access to rapid, precise fabrication. It also cuts down on shipping and waste, in that parts are produced as needed in the location for which they are intended. Uninvited guests? Print up some extra chairs! Unexpected injury? New kneecap! Unpalatable food? At least you can make it nerdier.
Cornell’s Computational Synthesis Lab was awarded a MacArthur Grant for work on the project:
MacArthur grant allows schoolchildren to print 3-D models
John Stuart Mill from Principles of Political Economy:
I cannot…regard the stationary state of capital and wealth with the unaffected aversion so generally manifested towards it by political economist of the old school. I am inclined to believe that it would be, on the whole, a very considerable improvement on our present condition. I confess I am not charmed with the ideal of life held out by those who think that the normal state of human beings is that of struggling to get on; that the trampling, crushing, elbowing, and treading on each other’s heels which forms the existing type of social life, are the most desirable lot of human kind.
I’ve been doing a bit of digging on this subject, which has apparently gained a bit of (probably reactionary) traction recently. The idea is that economic growth is fantastic in the developing world. It is the fastest way to improve quality of life and standard of living, to a point. However, at a certain point, when the standard of living is high, growth tends to fuel the accumulation of wealth rather than effecting positive change in the way the economy works. An extra $100,000 is not going to change the standard of living in the slightest for someone making a million per year. The problem is we really want that extra $100,000, and to get it, we push the ecological limit of what the earth can actually produce for us. Giant public works project like Three Gorges not only destroy large sections of the earth, but also displace entire communities so that other, richer people can make more money.
That’s the limiting factor: eventually, even renewable resources run out if we consume them faster than they can be produced, and with uninhibited population growth, despite advances in plant genetics and sustainable technologies, it is inevitable. More importantly, we can’t pollute the environment at a rate faster than that with which it can heal itself. Though I would love to, I haven’t heard any compelling plan for reducing population growth, other than to let it happen naturally. Several wealthy countries, including Germany and Japan, are already shrinking:
So what can we do? Things I think we should encourage to lessen our dependence on rampant consumerism as a driver of happiness:
1. Technological innovation that reduces the growth burden on the environment.
2. Though I don’t believe government changes will happen before social ones, eliminate subsidies that make oil, corn, and meat artificially cheap and move them to sustainable farms dedicated to their local populations.
3. The average work week dropped steadily from 1850 to 1940 with no detriment to growth. But as long as we are eliminating growth, why not cut more hours? Spend extra time on personal development and community involvement.
4. Promote arts and education, or what some call “creative capital.” It’s far more enjoyable to spend a day in the shop making something useless than it is to spend a day at the mall buying it.
4a. I’m also grouping “teach people to cook” under arts education, because I want to.
4b. I realize that not everyone can be artfully productive. Open-source [beer/architecture/software/furniture/paint-by-numbers] saves the day! Use libraries and the internet to spread ideas, the copying of which is free, and the value of which is assumed in each copy.
Total cost: $10, 2 olfa blades, and 30 minutes. As far as Google knows, this has never before been done.
And not because I am cheap:
Free Public Transit
For New York:
(Partly) Free public transit and traffic plan
For the rest of the world:
A collection of links and articles about proposals, studies, and places where they have actually done this.
Slow Money is an organization dedicated to promoting the consumption of locally-grown foods. I particularly like these of their principles:
III. The 20th Century was the era of Buy Low/Sell High and Wealth Now/Philanthropy Later—what one venture capitalist called “the largest legal accumulation of wealth in history.” The 21st Century will be the era of nurture capital, built around principles of carrying capacity, care of the commons, sense of place and non-violence.
IV. We must learn to invest as if food, farms and fertility mattered. We must connect investors to the places where they live, creating vital relationships and new sources of capital for small food enterprises.
It’s really nice to see a national movement encouraging this, especially when it seems to be picking up steam as this one is.
www.compositionwithjavascript.com/ is an editable version of Piet Mondrian’s Composition with Yellow, Red, Black, Blue and Grey.
Says the artist:
I used similarity among Mondrian grid structures and tabular web interface to make this project which aims to represent the relationship between modernity and postmodernity (or rather the way in which we as people living in postmodern epoch treat the art of modernism) and main cultural shifts concerned: from distance between artist and public to participation, from finished work to ongoing process, from purpose to play, from creation, totalization to deconstruction, from metaphysics to irony and so on.
Oh. Not that it’s inapt, but I sort of wish I hadn’t read that. And now you might as well.
A plate from a series on the meanderings of the Mississippi River by Harold N. Fiske, 1944:
I have not yet determined how I will be inspired by this (graphically). This is some of the best unintentional art I have ever seen. Go Scientists!
I dig this:
The geographical inaccuracy has an official explanation:
This map from Paramount Studios, produced in 1927, showed investors where movies could shoot, instead of going to the actual places.
But I think they’re just cheap. Though it is a fantastic reminder of the ecological diversity of California..
Dr. Cyborg Mark Gasson has the unique ability to infect other non-human devices using his hand. What what!
There are not enough songs of this quality written these days:
By Kristian Matsson, a.k.a. the Tallest Man on Earth.
Dan Barber seems to have a knack for locating the greenest farms in Europe. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they all seem to have two things in common – they are controlled far more by nature than by humans, and their produce is delicious. Also, their environments are actually improved by their existence.
Foie Gras:
Fish:
These sound all too familiar to me.
Modes of rejection:
SOMEONE ALREADY DID IT:
I abandoned this project after discovering that an artist had already done a much better version of this idea. In her piece, she had actually become a mail-order bride.
MISUNDERSTANDING:
I recently included it in an installation for a school critique, but due to its awkward juxtaposition with other works on canvas, my fellow students perceived it as an ‘afterthought.’
PROJECT ABANDONMENT:
Just a month ago we dragged it from beneath a tree and painted it pink. And there it sits.
INSUFFICIENT FUNDS:
A dream I once had: Knitting hundreds of giant sweaters for houses in a vast suburban community. After piecing together the budget, materials, and assistance, I found my meager funds would not cover such a creation.
Note: this is a fantastic idea. Somebody fund this.
DESTROYED BY PHILISTINES:
Upon my return, my father promptly wrinkled it.
Quotes from severalpursuits.org
JR: Women (Brazil).
Morro da Providencia is a favela in the center of Rio de Janeiro and is home to around 5000- relatively small, compared to some in Rio that hold hundreds of thousands. Discontent with subsistence farming, most of the families move to the city with no assets and attempt to work their way out of poverty. The favelas have developed economies independent of Rio’s, but they also attract violent crime and narcotics trafficking.
JR’s intervention pastes the eyes and faces of the favela’s residents onto their own homes, establishing a social connection between the hillside shanty town and the more affluent city. One generally does not visit a favela, and its residences do not work in the city. I can only guess at the shock of the surrounding neighborhoods to suddenly be presented with a re-humanizing reminder that these are the people building their society up from the ground. This is what public art should be. It is confrontational but not accusatory, and it legitimizes a community that is politically, socially, and economically repressed.
JR, who remains anonymous (much of his work is illegal graffiti), has done similar projects in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, which can be seen at his website, jr-art.net.
Linked below is a 26-page recipe for “MILITARY SPECIFICATION COOKIES, OATMEAL; AND BROWNIES; COCOLATE COVERED.” Thanks, Department of Defense! This sounds delicious and handy.
3.2.9 Dextrose. Dextrose shall be anhydrous or dextrose hydrate.
All I can say is THANK GOD. There are far too many chocolate brownie recipes using an aqueous dextrose solution.
NPR’s Guy Raz reports, “they’re awful.”
I thought nothing could top this headline, until I saw the picture.
… on Amazon.com:
Highlights from “Customers who viewed this item also viewed”:
All perfect accoutrements for mallemaroking.
Mustachioed synesthetic composer Alexander Scriabin, famous for writing frustration in the guise of [amazing] music, decorates his scores with colorful language that defies interpretation. His fifth sonata contains some of my favorite baffling notation, AS FOLLOWS:
1. BEFORE THE PIECE BEGINS: We are greeted with this, (in French):
2. ALSO BEFORE:
3.
MEASURE 34: Accarezzevole. “Fawningly.” I have only ever heard this word (in any language) from Scriabin.
4. MEASURE 401: “Like you are super drunk.”
5. MEASURE 439: The footnote is: “* This note may be omitted in case of absolute necessity.” This is the only such kindness afforded the misadventuring pianist – in a piece, which, on average, contains A THOUSAND NOTES PER MEASURE.
This ‘BLOG is brand new. I have a huge backlog of things to post, which will be up in the next several weeks. You may ignore most of what is here.
Except this:
From TED:
Craig Venter and team make a historic announcement: they’ve created the first fully functioning, reproducing cell controlled by synthetic DNA. He explains how they did it and why the achievement marks the beginning of a new era for science.
adventures a quality song art biology books business buy this California Causes creative capital creature cyborg design did I just jump to a parallel universe economy empathy fabrication food food-like free as in beer gently radioactive graphic design Hamelin invertebrates map misadventures music mustachioed piano public art recipe rejection revenge shoe sustainability TED
