Manhattan Timeformations

This is one of the coolest websites/art projects I've seen in a while:

http://skyscraper.org/timeformations/intro.html


The idea is that people think computer animation will allow them to experience the city in a new way and understand it deeper than they could in real life. The creator depicts civic layers of geologic formation, settlement patterns, communications infrastructure, and transportation among other things. On the very last page you can travel through a digital rendition of New York City. Beware though: it might make you a little dizzy.

Porta Portese

Porta Portese is a HUGE weekly street market in Rome. I took a couple good pictures that really capture the sheer absurdity of what people sell.

Jason de Caires

A 1998 Camberwell College of Arts graduate, de Caires has created the world's first underwater sculpture park in Grenada, West Indies. Through these underwater sculptures he utilizes the environment to sustain his art, and his art to sustain the environment. He hopes that his work will draw attention to environmental issues, including but not limited to the coral reefs he assists with his sculptures.

There are many unique elements about his work due to its placement under water. First, because the sculptures attract the growth of reefs and marine life, the art changes every day. Also, the entire experience of the art is changed by having the perspective of being underwater; the way people interact with art in an ocean environment is obviously different from experiencing art on land.

The image above is of his work, Vicissitudes. The sculptures are of ethnically diverse children all holding hands and staying upright even again strong currents. The interconnected change that occurs on the sculptures because of the environment and on the environment because of the sculptures mimics the process of growing up. According to www.underwatersculpture.com, "the sculpture proposes growth, chance, and natural transformation. It shows how time and environment impact on and shape the physical body".

Six Word Memoirs

Kind of a new Post Secret, people are asked to describe their life in six words. There's a cool NPR segment on it.

Never really finished anything. Except cake. -- Carletta Perkins

Changing mind postponed demise by decades. -- Scott O'Neil

He wore dresses. This caused messes. -- Josh Kilmer-Purcell

I still make coffee for two. -- Zak Nelson

Topless dancer, circus clown. Spy. Writer. -- Susan DiRende

Yes, you can edit my biography. -- Jimmy Wales

Wasn't noticed so I painted trains. -- Mare 139

From Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure in Smith Magazine edited by Rachel Fershleiser and Larry Smith, 2008

Tattoos

Tattoos are seen as a pretty modern thing. Well, either modern or related to small, indigenous villages in African and South America. The oldest tattoo was found on a 5300-year-old mummy, Oetzi, who was frozen in the Alps between Italy and Austria. He has tons of tattoos of horizontal and vertical lines all over his body. Nobody knows exactly why they are there.

The first permanent tattoo shop in New York City was established in 1846. Most tattoos were adorned on military men who served in the civil war. From there, tattoos gained popularity within circuses. Circus-goers loved to see the freaks covered in tattoos.

According to the 2006 Pew Research Center's phone survey, 36% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 25 were tattooed, as were 40% of peopled aged 26-40 and 10% of people aged 41-64. In 2008, Harris Interactive estimated that 14% of all adults in the US are tattooed.

Textsfromlastnight.com

(417): He has such a weird drunk-voice.
(1-417): dude, he's deaf.

(810): So would u like to explain why you ate all my pickels and took my 1800?
(1-810): About that, i have your 1800 on my desk with intentions of returning it but theres nothing i can do about the pickels

Basquiat

Basquiat is my favorite artist. He was a young, homeless, reckless artist in the New York City 80s. His work expresses his tensions with his personal identity as reflected through his understanding of NYC. It is somewhere between fine art and graffiti. Even more interesting than his art is his life story. He dated Madonna, struck up a close friendship with Andy Warhol, and became swept up in the chaos of being The New Cool Thing in the city's art scene. His life and art truly encompasses a specific era of New York City, and fits into the history of modern art.