Amorous Musings

I’m extremely excited about this new project from Jonathan Harris.

Check it out - the interviews are INCREDIBLE!

Detail:

The Sputnik Observatory ( http://sptnk.org )

It’s the result of a two-year collaboration with New York-based Sputnik, Inc., an organization that documents contemporary culture through intimate video interviews with hundreds of leading thinkers in the arts, sciences and technology, covering a wide range of topics.

The central premise of the Sputnik project is that everything is connected to everything else, and that topics and ideas that may seem fringe and even heretical to the mainstream world are in fact being investigated by leading thinkers working in fields as diverse as quantum physics, mathematics, neuroscience, biology, economics, architecture, digital art, video games, computer science and music. Sputnik is dedicated to bringing these crucial ideas from the fringes of thought out into the limelight, so that the world can begin to understand them.

Conducted over more than ten years and previously unavailable to the public, the interviews within the site chronicle some of the most provocative human ideas to have emerged in the last few decades. The site itself aims to highlight the interconnections between seemingly disparate thinkers and ideas, using a simple navigational system with no dead ends, where every thought leads to another thought, akin to swimming the stream of consciousness.

There are about 200 videos on the site today, and there will be thousands more added over the coming weeks, months, and years.

Love reading about all the creative ways that Yinka Shonibare’s works are being used and installed around the world. I first saw his work as part of the Turner Prize exhibition at Tate Britain in 2004.

It was part costume display, part choreographed dance, and I adored it.

My next “run in” with Shonibare work was at the National Gallery where he had two smaller installations after the re-opening of the main entrance that dealt his classic themes of colonialism and bi-cultural imagery.

THEN, Wellesley’s Davis Museum purchased one of his fantastic works for our permanent collection.

To hear that Shonibare’s work is being shown in situ with the Brooklyn Art Museum’s period rooms is extremely exciting. From a museum’s stand point it probably increases foot traffic to some of the less appreciated rooms and also brings a heightened experience of Shonibare’s work than if it were just shown in a more “white cube” space.

Win - win.

Interesting Saturday morning read here.

This article discusses the process by which American art is acquired and commissioned for embassies, consulates, and other American outposts abroad. It states that this art can act as another arm of American influence and understanding abroad (mentioned in the same breath as our cinema and television and music).

I wonder if the true goal of this program - exposure to American culture - is achieved by placing the art in buildings that aren’t often reached by a majority of foreign country’s citizens…. seems a bit beyond the golden gates to me.

I’m a HUGE advocate of cultural diplomacy - the “soft diplomacy” of state sponsored concerts, tours, art exhibitions, etc. The key is that these must be able to be consumed by a mass portion of the country the work is being performed/displayed.

As an American, I don’t get exposure to foreign artists by visiting the embassies of their home countries - but through visiting scholars, artists, exhibitions, and musicians.

There needs to be a more public face.

Like Lorin Maazel taking the Phil to Korea two years ago (I think), or American students being invited through their academic institutions to visit countries (I think of my Chinese politics professor who as a student at Cornell went to China even prior to the pan on Americans visiting went into place), or perhaps even public/touring lectures (Benazir Bhutto in the 80s/90s speaking publicy in the states).

These are the sorts of efforts in cultural diplomacy we should try to stress more.

One of the best series on television by far.

Can’t wait to see the new season. As an additional shout out, the Yinka Shonibare piece featured in the ad is part of the Davis Museum collection at Wellesley. YES!

Really interesting piece that compares the High Line’s design and “park-ness” to the ideals put forth by arguably one of the greatest landscape architects of all time Frederick Law Olmsted.

Worth the read.

Really fascinating op-ed by Doug Saunders on how Prince Charles is using his birth right as royalty to influence the urban environment. He most recently caused the dismissal of Lord Richard Rogers from a project that would prove to be the greenest housing project to date.

Ever the champion of neoclassical design (and the ultimate hater of all things contemporary and modern in architecture)….

Are Prince Charles recent actions to dismiss Lord Rogers unconstitutional and an abuse of power?