Solid Light Films

Anthony McCall is a British artist who makes what he calls 'solid light' films--explorations of beams of light as they encounter various densities of air particles presented by vapour, smoke, fog, etc.

I've sadly never seen this in action (there's a piece languishing in the SF Moma's permanent collection vaults!) but the description alone is enough to make me swoon! I've always wanted to do this sort of thing with sound...

All the President's Girls

While Annie K. Evans is clearly channeling Elizabeth Peyton in a major way, I can't help but be charmed by her series of paintings of presidents' mistresses. I love the way they're all grouped together on her site, regardless of era or aura of tramp. Who wouldn't fall for some of these lovely ladies? (Or that gent?)

Desktop Fireworks

Still getting to the bottom of how this one works exactly, but a number of examples of this fine new technology (a.k.a. augmented reality) have cropped up recently--could it be the next generation of printed matter?



Desktop Fireworks from Saqoosha on Vimeo.

Lady in Yellow

I love the way Michelle Obama dresses, and this NY Times article discusses how she gives big ups to American designers... With this first lady it's the woman who wears the clothes and not the other way 'round... Especially lovely how they talk about her being buff and easy in herself and how that makes her look good in just about anything she chooses. I am SO looking forward to seeing more!

PS Stole the photo from the Inauguration 2009 photo pool... Thanks kel.photo...

PPS Took the NY Times first lady fashion quiz... Surprised I did even this well...

Obama's Tax Policy (what if we all made propaganda?)

I have always felt that political propaganda was an interesting and infuriating genre. Lisa of Gravel and Gold fame points out that if we all made a video today, it would be the equivalent of holding a sign up at a candidate's rally, because today we all know how to make a video (or we could learn)... Here is my attempt to make a video for Obama. I learned that making good propaganda is much harder than one would think; also I learned a lot about the tax policy. My favorite tax information is here.

Many thanks to the brilliant bluegrass players High Country, who kindly granted permission for me to use their song, which was written by Keith Little.

Mabel Hubbard Bell

I'm having a little love affair with the Bells. If you peruse their notebooks on the Library of Congress you get to see all kinds of interesting notes about flight, children, ponies, sheep, potato bugs, and science. Mabel Hubbard Bell was deaf and that is at least part of why Alexander Graham Bell studied sound so thoroughly. The Bells were friends with Helen Keller as well, and letters from her appear in the family archive.

In one of Mabel's journals there are notes on child raising... She tells a story about how her daughter Daisy took three candies, two for herself and one for her sister and she ate up two and then ate part of the other. The notebook asks, "What should her punishment be?" and different handwriting chimes in to answer that you should let Daisy punish herself. "Be very sorry when the next time comes that she has already eaten up the candy you wanted her to have. Give Elsie hers but don't give Daisy any. Don't treat it as a punishment. You wanted her to have it and you are very sorry she ate it up too soon."

Creating Reality?

I love these historical installation photos from the American Museum of Natural History of their permanent and temporary exhibits. It's so rare to see the half-hung bones and skeletal armatures of what are really quite bizarre displays when you think about it. I've always been fascinated by the dioramas and displays at natural history museums, so these photos give a glimpse behind the scenes of installations that would be at home in a gallery of Surrealist or conceptual art. Plus they're just plain mystical.

By way of the Pruned blog, which I highly recommend in general for interesting news about landscape, the environment and natural history.