Don Hertzfeldt, who with Mike Judge (creator of King of the Hill, Office Space and Beavis and Butthead) created The Animation Show, a film festival of great new animation, released a collection of short films titled Rejected. The premise is that these animations were commissioned by corporations and then rejected.
Very funny. Be warned, [...]

I’ve just finished reading an illustrated autobiography that I’ll write more about later.
But it has me thinking. There are many people and places I’d like to know more about. Many times this kind of cultural learning and exchange happens through art. But where is the exchange when people aren’t allowed to express [...]

I’ve seen similar things, but nothing as insanely complex as this… what I can only describe as Performance Animation. From South Korea:

Beautiful street art in Moscow and Brazil (not sure where). From Funny Picture Crazy.
Brasilian street art
and
Moscow street art

Over the past few weeks, Elevator Repair Service has been in Portland and Seattle performing Gatz, their performance which involves the complete six hour reading of The Great Gatsby. I intended to go. But I just can’t bring myself to do it.
I’m up for any strange art thing, I mean I’m one of [...]

After yesterday’s post (Getting the right tools vs. actually doing something) I read this story in Wired. Instead of waiting on a $4,500 paraglider that he could likely never afford, he built one out of plastic bags. He could have died using it, but instead he became a world renowned paraglider, one of [...]

I read a New Yorker story recently about the cult of Leica cameras. Some of the most famous photographs in history have been taken with Leica’s, and photographers love them. But at $4,000+ a pop, you’d better really love it, and you’d hope it takes a great photo.
…as the camera has evolved over [...]

Inside Japan (a bit like Berlin), there aren’t really serious art collectors. Inside Japan, people like Murakami and Nara make their money by doing corporate identity (Vuitton, Roppongi Hills) or mass-producing souvenirs… Art is collapsed into the mass market. Galleries are often in department stores, and often show what we’d think of as commercial work; [...]

When a change comes, some species feel the urge to migrate. They call it zugunruhe—the pull of the soul to a far-off place, following a scent in the wind, a star in the sky. The ancient message comes, calling the kindred to take flight and to gather together.
I hope you had a great trip… [...]

On large farms, sometimes only one crop is grown. Many times these crops are corn or soy beans. These crops are more lucrative because they are used in many processed foods and may be subsidized.
Small farms, on the other hand, often have many crops that rotate and change over the course of a [...]

In the late ’80s, Czechoslovakia became a democratic state, and in 1993 peacefully separated into two countries – the Czech Republic and Slovakia. With democracy came capitalism and advertising, and with capitalism and advertising came The Hypermarket. Hypermarkets are the world’s superstores, selling shoes and spinach, pipe wrenches and pumpkins, all you would [...]

Over the last five years, artists Miranda July (most widely known for making the film Me and You and Everyone We Know) and Harrell Fletcher have provided 63 art recipes or assignments as part of the project Learning to Love You More. Over 5,000 people have completed assignments and submitted them to the web [...]

Montreal artist Cesar Saez is creating a 300 meter banana, with a bamboo skeleton and helium bladders, which he intends to launch into geostationary orbit over Texas. It is launching from Baja, Mexico. It will appear in the sky 10-20% the size of the moon.
Just to be clear, 300 meters is over twice [...]

I went to an afternoon of flat track roller derby, and even though it’s a sport, I could care less who won or lost. A lot of us were there to be entertained. Roller derby is dramatic and theatrical. Lots of players and whole teams have strong characters (whether real or mythical), [...]

5 Pointz has been mentioned in lots of places this year, but that’s ok, it’s good people hear about it.
5 Pointz is a graffiti museum and legal painting space in Queens. The building is a many story warehouse covered on all sides, ground to roof, with art by graffiti artists. Artists live in [...]