Recharge your phone simply by walking (albeit with a slightly weird attachment at the knee) – no batteries required? Sounds like heaven. Can we have this soon, please?
Author: ArtsJournal2
Irish Writer Surprised To Win U.K.’s Walter Scott Prize
Sebastian Barry wins with On Canaan’s Side, which was up against hefty competition: The Sisters Brothers by Patrick de Witt, Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan, The Stranger’s Child by Alan Hollinghurst, Pure by Andrew Miller and The Quality of Mercy by Barry Unsworth.
In Oaxaca, Unlike The U.S., Art Bows To History
“We are not dealing here with imagined reconstructions, but with the past’s palpable presence. And most of these ancient cities and monuments were abandoned some six centuries before the Spaniards plundered the region. After 80 years of archaeological research, their meanings are still unclear, though much has been written about Zapotec social hierarchies, gladiatorial-style games and stone carvings.”
Can’t Make It As An Artist? Heck, Just Cure Blindness, Then
Stephen Redenti, artist and bioengineer: “When you’re building a three-dimensional sculpture, you have to build the architecture to support the clay. Then you have to build devices to support the sculpture in progress — little scaffolds, levies, pulleys. I think that kind of found-object resourcefulness came in handy at the stem-cell laboratory.”
A Postal System, Carved In 17th-Century Stone
Dutch sailors left messages carved in stone on the beaches of Madagascar – but the British and Portuguese stole the letters left beneath the stones.
The 9/11 Museum Needs More Funding, Governors Say
“Amid the seemingly interminable wrangling over financing for the National September 11 Memorial Museum, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York and Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey sent a letter to the National Park Service on Saturday seeking federal money for the project.”
Eluding Censors, Chinese Authors Walk The Grey-Area Line
“They carefully calibrate what can be communicated in English but not in Chinese; in Hong Kong but not in Beijing; online but not in print; via allegory but not direct exposition. The tank-to-tractor substitution — as well as related techniques, like taking advantage of Chinese’s rich store of homophones to substitute a sound-alike anodyne term for a politically charged one — illustrates how the ever-present censorship machine turns Chinese writers into verbal acrobats. Put more bluntly, it forces them to lie to get their voices heard.”
Time For Cities To Stop Thinking Big And Start Thinking Doable
“Thinking small is the next logical step in America’s urban renaissance. When cities really started changing 10 or 15 years ago, the economy was booming and the Internet was a newfangled gizmo. Today, cities have less money but more ways to communicate, two conditions perfectly suited to more focused, low-cost planning. Now you can home in on a specific neighborhood (or even just a few blocks), find out what the residents there want or need, cheaply implement it on a trial basis, and make it permanent if it works.”
The Necessarily Activist Artist
Artists – especially those who avoided art school – say they must be engaged with issues, including the Arab Spring and economic inequality. Why?
Stop Whinging: Publishing’s Doing Quite Well (Seriously)
“To a large extent, it really is the best of times for publishing. We have a lot of potential to connect more people with more ideas more efficiently and quickly than ever before. We have more people reading and writing than ever before.” And specific examples abound.