Category: visual

“Inside the convention center, security guards and event organizers worked quickly to clean up the scene, and to keep public attention focused on the art and not the stabbing. One bystander said he asked a guard what happened, and was told that a very expensive statue had fallen on someone.”

“The Petersen has not merely joined this arms race. It has chosen the nuclear option. It has obliterated even the possibility of any thoughtful debate about what its building is trying to accomplish or how it might relate to those future neighbors.”

“The Pritzker Prize still eludes her. But on Wednesday evening, Denise Scott Brown, 84, won the American Institute of Architects 2016 Gold Medal, its highest honor, along with Robert Venturi, 90, her husband and design partner.”

“The Philippines is to launch a crowd-sourcing website to seek public help in a fresh attempt to track down up to 200 missing artworks, including several masterpieces, that were last believed to be in the possession of Imelda Marcos … [who] has indignantly insisted that the works were gifts rather than acquired with stolen state funds.”

The game, called bo or liubo, “includes a 14-face die carved from an animal tooth, 21 rectangular game pieces featuring painted numbers, and a broken tile – ‘decorated with two eyes, which are surrounded by cloud-and-thunder patterns’ – that once made up part of the game board.”

“[R]ecent reports have raised the possibility that some private foundations are operating museums that offer minimal benefit to the public while enabling donors to reap substantial tax advantages,” Senator Hatch wrote in his letter.

“The number one funding for Isis is oil, and after that, kidnapping and ransom demands. When they don’t have access to those, they look for something else, and the antiquities in their backyard have provided a natural source for income.”

“At stake are questions over how universities can promote inclusivity and counter discrimination while protecting free speech. It also feeds into a conversation centered on whether and to what extent academic institutions should shield students from subject matter that might make them feel uncomfortable or unsafe.”

“On an island in a pond behind the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet sits the Lukhang Temple, or ‘Temple to the Serpent Spirits,’ a secret meditation space created by the Dalai Lama in the 17th century. … Vibrant murals covered its walls, depicting yogis in impossible-looking poses, gurus and kings, crystals surrounded by rainbows, and the vagina that gave birth to the world.”

“As usual, Google used its backpack-like Street View Trekker, the same hardware it used for its expeditions into Nepal, the Grand Canyon, and the Galapagos Islands, for taking these images. So if you don’t have a trip to Jordan planned anytime soon, you can now take a virtual hike around Petra and explore sites like the Treasury, the Street of Façades, and the Monastery.”