Art
-
Placeholder
·
Quick lunch-hour dispatch, all to be clarified soon: Last week I participated in a collaboration between the Dana Centre (the adult wing of the Science Museum) and some artists, entitled “Big Ideas.” Imperial College is to be leaving the University of London. Fantastic late-night Dinner last weekend, with (among many others!) Kosso, Rachel, Imp, Deirdre,…
-
Real Art, Fake Food and Incense in Tokyo
·
An unexpected highlight was the fantastic exhibit of photographs from Hiroshi Sugimoto (at the Mori Gallery, on the 53rd story of the otherwise very shopping-mall-like Roppongi Hills “city-within-a-city”. I’ve seen smaller exhibitions of his work at the Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea, New York City (where he lives and works), but this retrospective proves him to…
-
Atomic quote
The nightmare of all art, as well as of all politics, is generalities. You cannot generalize. You’ve got to keep things as specific to the minute, as down to the wire, as possible. –Peter Sellars in Alex Ross’s “Countdown” (from The New Yorker), on Dr. Atomic, the new opera about physicist Robert Oppenheimer and the…
-
Howl at 50; Happy New Year
·
This week marks the 50th anniversary of the first reading of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl”, most famously an angry eulogy for the destruction wrought by McCarthyite fifties America: I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded…
-
End of the Universe
Today, alas, will see the end of The Centre of the Universe. Thanks, again, to Jem Finer for creating it, a work of thought and beauty. But I’m sure he’s looking forward to sleeping in a warm bed, surrounded by his family, rather than a shed in the middle of a park surrounded by weird…
-
Sense of irony
Nancy Ellman’s review of A Changed Man by Francine Prose opens with this charming summation of American culture: American sentimentality may once have seemed endearing, but now we know it’s just another instrument of evil. Every aspect of American culture has begun to stink of the grave. The pizzas and hamburgers: this is how world…
-
Slow down
·
Here‘s a sort-of advertisement from Jem Finer to give you the opportunity to support his Longplayer project (and possibly win a trip to Brisbane). Vote early and often! Update: I placed my bet on 3 hours, 7 minutes and 12 seconds… And here are some movies and photos from Jem of his Centre of the…
-
Centre of the Universe
Went to see the opening of Jem Finer‘s The Centre of the Universe in Oxford last night. Jem is the artist in residence in Oxford’s Department of Astrophysics, and “The Centre of the Universe” is a homebrew radio telescope, built of telephone poles, scavenged wood and chicken-wire. Inspiration ranges from Babylonian ziggurats and Robert Smithson…
-
Travelling ten
·
I’ve been a bit quiet the past week, so here’s a very random top ten from my just-completed trip to North America (New Jersey/New York and Toronto). In no particular order, except for number one: My sister’s wedding — Congratulations and Mazel Tov to Allison and Chris! The skeleton of the new Daniel Libeskind extension…
-
Quote of the day
From the Times Higher Education Supplement: Brian Eno “said that art schools should model themselves on the physics department at Imperial College London. This would see art school academics lead projects with students as apprentices or co-workers.” Yes, that Brian Eno: “Mr Eno, 57, has produced five U2 albums and co-written three David Bowie albums.…
Search
Recent Posts
Categories
- Academia (64)
- Art (57)
- Blog (1)
- Miscellanea (101)
- Music (71)
- Net (63)
- News (28)
- Politics (110)
- Science (332)
- Uncategorized (4)