paths + processes

signs on walls: ‘how to work better’

“How-To Work Better” by Swiss artists Fischli & Weiss has long been one of our favorite manifestos: the reminder we need daily. We’d seen it all over the internet, and posted it as a sign long ago. We hadn’t realized that it was, in fact, an installation, painted on the wall of an office building in Zurich.

Imagine if, instead of advertising, bill-boards featured signs like this…or if building owners just took it upon themselves to paint (or stencil) their buildings a little differently…

via Swiss-Miss

09.22.11 | comments | in art, buildings, outside, paths + processes, people, rules for living, sightings, walls + windows |

‘i had cancer’ = social networking with a purpose

(Video link here.) I tend to have mixed feelings about the growing number of options for social networking. I’ve definitely noticed my own reliance on social networks making me a little more self-indulgent and a little less personal in my communications with friends. But the power of social networking sites to create communities for people greatly in need of them never ceases to amaze me. Case in point: I Had Cancer, a social networking site for folks who have been diagnosed with or survived cancer and their loved ones. It was created/improvised by a cancer survivor, responding to the need she saw around her, and that she herself had experienced. And because everyone is touched in some way by cancer, dealing with it themselves, or knowing someone who is. read more…

09.22.11 | comments | in community, family + friends, paths + processes, people, resources blogs + sites, services, strategies, video |

reminder: a wrong choice can take you to the right place

We found this sign on The Curious Brain and thought “Yeah, we need to remember that…”

09.21.11 | comments | in paths + processes, rules for living, sightings, signs |

how prayer flags inspired a fabric woven with sound

(Video link here.) After we posted a video of Bjork frolicking in her “bell dress”, we got an email from a reader alerting us to the “sonic fabric” designed by Alyce Santoro. It’s a fabric made from polyester thread and audiocassette tape recorded with intricate collages of sound so that it is, literally, woven with sound. This video tells the story of Santoro’s inspiration and process in making this wild stuff; it’s an interesting, curiously relaxing inside-look at the unexpected connections and associations that carried her along, as one idea led to another to another…

Meanwhile, here’s a 1 minute video of musician Jon Fishman wearing and playing his sonic fabric dress… read more…

09.21.11 | comments | in art, media, music, paths + processes, people, video |

‘what every girl/person needs’ via miranda july

artwork: miranda july

We’ve loved Miranda July’s work for a long time because her work always directly addressed the INSIDE of our heads, all those crazy voices and opinions and questions that take up so much space, and are really NOT who we are. Suddenly she’s become pretty famous because of the Future, her recent film that is getting a lot of attention. Despite all the hubbub, she’s still creating heartening cut-to-the-truth treasures, like this one. We want to stand on that pedestal that says “Self doubt will never devour your dreams”; we think one should be on every street corner.

Miranda July’s site YOU OBVIOUSLY KNOW WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT has a wonderfully clever homepage…worth checking out.

09.20.11 | comments | in art, identity, inspiration blogs + sites, kids, outside, paths + processes, people |

career change: mark givre reinvents the book business (and his life)

photo: david saltman

“People want to make a million dollars from my books,” Mark Givre says in the pause between rumbles from the elevated subway trains passing over his head. “They’re looking for rare first editions. But I just want to get people to read.”

Givre says he’s on his second life now, and it’s an improvised one. For the past three years he has outlasted Borders, Barnes & Noble and other bricks-and-mortar bookstores with his low-overhead alfresco nook on the corner of 231st Street and Broadway in New York City. read more…

09.19.11 | comments (2) | in free + flea, identity, outside, paths + processes, people, reclaim, resources, sightings, stores |

patti smith’s lesson in improvising, via sam shephard

Our favorite hunk from Just Kids, Patti Smith’s story of finding her artistic voice, in tandem with her friend Robert Mapplethorpe. Here, a life changing notion from Sam Shepard.

09.15.11 | comments | in gifts, inspiration books + zines, paths + processes, people, principles |

last chance to enter: ‘handcrafted modern’ giveaway

photo: leslie williamson

Our giveaway contest for Leslie Williamson’s Handcrafted Modern: At Home with Mid-century Designers ends tomorrow – Thursday – morning at 10 am EST. If you haven’t entered, now’s your chance to do it: To enter, simply go to ‘the improvised life’s’ facebook page and “Like” us to become a facebook fan. Just type cut and paste http://www.facebook.com/theimprovisedlife into your browser’s address bar, and you’ll get there. Once you’re a fan, find any of the posts on our wall related to Handcrafted Modern (we’ll make sure to put one up each day!) and leave a comment or just write “I want Handcrafted Modern”. If you’re already a fan on facebook, just leave a comment on a Handcrafted Modern post and you’re all set. We’ll randomly select a winner from all of the commenters at the end of next week. read more…

09.14.11 | comments | in gifts, inspiration books + zines, paths + processes, people |

a question-driven, learning-centered life

Cara De Silva alerted us to this compelling piece by David Brooks in the New York times. It’s a short profile about Philip Leakey, son of famed anthropologists Louis and Mary Leakey. We love the description of where he lives (though couldn’t find a photo of the “mountaintop tent”), his numerous projects, many of them experimental, and the central operating principle of this life… Here’s an excerpt, which reads sort of like an adult’s bedtime story:

I met him at the remote mountain camp where he now lives, a bumpy 4-hour ride south of Nairobi near the Rift Valley. Leakey and his wife Katy… have created an enterprise called the Leakey Collection, which employs up to 1,200 of the local Maasai, and sells designer jewelry and household items around the world.

The Leakeys live in a mountaintop tent. Their kitchen and dining room is a lean-to with endless views across the valley. The workers sit out under the trees gossiping and making jewelry. Getting a tour of the facilities is like walking through “Swiss Family Robinson” or “Dr. Dolittle.”

Philip has experiments running up and down the mountainside. read more…

09.14.11 | comments (1) | in paths + processes, people, principles, quotes |

role model: lucien freud, 82, painting

photo: david dawson

This photo of artist Lucien Freud painting was taken by his assistant David Dawson in 2005 when Freud was 82, five years before he died. We see a seriously ALIVE man in an aging body, a human being dynamically engaged in his work, flying in the face of populist stereotypes of old age.

….role model on endless levels.

via The Guardian

09.13.11 | comments (2) | in art, identity, paths + processes, people |

sweat the small stuff! (easy ways to be an eco warrior)

(Video link here.) “Don’t sweat the small stuff ”has become a self-help mantra that we often tend to agree with. It’s easy to get caught up in unnecessary details or minor challenges and lose sight of the big picture. However, occasionally we’re reminded that every piece of conventional wisdom has its foil. The above video from Good and the great Andrew Sloat illustrates why sometimes sweating the small stuff is not only important, but deeply related to the big picture. (It also provides a really clear visual of a few simple ways to be kinder to the environment).

—Sarah Martino

via Andrew Sloat

09.07.11 | comments | in community, paths + processes, resources, rules for living, strategies |

…after the storm…

Katherine Hepburn in barthtub, after hurricane of '38

…the Great Hurricane of 1938 roared ashore while Katherine Hepburn was out playing golf in Fenwick, Connecticut: there was no radar or satellite to warn of what appears to have been a Category 4 hurricane. Somehow, she rode out the storm, although it destroyed her family’s summer home. Most of her belongings were lost or destroyed; an Oscar she won was found in the rubble. read more…

08.28.11 | comments | in inspiration, nature, outside, paths + processes, people |

origami made of anything (vic muniz’ birds of a feather)

photo: andrew moore

We LOVED this piece from the last Sunday’s New York Times Magazine:

After the Japanese Earthquake in March, the nonprofit Bezos Family Foundation invited children to mail origami cranes to the Seattle headquarters of its Students Rebuild program. Each would trigger a $2 donation, up to $200,000. The group received more than 2 million and doubled the donation.

Last July, a truck full of the origami cranes was delivered to the Brooklyn studio of Brazilian artist Vic Muniz. The trove contained cranes from 38 countries, made out of all manner of foldable materials: hall passes, math homework, love letters, saran wrap, candy wrappers, restaurant menus, aluminum foil, vocabulary lessons, Kleenex. The smallest was the size of a thumbnail.

Muniz created a giant 36 x 40 foot mosaic out of them for a fund-raising poster. Said Muniz:

It’s alchemic. The idea worked because everyone wanted to help.

…bits of folded paper became symbols, that raised money, that help people in need, and became an artwork that raised money that….

Just in case you feel like tinkering this weekend, here’s how to make your own origami crane, out of anything…

08.26.11 | comments (1) | in art, cheap + great, community, d-i-y, gifts, how-to, materials, paths + processes, resources, resources blogs + sites |

mind bath: jackson pollock at work (by hans namuth)

(Video link here.) Hans Namuth‘s Jackson Pollock 51 is ten illuminating minutes of the abstract expressionist painter at work at his studio on Long Island. Pollock’s sparse words annotates his process in real time: simple declarative statements that give wonderful insight into an original, creative mind, like the idea that reacting against someone or something can be a way of discovering one’s own voice: “At the Art Student’s League…I studied with Tom Benton. He was a strong personality to react against.”

About halfway through, Namuth filmed Pollock making a painting on glass, filming from below to view Pollock through his glass canvas. An extraordinarily intimate view.

Read more about Namuth’s experience filming Pollock at Open Culture.

08.25.11 | comments | in art, materials, paths + processes, people, principles, video |

“don’t give up!” (the inspirational letters project)

The Animators Letter Project was started by Willie Downs, an animation student who, just a year ago, was an aspiring animator pursuing a career he knew wasn’t right for him. Petrified of the risk he would be taking in dropping out of an expensive and presumably more reliable degree program to attend animation school, Downs wrote to two animators for advice. One particularly inspiring response from Aaron Hartline at Pixar said “Don’t give up!!! and sparked Willie to start his blog project, asking other animators to write letters to aspiring animators, offering advice and encouragement. Now that project has morphed into The Inspirational Letters Project.

What’s great about these letters are how easily they translate—many of the letters contain nuggets of inspiration for anyone taking a career risk or running up against a wall in their job. Our favorite is this letter from animator Austin Madison in which he comes clean about what may be the eternal truth of a lot of creative work: 3% of the time you are on fire, and 97% of the time is a messy slog. The key: persist, despite all the difficulties… read more…

08.24.11 | comments (1) | in art, inspiration blogs + sites, paths + processes, people, principles, quotes |