We are smitten with this short, illuminating online slideshow in which Marco Leona, chief scientist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, talks about the role of magic in the creation of art. It is so delightful and illuminating, we’ve watched it several times: a rich 4 minutes.
“Magic traditionally was about transformation: taking something baser, less refined, less valuable and making it something resplendent.”
He shows a wide array of artworks to illustrate this transformation, ranging from Ghanaian El Anatsui’s stunning tapestries made of twist-off bottle caps, to Hokusai’s famous blue wave to Anish Kapoor’s high-tech wonder. We particularly love slides 14 through 17 where Leona speaks about the process an anonymous 12th century Persian artist went through to make a gorgeous frieze tile: read more…
“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…
(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…
(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…
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.
One of the most inspiring ideas we found recently in a photo of scuptor and designer Harry Bertoia‘s living room [See the clarification in Comments from Bertoia's daughter Celia] is not the famous wire mesh chairs he designed for Knoll in the ’50′s, but this simple hanging shelf. It’s made with cord strung through a piece of wood through which holes were bored. It is, essentially, a swing that is meant to convey a sense of air without moving wildly, for it holds a little sculpture – whose, we don’t know.
In the same image, there appears to be one of Bertoia’s sound sculptures, made with vertical metal rods. read more…
(Video link here.) We wish we could put that wondrous bell dress on right now and make music while we dance. What a way that would be to start the day!
“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…
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.
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…
We worked with Jeffrey Miller many years ago when he was prop stylist and always marveled at his wonderful eye. We also marveled at the apartment he lived in, which at the time was a tiny studio with a giant window on the lower east side of Manhattan. We loved its extreme minimalism which combined function and beauty way before those ideas became popularized. He’s in new digs now, which were recently featured in New York Magazine. For a guy whose work is fabulous stuff, his home is a story of extreme restraint and quirkiness. We love his door stop made out of a found rock tied with twine, and read more…
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…
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.
, Patti Smith’s story of finding her artistic voice, in tandem with her friend 
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. 
