Things of note for the week ending February 7th, 2014.
1. Station to Station
For three weeks late last year, Doug Aitken took an LED-laden train from New York to San Francisco, making ten stops along the way, as a kind of ‘kinetic sculpture’. At each stop, artists, musicians, writers, film makers and other creatives were asked to contribute to this mobile happening.
Personally, I just love the idea of an LED-lit train (it is a gorgeous image).
More.
2. Banishment Rooms
In Japan, this incredible practice is unbelievably commonplace –
“Shusaku Tani is employed at the Sony plant here, but he doesn’t really work.
.
For more than two years, he has come to a small room, taken a seat and then passed the time reading newspapers, browsing the Web and poring over engineering textbooks from his college days. He files a report on his activities at the end of each day.
.
Sony, Mr. Tani’s employer of 32 years, consigned him to this room because they can’t get rid of him. Sony had eliminated his position at the Sony Sendai Technology Center, which in better times produced magnetic tapes for videos and cassettes. But Mr. Tani, 51, refused to take an early retirement offer from Sony in late 2010 — his prerogative under Japanese labor law.
.
So there he sits in what is called the “chasing-out room.†He spends his days there, with about 40 other holdouts.”
3. Travel Lessons
This collection of travel advice is pretty invaluable. Having been lucky enough to see more than my fair share of this world already, many of these tips speak to me. Especially the ones about the ability to travel lightly (this is coming from the guy that only took hand luggage on a two week, two festival, three country trip back in the summer of 2013 – not kidding). So yeah, I like this because in the main, this is how I travel.
4. Emptying Gestures
The output of this artist isn’t anything mind-blowing. But how she gets there, to me at least, is pretty mind-blowing. First, look at the work –
But now the killer (emphasis mine):
“Emptying Gestures is an experiment in kinetic drawing. In this series, I am searching for ways to download my movement directly onto paper, emptying gestures from one form to another and creating something new in the process.”
The very idea of ‘downloading movement onto paper’ sparks my mind into all kinds of interesting places. How do you ‘download’ kinetic motion, something intangible, onto paper – and make it tangible? I just love the whole thought behind it.
5. Something creepy to sign you off with
It’s Friday, so why the hell not?
Until next week.