NPR’s Morning Edition had <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94727139">a story</a> yesterday about Pacific Lutheran University student Emily Algire. Emily was diagnosed with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention-Deficit_Hyperactivity_Disorder">ADHD</a> as a child, much to the confusion of her very organized mother. This reminded me of <a href="http://theaestheticelevator.com/2008/08/12/does-public-education-kill-creativity/">my August post</a> where Sir Ken Robinson cites Gillian Lynn, who choreographed Cats and Phantom of the […]
An Appeal: Please enjoy art
I’m resurrecting this draft in light of <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/09/18/nosplit/bvtvhughes18.xml">a Telegraph article</a> that laments the commercial nature of the art market in 2008. In the article, Australian critic Robert Hughes claims that the price of a work of art is, unfortunately, more significant than its meaning. He’s speaking specifically of Damien Hirst, whose auction at Sotheby’s […]
Has the blogosphere lost its umph?
I didn’t join the blogosphere early enough to say that I remember the good old days, but TechCrunch noted today that historic blogger <a href="http://scobleizer.com/2008/07/22/why-tech-blogging-has-failed-you/">Robert Scoble is lamenting</a> the superficial nature of the community in 2008. Erick Schonfeld of TechCrunch writes, "There was a time when a good idea (like a <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/21/we-want-a-dead-simple-web-tablet-help-us-build-it/">cheap Web tablet</a>) […]
My Kid Could Paint That, and so could I
Last week I watched a 2007 documentary titled <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0912592/">My Kid Could Paint That</a>. It chronicles the rise and fall of four year old painter <a href="http://www.marlaolmstead.com/home.html">Marla Olmstead</a>. Watching the film was an academic exercise for me. However, it was also enjoyable. I took notes on a number of things as I watched. The most […]
Explanations betray art?
<a href="http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/art/2008/07/explanations_are_the_traitor_o.html">Explanations are the traitor of art</a> according to Jonathan Jones of the Guardian’s art&architecture blog. Jones actually has one or two good things to say in this post, but you wouldn’t know it by the first two sentences. "Serious art defies easy interpretation, and artists should resist the call to explain themselves," he starts […]
Venezuela, India and the Built Environment
From an NPR story earlier this week, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez has used rhetoric which encouraged squatters to move onto the properties of wealthy land owners. Dozens of squatters squatted on the Hacienda Santa Teresa back in the year 2000. Instead of becoming angry, however, owner Alberto Vollmer welcomed the landless poor. Santa Teresa, a sugar […]