The relation of art to life is of the first importance especially in a skeptical age since, in the absence of a belief in God, the mind turns to its own creations and examines them, not alone from the aesthetic point of view, but for what they reveal, for what they validate and invalidate, for the support that they give.Wallace Stevens in Opus Posthumous: Poems, Plays, Prose (1957)
Song: “Faith” by Room Eleven
Mix it up with literature and music.
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Christopher Logue (via theparisreview)
Ah, yes! |
| — | Christopher Logue (via theparisreview) |
How color-coded notes make you a more efficient thinker:
Separating “branches” of your map by color stimulates the creative side of your brain, helps you visually separate and recall distinct themes of the stuff you’re working through, and encourages you to map through even boring topics that seem cut-and-dry.
“Add a dash of color … and all of a sudden the notes come alive. They are unique, they are unusual, they are memorable and they are more interesting.”
Thinking in color!
World Press Freedom Day
Today is World Press Freedom Day, a time to reflect not just on what are traditionally thought of as press freedoms, but also on ordinary citizen’s ability to share and access information via our digital networks.
Via UNESCO
[S]ecuring the safety of journalists continues to be a challenge due to an upward trend in the killings of journalists, media workers, and social media producers. In 2012 alone, UNESCO’s Director-General condemned the killings of 121 journalists, almost double the annual figures of 2011 and 2010. In addition, there continues to be widespread harassment, intimidation, arbitrary arrest and online attacks on journalists in many parts of the world. To compound the problem, the rate of impunity for crimes against journalists, media workers and social media producers remains extremely high.
Responding to this overall context of press freedom, WPFD 2013 focuses on the theme of “Safe to Speak: Securing Freedom of Expression in All Media” and puts the spotlight in particular on the issues of safety of journalists, combating impunity for crimes against freedom of expression, and securing a free and open Internet as the precondition for safety online.
Reporters Without Borders’ annual World Press Freedom Index is a good place to explore how press freedoms work — or don’t work — globally. At the top of the list are Finland, Norway and the Netherlands. Down at the bottom are the same three that that were there a year ago: Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea.
Freedom House reports that the percentage of the world’s population “living in societies with a fully free press has fallen to its lowest level in over a decade”:
At first glance, it might seem counterintuitive that media freedom is on the decline. After all, in a world in which news is being produced by a broader range of professionals – as well as citizen journalists and bloggers – information is flowing at faster rates than ever before. And with news being transmitted through a greater variety of mediums – including newspapers, radio, television, the internet, mobile phones, flash drives, and social media – one might expect the level of media freedom worldwide to be improving, not worsening.
As noted, press freedom doesn’t just affect professional journalists, but ordinary citizens committing acts of journalism, activists documenting abuses and members of civil society. Take, for instance, four men in Saudi Arabia interrogated over their attempts to launch a human rights organization. The charge against them, according to Amnesty International: ”founding and publicizing an unlicensed organization as well as launching websites without authorization.”
Related, Part 01: Al Arabiya, Iran, Syria ranked among world’s worst countries for press freedom.
Related, Part 02: UNESCO, Pressing for Freedom: 20 years of World Press Freedom Day (PDF).
Images: World Press Freedom Map (top), via Reporters Without Borders. Crime and Unpunishment: Why Journalists Fear for Their Safety (bottom), via UNESCO. Select to embiggen.
What The Internet is Doing to Our Brains
Ever wonder what detrimental effect the Internet may be having on your brain? The Epipheo YouTube channel animated an interview with author Nicholas Carr, who argues that constant Internet use is harming our long term memory by over-stimulating and dividing our attention and that could be threatening our very humanity. To combat this, Epipheo recommends taking some time each day to unplug from the Internet and focus on a singular task.
The Numbers - Most Profitable Movies, Based on Return on Investment
Lots of interesting numbers over at, uh, The Numbers.
(via @tedhope)
Spotlight: Claes Oldenburg
Pop artist Claes Oldenburg (American, b.1929) is recognized for his break from Abstract Expressionism through the inclusion of found objects, and his acceptance of commercial culture throughout his works. One of his first defining bodies of work, The Store, includes a series of sculptures and reliefs that mimic the visual elements of commercial products while simultaneously playing with the idea of form. In 1962, the Green Gallery (once located at 15 West 57th Street in New York), was home to new iteration of The Store, in which Oldenburg introduced his iconic soft sculptures. The Green Gallery was one of the first uptown Manhattan galleries to display the art of the downtown avant-garde, including artists such as Tom Wesselman, James Rosenquist, Donald Judd, Robert Morris, George Segal, and Dan Flavin.
The index above tracks the performance of these Green Gallery artists against the S&P 500 over the past decade. Since 2002, the Green Gallery artists have consistently outperformed the S&P 500. While the market for these artists did see the effects of the 2007 to 2008 recession, they have climbed back up to pre-recession success, increasing nearly 130% from 2002 to 2012.
Don’t miss MoMA’s latest show, Claes Oldenburg: The Street and The Store, which focuses on the 84-year-old artist’s early work.
by Craig Santos Perez
Anthologies from the past decade—such as The Grand Permission: New Writings on Poetics and Motherhood (Wesleyan, 2003), and Not For Mother Only: Contemporary Poems on Child-Getting and Child-Rearing (Fence Books, 2007)—attest to the diversity of poetry about motherhood and resonate with Sylvia Plath’s observation in her poem “Morning Song”: “Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival.” Three recent books, all from 2009, further magnify this vibrant field: Rachel McKibbens’ Pink Elephant, Hoa Nguyen’s Hecate Lochia, and Killing Kanoko: Selected Poems of Hiromi Ito.
Poems mixed with motherhood.
—A.R. Ammons, Poetry, April 1979
At the Best American Poetry blog, Roger Gilbert takes fills us in on the “life that did not become,” and quotes Ammons on “one of the formative events of his childhood”:
The most powerful image of my emotional life is something I had repressed and one of my sisters lately reminded me of. It was when my little brother, who was two and a half years younger than I, died at eighteen months. My mother some days later found his footprint in the yard and tried to build something over it to keep the wind from blowing it away. That’s the most powerful image I’ve ever known.
Read the rest of the poem.
Warhol & Basquiat
It doesn’t really get any better than a photograph of two of the most famous artists of the 20th century! Hong Kong born artist Tseng Kwong Chi photographed artists Jean-Michel Basquiat & Andy Warhol in 1985.
—A.R. Ammons, Poetry, April 1979
At the Best American Poetry blog, Roger Gilbert takes fills us in on the “life that did not become,” and quotes Ammons on “one of the formative events of his childhood”:
The most powerful image of my emotional life is something I had repressed and one of my sisters lately reminded me of. It was when my little brother, who was two and a half years younger than I, died at eighteen months. My mother some days later found his footprint in the yard and tried to build something over it to keep the wind from blowing it away. That’s the most powerful image I’ve ever known.
Read the rest of the poem.
Easter morning.
