As part of the Interni Legacy event that is currently running in Milan in conjuction with Milan Design Festivial, the Architect's Eye has been installed within the Cortile d'Onore of the Ca' Grand.
The sculpture by Sergei Tschoban and Sergey Kuznetsov, partners of the architecture studio SPEECH Tchoba Kuznetsov in Moscow, is a stainless steel sphere ball which is completely smooth and reflecting. Within the ball there is a large LED system that creates the image of a huge human iris and pupil that rotates to 'look' at visitors or surroundings. The pupil also dilates and contracts, and the eye has the ability to change colours. Also within the 'eye' are images of abandoned Russian architecture as the piece looks to enforce the need to conserve history and cultural legacy.The vibrant colours of the iris look beautiful in the imagery and it interesting how the work turns sculpture into an installation piece.
Very interesting talk by Bret Victor on the power and effectiveness of organizing your work around a guiding principle. Victor's principle is "creators need an immediate connection to what they create" and he shows some really cool ways he's exploring that idea.
(via waxy)
Tags: Bret Victor video workingI know this may come as a surprise to you, but ignorance is my favorite sport. I’m not sure how, when, or why it became so, but there’s a distinct possibility that this doesn’t make my mother proud. So when videos like this one from comedian Dave Ackerman entitled, “What do you know about Black History?” come across my inbox, I’m enthralled.
For those who can’t see the video, Ackerman dresses up in Blackface and dons Utah Jazz apparel and heads to Brigham Young University to ask white people what they know about Black History Month and Black people in general. Shenanigans ensue. Obviously the answer is not much. Even the Black people at BYU didn’t seem to know when Black History Month even was.
And the capper? He asked people if they know a Black person when they saw one, hoping that somebody would point out that he was indeed a white guy with makeup on. According to him, only 3 people made the revelation. Even the Black people he showed on camera didn’t notice. Or care. I can’t determine which one it is.
Obviously a perusal through the YouTube comments indicates that some people were offended all around by Ackerman’s audacity AND the fact that these white people in Utah had very little clue about Black History. The most telling part of the video to me was when he asked people to give their impressions of Black people and without fail, they all did…happily. And with reckless aplomb.
And you know what? They looked like my idea of what white people in Utah giving their impressions of Black people would look like. By the way the fact that a white chick actually said that Black History Month is the month that Black history started is beyond hilarious to me. Again, I enjoy and appreciate ignorance.
Ackerman’s point seemed to have been to expose how little white people at BYU know about Black people. Which might not be fair. I mean, its motherf*cking Utah. Except it is fair because we’re in motherf*cking America. But then again, it is entirely possible to live your entire life in places of this country without EVER coming into contact with a Black person without the Internet or television.
Now, these people are ignorant. Not ignant. And they are on a college campus, which speaks volumes, except it doesn’t because formal education has sh*t to do with social interaction education and exposure. Granted, if I was white, I probably wouldn’t spend much time thinking about race or Black people, especially if I lived in Utah. I’m sure there’s no reason to celebrate Black History Month there (I have no idea if they do or not). Everybody knows Martin Luther King, Jr because we all get a day off now.
But just when you think white people are a total disappointment in race relations, they do surprise you by getting some things. When the girls were asked if they’d rather date a Black guy who acted white or a white guy who acted Black, they all unanimously thought a white guy acting Black was ridiculous and stupid.
Yet, because white people do like to make sure our fistpump moments dont last too long, one of the girls stated that a Black guy acting white is classy. Wompington Whathafuckness, III. Oh, well.
The thing I took from the video, aside from the laughs I got, was the amazement at just HOW little white people know about Black people. I mean, not knowing when Black History Month is? That sh*t cray. I suppose its good that they all got in the right half of the year but still, that’s befuddling.
By the way, the fact that this comedian was in Black face doesn’t bother me in the slightest. I get it. If the ultimate goal is to truly test how ignorant some white people are, being a white guy made up as a white guy and going completely unnoticed despite the fact that he looks like a white guy made up as a Black guy, is the best way to prove that point.
So here’s my question: are videos like this necessary? Do they achieve any goal? Is there any greater good derived from something like this? If we all assume that most white people couldn’t give a flying f*ck about Blackness, and all this does is verify that, then was any progress made?
Further, was anybody surprised by how little these white (and few Black people) were unaware about anything pertaining to Blackness? What say you?
Because while I was amused, I wasn’t surprised. Nor did I care that much. La di da.
-VSB P aka THE ARSONIST aka MR. WHITEFACE BLACK GUY aka GIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRL HE A 3
****For those in the DC area, Very Smart Brothas and Urban Cusp are teaming up to bring you a conversation entitled “Black Images and Culture in Mainstream Media” on February 22, 2012, from 6-8PM at the Washington Post building. There will feature a live panel discussion featuring very accomplished local artists, personalites, and media figures and light refreshments will be served. Be on the lookout for more information very shortly.****
There are few organizations that I detest more than PETA. For the short bus crowd visiting with us today, PETA stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Now, I’m an animal lover through and through. I like cats and dogs. One of my dogs is actually on my credit card. Yes, you read that properly. My dog is on my credit card.
My mother has geese, the most annoying denizens of the bird world. No Amber Rose. Well, yes Amber Rose, but in this context, no Amber Rose. Real birds. Taylor Gang.
Moving on. Despite my love for animals I recognize one very real truth: animals are not people and do not trump the rights of people. That isn’t to say that I think people should be able to treat animals any type of way. Animals are much like children, especially domesticated ones: defenseless and ultimately looking to humans for food and protection. To that end, I make it a point to always treat animals with the highest of respect. Dipset, b*tch…nahmean? But PETA? Them bastards take stuff too far.
Especially when it comes to the ways in which they choose to get their point across. PETA has this stupid f*cking uncanny ability to equate the plight of animals with the plight of slaves. Yes. PETA thinks that animals and slaves are basically the same sh*t. I remember seven years ago (I wrote an article about it back then…egads I’ve been writing for a long time) when PETA created a display where they hung up pictures of cows and animals who were about to be made into bacon and steak next to pictures of lynched Black people as a way of equating the treatment of animals to a system of Jim Crow and intense racism.
Needless to say, Black folks were upset. Everybody except Cam’ron who I’m fairly sure is and/or was PETA’s public enemy number one after his line about his closet looking like a pet cemetery on the song “Down & Out”. Great song by the way. Oh and why wouldn’t Cam’ron care? Because his computers were to busy ‘putin’ for him to notice.
Hmm…not to be all extra tangentially Black here but is that the first time that a word was abbreviated in such a way that it warranted an apostrophe at the beginning AND end of it? Without it being a kids name? From the hood? Seriously, would you be surprised if you met a kid named ‘Putin’…and those weren’t quotes? After meeting a chick named N”D’Biane at my cousin’s graduation a few years back, I realized anything is possible. Zone 4 stand up.
I’ve lost my point.
Ah yes, the latest in the line of PETA f*ckery and nincompoopery was the motherf*cking LAWSUIT that they filed on behalf of FIVE orca whales who they felt were being held as slaves by Sea World.
Please. Read that again. I’ll wait.
*humming “Down and Out” by Cam’ron*
Luckily the lawsuit was tossed out by a judge who obviously has common sense but was forced to ACTUALLY decide on this case. But the fact that PETA was going to try to run a motherf*cking Thirteenth Amendment okeydoke on the American people on behalf of five whales who didn’t ASK for the lawsuit is beyond me. But there goes PETA again, lumping animal rights into the civil rights debate. The Thirteenth Amendment outlawed slavery OF MOTHERF*CKING PEOPLE and these fools are trying to use it to basically free Willy??????
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Miller stopped the case from proceeding two days after he became the first judge in U.S. history to listen to arguments in court over the possibility of granting constitutional rights for members of an animal species.
“As `slavery’ and `involuntary servitude’ are uniquely human activities, as those terms have been historically and contemporaneously applied, there is simply no basis to construe the Thirteenth Amendment as applying to non-humans,” Miller wrote in his ruling.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals filed the lawsuit in October and named five whales as plaintiffs. PETA says the wild-captured orcas are enslaved by SeaWorld because they are held in concrete tanks against their will and forced to perform in shows at its parks in San Diego and Orlando, Fla.
By Arturo R. García
Academy Awards? More like Academy of Awkward.
But seriously, what kind of group spends nearly all of 210 minutes squeeing over love letters to movie houses from the 1910s and silent movies?
Oh. Never mind.
That study by the Los Angeles Times, which revealed (or confirmed) that the Oscars electorate is 77 percent male and nearly 100 percent white, gives us the only context in which Billy Crystal’s return as the show’s host could possibly be explained. Otherwise, he couldn’t have been more of a creative anachronist if he’d showed up cosplaying Tyrion Lannister.
Come to think of it, that would’ve been a better idea than him bringing back his Sammy Davis Jr. impression. On Facebook, Racebending’s Michael Le aptly summed up what made this old gag such a miscalculation on Crystal’s part, particularly compared to Robert Downey Jr.’s stint as Kirk Lazarus in Tropic Thunder a few years back:
Robert Downey Jr’s blackface extensively satired the use (and abuse) of blackface by Hollywood. It demonstrated the utter ridiculousness of a white actor attempting to represent and embody a person of color.
In contrast, Billy Crystal’s bit was superfluously included in a national broadcast, in an awards show that has consistently snubbed performers of color – and, I believe, only rewarded a single black actress tonight, for playing a maid.
In an opening shockingly absent of anything remotely funny, Crystal also managed to resurrect blackface on national television. That’s not an accomplishment. It doesn’t demonstrate how “postracial” we are, it just provides fodder for another polarizing discussion on race, with the “get over it” folks ever more firmly entrenched and a genuine dialogue on race totally absent from the national forum.
The offense implicit in blackface is NOT about specificity and never has been. It’s about the historical abuse of blackface portrayals to reduce and control how people of color are viewed in media and society.
The decision by Crystal and producer Brian Grazer to go with this bit for the sake of a 10 or 20-second long sight gag becomes more problematic when you factor in that Crystal really only scored this gig because Eddie Murphy quit in a huff. Moral of the story: Brett Ratner’s to blame for all of this. Or maybe he was luckier for not being there.
But, there were positives last night. Octavia Spencer’s Best Supporting Actress nod for The Help might have been the least-surprising result of the night. But her win especially resonated with the members of the National Domestic Workers’ Alliance, which has organized a Bill of Rights campaign around the film:
Now the question for both Spencer and Viola Davis – who lost the Best Actress category to Meryl Streep – becomes, where do they go from here? And will the Oscar voters be as willing to pay attention to them when they’re not playing the conscience of idealistic white people?
As far as pleasant surprises, you also had the evening’s pair of South Asian winners: Iran’s Asghar Farhadi (A Separation, Best Foreign Language Film, A Separation) who dedicated his win to his countrymen, and Pakistan’s first winner, documentarian Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, whose victory for Saving Face spurred a celebration of its own online, as MSNBC reported:
Immediately following her win, proud Pakistanis – watching early-morning satellite feeds of the awards ceremony halfway across the world – took to the web to share their glee and congratulate their fellow countryman. For a brief moment, “Saving Face” became one of the top ten trends, worldwide, on Twitter.
“I walk a prouder #Pakistani today coz of you @sharmeenochinoy and your #Oscar win!!” tweeted @samrammuslim.
“Pakistan wins 1st #Oscar r hero @sharmeenochinoy,” tweeted @asmiather.
Networks across Pakistan broadcast breaking news alerts to announce Obaid-Chinoy’s win. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani announced the nation would confer the filmmaker with the highest civilian award upon her return.
Other points of interest:
What was your take on the evening, everyone?
Source: RapRadar
In this clip for RapRadar, Young Guru gives his opinion on an article from AlumniRoundUp that analyzes and interprets Jay-Z and Kanye West’s ‘Niggas in Paris’ with Yasiin Bey’s (f.k.a. Mos Def) ‘Niggas In Poorest.’ Guru provides an interesting perspective on both songs in this video.