§ Happy Thanksgiving
§ What would a synthetic cairn look like? Can we take anything from the elegant idea of stacking stones as a place-marker and apply it to collaborative sculpture? Build together with everyone who crosses through a specific site over time. Inevitably someone will dismantle it all but that can be just as poignant.
§ I wrote up a list of exhibit design challenges for an upcoming collaboration with a student group.
Create…
- an exhibit that requires cooperation between multiple people
- an exhibit that is meaningfully different each day
- an exhibit that cleverly communicates the passage of seconds
- an exhibit that cleverly communicates the passage of years
- an exhibit that rewards careful observation
- an exhibit that can be enjoyed equally by both blind and sighted guests
- an exhibit that is site-specific
§ New appliance alert! While 2023 is nearly over, we couldn’t let “the year of new appliances” go by without replacing one more faulty appliance.
First it was our washing machine, shortly after, our refrigerator stopped working, a few months later it was our oven and now, finally, we are replacing our shoddy dishwasher. Delivery is December 6th so I can’t say much more until then but I’m frankly pretty excited.
Let’s all hope for a better theme for 2024.
§ With my focus on the kitchen, I decided to take care of something else I had been interested in for a while—I replaced my faucet and added an under-the-sink water filter unit. Even though it required a fair deal of awkwardly craning my body and sticking my head underneath my kitchen cabinets it was all a much easier job than I had feared.
§ I started watching Brit Marling’s new miniseries A Murder at the End of the World. You might remember her as the creator and star of the captivating and brilliantly weird show The OA a few years ago. The new series is ongoing with only three episodes out at the moment but so far, so good.
I’m also, of course, now re-watching The OA. It is such a special show. Completely weird but unfailingly committed and self-assured. A Murder at the End of the World doesn’t yet have quite that same spark but I have full faith that Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij can deliver something special.
§ I ordered Teenage Engineering’s new EP–133 K.O. II sampler. It looks like a very beefed up version of one of their Pocket Operators, a series of devices I absolutely adore. I can’t wait to try it.
§ Checking out the album-centric music app Longplay reintroduced me to an old favorite album from a few years ago.
The album Woodkid For Nicolas Ghesquière—which was produced for a wild 2019 Louis Vuitton fashion show—is pretty darn close to a perfect record. I would love to find more music like it but I can’t quite articulate its genre cogently enough to search for similar artists. It is big, orchestral, and percussive. It has sparse but compelling vocals. It is overwhelmingly analog but it is not afraid to use digital manipulation where it is effective. Even Woodkid’s other music isn’t quite comparable. Tyondai Braxton’s Central Market feels like a sibling but other than that I am coming up blank.
§ Sam is back and I have a new least favorite word: ouster. I never want to hear the word “ouster" again.
