Virgin Rebirth

'Virgin Rebirth', has all those things that are still making my heart beat a bit faster - pastel colours, sheer pieces, mixed up textiles and a romantic spirit that is reined in by some form of shape/structure in the design.  These are then added to some hazy yellow-tinged lookbook images and an intention that of course references to beautiful films such as Virgin Suicides and Picnic at Hanging Rock. 

Language

How we see the world impacts our use of language and our use of language impacts how we see the world.
  
"For a long time, the idea that language might shape thought was considered at best untestable and more often simply wrong. Research in my labs at Stanford University and at MIT has helped reopen this question. We have collected data around the world: from China, Greece, Chile, Indonesia, Russia, and Aboriginal Australia. What we have learned is that people who speak different languages do indeed think differently and that even flukes of grammar can profoundly affect how we see the world. Language is a uniquely human gift, central to our experience of being human. Appreciating its role in constructing our mental lives brings us one step closer to understanding the very nature of humanity." 
How does our language shape the way we think?

Two aspects of the visual world that provide good examples of how the visual impacts language and vary between languages and cultures: Color & Space.

Color

Winawer and others at MIT take a close look at this subject in "Russian blues reveal effects of language on color discrimination." (2007) For red & pink, there is a correlating opposite in Chinese. The color distinction is not as prevalent as the colors are in the same category linguistically. Red is 红 (hóng) and pink as 粉红, (fěn hóng) or literally "powder red", a linguistic derivation similar to 'light-blue' in English. Where Russian blues are distinct, so are the Reds in English, but in Chinese, they are linguistically related.

This insight/observation points towards a direct connection between the language one speaks and the functionality of the visual cortex and the brain. In other words, the vocabulary you use and how you categorize the world affects the speed at which you brain can recall certain information through your optic nerves. They also hint that left brain hemisphere tasks may be affected by language and visual perception as this is the hemisphere of the brain where language and logical performance is organized.

Space

In addition to color, spatial perception varies among cultures according to researchers. These differences in how we perceive space (eg. size, distance, depth, and direction, etc) lead to corresponding linguistic differences manifested in the words we use to describe our surroundings in different language. This lens of language here affects how we perceive and feel about our surroundings. One might easily imagine how a phrase like "that is a large house", "it is within walking distance", or "it is located off to the right" would vary in meaning between cultures, but there are more subtle and stark differences in how we perceive space differently. The Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics has several examples of cultural variances. Researcher Steven C. Levinson has interesting insights and states that in "...many cultures (as suggested by at least a third of the small sample) spatial conception is organized in a fundamentally different way than expected on the basis of familiar western languages."

Geography, culture, and even technology shape how we view space in our world. In addition to variance among cultures, there is constant change within languages. It is not solely a function of this 'lens of language'; it is both a function of our language and our experiences. For example, the exposure to mathematics and science has an impact on how we perceive space.

Quote from
LERA BORODITSKY

Zombie

Bored of the same & tired old rock-paper-scissor? Try Mark Rayner's variant: "Monkey-Pirate-Robot-Ninja-Zombie!"

Adventuras

A decade ago, Alessandra Sanguinetti became drawn to a pair of cousins in a rural province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Their evident affection for each other is somehow magnified by their mismatched physiques, where Sanguinetti took pictures to "crystallize their rich yet fragile and unattended world" and where she managed to capture the series called “The Adventures of Guille and Belinda and the Enigmatic Meaning of Their Dreams”. Now, at long last, it’s been published as a book.

Littledo is Love

Today is an apt day to be posting about I Don't Like Mondays new gallery adventure because a) it's not a Monday and b) better yet, it's a Sunday! I Don't Like Mondays Gallery project is an ongoing venture which sees unique collaborations between artists and stores to create wearable one-off pieces - or at least, push the boundaries of wearability to the upper limit. The last artist, Shin Murayama, has created vicious looking masks out of trainers, sheepskin, and can ring pulls forming a decidedly scary teeth-ridden beard.



The latest IDLM Gallery collaborator is former Nylon intern and singer for the folk-rocky Weepaw, Chase Cohl. Her designs are elaborate, handmade headpieces and jewelry under the label Littledoe is Love. Some may feel they need another headband like they need a hole in their head, but there's something very peace, love, and happiness about these pieces. No prizes for guessing the one-offs, specially when they feature a real antique iron crown, beautiful blue/yellow macaque feathers, taxidermy butterflies, 19th century gold tapestry, and a fanned out bird wing (as the last one). The limited pieces are simpler but not less beautiful with the delicate chains and freshwater pearls. I'm hesitating to ask IDLM how much these pieces are but seeing as 50% of the sales goes to Designers Against Aids, then someone with very deep philanthropic pockets will step up and have their heads crowned in Littledoe is Love glory...

Act Up

 

The Silence = Death logo that became synonymous with ACT UP was actually created by six gay activists before the organization was founded. Later they joined!

ACT UP's first demonstration on March 24th, 1987 received much media attention in New York City, but only led to 17 arrests.



Read My Lips was a kissing demonstration that ACT UP employed, non-violently bringing about change toward sexual discrimination.

In the 1980s, frustration and anger filled the streets of New York City as the AIDS epidemic, unchecked and unacknowledged by the government, ravaged the country. In response to the administration's inaction and neglect, author and activist Larry Kramer formed the first and most influential AIDS awareness organization, ACT UP, in 1987 to address the dire problems of the crisis. By educating the public, facilitating a dialogue between pharmaceutical companies and citizens, intelligently employing civil disobedience, and resiliently fighting against sexual discrimination, ACT UP has been and remains an invaluable presence in the fight for equal rights and against HIV/AIDS.

In tribute to the organization and in recognition of its instrumental influence, here is a timeline to showcase those first heroic individuals who put up a fight when the government turned its back.

---

1987 – in March, a group of individuals outraged by the government’s mismanagement of the AIDS crisis meet at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center to discuss plans of action. Larry Kramer founds ACT UP.  The organization's first demonstration takes place March 24th on Wall Street, targeting pharmaceutical companies that are profiting from the sales of HIV/AIDS drug, AZT, but without making it easily accessible to people infected with the disease. After this demonstration, the FDA shortens the drug approval process by two years.

1988 --- In January, ACT UP protests an article written in Cosmopolitan that erroneously states that women cannot contract the AIDS virus through heterosexual sex. Women of ACT UP informally meet with the misinformed writer and demand both a retraction and an apology. After the author refuses both requests, 500 people protest the magazine outside its headquarters, the filming of which is later included in the documentary, Doctors, Liars, and Women.

         -- GRAN FURY, an "invisible" artist/activist collective forms and quickly becomes the artistic complement to ACT UP. Taking on the unofficial role of ACT UP’s propaganda ministry, GRAN FURY prolifically produces loud billboards and bus posters addressing the AIDS crisis.  The collective even reaches the windows of the New Museum. Provoking a dialogue, their strong messages prove direct, powerful, and persuasive.

         -- This same year, Douglas Crimp, an active ACT UP member, publishes his influential writings on the crisis in AIDS: Cultural Analysis/Cultural Activism.

1989 -- For ACT UP’s second anniversary, 3,000 people meet at New York City Hall to protest the inadequacy of all AIDS policy under Mayor Edward Koch. This AIDS demonstration is the largest of its kind to date. About 200 demonstrators are arrested.

1990 – ACT UP organizes a movement against the National Institutes of Health (NIH). 1,000 protesters unite to demand more AIDS treatment and better representation of women and people of color in clinical trials.

         -- This same year, active ACT UP member and film historian, Vito Russo, dies from AIDS-related complications.

1991 -- ACT UP's Youth Education Life Line (YELL) committee helps sway the New York City Board of Education to approve a plan for condom distribution in public high schools.  ACT UP also demands medical treatment for prisoners with AIDS, declaring that “living with AIDS in prison is cruel and unusual punishment."

Be sure to look out for ACT UP because the fight against AIDS isn't over!

Diosss

Fathers

André Breton is the father of surrealism.

Juan Sebastian Bach, the father of music.

Galileo Galilei, the father of modern physics.

Male Emperor Penguins are the fathers of devotion.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO ALL THE TRUE DADS AND MAMIS-SOLITAS OUT THERE!!!

Sweet Mud

Casting a critical and intensely personal eye of life on a kibbutz, Sweet Mud peels away the layers of folklore and romanticism to reveal the harshness of the communal enterprise. Israeli director Dror Shaul places his outstanding cast in settings of lush visual beauty in a film that was developed at the Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Lab with input by Stephen Gaghan and Ed Harris, amongst others. This summer the Consulate General of Israel will mark the centennial anniversary of the Kibbutz movement with this special outdoors screening. This evening will be dedicated to the magic of this unique Israeli social phenomenon. As the kibbutz is founded upon agriculture, with a concentration on nature, the film will be screened at Solar One, a venue powered solely by green energy. Enjoy a “kibbutz-like” gathering filled with Israeli food, music and film, all under the summer skies.

Where:
On the pier at Solar One
23rd St. and the East River

When:
8:00 Doors Open
8:30 Live Music by Hank & Cupcakes
9:00 Film begins

Gnossiene No.3

Classical

I just received the icing to my cake from my lovely friend, Jaakko. Perfect music for me to study for my final next week and/or relax in a nice hot bath. Thank you!!!

Force

"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open... There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others."

Quote From
MARTHA GRAHAM
The Life and Work of

Hands

Las Migas

This is a 4-girl flamenco band from Barcelona, Spain. Superb stuff both visually and musically. Las Migas – BOOOOOOOM!

Live performance:

Yoga

One Chance

" And again he thought the thought we already know: Human life occurs only once, and the reason we cannot determine which of our decisions are good and which is bad is that in a given situation we can only make one decision; we are not granted a second, third or fourth life in which to compare." 

Quote from
MILAN KUNDERA
'The Unbearable Lightness of Being'

Evan B. Harris

In the rainy gloom of Portland, OR, Evan B. Harris finds solace in his beautiful attic studio. Using aged acrylic and oil paints, charcoal pastels, plastic resin and melted wax, he creates images that seem unearthed from the past. His work often refers to his father’s artisan philosophies and inspired by his upbringing in the backwoods of Medford, OR. Evan’s art studio feels as though you stepped into a scene of his paintings. Everything in the place it was made to be, with deep accents of color and a rustic nostalgia.

Some of my favorites Evan B. Harris paintings from the past. To see more check out his Flickr.