Star Wars and Modernism introduction

John Powers aka @starwarsmodern:

Earlier this week on twitter I ‘tweeted’ what might be thought of as an 8-bit art history lecture. By “8-Bit” I mean that, in the same way an 8-bit portrait is accurate, if radically simplified, this is a blocky generalized history. I was spurred to give this lecture after Todd Florio passed on the artist, Tom Sachs’ observation that “Darth Vader IS Hitler. Yoda IS Buddha.” Sachs owns Foamcore, police barricades, and can make an almost entirely air-tight claim on NASA, but Star Wars is mine. Sorry Tom.

I’m pretty sure this is what the internet was invented for.

Darth Vader is a Modernist
“Darth Vader was not a German Fascist, he was an American fascist (lowercase f)”

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Seeing yourself seeing your self

Jason Wilson on presenting his project OuterBody while using it:

I’d always suspected that an on-stage experience would be interesting, if not transformative, so I took the opportunity to give my talk while wearing the OuterBody goggles that only allow me to see myself from a third person perspective. I’d imagined that seeing yourself on stage from the perspective of an audience member might reduce some stage fright if the sense of self could successfully move from your body on stage into the camera in the aisle. Let the attention fall on that disembodied you that you’re also staring at.

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A Brief History of John Baldessari

Narrated by Tom Waits.

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William Pope.L curates the Fluxkit

As part of the recent Fluxus exhibition at MoMA, artists were invited to curate objects from a reconfigurable suitcase called the Fluxkit. I helped David Hart shoot this video with William Pope.L, one of the most fun things I did at MoMA last year.

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How to see the blood vessels inside your own eye

A good explanation of how the vertebrate retina works.

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ChatRoulette piano improv

This guy is good!

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The Days of Miracles and Wonder

Greg Knauss travels back in time and has a conversation with himself about the future:

That’s why I wanted to talk to you, 1990 me. Your cynicism is important, even vital. God knows, there are times when it will seem like bunnies-and-rainbows optimism given what actually happens. Things get really, really bad for a while, and no amount of cynicism seems like enough.

But I also wanted to make sure that there are some things that are, in fact, awesome. The world’s been through a hell of a lot, and I’m not sure I trust my own eyes anymore.

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