Sophianotloren

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In Telephone, an online exhibition organized by the Satellite Collective, a web connecting 315 artists in 42 countries was structured around this Breton fisherman’s prayer: “Oh god thy sea is so great and my boat is so small.” Starting from that central message, each artist communicated to the next through a variety of media, from drawing to dance, resulting in over 50 threads in an art version of the game “telephone.”

The online platform for Telephone launched yesterday, mapping the paths of interpretation and revealing the original message to all the participating artists. Helped along by a Kickstarter campaign, the call for artists first went out in 2013, gathering interest in the exquisite corpse-like experiment from around the globe.

“Of all the parts of the message, the most sustaining element was water,” Nathan Langston, who directed and conceived of Telephone, told Hyperallergic. “There’s the water of the original message throughout almost all of the threads.”

The first painting, by New York-based artist Jana Weaver, shows a naked woman launching a folded paper boat into the sea beneath a canopy of stars. It inspired New York poet Bob Holman to write “Naked Night,” which asks the reader to sing of “[t]he poem that floats / Its message across / The land that recedes / To the stars themselves / The recipients.” In the hands of Salt Lake City-based musician David Williams, those words translated into a 10-minute composition in which an electric guitar picks a repeating theme against the tonal vastness of a single sustained chord. From that recording made in the Utah desert, Portland photographer Tom Patterson documented the trail of a pipeline from an abandoned pumping station all the way to a towering waterfall. Those photographs were transformed into a painting by Jakarta-based artist Charles Shuster, and then New York-based Todd Bryant turned the pipeline into a surround sound digital space in which nature sprawls around the industrial ruins. “It’s enjoyable and surprising to see how the art forms talk to each other,” Langston added.

Viewers can browse by medium or location in addition to clicking through the different paths. Imagery like the paper ship resurfaces in surprising ways, such as a video by Amsterdam-based Akmar Nijhof in which blue paint is smeared away from its folds, or a boat of photographs in a sculpture by Janet Van Fleet in Cabot, Vermont. The quality of the art varies, but it’s fascinating how some of the original message endures even when transmitted through performance, installation, painting, prose, and any other of the diverse media. For example, Johannesburg-based artist Sharleene Olivier’s ethereal, murky embroidery inspired a sound piece that circled back to the project’s original message.

“This was a moment when it seemed like the thread would spin off and become totally abstract,” Langston explained. “But this thread ended up producing some of the most ‘accurate’ conclusions. Sharleene’s work was assigned to Dustin Hamman, a musician in Portland, Oregon. Somehow, as if by magic, the message re-emerges from his music.” His layered composition eventually has the lyrics “drifting to the surface” appear from the noise, and concludes with the sound of crashing waves, calling back the Breton fisherman through the artistic chain.

View the Satellite Collective’s Telephone exhibition online.

sandandglass:

The Nightly Show, April 16, 2015

*hand movements*

The coal companies are using their traditional power in West Virginia to roll back state health and safety regulations at the same time the federal government is citing them for gross health and safety violations. Not that the companies really care since the penalties even at the federal level are too small for them to bother with.

West Virginia coal companies successfully lobbied for a rollback of state mining safety regulations in the same month that mines they own were issued more than two-dozen health and safety citations by federal inspectors. Murray Energy, Arch Coal and Alpha Natural Resources are all members of the West Virginia Coal Association, which earlier this year led the push for the state’s newly elected Republican-majority Legislature to pass the controversial Coal Jobs & Safety Act.

Democratic Gov. Earl Tomblin signed the bill into law in March over objections from the mineworkers’ union and workplace safety advocates. It abolished a joint labor-industry panel that reviews underground diesel equipment to safeguard air quality, removed a prohibition on transporting equipment when workers are deeper in the mine than where the equipment is being shipped and expanded the maximum distance between rail tracks and work areas. The industry said the old regulations, which were stricter than their federal counterparts, were burdensome and did little to improve workplace safety.

In February, as the Legislature debated and approved the reforms, inspectors from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) visited three West Virginia mines owned by Murray, Arch and Alpha and slammed the companies with a combined 25 citations.

“Unfortunately, it’s no coincidence that while these companies are advocating reducing state mine safety provisions to match the looser federal requirements, they are also being cited by the federal government for engaging in unsafe practices,” said Kenny Perdue, president of the West Virginia branch of the AFL-CIO.

If another 29 miners died like at the 2010 disaster at Massey Energy’s Big Branch mine, the companies still wouldn’t care. They never have.

Brian Beutler on the demographic breakdown of the 35% of the population that favors the repeal of the ACA:

Only a third of the country supports full repeal, and, like the Republican coalition itself, it is a very old third—comprised of the only people in the country with almost no stake in the law’s core costs and benefits.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, whose tracking poll is a touchstone for measuring public sentiment about Obamacare, the law is under water—barely. Forty one percent of respondents hold favorable views of the ACA, while 43 percent hold unfavorable views. But if you break it out by age cohort, you find that that two percent margin is entirely attributable to people who have aged out of the program.

Among 18- to 64-year-olds—the people who pay for the law, or are eligible for the law’s benefits, or might become eligible for the law’s benefits at some point in the future—Obamacare is breakeven. Forty two percent favorable, versus 42 percent unfavorable. Among those whose opinions we should generally ignore on this issue—old people—it’s a bloodbath. Only 36 percent view the law favorably, while 46 percent view it unfavorably.

As with so much in American politics, “I’ve got mine, Jack” is the dominant ethos of opposition to the ACA. The fact that so much opposition to the ACA comes from people with so little stake in whether the law survives (and what little stake they do have something that only a vanishingly small number of people would be aware of) doesn’t help the politics, but it’s certainly morally important.

As I’ve said before, if you actually take the heighten-the-contradictions critique of the ACA seriously — if you think that reform that stops short of nationalization is bad because it “entrenches” private insurers — the real villain is not Obama but LBJ. If there was any chance of single-payer or a comparable alternative, it died with Medicare. In my view, there almost certainly wasn’t any chance anyway, so Great Society Democrats were right to take what they could get. But certainly by cherry-picking a politically powerful constituency, Medicare made both passing and sustaining more comprehensive reforms much more difficult.

Ghostly images have been discovered in one of the UK’s most important medieval manuscripts.

The phantoms were found in the Black Book of Carmarthen at the National Library of Wales — the earliest surviving text written in Welsh, containing the oldest poems about King Arthur and the wizard Merlin. They appeared when Myriah Williams, a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge, was doing some research for her thesis. She subjected the 750-year-old manuscript to a newfangled ultraviolet light scan that revealed faces and writing invisible to the naked eye.

In a release published April 1 (though not a joke), the university gave a simple explanation for these eerie drawings. They’re essentially the erased, medieval manifestations of modern marginalia — a practice we tend to associate more with the previous owners of college textbooks than with those of rare and precious books.

The tradition, it turns out, goes as far back as the 5th or 4th century B.C., when ancient Greek readers responded to the authors they were reading within the blank spaces of text. With the Black Book, the idea of that type of imaginary, literary communion occurring is particularly powerful, considering that it was written by a single, lonely scribe over the course of his life.

“[That it was written by one author] is readily visible on the manuscript pages themselves; the first pages feature a large textura script copied on alternating ruled lines, while in other parts of the manuscript — perhaps when vellum was scarce — the hand is very much smaller and the lines per page tight and many,” the release explains. “That the Black Book may have been something of a labour of love is also reflected in its content by the breadth of genres represented. These range from pieces of religious verse to praise poetry to story poetry.”

Jaspar Gryffyth, the 16th century owner of the Black Book of Carmarthen, was unmoved. He erased all the marginalia that had been scribbled within its 54 pages through the centuries, which the university says included “snatches of poetry … previously unrecorded in the canon of Welsh verse,” as well as comments that tell us what early readers thought about the text. “The Black Book was particularly heavily annotated before the end of the 16th century, and the recovery of erasure has much to tell us about what was already there and can change our understanding of it,” Williams said.

She also explained that the findings illustrate the exciting new possibilities that imaging technology has opened for the scholarship of ancient books.

“It’s easy to think we know all we can know about a manuscript like the Black Book but to see these ghosts from the past brought back to life in front of our eyes has been incredibly exciting,” Williams said. “The drawings and verse that we’re in the process of recovering demonstrate the value of giving these books another look.”

h/t Live Science

Emoji Poem

–Jenny Browne

 

America Without the Rising Waters

is like doughnuts without doughnuts, rain
without fingers—it’s like fingers dancing, dancing,
dancing across the dining table, coming for

your French fries, the elephant in the palm tree,
the world in a frying pan. I’d like to skip the eggplant,
but skipping the eggplant is not an option.

Roll the dice is what I think the sign said in its daunting
foreign language—it was a command, and still I refused.

Sing, sing while you can, said the newspaper, there is still
time for music, books, babies, more books. Even at this

late date, we still receive mail in boxes attached to our
houses! Ours is a world as wondrous as it is bombful.
This consideration, God, it gets harder the longer it

goes on, like anything. Is the answer light and time?
Communication by phone, séance, magic ball, fist?
Every thing is at our disposal. Is that the problem? Yes, I have

trained mountains to go canoeing. Yes, I have camped
in the clouds, angels on all sides partying into the night.
What is left? What is that mystery ball at the end? Tell me

everything I need to know, right here, please—let’s stop
in this field wheat. Start from the beginning. Leave
nothing out.

–Carrie Fountain

 

Banner

I am not o.k. with America, its obsession with coastline and pastries, the same self-indulgences that clog our hearts are also the root of all evil and climate change. And all of us thinking we’re A-OK and cha-cha-cha-ing through life, never realizing how redundant we are. There are other places in the world where elephants matter, where palm trees aren’t grown to have their hearts consumed as easily as a fried egg. Places in the world where the eggplants have no seeds and every move is a gamble or a prognostication, and every gamble begets a chorus. This is news to some folks, and some folks fake sad violin music in their attempt to be comic in their contempt. Do they read or do they say, “I wrote the book on that,” as they scramble at each calendar notification, feel hollow when their inboxes are empty. We’re all just time bombs! All I can do is resort to aphorisms: the key is in your hand, you will see the light, time is running out. To be honest, all I see in the future is punching the lights out of strangers, my fist pummeling through time like a train. This is my mountain. This is my lake. I’ve staked my claim with only the clouds to act as notaries. Soon it will be only the moon’s dark side. Crops will wilt. Leaves fall.

–Michelle Battiste

***

Jenny Browne is the author of three books of poems: Dear Stranger, The Second Reason, and At Once, all from the University of Tampa Press.

Carrie Fountain is the author of two books of poems: Burn Lake and Instant Winner, both from Penguin Books.

Michele Battiste is the author of two books of poems: Uprising and Ink for an Odd Cartography, both from Black Lawrence Press.

Related Posts:

• National Poetry Month Day 20: “Conflict Tourism” by Erika Meitner
• National Poetry Month Day 19: 3 Poems by Amy Newman
• National Poetry Month Day 18: “Instantaneous Letter Writer” by Sandra Beasley
• National Poetry Month Day 17: “Apollinaire in Iowa” by Hai-Dang Phan
• National Poetry Month Day 16: “Post-Apocalypse (With HGTV Magazine)” by Jeannine Hall Gailey

Gerbil-faced bastard Ted Cruz, Republican senator from Texas, talks a big fuckin' game, man. In a conversation with young Republicans on Saturday, Cruz expounded on the threat that is Barack Obama: "Obama is a disaster because he’s an unmitigated socialist, what he believes is profoundly dangerous, and he’s undermined the Constitution and the role of America in the world." Cruz may as well have followed that up with "And he's raping the fuck out the Statue of Liberty while shitting on the flag."

Think about that for a moment. The presidential candidate thinks that the current president wants to subvert the nation. In fact, by Cruz's definition, Obama is a traitor who is putting American lives at risk. If that's the case, Senator Cruz, why aren't you calling for Obama's immediate arrest? Why aren't you leading a squad of armed patriots to take the country back? Jesus Christ, man, that shit's scary. Are we really going to gamble the sovereignty of the nation on another 20 months of an Obama presidency? Are you a pussy? Running for president won't stop Obama. You must just be a pussy who's all talk.

And all it takes is one tri-corner hat-sporting fucknut to take Cruz at his word and do the job himself or herself.

This is what the presidential race is going to be like. It'll be rhetoric heightened right up to the point of declaring President Obama an imminent threat to the country but backing off before taking it to the next logical step. It's gonna be terrorism without the commitment. It's one thing for a candidate to say that the current president has shit policies, but when you take a long walk down Crazytown Road, against the dude who won two elections, you've pretty much announced that you're not a serious person.

But, then again, Cruz mocks the serious people as "moderates," and that'll work on the yahoos, droolers, and mutants who make up the Republican base. New Jersey's most-hated yoga ball, Chris Christie, went fully into the demented blue yonder at a New Hampshire town hall: "I feel like we really have had a President for the last six and a half years that we still don't even know. We don't know what he really believes in. We don't know what he really is willing to fight for. We don't know whether he's really willing to fight for anything. We don't know who he really likes or dislikes. We don't know whether he really cares about his own party, or the other party, or about the country."

Most of us hear that and think, "The fuck are you talking about, hoss? You ever watch the news or listen to the man?"

But if you hear that and think, "Yeah, I don't know shit about Obama other than he's an unmitigated socialist who is profoundly dangerous," then 2016 is going to be an election cycle of orgasmic joy for you.

I’ve mentioned before that Jeffrey Harrison’s blog Class Bias in Higher Education deserves a wide audience. Harrison, a law professor at Florida, doesn’t write very often, but when he does it’s always worth reading. He’s also very funny. Here’s his suggestion on how to run more efficient faculty meetings:

Each faculty member has a life size photo made. This are all kept in the dean’s office but they could also be in the supply room. That is for each faculty to vote on and I am sure they would insist on doing just that. I’d go with the supply room but I will vote with the committee on this.

The faculty meeting is called and faculty stay in their offices writing very important articles, making their next set of reservations to take an important group of people to South America to hear 5 minute talks, napping, playing online chess, or anything else equally productive.

The dean’s right hand person goes to the meeting room and arranges the life size photos. The dean arrives and calls the meeting to order and moves to the first item on the agenda. Let’s say it’s “should we raise the mean GPA from 3.88 to 3.89.” In their photos, each person has his or hand up and the dean recognizes them in turn. But, and here is the revolutionary move. After calling their names he or she just moves to the next person, They do not talk because they are cardboard. BUT the dean (more likely the dean’s assistant) knows exactly what each person will say because they are like a sentences on infinite loops — same thing every single time:

Person 1: Shouldn’t we check to see what the highly ranked schools are doing because we definitely want to move up the ladder, not down because I actually think it is our job to move up in the rankings. (And, by the way, I getting pretty pissed off if anyone disagrees.)

Person 2: I just want to know if this will hurt the students’ feelings because my feelings were hurt once and it does not feel good.

Person 3: Is there some way we could turn this into some money because I really like money.

Person 4: At (my, daughter’s, friend’s) school they have a 4.00 average and, therefore, we should too because I have no original ideas.

Person 5; (Flipping her hair and acting all flustered): I really think we should do something and I am just wondering [don’t you love the passive-aggressive “just wondering move?] if it is really a good idea to give all the students the same grade but I am just wondering so please don’t mind me because the most important thing is that you not realize this is a part time job for me.

Person 6: I actually have nothing to say but I always use up about ten minutes saying nothing it so here is what I think and that is many schools do one thing and some do another and I . . . . . because I like hearing myself sound important because if I hear myself sounding important it makes me think I am important or at least you will think I am here more than the 4 hours a week I actually am on campus.”

Etc.

(via gifak-net:video)

via http://tamaralichtenstein.tumblr.com/post/4505952269/beneaththebalcony-kanibalkangaroo

Just a few former police officers chilling out, enjoying some cheeba — legally

Cut Video's clip of grandmothers smoking weed for the first time was adorable, but their latest video of cops smoking up is a euphoric celebration in honor of 420, the stoner holiday

There were some mustache interferences, but overall these coppers had a great time, especially when the munchies came out.

More about Weed, Cops, Marijuana, 4 20, and Watercooler

Master paper crafting duo Lucie Thomas and Thibault Zimmermann of Zim & Zou (previously) continue to create some of the most eye-catching paper illustrations around. The two French designers focus mostly on handcrafted objects made from materials like paper, thread, wood, and leather for one-of-a-kind window displays, editorial illustrations, and posters. Some of their most recent projects include a lovely poster commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to encourage childhood vaccinations as well as work for the SXSW Film Festival and Hermès Maison Shanghai. See more on Behance.

pr1nceshawn:

The 7 Stages of Not Sleeping at Night

So much truth

kazucrash:

What a time to be alive.

“When people with privilege hear that they have privilege, what they hear is not, “Our society is structured so that your life is more valued than others.” They hear, “Everything, no matter what, will be handed to you. You have done nothing to achieve what you have.” That’s not strictly true, and hardly anyone who points out another’s privilege is making that accusation. There are privileged people who work very hard. The privilege they experience is the absence of barriers that exist for other people.”

- No One Cares If You Never Apologize for Your White Male Privilege
(via deliciouskaek)

catsbeaversandducks:

Cats Who Think They’re Houseplants

“Oh, there’s no need to water me. But thank you.” (photos via diply)

Courtney shared this story from Super Opinionated.

---

Old Dude seeing me on my phone: Why don't you read the news instead of tweeting and texting.

Me: I'm actually reading an article from The Economist on my phone about Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan's mock elections. What are your thoughts on the topic?

Old Dude taken aback: I don't know.

Me: Well then why don't you read the news instead of chastising teenagers on their phones?

For those of you currently celebrating 4/20. (photo via retroman360)

bisexual-books:

wongtonz:

Aaron Diaz ( creator of Dresden Codak and my favourite LoZ au ) says things. 

I feel like this bears repeating and in bold:

You can’t cite the rules of a fictional world to defend something problematic, because a person made it up.  That person is accountable.

I feel this so much when people try to make excuses for authors who write terrible bisexual characters or whose writing is full of bi erasure, bi tropes, or conspicuously missing the b-word.  

- Sarah 

vaccineswork:

Cartoonist Darryl Cunningham tells the important story of tetanus and how we can stop it, as part of the Art of Saving a Life project. 

Time to stop this disease in its tracks!

---

Find out more about Darryl here.

nevver:

The Streets of San Francisco, Hsin-Yao Tseng

nippiest:

whO DID THIS

heyitspj:

popeyeschicken:

get him

“YOU’RE NEXT”

NOCK NOCK ;
HOSE THERE
IT IS ME
IT IS WHO NOW
IT ME
WHAT
WHAT AM I HERE FOR
EMM I FORGOT
WELL GO AWAY BECAUSE IAM GOING TO THE SHOP
CAN I COME
NO
I WILL BE NOT ANOYING