Saturday, July 6, 2013

6/7/2013: WLASze Part 1: Weekend Links on Arts, Sciences and Zero Economics

Given that this week is the 4th of July week, it is probably apt to start my WLASze: Weekly Links on Arts, Sciences and zero economics instalment with a bit of Americana.

And so we shall.

On sciency-bit side - an awe-inspiring story of a 35-years-old-and-still-running scientific journey: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/28/science/space/going-going-still-going-voyager-1-at-solar-systems-edge.html?_r=0
My favourite quote: "…when the two Voyagers launched in 1977 on a grand tour of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, the space age was just 20 years old, and there was no way to know that NASA had built something that would last 35 years…" Now, recall the life span of your iPhone… 35 months?.. near, not even that. And to that: Happy Birthday, America!


But while on the topic of space, fascinating images from arstechnica on ISS workings:
http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/07/gallery-the-international-space-station-flight-control-room/#image-1 The logos above the Mission Control Center and the typography of the sign are a bit OTT… like, tacky. The second and third images are brilliant: it takes fewer computers and people to run the ISS than to execute a mildly sizeable hedge fund management strategy… The amazing bit is that these guys are managing equipment that is largely Russian-designed and built, floating out in space and manned by all sorts of crews, so Big Respekt!


Via @stephenkinsella - an absolutely amazing, comprehensive and exhaustive visualisation of univariate distributions linkages: http://www.math.wm.edu/~leemis/chart/UDR/UDR.html . You can scroll over the defined distributions of the right hand side to 'focus' on their respective clusters: a list of 76 probability distributions formed by 19 discrete and 57 continuous ones. Screw Tall Ships and Star Wars posters! I know, I want to print this one out on a 'blackboard' paper like 3x3 meters-sized for Luca's room.


On the arts side: "Until It Makes Sense" is an encounter with the work of Mario García Torres at Dublin's Project Arts Centre http://ht.ly/mD7lK . Worth a visit. Here's an interview with Torres in line with this 2007 Stadelijk Museum show: http://www.flashartonline.com/interno.php?pagina=articolo_det&id_art=90&det=ok&title=MARIO-GARCIA-TORRES

An interesting reference to "John Baldessari’s rendition of Sol LeWitt’s Sentences On Conceptual Art" - http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/189072 Baldessari's 1972 work.
I prefer Baldessari as a conceptual photographic artist, with works like here: http://www.muralsoflajolla.com/john-baldessari-mural/

and Classic Baldessari:


Staying with art: Arte Laguna - a regular international competition "aimed at promoting and enhancing Contemporary Art" and held at Venice Arsenale was announced for 2013-2014: http://www.artelagunaprize.com/index.php/prize.html
with exhibition to be held 9 October-30 October 2013.

Here are some of 2012 winners. A brilliant recomposition of classical pastoral narratives using photography as the medium to replicate the texture, light and colour gamma of oil by Linda Pottage:
http://www.artelagunaprize.com/index.php/component/content/article/985-linda-pottage.html
In larger size, and including her other work:



Amazingly fluid and, obviously, dynamic structure, reminiscent of 3D plots you might get in Mathematica… or the 'Regression Machine' one of my econometrics professors at UCLA used on us (not a very happy memory of tortured geekiness) by Jill Townsley:
http://www.artelagunaprize.com/index.php/component/content/article/986-jill-townsley.html



Source on 2012 show: http://bellezzedarte.wordpress.com/2013/03/30/la-mostra-dei-finalisti-premio-arte-laguna/

Another excellent work: Jaspal Bir's oil:


Stay tuned - more links will be forthcoming in Part 2.

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