MUSEUMM...

Flower ‘Bulbs’

Though designers make pieces that are commodities of everyday use, a lot of the functional pieces created by designers can still be considered ‘art’ in their own way.

German designer Miriam Aust of Aust Amelung created the “Vase & Leuchte” (2011) table lamp that functions as both a lamp and vase. The act of combining the element of light and plants into the design is like an experiment, giving the piece a laboratory aesthetic. The plants are placed in the main bowl structure with water, and the light bulb is protected by a glass structure, similar to a laboratory glass beaker, in the middle of the bowl. This allows for the light to travel through the plants, highlighting unique elements such as the vascular tissue of leaves or reflecting root patterns onto walls. You can order your very own “Vase & Leuchte” at the dua shop.

Japanese product designer Yuma Kuno has created a slightly similar piece, involving light bulbs as vases. In 2007, Japan’s Ministry of Environment asked companies to stop using inefficient incandescent light bulbs. Kuno saw a chance to use these obsolete objects and change their function to something useful; the bulbs can hold small flowers, and even the filament is used as a stem holder.

Whether highlighting the aesthetic biology of a plant or merely being used as a simple holder for one, both the works of Miriam Aust and Yuma Kuno are great design ideas!

Organized in observance of the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Witness: Art and Civil Rights in the Sixties (opening tomorrow, March 7th) considers how artists used wide-ranging aesthetic approaches—from gestural abstraction and assemblage to Minimalism, Pop, and photography—to address the struggle for racial justice. 

The exhibition will be accompanied by an exciting roster of programing. Mark your calendars for Sunday, March 16th when Congressman John Lewis and Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad will talk about how the history of the Civil Rights Movement can inspire today’s activists.

Ever wondered whose job it is to make all those fabricated newspapers, letters, photographs, posters or books used by characters on our favourite TV shows and in the movies? It’s a peculiar and curious career niche, but I’ve found someone that does exactly that for a living… Ross MacDonald never finished high school, nor did […]

My idea is to develop a game in stop-motion (I know, crazy work, suicide, no more life, etc). After many concepts thrown in the bin, after emptying the bin and throwing in it more concepts, I found my subject. 

And my subject is… Van Gogh. Because I always loved him and I will always do. Because there is so much about him, about his life, about his way to experience colors and nature, so much that everyone must know.

If you really really want to see how it goes on, keep checking this blog.

"To look at the stars always makes me dream, as simply as I dream over the black dots of a map representing towns and villages. Why, I ask myself, should the shining dots of the sky not be as accessible as the black dots on the map of France? If we take the train to get to Tarascon or Rouen, we should be able to take death to reach a star. One thing undoubtedly true in this reasoning is this: that while we are alive we cannot get to a star, any more than when we are dead we can take the train." 

Tanisa Gunesekera: Barefoot at the Malay Heritage Centre, Singapore

I loved the Malay Heritage Centre.

Walking barefoot on the cool dark wood of Istana Kampong Gelam. Wandering into sounds of sea, drums, cafe chatter, golden cinema. Enjoying the quiet and space to think, to absorb fascinating stories and enjoy photographs, objects and multimedia displays.

I hope the video above will give you a glimpse of the multi-sensory experience that is the Malay Heritage Centre. Sight, sound, touch and smell. I haven’t shown any taste but there were ‘heritage biscuits’ (including iced gems!) on sale to complete the experience.

I was in Singapore for only 8 days, but had to visit twice - once was not enough (the second time wading through monsoon-ish rains - absolutely worth it).

Tomorrow I will share some highlights from other National Heritage Board museums and from my meeting with Education department colleagues at NHB.

In the meantime, find out more about the Malay Heritage Centre and Kampong Gelam, the area in which it is located, here. 

Fans of Chicago’s literary history should be elated.

The History Museum announced the crowdsourcing competition in late October, the first major museum in the country to seek public input in creating an exhibit. 

Oooh, I like this:

Almost all medieval feast foods were conveyed to the mouth by elaborate, and often elegant, finger choreography…However, both pinky fingers were extended, never touching food or gravy or sauce, reserved as spice fingers. Dipped into the salt, sweet basil, cinnamoned sugar, or ground mustard seed, then raised to the tongue, the spice fingers displayed a feaster’s digital finesse while adding another sensual pleasure: touch of food’s texture.

Some modern polite extensions of pinky fingers, serving no physical pur­pose, are cultural remembrances of medieval spice fingers. In fact, a medieval clerical encouragement for use of the fork was to eliminate the pleasure of touch. The fork was generally ignored until the late 16th century as a super­fluous and foppish metallic intrusion between sensual food and willing mouth. 

-Historian Madeleine Pelner Cosman