“No architects have been more deeply or visibly embroiled … than the Swiss team of Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron” in the struggle “to figure out the right balance between architectural expression and the need to showcase art.” Their design for the Miami Art Museum “breaks [outmoded] forms apart and then pieces them back together to create something wholly new.”
Tag: 11.24.09
Survey: Recession Has Made A Grim Climate For Artists
An online survey of more than 5,300 artists “found that the recession has been exceptionally tough for many artists. Eighteen percent of those who responded said their income had dropped 50 percent or more in the last year.”
When An Actor Performs, What Does Her Brain Look Like?
Fiona Shaw lent her brain to science, reciting T.S. Eliot inside an MRI scanner, to help researchers find out. (video)
A Tech Writer Explains Why Not To Buy An E-Reader
For one thing, “buying any e-book reader now is a gamble. Every model has access to a different catalog of books, some of which are restricted by copy-protection schemes. This leads to a classic early-adopter format dilemma….”
Without Oxytocin, Would We Be Mired In Barbarism?
“Scientists have long known that the hormone plays essential physiological roles during birth and lactation, and animal studies have shown that oxytocin can influence behavior too…. Now a raft of new research in humans suggests that oxytocin underlies the twin emotional pillars of civilized life, our capacity to feel empathy and trust.”
Out Of The Blue, A New Pigment
At Oregon State University, chemists “created a new, durable and brilliantly blue pigment by accident. The researchers were trying to make compounds with novel electronic properties, mixing manganese oxide, which is black, with other chemicals and heating them to high temperatures.”
Waldo Hunt, Who Led Pop-Up-Book Revival, Dies At 88
“‘King of the pop-ups’ became Mr. Hunt’s moniker in professional circles. Mr. Hunt produced dozens of books for Walt Disney; a series based on Babar; and popular titles including ‘Haunted House’ and ‘The Human Body.’ A 1967 pop-up published by Random House, ‘Andy Warhol’s Index,’ came about at the suggestion of the artist. “
Philip Glass On The Intersection Of Music, Science & Math
“The worlds of music and science, as Mr. Glass sees it, are not that far apart. For starters, he is skeptical of science’s claim to objectivity. ‘Mathematicians are subject to the same kinds of enthusiasms as everybody else,’ ” he says.
Kids In Home-Based Day Care Watch Double The TV
“[R]esearchers found that toddlers, ages 1 to 3, in home-based day-care centers watched an average of 1.6 hours of television there each day, including videos and DVDs. Preschool-age children, 3 to 5 years old, watched 2.4 hours a day in home-based centers.” That’s not counting their viewing at home.