Happy Holidays and New Year 2014
Happy Holidays and New Year 2014! Thank you for your friendship. See you back here soon.
All posts filed under: lifestyle
"Elephant Love" Pop-up Shop: Crowdsourcing for art and charity
By Patricia Chow Last weekend I had my first photography show in Chelsea (New York City), as part of the High Line Open Studios. Since my day job is in statistical research, this was my first experience putting together an art show – and it was fabulous! The show was a great way for me to combine three completely separate facets of my life: the artistic side (I am a photographer and graphic artist); the volunteer side (I teach ESL 3 days a week); and my personal and professional networks, which were instrumental in ensuring the success of the show. I first started to photograph when I was living in Spain in 1995, and much of my photography focuses on the different perceptions that a newcomer has of ordinary surroundings. Since beauty can only exist in the eye of the beholder, I have tried to convey the essence of what I find beautiful in a place, rather than what is commonly considered beautiful, which, in many cases, is simply familiar. There are a …
Cory Doctorow about Helsinki
Cory Doctorow makes a point here addressing that World Science Fiction Convention 2015 should be held in Helsinki. He explains why, but this of course is all science fiction..
2 reasons to visit Stockholm soon
Stockholm is one of the Scandinavian top top places to visit. It can be always surprising. Here are two reasons why to travel there this summer. 1) The Wild Wonders of Europe outdoor photo exhibition is in Stockholm all summer, and it takes place in Raoul Wallenbergs Torg at Nybroplan. ‘After 135 missions by 69 of Europe’s Top Nature Photographers to 48 European countries and more than 1,100 days in the field.. 2) ‘MAGAZIN 3 Stockholm Konsthall exhibits ON THE TIP OF MY TONGUE that is curated by Richard Julin and Tessa Praun. It is a series of events and unique projects (and an exhibition) taking place July 1, Aug 8 and Sep 13. Part of this is a project by MIRANDA JULY called WE THINK ALONE, starting July 1 until Nov 11 2013. As the curators say, this ‘includes artworks that point away from the site of the exhibition itself, towards other virtual or parallel existences and experiences.’
New York City Grand Central Centennial celebrates with arts
New York City Mass Transit has a program called MTA Arts for Transit and Urban Design, which commissions artists through a competitive selection process to create original, site-specific permanent artwork for stations. This spring, there was also auditioning for a role of a subway performer. Link and more info here. Grand Central Diary is a video created by London Squared Productions. It is currently part of the exhibition “On Time / Grand Central at 100” (curated and organized by MTA Arts for Transit and Urban Design). It is now on view through July 7 at the New York Transit Museum Gallery, which is located at the terminal. Grand Central Diary is a short film that shows the everyday routines at the station from a fun and quarky perspective of animated objects at the terminal and nearby.
Finnish Paloni designers come to New York
MINNA SÄRELÄ is a founder of Finnish design collective PALONI, which is coming to New York this weekend to open a pop-up store during the fashion week. PALONI shop will be open through the end of February at the Ivana Helsinki NYC Concept Store. Their motto is: YOU CAN CALL IT DESIGN, INDIE FASHION, ART OR HANDICRAFT. WE CALL IT PASSION. Firstindigo&Lifestyle: Minna, I was so happy to hear that PALONI is coming to New York, tell me little bit about this ‘invasion’? Minna: I founded Paloni one and a half years back, and lately started to feel that it’s time for the next step, broadening our scope and doing the first international project. New York opened as an opportunity through another Finnish fashion company Ivana Helsinki. After I got to discuss with their crew, things started going forward very fast. Our designers are very excited about this project and the possibilities it offers. We had a total of 37 Finnish designers joining the project, despite a very tight schedule for the preparations. Now …
Anna Zaigraeva rocks her beadwork design
Anna Zaigraeva lives in New York City and works as a Russian to English translator. She designs beadwork jewelry in her spare time. -Anna, tell us how you started doing these and when? – I learned beadwork from my best childhood friend back in Moscow. We were both ten. Since I moved to the States, I’ve mostly just continued to learn by trial and error – I don’t subscribe to magazines or beading clubs or anything like that. So I’m not a hot-shot technique-savvy beader by any stretch of the imagination. -How long did it take to learn? – Not very long. They are difficult to make, but not because the stitches are tricky. It just takes a lot of time to pick and choose the right bead. I use high-quality Japanese Miyuki size 15/0 beads, which are pretty uniform compared to other brands, but even they are not uniform enough to simply string them at random and hope the pattern comes out. I have to constantly compare the fringe I’m working on against the …
Hopefully there will be changes
Our lives can become targeted, and the world events can break our innocence of time and space. The political turmoils in many areas of the Middle East have evidently shown us that our imagination of cultural space can change rapidly. International media has been ‘good’ in influencing our views of the significance of recent political turmoils. Once undergoing a radical process from being a state under oppressive powers, Egypt took a route for re-branding its image in the world. The sequence of events towards a revolution in Egypt took place in Cairo’s Tahrir Square in February 2011. This political performance became a testimony of a new type of nation branding, which operates with the help of global testimony. The advertising value of the events in the international media is in the question of, how did the revolution realize itself through the use of contemporary technologies? The revolution was not only local in terms of its impact, but it was simultaneously taking place in the various surrounding regions, and ultimately it took notice of the entire …
A great Yellow city
There is only so much we can do with the urban panning? Move cafes to the rooftops, leave the city center only for taxis? Start using bikes in the city. What remains in the city that never sleeps aka *NYC* are the yellow cabs. As I have gotten used to them in everyday life, I thought to invent something that would describe my mindscape, or, rather, imagine together with the cabs. One rainy day I figured that the rain looked like yellow. The yellow rain landed on our coats, we hurried as usual, yet something was different. It was perhaps the awakening to the spring, the anticipation, or coming into this realization that the colors are there around us. The everyday is packed with shapes, colors, lived and animated livelihood, art, design. Anything. I love one thing, *pink*. Now, when That color arrives in the city, occupying the busy business and residential avenue of New York, something Is in the Air. Last year this extravaganza color paraded a good amount of time on the street …
Feeling good about my environment
I was tuning into Björk’s Joga, looking at videos of Icelandic landscape and thinking about the affective aspects of our environments. Where we grow up, the landscapes that we get used to, has an impact on us. I strongly believe that landscapes shape our emotions and our approaches to different environments. When I think about some of Björk’s own comments about the environment she grew up in, I feel the same way as she does about the North. We should reconsider the Arctic resources and the Northern environment, and take climate change more seriously. Rapid climate change would be huge threat to our landscapes, and even change our feelings about them. I recently learned about a new book, which speaks about the unspoken sites of the climate change process. “To Cook a Continent. Destructive Extraction and Climate Crisis in Africa” is a book by Nnimmo Bassey. Bassey writes about Africa, where nature and natural resources have been traditionally considered a blessing. His insight is that by using the nature in a wrong way can turn …
