currents

Diving Bell

This spring, after the hype of the movie died down, I wanted to read The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Written under such extraordinary circumstances (dictated by Bauby by blinking one eyelid from his "locked in" state). It has the sparseness of really good moments of Duras with both tortuous and sweet thoughts stemming from an abrupt switch from charmed to impossible life.

Reverend Billy has a Smart Friend

A 21c holiday tradition is the ranting of Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping. It is great to have a reminder about how to make good choices as a consumer. The Reverend's wild antics have an articulate counterpart in the writings of Benjamin R. Barber. Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole (see description below)

Great Reading

One of the most civilized independent bookstores in New York is the McNally-Robinson store at 52 Prince. It has a great selection of art, travel and culture books. Many art magazines are on the shelves and there often seems to be a seat in the cafe. Look for the bargain books downstairs...better than usual. It might be the perfect trip for an end-of-the-school-year treat. http://www.mcnallyrobinsonnyc.com/

Lost Childhood

You may have caught Ishmael Beah on the talk circuit (Jon Stewart became uncharacteristically serious).... He wrote a book on his life as a boy soldier in Sierra Leone. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier reveals a piece of a world most are unaware of--the over 300,000 child soldiers in over 50 worldwide conflicts today. It is a great story of redemption and hope in the face of unimaginable violence (at a very young age. He was "recruited" at ten).

New Media History at MIT

Oliver Grau has just edited MediaArtHistories, a 500 page text on what is shaping into a "history" of e-media. It includes essays by Rudolf Arnheim and Barbara Maria Stafford. From the description: Their essays demonstrate that today's media art cannot be understood by technological details alone; it cannot be understood without its history, and it must be understood in proximity to other disciplines--film, cultural and media studies, computer science, philosophy, and sciences dealing with images. http://www.mediaarthistories.org/pub/mediaarthistories.html

Creativity Book List

This attachment is a list of recommended books on creativity to accompany my lecture Teaching Creativity to the Creative, Mar 16, at the NAEA Annual Convention.

Download Creativity.biblio.doc

Tre Libri

Since it is so hard to sit and read in contemporary life, it may be a good formula to have three books going all at the same time. One category is "what you have to read for work/school." This might not be an uninteresting book. The next category is good non-fiction but not related to practical things; the cultural history of the color Mauve  or the breast, for instance. (There are books on these subjects). And third should be exquisite fiction, something recommended by a trustworthy friend or randomly chosen by its cover at a book superstore. Memoirs are in this category because of the high degree of intentional or unintentional fiction. You should become disembodied by good fiction. What do you think? Do you have a book to recommend? I'll put it on the book TypeList.

The Perfect House by Palladio

Witold Rybczynski, who writes some of the most readable books on the built environment available, spent several years tracking down the works of Palladio in Vicenza and vicinity. He wanted to discover why Palladio remains one of the most quoted architects in history. The reader will get a glimpse into the artist, but also the cultural systems that supported his work. The Perfect House: A Journey with Renaissance Master Andrea Palladio is a good content to a basic art educator knowledge of architecture and its long history.

A Sense of Place

Lucy Lippard's under-recognized book, The Lure of the Local, is her best. Or maybe it's just that the subject  matter appeals to me. It is also a good book to look at when situating oneself in a place or culture with such a well-established identity. She writes the quotable "Nature is capable of the sublime; humankind is capable of the ridiculous" (p. 16) for instance.

The New Press

Once a semester I book shop. One site that has many, many books on the subjects of contemporary art, criticism and education is the New Press. I recommend a visit to their site. I was looking for a book Other People's Children. This book, by MacArthur fellow Lisa Delpit, tackles the difficult issue of cultural misunderstandings in the classroom. www.newpress.com.