For a well-considered visual environment
16 February 2011 Leave a Comment
Fiber artist Betsy Timmer rightly observes that “There’s a growing value on things that are handmade . . . and it’s almost a reaction everything being so mass produced.” She’s interviewed in this really nice little spotlight on the Harveyville Project in northeastern Kansas. Timmer continues, “It’s just a reaction against everything being so slick and, you know, assembly line, made in China.” Have a look.
22 January 2011 Leave a Comment
Ah, progress. Ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. Via This American Life (Episode “Pandora’s Box,” April 26, 2007):
This is what we do, humans. We tinker and change and endlessly imagine a more perfect future. And, at the same time, we idealize the past. So, we’re trapped. Progress’ constant companion is nostalgia for the way things used to be.
The thing we forget about progress: there is no master plan. It lurches forward, in the dark, accidentally, and you’re never sure where it’s taking you. There’s no going back, whether it wants to or not.
With a very appropriate response from Quinton Ma:
Eloquently put, however I’ve never been one to idealize the past. I only see the future as possibly perfect.
I agree with both sentiments. Progress lurches forward without considering where it’s going. At the same time, idealizing the past is useless, and optimism about the future is necessary.
10 January 2011 2 Comments
Dan Phillips addresses wastefulness — and some of the psychology behind it — via the building industry in this TED talk.
Watch the video embedded below if you have time. If not, here are a few excerpts.
What causes waste in the building industry? Our housing has become a commodity.
Human beings have a need for maintaining consistency of the apperceptive mass. What does that mean? It means for every perception we have it has to tally with the one we had before or we don’t have continuity and we become a little bit disoriented.
It does no good to be responsible at the point of harvest in the forest if the consumers are wasting the harvest at the point of consumption, and that’s what’s happening. So if something isn’t standard it goes to the dumpster . . . I feature all those warped things.
1 January 2011 Leave a Comment
I received a few books for Christmas including The Kiln Book
by Jane Holtz Kay. I’ve begun reading Asphalt Nation and, not surprisingly, it’s pretty captivating.
Advent and Christmas (and, for many, New Years) are times of reflection. Do certain technologies hinder our ability for introspection, extrospection, observation? From the book:
Why can’t we step back and see the servant become the master? Why have we failed to see the consequences of the car’s mischief, its down-right malice to community life and autonomy for many? Media theorist Mark Crispin Miller, in analyzing television, that other so-called technological servant, has speculated that the medium is so integral to the ambient culture that we can no longer isolate ourselves to gain a perspective on our place within its landscape. There is just no surveillance point from which to stand aloof and view the impact of television’s toll. The analogy with the automobile holds. The world through the windshield and the world through the television window alike isolate us from our surroundings.
30 December 2010 2 Comments
During this season of extravagance I’m often reminded again — even in my tiny house with our two beat up old cars — how blessed I am and how wasteful the U.S. is as a culture. This waste bothers me more and more every year, and I try to curtail it as much as possible in my own life.
Christmas is a time for extravagance (a topic I intend to explore more in the future) as we celebrate the incarnation — although this extravagance need not be wasteful. And as we dole out gifts to family and friends, let us take note of those without family or friends. Or other things we so very often take for granted, such as the sundry food on our holiday tables.
[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HlFP-PMW6E]
See an interview with Jeremy Seifert, the director of Dive!, on MyFoxLA’s website.
29 December 2010 Leave a Comment
A sale on storage containers right after Christmas eh?
I’m actually a fan of these plastic storage totes. They keep the mice and bugs out of your Christmas decorations, keep clay wet for quite a while and are stronger and easier to move around than cardboard boxes. Isn’t it a tell-tale sign of a consumer culture, however, when they’re put on prominent display and on sale immediately after Christmas?
Cameraphone capture while shopping for lumber for a work surface for a Christmas gift
28 December 2010 2 Comments
A handmade Christmas
Our tree, exponentially smaller than last year’s beautiful giantess, boasted handmade ornaments solely this year. Some we made, some our grandparents made, some from our childhood, some we purchased . . .
Some are clay, some are fiber, some are wood. Some are knitted, some are china painted and some are tied together. Two are nativity scenes, many are icicles and a few angels. One is an unglazed porcelain cloud, just for fun.
A couple are carved, a bear is felted and a proclamation is cross-stitched. The star on top is of questionable origin, but being out of cardboard we’ll call it OK.
27 December 2010 Leave a Comment
A CNN story via InternetMonk, a commercialized Christmas is bringing Christ to China:
It is even Christmas in China these days. And while we continue to complain here in the West about the commercialization of the season, it is exactly this commercial aspect of Christmas that is allowing missionaries and others to explain the real meaning of the holiday. An interesting turn of events, don’t you think?
Sculpture from lead pencil studio, Non-sign ii, via Design-Realized
25 December 2010 Leave a Comment
Jesus Christ the Apple Tree lyrics in a 1897 republication of 1797 printing
One of my favorite Christmas carols of late isn’t exactly a Christmas carol but is traditionally sung on Christmas Eve. Jesus Christ the Apple Tree, an 18th century English hymn, was commonly sung [wassailed] at Apple orchards on Christmas eve in hopes of bestowing health on the trees. I’m very fond of the choral arrangements such as the one below.
Another recent favorite — I always have more than one — is Riu, Riu Chiu, a song I first heard on Sixpence None The Richer’s Christmas album titled Dawn of Grace.
[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm3fZDZxiko]
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