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I’ve just been researching as I write up the Podtour for Salzburg, Austria. The bonus track (ie, I will be putting it up free on the podtours site) is an introduction to James Turrell’s ‘Sky space’ on the Moenchsberg, near the modern art museum. It’s a powerful piece, which has to be experienced, not just looked at. An apparently simple - though actually quite subtly created - circular space with an opening in the roof, it attracts your attention to the sky seen through that opening. White walls, blue sky; after a while you’ve entered a meditative state. For me, it’s Mozart’s ‘Temple of the Wise’ from the Magic Flute - the real Mozart, not the every shop in town is trying to sell. So I was glad to find an interview with the artist available on the web. His Quaker spirituality, but also an interest in astronomy and powered flight, infuses a lot of his art. It’s an interesting interview but I particularly like his assertion: “There is a truth in light.” What I particularly love about his work is that he tries to get us to approach and experience light directly - for itself. None of the cleverness of Bernini, who wants to make light play tricks for him. Just pure, undiluted light. A real joy. And something I wish, on this very grey December day, I had got here…
Two smashing links for you to enjoy, today. First up, the Mutato Collection. Ok so one of the tomatoes is in its straightforward natural form BUT I bow to the other pieces of amazing vegetable weirdness displayed. Second, MoFa Museum of Food Anomalies - great name - An online exhibition of the Art of Regular Food Gone Horribly Wrong. A wider remit than mine, it includes not only vegetables but other foods such as, the “happily oblivious” ice cream shown below. However, in a similar vein, visitors and regular readers are invited to submit their own anomalous foods. What I find particularly interesting is that both these sites appear to be run as conceptual art projects by artists. Though I run this site as an escape… a hobby, in the real world I do, also, happen to be an artist. Is it something to do with our temperament, I wonder?
Exploratorium This wonderful “Museum of Science Art and Human Perception” based in San Francisco California, provides one of the very best educational Web sites in the world. It contains many hands on activities, digital explorations, online exhibits, and live and archived Web Casts. Users may also subscribe to the museums free quarterly e-newsletter for educators. Key areas for educators are: The Digital Library Downloadable digital media and digitized museum materials including images, activities, movies and audio files. Tools For Teaching includes links to many useful resources within the Exploratorium site and several selected resources such as Cool Sites and Internet 2 Gateway. These are but a taste of the many varied high quality resources available at the Exploratorium site. Be sure to spend some time exploratoriuming it. You (and your students) will be glad you did!
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