June 6, 2010

Items

I’ve mentioned tilt shift photography before, but it continues to blow my mind.

…it gives the viewer a sense of being in a smaller world, a bit like the way the world looks to a kid.

–Bryan Solarski, GOOD Picture Show, June 2 2010

Equally amazing: photos of the semi-dystopian ruins of Kowloon & Battleship Island & Kowloon (below) (Dark Roasted Blend via Boing Boing)

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The “How Our Laws Are Made” infographic above is well-executed and fairly clear, if a little busy (GOOD); the Pulp Fiction one below is neat but, as one commenter points out, the story makes more sense the way it unfolds per Tarantino’s script (Flowing Data).

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Art vs. Art:

Greater New York at PS1: I only got around to seeing about half of the exhibit when I stopped by PS1 last week, but I’m sure I’ll have many opportunities to revisit and engage with the work over the next few months, especially once Warm-Up is underway. Nevertheless, I would imagine that Greater New York stands for everything that Jeff Koons’ BMW Art Car (below) is not. (NYT)

That said, I thought that Koons’ art car (unveiled at the Centre Pompidou) turned out fine, though I was a little disappointed to learn that “the design isn’t actually painted on the car; it’s a vinyl wrap covered with two layers of clear coat. BMW says the wrap was lighter than paint and it could be applied much more quickly. That was a key consideration because Koons had just two months to complete the project.” (Wired)

See also: Image gallery of previous BMW art cars via Wikipedia.

For some reason, the ’speed lines’ remind me of this classic Simpsons bit:

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World Cup Buildup:

Sweet concept jerseys. (Fubiz via Notcot)

The Nike Shaman × Project Zoltar collaboration was unveiled over the weekend (Slam×Hype posted the cryptic teaser last week), but I’m still not clear as to what it is, exactly.

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Plus:

• A History of Cool (NYT)
• “A Scene from the Upcoming Film The Elements of Style.” (McSweeney’s)
• The Visible Hand (Freakonomics Blog on NYT)
• Dan Ariely teaser (TED Blog)
• U.S.-China relations over Yves Klein Blue (below); the painter is the subject of another article in the very same issue of the Economist. Coincidence? I think not.

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