If You Find The Earth Boring...

I try not to be a sucker for sentimentality, but now I gotta see this. [youtube _FAUyrFWDvw 600 400]

In this installation by artist Yayoi Kusama, entitled The Obliteration Room (part of Kusama’s Look Now, See Forever exhibition at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art), a large living area, including every wall, chair, and table - and including a working piano - were painted a brilliant white (see here also).  For two weeks the museums tiniest visitors (kids!) were given colored stickers to decorate the space.  Here’s what happened:

I knew today was going to be a good day when (1) on my way to work I saw five red cardinals; (2) someone had a pot of coffee brewed when I got to work; and (3) this video was one of the first things to cross my inbox. [vimeo 33219961 700 525] The video “Dogs In Cars” is by Keith Hopkin and the music is supplied by The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart.

The blog Press Play And Record has painstakingly recorded almost all of NME magazine’s promotional tapes from the past few decades and provided them to you for your listening pleasure.  Check it out!

Sometimes, less is more.  Here (…and here, here, and here) is an interesting study in brand minimalism.  See which product design you connect with in each series. “Why do we assume that simple is good? Because with physical products, we have to feel we can dominate them. As you bring order to complexity, you find a way to make the product defer to you. Simplicity isn’t just a visual style. It’s not just minimalism or the absence of clutter. It involves digging through the depth of the complexity. To be truly simple, you have to go really deep. For example, to have no screws on something, you can end up having a product that is so convoluted and so complex. The better way is to go deeper with the simplicity, to understand everything about it and how it’s manufactured. You have to deeply understand the essence of a product in order to be able to get rid of the parts that are not essential.” - Jonathan Ive (quote source)