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What Is Art?

In this video, different Americans are interviewed about art (some you will recognize, some you will not). The whole thing is animated by Aardman

 

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Kevin Connolly And "The Stare"

If you haven't seen it yet, NPR has a terrific audio slide show in which Kevin Connolly describes his "Rolling Exhibition".  From Kevin's website:

"1 year ago I was asked by a little boy in Christchurch, New Zealand if I had been eaten by a shark.

2 months ago I was asked by an elderly woman in Sighisoara, Romania if I had lost my legs in a car accident.

6 weeks ago I was asked by a bar patron in Helena, Montana if I still wore my dog tags from Iraq.

Everyone tries to create a story in their heads to explain the things that baffle them. For the same reason we want to know how a magic trick works, or how mystery novel ends, we want to know how someone different, strange, or disfigured came to be as they are. Everyone does it. It's natural. It's curiosity.

But before any of us can ponder or speculate - we react. We stare. Whether it is a glance or a neck twisting ogle, we look at that which does not seem to fit in our day to day lives. It is that one instant of unabashed curiosity - more reflex than conscious action - that makes us who we are and has been one of my goals to capture over the past year.

It is after this instant that we try to hazard a guess as to why such an anomalous person exists. Was it disease? Was it a birth defect? Was it a landmine? These narratives all come from the context in which we live our lives. Illness, drugs, calamity, war - all of these might become potential stories depending upon what we are exposed to in connection with disability.

In each photograph the subjects share a commonality, but what does their context say? Looking at each face, I saw humanity. Rolling through their streets, I found the unique cultures and customs that created an individual."

Where's My Logo?

One Page Magazine shows on a single page, the exact locations of where advertising logos are placed within the pages of each issue. The results provide a, surprisingly, intriguing graphical map.

Effective Data Visualization: NYT's Box Office Receipts

If you, like me, collective best-of-breed examples of effective data visualization, be sure to check out The New York Times' "Ebb and Flow of Movies: Box Office Receipts 1986 - 2007".  It's a great example of how to show an immense amount of information in a very simple and engaging format.  Good stuff.

 

On Skid Row Debuts Today The Awearness Blog and MySpaceTV

GOOD Magazine: On Skid Row, Part 1 - Introduction

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This morning on The Awearness Blog we launched the first in a series of five short documentaries about homelessness in Los Angeles, produced by Good Magazine and writer/activist Sam Slovick. The videos was developed with support from Kenneth Cole's Awearness Fund. To learn more about the project, click here.

NYU: "Blog posts can triple future album sales"

Billboard has a story out today that suggests that blog posts can triple future album sales, according to a new study from researchers at New York University.

"NYU Stern professor Vasant Dhar and former student Elaine Chang sampled 108 albums released between January and March of 2007 to determine the impact of blog chatter on record sales. Using Amazon.com sales rankings, albums were tracked four weeks before and four weeks after release.

Researchers found that when an album got mention in more than 40 legitimate blog posts, sales were three times the average. If those albums were associated with major labels, sales jumped five times the average. Albums that got more than 250 blog mentions saw sales increases of six times the average.

The number of MySpace friends the artist had also improved album sales, but researchers said there was a weaker correlation than with blog chatter."

Companies To Watch in 2008 - Vita Coco

If you've been working out with at the gym lately then you're likely to have noticed that Gatorade type sport drinks are no longer the beverage of choice amongst trainers and coaches. 

What's replaced it?

Coconut water.

While it's been around for a few years, this is the year that flavored coconut water drinks are poised to break through into the mainstream.

And the company that poised to reap the most benefits is Vita Coco, a small beverage firm launched in 2005 in New York by two high-school friends Ira Liran and Michael Kirban.

Made from 100% pure water from young green coconuts from Brazil, Vita Coco is a natural rehydrant that has 15 times the potassium of Gatorade and tons of Vitamin C, calcium and magnesium.   

Gatorade, watch your back.

Damien Hirst's 200 Hand Written Letters

If you haven't yet watched this clip of Damien Hirst's interview with Charlie Rose about the (RED) auction, you should. 

At the very start of the interview Hirst says something that I thought was quite impressive, and a terrific reminder of the importance of the "personal touch".  Hirst tells Rose that he hand wrote 200 personal letters to each of the artists who he asked to participate in the auction. 

When was the last time you hand wrote a single letter, let alone 200 of them?