modern art humor?

haha.

http://andand.tumblr.com/post/4305125972

also. I am once again sooo tempted to get a tumblr. it might be more fun than getting a twitter...

babies

I'm in the middle of finals right now...or rather, I've taken two exams (the worst one is over), and I have one more - on Friday morning.

Consequently, I'm back in a state of complete uninspired-ness.  I wouldn't say artistic funk, since my fingers are itching to get working on some sewing projects once I get home, but I'm doing my best to stay focused on studies right now.

Last final is in psychology, and right now I'm reviewing child development - one of those, AWWW BABIES! moments.

One of my favorite (artistically rendered?) mother-child relationships comes in the form of Quynh and Sola.  I "discovered" them a year ago, and eagerly await updates in the form of new photographs from the blog Dress Your Days With Dreams.  It's pure love.

black and white

so dynamic....and yet...so ruffly...

striped satin dress from Broadway musical, Cabin in the Sky

ballet - afternoon of a faun

and....I have no more MIT FAST pictures as of now.  So here's another ballet post.

I don't know why all the pictures I find invariably end up being from the Boston Ballet...

Boston Ballet photo by Andrea Mohin.

...and, here's some music.  Just because I love Debussy :)

MIT FAST - no lights now

The evenings during the weekends were amazing because all the special FAST lights went up.  The festival was centered on the river, and as I walked back from Boston on the Charles Bridge on Saturday night I was lucky enough to see it.  Unluckily, I didn't have my camera on me.  And on Sunday night...well, I didn't really have the energy to go out again and take pictures.  (Darn weather...had it been warmer, I probably would have gone).

Liquid Archive - floating inflatable screen providing a backdrop for projections that highlight MIT's history in science, technology, and art - by Nader Tehrani and Gediminas Urbonas.

I didn't actually witness these projections for myself, as I was sitting in my room by the time it got dark enough for the projections to begin.

MIT FAST - SOFT rockers

by Sheila Kennedy, P. Seaton, S. Rockcastle, W. Inam, A. Aolij, J. Nam, K. Bogenschutz, J. Bayless, M. Trimble

These are the most awesome rockers everywhere...they have solar panels that provide power for charging electronic devices!  I wouldn't mind having one of those in my backyard.  Actually, it doesn't even need to be solar-powered.  They are soooo comfortable to sit in.

It's too bad that the rockers were removed at the end of the weekend.  I only just discovered them last week (that part of campus is out of the way from most of my classes), and waited till the absolute last day to take pictures in it...

hello feet!  (hello iPod charger that somebody left inside....).  hello cool strip of light lining the inside of the rocker.

http://arts.mit.edu/fast/soft-rockers/

digression from ballet - MIT FAST

MIT FAST (festival of art + science + technology) - part of the MIT+150 celebrations going on this year.  Unfortunately I have done precious little FAST-related stuff as of yet (and sadly, all these cool installations will be gone when I return to school in the fall), but I walked around a bit today...to take pictures.

This structure, Unflat Pavilion by Nick Gelpi, was one of those things that I didn't really like from a distance...and then I zoomed in and really started appreciating the detail more.  So many different layers, and windows giving you different views...

There were all these little kids running around and under the structure...

ballet costume part 3

I would love to have seen this in person.

Megan Gray (center) and other Boston Ballet dancers rehearse one of the pieces in Kylián's ''Black and White'' program. (Photo by David L. Ryan/Globe Staff)


Also...happy Mothers Day! :)

ballet costume part 2

Let's take a look back...

...to Tamara Karsavina in the role of Firebird (1910).

costume and the avant-garde ballet

I haven't been to the ballet in a while, but I think it's high time that I start going.

The newest over here is Boston Ballet's Bella Figura, which I hear is causing a sort of commotion due to its scenes of partial nudity.  It's a fascinating subject - the way costume works in modern ballet.

Perhaps it's just that I'm not particularly familiar with the newest artsy performances out there - it's not like I have time to see every production (or in that case, ANY production) put on the Boston Lyric Opera, the Boston Ballet, or hey, (just for kicks), the Cirque du Soleil.  And this is only Boston we're talking about.  A small city.  But in any case, it seems as if the most exciting aesthetic, modern advances come from ballet.

Marie Taglioni's shortening of her skirt in her 1832 performance of La Sylphide - to show off her pointe work - was considered highly scandalous at the time; Stravinsky's primordial (and thoroughly modern) Rite of Spring shocked audiences in 1913.  Can I go as far as to say that ballet is in this unique position at the front of artistic development?  Of course, other performing arts categories should not be forgotten.  Let's not forget Ted Machover's opera of the future, Death and the Powers.  But ballet, after all, incorporates music along with a celebration of the beauty of the human form.  I imagine that modern costumes for ballet would be an incredible challenge for designers.  Fashion design must be beautiful, but ballet design must take into account the way the material works with every movement of the body.  Fashionistas may argue that this happens in fashion design, but modern ballet costume design takes this concept of body and fabric moving together to a while new level.

Of course, the ballet costume follows a certain pattern, and the classical tutu will always exist.  But there will also always be departures from this formula - and the departures are especially striking.  Should these new costumes even be called costume?  Certainly the word "costume" demeans one of the purest of art forms to a masquerade - something that is not real, something that peels off to reveal an interior less beautiful.  I'm pretty sure that the ballet costume is no less than a second skin to the dancer.

I think I'll start investigating these newer forms of ballet costumes (when I find time away from studying...finals are coming up in a few weeks).  Today's photo is from said performance of Boston Ballet's Bella Figura.

Altan Dugaraa, Sarah Wroth, and Yury Yanowsky by Gene Schiavone

spring has sprung!

(finally).

The weather here in Boston is rather...awkward...sometimes warm, sometimes windy, sometimes a little rainy, sometimes all of the above.

All the same, this week has been pretty warm.  And the flowers are starting to try to come out!

The trees outside my dorm are in full bloom, which make the place look a little more beautiful and a little less prison-like (it's block-ish and concrete...).

Yay lame picture taken awkwardly from my window.