a quinquennial contemporary art exhibition

Curated and organized under the supervision of art director Harald Szeemann, the fifth edition of documenta (see previously), opening on this day in 1972 and running through October (a hundred days) in Kassel, West Germany, with the theme of “Questioning Reality—Pictorial Worlds of Today” (Befragung der Realität – Bildwelten heute) established the exhibition’s reputation as the most important, post war modern art show and set the model for future biennials. Wanting to liberate art and artefact from the museum setting, it strove to recontextualise work in politically critical and the provocative milieu that inspired them. documenta 5 also showcased Fluxus and happening art, which had not yet appeared by the last iteration. In all, there were over two hundred thousand visitors and dozens of participating artists and collectives including Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Adolf Wölfli, Marcel Duchamp and Yoko Ono.

ꦉ

Co-founded by Stephen Hawking, Queen guitarist and astrophysicist Brian May and other former astronauts and technologists with the sanction of the United Nations, International Asteroid Day is an annual observance meant to promote awareness about the minor planets of the inner Solar System and the threats that these near-Earth objects can pose for cataclysm and ways to mitigate the vulnerability through close monitoring. 30 June was chosen as the date as it marks the anniversary of the 1908 Tunguska Event in the Eastern Siberia Taiga, an estimated twelve megaton explosion that flattened two thousand square kilometers of forest caused by the air burst of a meteoroid, devastating for local wildlife but spared greater catastrophe by dint of the region being sparsely populated by humans.

snake island

Though unclear if the Russian withdrawal was in goodwill as a part of an international effort to open up a corridor to transport grain and advert a famine or were surrendering from a Ukrainian advance to recapture the strategically important Black Sea islet near the port of Odesa, relieving this blockade and restoring control over the waterways to the country—both previously under siege and mined by Ukraine itself in order to prevent a full-om assault unabated by the aggressor, regaining control of Zmiinyi Island (острів Змії́ний, previously here and here) could mean the resumption of staple exports and blunt the likelihood of a land attack in the future on this stretch of coast. This victory comes on the heels of Turkey’s assent for Sweden and Finland’s bid to join the NATO alliance during its summit in Madrid and are expected to sign accession protocols soon for ratification by the thirty current member states.

dear mister andropov

For what would have been her fiftieth birthday had not her life been tragically cut short by a plane crash at the age of thirteen, Deutsche Welle has a retrospective appreciation on the ten-year old Cold War peace ambassador and avid letter-writer Samantha Reed Smith of Holton, Maine who at a very tense point in Soviet-US relations—the nuclear superpowers having abandoned their recent policy of détente, a race on to militarise space, widespread peace protests, the Afghan conflict and The Day After all had people whipped into a frenzy—reached out to the new Russian leader late in 1982, the successor to the post of Leonid Brezhnev characterised in the press as the architect of the suppression of the Prague Spring and for suppression of dissidents, congratulating him and expressing her fears about nuclear escalation and asked him to write in return. Failing to get a timely reply (despite its publication in Pravda), Smith also reached out to the embassy in Washington, DC before in April of 1983 the General Secretary responded himself, with a personal invitation to visit the Soviet Union. More on Smith’s tour and brief but impactful legacy at the link up top.

surprise witness

An unscheduled sixth public hearing during what was originally called as an extended adjournment of the United States House Select Committee on the January Sixth Attack on the Capitol was an unexpected bombshell with testimony (albeit the majority of information secondhand but significantly delivered under oath which is not an obligation the witness’ detractors can claim or need to adhere by) from an insider that portrays Trump as a willing participant in the attempted insurrection, wanting to personally accompany the rioters and directing that security barriers and metal detectors be removed in order that a larger crowd could gather, dismissing the fact that they were armed and violent, saying that their anger (over a patent lie that the election had been stolen) wasn’t directed at him. Trump’s security detail did not allow him to go to the Capitol, though he struggled to wrest away control of the presidential limousine and was returned to the White House to sulk—delaying his calls to quell the violence, even as reports came that the mob was chanting “Hang Mike Pence!,” whom Trump offered deserved it. The testimony of former aide to Trump and his chief of staff increases the chances that the US Department of Justice could bring criminal charges against Trump.

8x8

cutting-corners: skimpflation and other consumer caveats   

section 30 order: Holyrood to hold second independence referendum in October  

edutainment: a new volume on poet Emily Dickinson concludes with a Math Blaster style game from LitHub  

wade in u.s.a.: protest is the court of last resort  

white rabbits: an unsung group of women sculptors employed during the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893—via Messy Nessy Chic  

adobe flash: watch a time-lapse of a luxury villa with pool built out of mud and bamboo via Everlasting Blört  

allons-y alonzo: assonances, alliterations and vowel harmonisation in French and other languages

coffee siren: the origins of the ubiquitous café mascot (see also here and here)

macroglossum stellatarum

The butterflies have discovered our patch of lavender for sometime now and there’s always at least half a dozen of them swarming about but now it seems the community of hummingbird hawk moths (Taubenschänzchen) is enjoying nectaring a la carté as well. An example of convergent evolution, recognising the same quiver of behaviours and adaptations with its long proboscis to probe flowers works across species. Unlike other moths which are either diurnal or nocturnal, these hawk moths can be found active at all hours and display no visible sexual dimorphism—even in the antennal lobes size, serving a comparable role as the olfactory bulb in vertebrates and which is a prominent marker for most moths in distinguishing between male and female.

from the 2 d

Apparently to universal acclaim with the vehicle and the venue raising no objection despite the collapse of crypto-currency and that non-fungible token handmaiden are the even better at uncovering the greater fool, established rappers Eminem and Snoop Dogg, in their Bored Ape Yacht Club avatars for the eponymous festival, premiered their new collaboration. What do you think? There are no words for these new heights of what used to be considered selling out and pandering. Reportedly an impersonator called Dupe Shogg showed up at the event unannounced complete with full escourt and entourage and attendees were a bit disappointed it was not the genuine article.