offline

Via Slashdot, we learn that to mark the island’s New Year (Isakawarsa) observance on this Saturday, the government of Bali will suspend internet services so Hindu residents may honour Nyepi, the Day of Silence, a time reserved for quiet reflection, meditation and fasting. The date is determined on the Balinese Saka calendar by the day that falls after the new Moon in the month corresponding with March in Western traditions. The streets are virtually deserted for the day and the island’s airport is closed as well—with exceptions only granted for emergencies.

an overwhelmingly american phenomenon

Earlier this week, activists arranged over seven thousand pairs of empty shoes on the lawn of the US Capitol to memorialise the estimated number of children killed in school shootings since the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre and to call out the government for its inaction when it comes to gun control just ahead of the mass-walkout that many, many brave students organised to mark a month since the last tragedy and signal their unwillingness to perpetuate this cycle of violence and hand-wringing. This powerful and direct statement makes the stakes very concrete and not seem abstract at all, no matter one’s distance from such brutality and echoes other times artists and protesters, as Hyperallergic explores, have harnessed the sociological currency that clothes and apparel disembodied or otherwise out of place can impel people to listen and attend and allows people to consider matters otherwise to horrific to contemplate.

neo-dada

Open Culture reintroduces us to the international, interdisciplinary networked movement embraced by artists like Yoko Ono and John Cage engineered in the 1960s called Fluxus.
The experimental intermedia concept was first pioneered and developed by Henry Flynt (anti-artist), Nam June Paik (coining the term “electronic super highway”) and Wolf Vostell (Le Cri, the musical sculpture) and brought performance events and experiences into the realm of what was considered art with the first Fluxfests held in Wiesbaden (plus a number of other European venues) in 1962 with a range of concerts performed on antique instruments which were rather scandalously destroyed in the act. Fluxkits were also produced whose unboxing ceremonies were a thing to behold and take partake in. The guiding principles of the movement included, according to its manifesto, to purge the world of dead culture and promote pragmatic conscience through artistic expression that is accessible to all on all levels. Be sure to visit the link above to learn more and see more examples of the genre.

7x7

drolatic dreams: 1565 series of woodcuts illustrating the bizarre and bawdy figures referenced in François Rabelais’ La vie de Gargantua et Pantagruel

rat race: after a five-year hiatus, Banksy returns to New York City

compagnons: perfect, model staircases made by apprentice French carpenters to showcase their talents

we are, then, gas engines: a selection of some of Alan Turing’s childhood reading

have we left this haunted house: reflections on the fiftieth anniversary of the delivery of Martin Luther King’s last public address

undersea kingdom: amazing claymation display of the ocean floor by Romane Granger synchronized to the music of Stevanna Jackson

mister fusion: Massachusetts Institute of Technology pledges to build a nuclear fusion power plant in fifteen years