The business of architecture
This post is part 7 of an adaptation of How to Steal Like an Artist (and 9 Other Things Nobody Told Me), this engaging and instructive essay by Austin Kleon, a Texan artist and writer. Kleon states that "when people give you advice, they’re really just talking to themselves in the past." What follows here is me talking to a... Continue Reading →
What is it? Entry into, and finalist of, the 2011 James Dyson Student Design Awards by Alexander Vittouris. First seen in a Habitus Living article, here. With extraordinary technical innovation, Vittouris did not build the Ajiro, a single-person velomobile, but grew it from a rapidly-growing strain of bamboo over a re-usable steel structure. This concept is derived from the... Continue Reading →
What is it? A smart, energetic and utterly convincing play by Lachlan Philpott on behalf of the Griffin Theatre Company. Exploring the attitudes, priorities and difficulties of growing up in contemporary Australia, Silent Disco focusses on school life and the relationships between two students and their teacher. Buffeted by difficulties at home and in the... Continue Reading →
What is it? Along with 30 other national pavilions, the Australia Pavilion is located in Venice's Giardini, the site each year of the extraordinary Biennale di Venezia. In the late 1980s, Australia was given the opportunity to take one of the last plots within the Giardini, however it was necessary that we occupy the plot immediately lest we... Continue Reading →
What is it? A play written by Reg Cribb and directed by Lucy Freeman that showed up until yesterday at Fortyfive Downstairs. Its 3 performers, John Wood, Samuel Johnson and Marcella Russo, all shine in a production that is eerily familiar, quintessentially Australian and ultimately more than a little disturbing. Wood plays Daniel Gartrell, a... Continue Reading →
What is it? A new ad campaign, viewable here, that accompanies the endorsement of the Labour Government's proposed carbon tax by a group of 140 prominent Australians. Despite the Opposition's vehement denouncement of the tax, former Liberals leader John Hewson is one of the 140. However, it is Cate Blanchett, Australian actress and active supporter... Continue Reading →
(Natural Order by Janine Mackintosh) What is it? An annual fair held at the Royal Exhibition Buildings populated mostly by small art galleries and self-represented artists, both armed with affordable art pieces for sale (from our informal survey, prices generally range from AU$500 up to AU$7500, though a few small-scale pieces and prints go for... Continue Reading →
(View House, Rosario, Argentina) What is it? The title of a lecture given yesterday evening at the Faculty of Art and Design at Monash University by Mark Lee of American architecture practice, Johnston Marklee. Lee presented a number of the practice's projects to the predominantly student audience, both complete and current, spanning countries as amazingly diverse... Continue Reading →
What is it? An annual competition for portraiture running since 1921 in honour of Victorian journalist and art lover, Jules François Archibald, who bequeathed in his will one tenth of his estate to the Art Gallery NSW to set up and run the competition. Submitted portraits must be of "some man or woman distinguished in art,... Continue Reading →
What do we mean? Google announced this week the release of its Chrome operating system, paired with two new Chromebooks from Samsung and Acer. A "completely new model of computing", Chrome OS is a cleverly extrapolated version of the existing Google Docs idea, with users accessing all basic computing applications online, together with their stored... Continue Reading →