Hooping. The hoops adults use to dance and perform tricks are larger and heavier than the children's toy called the Hula Hoop. As hooping becomes more popular, people across the States and across the world are pushing the boundaries of dance and sport with a simple, easily made tool. Hooping for pleasure, exercise, and meditation is becoming a phenomenon. There's even a documentary. [more inside]
posted by fiercecupcake on Jun 16, 2009 - 24 comments

No Bailout for the Arts? Many organizations could use the help.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero on Dec 30, 2008 - 21 comments

Eagle Ager
posted by geos on Oct 30, 2008 - 16 comments

Punk band Neurotic and the PVCs perform with three discerning robots who pogo for punk. [Via]
posted by homunculus on Jul 14, 2008 - 4 comments

"Long River High Sky" is a collaborative performance by Alonzo King's Lines Ballet and the monks of the Shaolin Temple USA.
posted by homunculus on May 30, 2008 - 6 comments

Ron Murphy cut records, but not just any records. Responsible for cutting the actual vinyl master plates of much of the now revered Detroit Techno including Jeff Mills, Carl Craig, Underground Resistance's seminal Knights of the Jaguar, and much more - he demonstrated impeccable craftsmanship and skill in both mastering records for sound and aesthetics at company known as Sound Enterprises source link AKA National Sound Corporation. Schooled in Motown, dubplates and jukeboxes, he is the bespoke-crafted, analog link between the digital future and analog past that is the roots of Techno music and modern techno DJ culture. [more inside]
posted by loquacious on Feb 13, 2008 - 15 comments

       Pretty Big Dig
A dance film by Anne Troake that gently illustrates the assimilation of technology. QT video [more inside]
posted by carsonb on Dec 2, 2007 - 8 comments

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. [more inside]
posted by homunculus on Oct 2, 2007 - 10 comments

Stop motion animation plus Post-it notes equals pixelly goodness. (Flash, via milkandcookies)
posted by randomination on Nov 25, 2006 - 14 comments

Bali is an island in Indonesia that attracted Walter Spies, a Russian born, German artist who settled in the colonial Dutch East Indies from 1923 on. Adored by the Balinese, Spies was the co-founder of the Pita Maha artists' cooperative, he shaped the development of contemporary Balinese art and established the West's image of Bali that still exists today. [more images and background inside]
posted by nickyskye on Jul 29, 2006 - 15 comments

Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities is so called because it asserts that what makes up a city is not so much its physical structure but the impression it imparts upon its visitors, the way its inhabitants move within, something unseen that hums between the cracks. This, however, has in no way dissuaded people from attempting to give form to his works. One such example is the Hotel Tressants, a building in Menorca, Spain containing 8 rooms named after and inspired by various cities from the novel. Meanwhile, artists offer illustrations^1,2,3, installations ^1,2,3,4,5, music^1,2,3,4,5,6 and dance, hypertexts^1,2, computer programs and animations, even View-Master slides, while intellectuals offer readings and commentary^1,2, lectures^1,2, and critical texts^1,2,3 sparked by the man and his writings. It has been dubbed "The Calvino Effect". Do you know of any more?
posted by Lush on May 20, 2005 - 37 comments

In retrospect I have seen a glimpse of it before, in Baraka (scroll down to images, in the middle of the second row). I had forgotten this. I had read about it before too and smugly thought I knew about it then. When I saw it live for the first time I realized I didn't know anything at all about it. And now that I've seen it, now that it feels like I know it, it still feels like I don't know anything about it.

Unfortunately there's only so much that can be said about anything. You have to experience it, and even then it has to touch you or resonate with you in some way before it really means anything to you. All I can say is that I saw something last weekend that touched me and resonated very strongly with me. And anything that I or anyone else could tell you about Butoh couldn't tell you what that was, much less give you what was given to me.
posted by wobh on Apr 4, 2003 - 10 comments