A clay cylinder covered in Akkadian cuneiform script, damaged and broken, the Cyrus Cylinder is a powerful symbol of religious tolerance and multi-culturalism. In this talk Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, traces 2600 years of Middle Eastern history through this single object.
RSA Animate - Crises of Capitalism
In this short RSA Animate, radical sociologist David Harvey asks if it is time to look beyond capitalism, towards a new social order that would allow us to live within a system that could be responsible, just and humane.
I really like these new animated videos by RSA.
Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce has collaborated with the cartoonist Andrew Park of Cognitive Media to animate talks given at RSA.
>> More illustrated videos are available on the RSA Videos page
The Old Persons Home by Sun Yuan and Peng Yu
(13 life size sculptures and 13 dynamo electric wheel chairs, The Saatchi Gallery)
Sun Yuan and Peng Yu are two of China's most controversial artists. The Old Persons Home is a satirical models of OAPs looking like old world-leaders, long crippled and impotent, left to battle it out in true geriatric style.
Four Seasons in Crouch End, North London.
(Photos taken from October 2006 to October 2007)
The British summer holiday season began yesterday with 85mm of rain that brought flooding and transport chaos in London.
Open charcoal grill in a kebab house.
>> Kebab Koobideh - before and after the attack.
>> Koobism - my favourite art form.
>> Koobist Animation - move the cursor over the image.
Volume is an interactive installation, an array of light columns installed in the V&A?s John Madjeski garden. The installation responds to movement, creating patterns of light and sound.
Phil Collins, this year's Turner prize nominee, often works in areas of conflict. In the video installation 'they shoot horses' he shows a disco dance marathon produced in Ramallah with a group of young Palestinians. The work?s title is taken from a 1935 novel by Horace McCoy and its film adaptation directed by Sydney Pollack. Both works focus on the American craze for dance marathons during the Great Depression, which became a form of popular entertainment.
Max joined the dance last Sunday at Tate Britain.
The Flying Steamroller by the Artist Chris Burden is a twelve ton steamroller that is attached to a pivoting arm with a counterbalance weight. The steamroller is driven in a circle until its maximum speed is reached. At the same time, a hydraulic piston is activated and pushes up the beam from which the steamroller is suspended, causing the steamroller to lift off the ground. Because of the combined weight of the steamroller and the counterbalance, which is approximately 48 tons, the steamroller, once lifted off the ground, continues to spin, or "fly" for several minutes. As the steamroller nears the end of its circular motion, or when the spinning momentum is exhausted, the hydraulic piston is slowly retracted and the steamroller gently lands. I filmed this last Sunday outside Tate Britain.
Whether you want one or not it's Armageddon time. All religious fundamentalist loo-nies want you to have a front row seat.
As you can see you are not even safe while sitting on the loo.
Before every visual workout, you need to warm up those eyes a little!
>> The video can also be viewed at Google Video.