Doug Aitken’s Underwater Pavilions (#art)

Doug Aitken is an American contemporary artist who defies easy categorization. He works in a wide variety of media from architecture to video. In December 2016, in partnership with environmental nonprofit Parley for the Oceans and MOCA LA, he created an installation off the Catalina Coast called Underwater Pavilions. Unfortunately, the installation is no longer in place but keep on the lookout for it to appear in another ocean sometime in the future.

Doug Aitken Plans Underwater Art Installation – NY Times – Sept. 7, 2016

Move Over, Neptune. Doug Aitken Has Another Big Idea – NY Times – Nov. 19, 2016

Explore a Giant Underwater Installation Off the California Coast – Wired – Dec. 7, 2016

Doug Aitken | Underwater Pavilions | Parley for the Oceans | MOCA Los Angeles

 

Why is there a sailboat attached to the outside of one of America’s top contemporary art museums?

Lisa Phillips, Director of The New Museum explains why there is a 30′ sailboat attached to the outside of their building in this video.

Here’s a video of Ghost Ship sailing.

Here’s some background on this artwork and the artist:

Chris Burden at the juncture of art and architecture: Collaboration and Risk – New Museum – Six Degrees, February 28, 2015

Chris Burden – Extreme Measures – New Museum October 2, 2013 – January 12, 2014

Daily What?! The Sailboat and Skyscrapers On the New Museum NYC – Untapped Cities – August 17, 2015

One Year After Chris Burden’s Death, You Can Still See “Ghost Ship” Docked at the New Museum – ArtFCity – May 10, 2016

Chris Burden: Wikipedia | Gagosian Gallery | The Art Story

Moby Monday: Novel rejection letter (video)

Editing advice includes:

  1. shortening its “vision-impairing length”
  2. adding more “voluptuous maidens”
  3. “changing certain of the story’s elements might not buoy its purchases at the shop, as it were? First, we must ask, does it have to be a whale?”

Flag dip: The Telegraph – Culture | Books – Famous Rejection Letters – “Amusing Moby Dick rejection letter asks “does it have to be a whale?” December 1, 2016

Marine Science Sunday: Octopus DNA: Different Than You And Me (And Every Other Life Form On The Planet)

Admittedly science is not my strong suit, but I found this article by Ed Yong for The Atlantic about octopus DNA very interesting. The sea is home to so many amazing secrets, mysteries and opportunities for discovery.

Octopuses Do Something Really Strange to Their Genes April 6, 2017

 

Moby Monday: KellyAnne’s KliffsNotes on Moby Dick

“Time after time, I see the land media refer to Moby Dick as the embodiment of evil, and, frankly, this sort of coverage disappoints me. If they keep this up, partisanship will continue to divide creatures of the sea and creatures of the land. Throughout his campaign, Captain Ahab constantly blamed someone else for his own despair, but sometimes you just have to take a look in the mirror. All the polls said that Moby Dick had no shot against Captain Ahab, but look at what happened. Ahab’s ship was destroyed in a nautical landslide. The land media, the pollsters, the crew aboard the Pequod—they all got it wrong. Now it’s time to let the large whale-beast govern.”

From “Kellyanne Conway Spins Great Works of Literature” by Bob Vulfov for The New Yorker, March 1, 2017.