Elsewhat

By Neale Van Fleet on May 27th, 2024

A couple of quick pics snapped in Queens, New York, during my trip there last week.

By Neale Van Fleet on May 26th, 2024

Taken in Mile End’s very picturesque skate park.

By Neale Van Fleet on May 25th, 2024

I make a point on this blog of never worrying about my posts being ‘timely’. I post whenever I find something, and don’t much care if something is 2 days or 2 decades old (I also don’t track visits or incoming links in any way, but that’s another story). Sometimes, though, I luck into something relatively current, like my visiting artist Jenny Holzer‘s Lightline show at the Guggenheim on its 4th day.

The main attraction was the immense video screen that sent scraps of words flowing up the helix of the Guggenheim’s inner hall, in a reworking of the artist’s own 1989 show in the same space.

Skywriting was done outside the show, though I don’t know if it was related to the words inside. The shape echoes the work, though I don’t know who Alejandro is, and couldn’t angle myself to read more than this small excerpt.

And lastly, a bit of a spoiler, the very final words at the top of the Guggenheim:

By Neale Van Fleet on May 24th, 2024

This cable car was initially built in 1976 as a temporary commuting option for residents of New York’s Roosevelt Island (a 147 acre island on the East side of Manhattan, previously known as ‘Welfare Island’). The addition of a subway station on the island in 1989 turned the cable car into more of a tourist attraction rather than a commute option for locals. Luckily, they still run it, and I made a point of riding on it when I was in New York this week.

By Neale Van Fleet on May 23rd, 2024

This whimsical installation was made by American artist Toshiko Takaezu, who realized that she could dry her pottery on hammocks without distorting their shape. Seen at The Noguchi Museum in Astoria Queens.

By Neale Van Fleet on May 22nd, 2024

From British podcast studio Tortoise comes a podcast series about the social media storm surrounding Amber Heard and Johnny Depp. Something hit me very wrong regarding the online hate Amber received, especially considering that Depp was found to have been abusive in a dozen incidents in a 2020 court case in England.

What comes to mind when you think of Amber Heard? Liar? Survivor? Narcissist? Millions of us watched the celebrity trial of the century, Depp v Heard, in 2022. Amber Heard lost and Johnny Depp was vindicated. But what if Amber was actually the victim of an organised trolling campaign? What if the online hate against her was manufactured?

Listen Here →

By Neale Van Fleet on May 15th, 2024

I’m planning a solo trip to Nee York City this week, and on my list of activities is visiting the Brooklyn-based museum dedicated to Japanese-American artist Isamu Noguchi. As well as being an artist and designer (he designed this iconic coffee table) Noguchi was a frequent collaborator with Buckminster Fuller, who has appeared on this blog numerous times. Noguchi worked on the Dymaxion Car, which was Fuller’s somewhat ill-fated concept car which never saw wide production.

Pictured here is a fountain from Noguchi’s Expo 70′ installation. Photos via Noguchi’s archive.

By Neale Van Fleet on May 6th, 2024

Old friend of Elsewhat Bird and Moon cleverly looks at real bird names and comes up with birds which don’t exist, but which are implied by the real ones.

Visit Bird and Moon for bird comics and more →

By Neale Van Fleet on May 5th, 2024

Typeknitting is a methodical plugin for typographic knitting. It explores the graphic potential of various knitting techniques, from Fair Isle, slip-stitch, and shadow knitting, to modular patchwork knitting.

Visit Typeknitting →

By Neale Van Fleet on May 4th, 2024