StoryCulture

Strandbeest Amazing Kinetic Creatures Conceived of by Artist Theo Jansen - TED:Talk Video

The genius artistic life work Theo Jansen fills me with many facets of wonder. Jansen demonstrates how his yellow tube creatures move and survive on their own in this video.

Photos via Strandbeest.com

Read more about Theo Jansen's work: click here

TED:Talks 

African American Prison Work Songs - Documentary Film by Bruce Jackson, Peter Seeger, Toshi Seeger, and Daniel Seeger - Preview Video

Hauntingly stirring music from the not so distant American past. I've created an MP3 sampler of Alan Lomax's 1943 field recordings of work songs, and embedded it at the end of this post.

Preview Clip of the 1966 Documentary Film

 

Filmed at a prison in Huntsville, Texas. March 1966. Rare document of worksongs by inmates of the Ellis Unit. 

Film by Bruce Jackson, Peter Seeger, Toshi Seeger, Daniel Seeger 

Produced by Pete and Toshi Seeger with Bruce Jackson

Cinematographer: Daniel Seeger

Sound: Pete Seeger

Editing: Daniel Seeger

Copyright: Folklore Research Films, Inc, March 1966

29 minutes, Black and White

Original format: 16mm, 1966

Distributor Contact: Vestapol

See more of the film on Folkstreams: here

Scroll through this sample of the album which contains the recordings musicologist Alan Lomax collected sixty years ago.

Find out more about the to Work Songs and Calls (1943) recordings collected by Alan Lomax:  here via amazon.com.

Comics of Bygone New York :: Ben Katchor's TED Talk Video

 

Ben Katchor's website: click here

Picasso's Citroen 2cv - An Art Car Inspired by Picasso's Portrait of Dora Maar and Created by Andy Saunders

When I think of art cars, I envision a creative project with no re-sale value. A drive it 'til it drops personal statement.

Andy Saunders looked at one of Picasso's cubist portraits of Dora Maar and saw a cubist Citroen 2cv. His creative endeavor is more likely to sit on an art collector's pedestal, than rust along the curb in a tow zone.

Picasso's 1938 portrait of Dora Mar sold at auction in 2008 for $14.6 million.

Picasso's Citroen 2cv by Andy Saunders

More photos of the Picasso Citroen: here

(Not to be confused with the modern Citroen Picasso of which Saunders says, "I named it Picasso's Citroen and I think it is much better than the Citroen Picasso, which is a boring people carrier. I think I know which one Pablo would have preferred.")

Read the original article about the Andy Saunders Citroen 2cv: here

Haunted By Sculpturally Beautiful Pre-Columbian Whistles of Death - Video Featuring Roberto Velazquez's Recreated Whistles

Once you hear the sound of imminent death, it is unlikely you will forget it. Or at any rate, over the past year I've not been able to shake myself of the desire to share the mysterious small sculptural objects, after reading the story about the Mexican mechanical engineer's quest to solve an anthropological enigma. 

 

Roberto Velaquez has spent his career recreating the sound of the whistles. Read an in depth article about his research: here  

Information on wide ranging Aztec aerophone research: here

The 1967 Citroen 2CV - an Essential Vehicle Pour Moi

I took a Citroen for an imaginary test drive over the weekend. It suits me.

   

Photos courtesy of citrobe.org. 

Nederlandse 1967 Citroen 2cv brochure. Click HERE to enjoy more images.

A Lighthearted Rainy Day Traffic Jam Through the Lens of Jacques Tati - film clip from Trafic (1971)

The laconic comedy, and whimsical music, in this scene from Trafic puts me in a good mood. I recalled it while driving in the rain this morning. My car has a mysterious (even to my mechanic) wiper ailment. The cure involves finding the opportunity while driving in traffic to turn off the car. Magically that cues the wipers to work.

Imagine me as this old man in the final shot.

 

I must admit I haven't seen this film yet, and entrust you to the description offered for Trafic in DVD format by the Criterion Collection.

Criterion states, "In Jacques Tati's Trafic, the bumbling Monsieur Hulot, outfitted as always with tan raincoat, beaten brown hat, and umbrella, takes to Paris's highways and byways. For this, his final outing, Hulot is employed as an auto company's director of design, and accompanies his new vehicle (a camper tricked out in all sorts of absurd gadgetry) to an auto show in Amsterdam. Naturally, the road is paved with modern-age mishaps. This late-career delight is a masterful demonstration of the comic genius's expert timing and sidesplitting visual gags, and a bemused last look at technology run amok."

"This Criterion Collection release includes important extras, like a 1973 episode of French show, 'Morceaux de bravoure,' in which Tati speaks about his overall working methods. Also impressive is his daughter’s full-length documentary, "In the Footsteps of Monsieur Hulot" (1989), which collects ample archival footage of Tati and his friend, professor A. Sauvy, discussing each film’s invention. Here, Tati said of Trafic that he was inspired to make a film that would make people smile after noticing so many frowns on the Paris highways. Road rage assuaged by cinema is a truly Modern gesture." --Trinie Dalton at amazon.com"

Trafic on DVD at amazon: here