oddtag's posterous http://oddtag.posterous.com Most recent posts at oddtag's posterous posterous.com Sat, 13 Feb 2010 21:02:31 -0800 It's time to rethink the purpose of art, and not only http://oddtag.posterous.com/its-time-to-rethink-the-purpose-of-art-and-no http://oddtag.posterous.com/its-time-to-rethink-the-purpose-of-art-and-no txt: Art's lost subject - Antony Gormley on www.guardian.co.uk
The carbon crisis calls for a re-­examination of our faith in the technological basis of western progress. A change in belief is a cultural change; art and artists are implicated. As Paul ­Ehrlich and others have pointed out, human evolution has been driven by cultural rather than biological change; our brain size, synaptic activity, physical characteristics have not changed much in the last million or so years. What has changed is the material culture that we have made and which has in turn made us, from stone tool-making, farming, printing, the industrial revolution, the information revolution and now, maybe, the most critical and difficult revolution of all: a complete reversal of many of the values that we have held dear. We can no longer assume that more is better. Technology that was in some senses made to make life better has now become the problem. But art is not technology; it is useless but vital. It is through art that we communicate what it feels like to be alive. When you ask "what is the point of art?" you could reformulate the question to "what is the point of ­human beings?"
link: www.juliesbicycle.com Julie’s Bicycle is a not-for-profit company helping the music industry cut its greenhouse gas emissions and create a low carbon creative future.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/532599/83641183_N00.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AAS8luLk9xL oddtag oddtag
Sun, 07 Feb 2010 09:13:15 -0800 Switch: how to change things when change is hard http://oddtag.posterous.com/switch-how-to-change-things-when-change-is-ha http://oddtag.posterous.com/switch-how-to-change-things-when-change-is-ha txt: Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard - amazon.com
One of the most consistent findings in psychology is that people behave differently when their environment changes. When we’re in a place where people are quiet (church), we’re quiet. When we’re in a place where people are loud (stadiums), we’re loud. When we’re driving and the lanes narrow, we slow down. When they widen, we speed up again. This may seem obvious, but when we try to make change at work, we often make the mistake of obsessing about the people involved rather than their environment. Often the easiest way to drive change is to shape the environment.
video: Stand By Me | Playing For Change | Song Around The World - vimeo.com [vimeo http://vimeo.com/2539741]

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/532599/83641183_N00.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AAS8luLk9xL oddtag oddtag
Wed, 05 Nov 2008 07:09:04 -0800 Waiting On The World To Change http://oddtag.posterous.com/waiting-on-the-world-to-change http://oddtag.posterous.com/waiting-on-the-world-to-change [txt] Sen. Barack Obama spoke at a rally in Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois, after winning the race for the White House.
That's the true genius of America: that America can change. Our union can be perfected. What we've already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow. [...] She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons -- because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin. And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America -- the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.
video John Mayer - Waiting On The World To Change [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPOBMzMTP4U]

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/532599/83641183_N00.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AAS8luLk9xL oddtag oddtag