Michael T. Martin

"Shrove Tuesday is a day to be remembered by strangers in New Orleans, for that is the day for fun,..."

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:21:35 -0600

“Shrove Tuesday is a day to be remembered by strangers in New Orleans, for that is the day for fun, frolic, and comic masquerading. All of the mischief of the city is alive and wide awake in active operation. Men and boys, women and girls, bond and free, white and black, yellow and brown, exert themselves to invent and appear in grotesque, quizzical, diabolic, horrible, strange masks, and disguises. Human bodies are seen with heads of beasts and birds, beasts and birds with human heads; demi-beasts, demi-fishes, snakes’ heads and bodies with arms of apes; man-bats from the moon; mermaids; satyrs, beggars, monks, and robbers parade and march on foot, on horseback, in wagons, carts, coaches, cars, &c., in rich confusion, up and down the streets, wildly shouting, singing, laughing, drumming, fiddling, fifeing, and all throwing flour broadcast as they wend their reckless way.”

- Scenes in the South, and Other Miscellaneous Pieces by James Creecy

Carpooling in Mexico City

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:14:05 -0600

Carpooling in Mexico City

via Edwin Gardner and In Pictures:Occupied Art

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 12:58:33 -0600

via Edwin Gardner and In Pictures:Occupied Art

Get excited. CC @Fuerzita

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:38:58 -0600

Get excited. CC @Fuerzita

The Knights of Electra in 1889 via The Historic New Orleans...

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:57:25 -0600

The Knights of Electra in 1889 via The Historic New Orleans Collection

"Still somewhat obscure only because of its overwhelming ubiquity, space is itself an infrastructural..."

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:33:44 -0600

““Still somewhat obscure only because of its overwhelming ubiquity, space is itself an infrastructural technology that is mobile and monetized, traveling around the world as a repeatable phenomenon.””

- From An Internet of Things via E-Flux

TV Helmet (The Portable Living Room) by Walter Pichler, 1967...

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 23:38:35 -0600

TV Helmet (The Portable Living Room) by Walter Pichler, 1967
Small Room (Prototype 4)

"If our history is a history of forgetting how to remember the past…then the city of Detroit is..."

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 16:28:17 -0600

““If our history is a history of forgetting how to remember the past…then the city of Detroit is the engine of our conflicted deliverance. It’s the machinery we’ve used for particular acts of forgetting, each connected to the place and time where the forgetting got done.””

- The Forgetting Machine via Design Observer

"Let the age and wars of other nations be chanted and their eras and characters be illustrated and..."

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 15:11:12 -0600

““Let the age and wars of other nations be chanted and their eras and characters be illustrated and that finish the verse. Not so the psalm of the republic. Here the theme is creative and vista. Here comes one among the well-beloved stonecutters and plans with decision and science and sees the solid and beautiful forms of the future where there are now no solid forms.””

- Leaves of Grass; Preface - Walt Whitman

Who Did the SOPA Blackout affect?

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:44:09 -0600

Who Did the SOPA Blackout affect?

What happens when you cross a mayor and a painter?

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 22:54:58 -0600

What happens when you cross a mayor and a painter?

"The artist traveled with a blue neon billboard that read ENJOY POVERTY and worked with Congolese..."

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 21:03:26 -0600

“The artist traveled with a blue neon billboard that read ENJOY POVERTY and worked with Congolese photographers, teaching them how to sell images of suffering to Western media and aid agencies.”

- Review of Art and Activism in the Age of Globalization

(via We Make Money Not Art)

"I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York’s skyline. Particularly when..."

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 22:04:31 -0600

“I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York’s skyline. Particularly when one can’t see the details. Just the shapes. The shapes and the thought that made them. The sky over New York and the will of man made visible. What other religion do we need? And then people tell me about pilgrimages to some dank pesthole in a jungle where they go to do homage to a crumbling temple, to a leering stone monster with a pot belly, created by some leprous savage. Is it beauty and genius they want to see? Do they seek a sense of the sublime? Let them come to New York, stand on the shore of the Hudson, look and kneel. When I see the city from my window - no, I don’t feel how small I am - but I feel that if a war came to threaten this, I would throw myself into space, over the city, and protect these buildings with my body.”

- Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead (via wandery)

"In exchange for struggling in the crowded city, the poorest artist can be enriched by the ideas..."

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 12:52:46 -0600

“In exchange for struggling in the crowded city, the poorest artist can be enriched by the ideas circulating for free.”

- from “Art and Urban Density” by James Panero

Accidental (?) pattern in Williamsburg

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:42:56 -0600

Accidental (?) pattern in Williamsburg

"Birds living in cities sing at a higher pitch to reduce the impact of echoes from surrounding..."

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 11:38:37 -0600

“Birds living in cities sing at a higher pitch to reduce the impact of echoes from surrounding buildings”

- Urban birds sing at higher pitch - Telegraph

America unraveling. Installation by Rosemarie Trockel.

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 14:53:24 -0600

America unraveling. Installation by Rosemarie Trockel.

Billy Childish.

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:54:00 -0600

Billy Childish.

"It’s a musical Venn diagram placed over the landscape, and at any time you might have two dozen..."

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 23:57:56 -0600

““It’s a musical Venn diagram placed over the landscape, and at any time you might have two dozen tracks playing in your ears, all meshing and colliding in surprising ways. The path you take determines what you hear””

- Central Park, The Soundtrack

quirky is a social product development company. Your product...

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 10:33:11 -0600

quirky is a social product development company. Your product ideas come in, our community works on them, we sell your product worldwide, and 30¢ of every dollar brought in gets distributed amongst you and the product’s influencers.