Link About It: This Week’s Picks
Virtual visits into space, a guide to this year’s Milan Design Week, the new Black Film Archive and more from around the web
“Women For Life On Earth” Redefined Protesting With Beauty + Banners
When 20-foot-long missiles moved into the Greenham Common Air Force base in the 1980s, it was the last straw for a group of women in England and Wales. Thus, the collective Women For Life On Earth was born—and soon set out on a 110-mile march to Greenham, renouncing war and violence. Almost immediately, the women were met with ridicule, vilification and harassment. (One photographer even going so far as to attempt to take shots of “teenage girls’ legs and knickers.”) In a feat of tenacity and creativity, the collective—led by Thalia Campbell—made banners that blended history, art, politics and the craft of embroidery to continue their protest. Find out how Campbell’s protest banners utilized beauty and expanded to a global phenomenon on It’s Nice That.
Image courtesy of Four Corners Books
The Archive Celebrating + Contextualizing Black Film History
“What does it mean to make Black film history accessible?” asks Maya S Cade, the founder of Black Film Archive. This question prompted her to begin developing a free evolving catalog of Black cinema, which now includes 250+ streaming films from 1915 to 1979—as well as a monthly newsletter with updates to the website’s records, curated movie recommendations and summaries of each film that highlight their cultural context. Find out more about this new archive and Cade’s aspirations on Mother Jones.
Image from The Wiz, courtesy of Black Film Archive
New Platform Creates Better Futures For Hospitality Workers
The restaurant industry is notoriously fraught with low wages and few (or zero) healthcare benefits. When these conditions worsened due to the global pandemic, restaurant owner-turned-organizer Jennifer Kim decided to close the doors to her celebrated Chicago eatery, Passerotto, and create pathways to better support the industry instead. She began working on Alt Economy, a platform for creatives and hospitality workers to contribute to mutual aid, sell their work and find resources to build financially stable futures. Now, the thriving website is home to a network of people helping each other build strong businesses. Read more about how Kim is pioneering a “regenerative moment” in the food industry and the history of alternative economies at MOLD.
Image courtesy of Alt Economy
Virtual Tours of The International Space Station
For those who aren’t astronauts and don’t have billions in the bank, space exploration seems impossible. In an effort to bring regular people a little closer to the cosmos, TIME and Felix & Paul Studios have launched Space Explorers: The ISS Experience—a virtual tour of the International Space Station, made in collaboration with NASA. More than a quick look into the spacecraft, the two-part series utilized “custom-built virtual reality cameras—engineered to operate in zero-gravity” to capture 360-degree footage inside and outside (for the first time ever) of the station. The immersive experience has been crafted thanks to astronauts filming 200+ hours of footage. Those featured are currently living in the ISS, including David Saint-Jacques (Canadian Space Agency), Anne McClain (NASA), Nick Hague (NASA), Christina H. Koch (NASA), Jessica U. Meir (NASA), Luca Parmitano (European Space Agency), Hazza Al Mansouri (United Arab Emirates) and Andrew “Drew” Morgan (NASA). Find out more about each episode at TIME.
Image courtesy TIME and Felix & Paul Studios
designboom’s Guide to Milan Design Week 2021
This 5-10 September, Milan Design Week returns in style after last year’s necessary pandemic-related cancellation. From the landmark Salone del Mobile fair (and its new Supersalone concept) to the Alcova platform, Aires Mateus’ “A Beach in the Baroque” installation and perennial favorites Rossana Orlandi and Nulifar Gallery, designboom has compiled a list of must-see experiences this year. One of the most stunning annual displays of design, the week finds brands like Foscarini, Richard Yasmine and Tom Dixon building worlds around the artistry of their wares. See a full calendar of highlights at designboom.
Image of A Beach in the Baroque / Una Spiaggia Nel Barocco, courtesy of Aires Mateus
Link About It is our filtered look at the web, shared daily in Link and on social media, and rounded up every Saturday morning. Hero image A Beach in the Baroque / Una Spiaggia Nel Barocco, courtesy of Aires Mateus
