In Residence: Ricardo Bofill

Snackwave, re-inventing the phone call, JR on Ellis Island and more in our weekly look at the web

Iconic architect Ricardo Bofill tells the story of his monumental home in a Nowness video that’s strangely haunting and entirely fascinating. The house is a huge, converted former cement factory located outside Barcelona—a place Bofill says he wanted to transform from a polluting machine into a green space full of a team of thinkers. He says, “The beauty of this labyrinth is that people don’t …

It’s Decorative Gourd Season, Motherfuckers

Snackwave, re-inventing the phone call, JR on Ellis Island and more in our weekly look at the web

Back in 2009, McSweeney’s writer Colin Nissan stunned stateside suburban mothers with his hilariously accurate article, “It’s Decorative Gourd Season, Motherfuckers.” Each fall since, the cultivated San Francisco outpost re-publishes the think piece to great delight, reminding us all of just how silly it is to fill a wicker cornucopia with the orange-hued, hard-skin fruit in the name of seasonal cheer. But in that spirit …

Life Returns to NYC’s Ellis Island

Snackwave, re-inventing the phone call, JR on Ellis Island and more in our weekly look at the web

French artist JR made a name for himself with large-scale creative undertakings that change viewers’ perceptions of location, space and time. His latest project takes on NYC’s historic entry port as his canvas. With “Unframed—Ellis Island,” JR has reopened Ellis Island Hospital to the public (for the first time in 60 years) and inside are archival images—blown up to massive proportions—of those who were treated …