Link About It: This Week’s Picks

The New Yorker's archives freely unfold, space plant photography, the science behind tattoos and more in our weekly look at the web

1. Opening The New Yorker Archives With the launch of their redesign and in preparation for their upcoming pay wall, The New Yorker has opened up its archives free to the public—temporarily. All issues from 2007 to date are available to peruse and, to help navigate, The New Yorker editors have offered up some tips on must-read pieces. 2. Bonsai Trees In Space Tokyo-based artist …

Touching The Art

The inimitable Elaine Stritch, a crazy cooler, Wired's innovation fellows and more in our weekly look at the web

What is art? Could my kid do that? Is James Franco really real? All these questions and more are addressed in comedian Casey Jane Ellison’s new web series “Touching the Art.” With a legitimate guest panel of acclaimed art world inhabitants, the first sub-seven-minute episode is full of clever quips, perfectly cynical reflections and—believe it or not—some interesting insight on the subject of contemporary art …

Pencil Vases

The inimitable Elaine Stritch, a crazy cooler, Wired's innovation fellows and more in our weekly look at the web

Designer Tuomas Markunpoika has used pencils as a raw material in a series of surprising vases, suitably dubbed “Amalgamated.” By glueing together hundreds of Faber-Castell pencils into a solid block and then turning it on the lathe, the lead is exposed and a beautifully distinct surface pattern appears. The vases are selling in limited supply from London’s Gallery FUMI, and are available in three different …