Link About It: This Week’s Picks
Space, spirituality, sauces, streetwear, sound art, skyscrapers for animals and more in our look around the web
Blanton Museum of Art’s Forthcoming Sound Art Garden
The Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin will open the Butler Sound Gallery, a first-of-its-kind permanent outdoor space for sound art, in 2022. Blanton is the first major museum to develop a gallery for the medium at this scale. It’s also part of a greater revitalization led by acclaimed architecture firm Snøhetta. The first commission for the Butler Sound Gallery is from Bay Area artist Bill Fontana, who intends to make bat echolocation perceptible to human ears. Working with experts at the University of Texas at Austin, he will began recording for the work this July. Read more at The Art Newspaper.
NASA Astrobiologist Reverend Pamela Conrad on Human Nature, Spirituality + Science
Pamela Conrad may seem like an anomaly; she’s a NASA scientist (an astrobiologist and mineralogist working on the Perseverance mission) as well as a reverend. In a fascinating interview with Wired, Conrad explains how she personally navigates spirituality and science—with a deep understanding of human nature. In both her jobs, she is tasked with finding answers (Is there life on Mars? What is the meaning of it all?) but she admits, “I fully concede that I am a statistical outlier. I go there because I love the questions.” She tells Noam Cohen that her two different positions actually complement each other, “The difference between a telescope, or any outward looking thing to understand the environment, and the introspection of looking inside is to say, ‘I am a universe, and also I live within a universe.'” Read the full interview at Wired.
Image courtesy of Wired
Dissolving “Regenera” Skyscraper Heals Burnt Ecosystems
A temporary shelter concept for birds and small animals in ecosystems damaged by wildfires, architect Alberto Roncelli’s “Regenera” tower dissolves with wind and rain to scatter seeds and other nutrients in the process. Roncelli’s vision incorporates a ground-level “lab,” which scientists can utilize to run initial studies on the healing progress—but it is ultimately abandoned to let erosion take over. Further, each level is composed of different materials to allow for diverse regeneration. Read more at designboom.
Image courtesy Alberto Roncelli
The Homophobia Found in Streetwear Culture Today
As Tiffany Godoy writes for Highsnobiety, streetwear was “once the bastion of counter culture fringe populations, including early skaters, surfers, graffiti artists, punks and hip-hop artists. Most people that wore the product contributed to the scene, giving one real street cred that aligned you with a like-minded community.” That’s no longer the case. Citing thousands of unfollows and homophobic comments on their Instagram following a post in support of queer iconoclast Tom of Finland—as well as similar behavior on Hypebeast, Complex and Thrasher Magazine—Godoy calls out rampant, sometimes violent incidents throughout the culture, which is due in part to the fact that it has become mainstream. Read more about the angry voices, the role of the luxury industry and how brands may be able to help at Highsnobiety.
Image courtesy of the Tom of Finland Foundation
LEGO’s First Brick Made From Recycled Plastic
After 250 variations, produced by a team of 150 engineers and designers over three years, LEGO announced their first-ever prototype brick made entirely from recycled plastic bottles. LEGO will continue to test the recycled PET product for strength and safety; thus, a production brick should not be expected for at least another year. But, as LEGO shared on Instagram (with an image of the brick), this is already “a big step towards our commitment to make all our products from sustainable sources by 2030.” Read more about the development process at Apartment Therapy.
Image courtesy of LEGO
Noma Launches an Ancient Condiments Line
Copenhagen culinary beacon Noma will release their first line of products, aptly named Noma Projects, later this year. Imagined by iconoclastic chef René Redzepi, this collection of garum condiments—which are, perhaps unsurprisingly from this institution, ancient fermented sauces with roots in the Roman Empire—will be vegan and vegetarian. They were selected from hundreds of variations of misos, vinegars and more, all under development at the restaurant’s fermenting lab. Fans of the restaurant (and those who have dreamed of visiting) will rejoice that these will be sold online and ship globally. British artist and CH favorite David Shrigley will contribute the label art, too. Read more about the condiments’ development, and the ways that they can be utilized, at the Wall Street Journal.
Image courtesy of Ditte Isager
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 courtesy of Alberto Roncelli
