Help

Brain Pickings takes 200+ hours a month to curate and edit. If you find any joy and value in it, we would really appreciate a modest donation.

Subscribe

  • Subscribe by RSS feed
  • Subscribe by email

Connect

  • Follow on Twitter
  • Stumble It
  • Add to del.icio.us
  • Become a Fan
  • TwitterCounter for @brainpicker
ted.com

30

Dec

2009

Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009

By Maria Popova

A year’s worth of ideas, inspiration and innovation from culture’s collective brain.

It’s been a colorful and fascinating year here at Brain Pickings. (And if we’ve managed to put some color and fascination into yours, consider supporting us with a small sum of green.) Here’s a look back at some of the things that tickled our — and your — brains the most.

Getting objectified turned out to be a very good thing. The story of stuff burst some serious bubbles in our consumerist fairy tale. Fans saved an iconic photography magazine from a sad demise. Seven of the world’s best 3D animators had fun with one big bunny.

We saw some inspired innovation in orchestras, bike culture, libraries, sustainable agriculture, and bookshelf design. The Smithsonian gave us a century of illustrated letters.

We live-blogged TED and TEDGlobal, with lots of photos, then launched a TED tribute project of our own.

We found some phenomenally creative reinterpretations of vinyl, cardboard, and paper, and the toilet paper roll.

We uncovered the art of the cover and learned some priceless design lessons from the past. We saw three creative meditations on the art of identity. The New York Times fueled our data visualization fetish with the Times Open effort. We saw what the world eats and how it would look if it were a village of 100 people. We went on a hunt for the origins of happiness.

The Little Red Riding Hood met Röyksopp, David Lynch met Moby, and jazz history met 3D shadow art in some of the year’s most brilliant animation.

We found some great, great, great, great, great illustrators and wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful photographers.

We proved you aren’t nearly as unique as you think and found an infinite photograph. Five environmental films challenged our relationship with Earth. We took a ride on a photographic time machine. Chris Jordan exposed the chilling reality of overfishing and pollution in yet another remarkable series of photographic visualizations.

We read some fascinating books about the power of attention, iconic illustrator Charley Harper, the granddaddy of the graphic novel, design as a tool for social change, some wonderfully strange maps, mixtapes from exes, a magical jazz loft, and the art from the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Jack Kerouac’s iconic status was reaffirmed in some brilliant literary visualizations and a cinematic journey starring some of his biggest contemporaries.

Darwin turned 200 and some fine indie musicians got together in his farmhouse to put together a (r)evolutionary record. A vintage praxinoscope from 1877 produced a brilliant lo-fi animation and an interactive music video redefined the relationship between the auditory and the visual.

Revolutionary platforms empowered creators by matching them with grants and offering crowdsourced microfunding for projects. Copyright law took one in the tenders from remix culture. The Internet got mapped.

A grassroots philanthropy project set out to send more girls in India, South East Asia and Nepal to school. A Taiwanese soap commercial proved advertising doesn’t have to be that much different from art. Director duo Terri Timely made some serious waves with Synesthesia. We undertook an original, first-hand investigation of the typography of the San Francisco MoMA. A documentary about street art dissected the cultural anthropology of urban creativity. Designers took on disability and we got up, close and personal with the human face.

We looked at the cross-pollination of disciplines with some fantastic biology-inspired art. Isabella Rosellinni delivered an equally quirky third helping of green porno.

Brain Pickings darling Jonathan Harris co-founded an observatory for the study of contemporary culture, shared some keen modern philosophy about digital culture, and published a visual almanac of human emotion.

Choreography and digital motion intersected in synchronous objects and CG studio Zeitgeist stunned us with some peripetics. Cardon Webb created a new visual language for neighborhood flyers. The BBC had an unusual opener for their poetry season. We interviewed Dutch designer Twan Verdonck. The GRAIL Lab at UWash built Rome in a day by crowdsourcing 3D renderings of some of the world’s oldest cities and a Swedish geek duo served up fresh music from some of the world’s most interesting ones.

MIT students one-upped QR codes. A Canadian documentary refused to water down the water crisis, while Brazilians offered an unorthodox solution to it. The famous Myers-Briggs personality test got visualized as a subway map. We geeked out with some notes and neurons, examining why music resonates with us so powerfully. 51 teams of designers, directors and animators got together to create 17 wonderful short films. Beck took the legendary Velvet Underground & Nico album and reinvented it with some friends.

We discovered fascinating visualizations of poetry, Madrid’s air, foot traffic in a 1950’s house, the hundred monkey effect, and the hypertextual narrative of Choose Your Own Adventure books.

Four Pixar animators released a racy side project. Advertising creatives made lemonade out of the industry’s recession-era layoffs. A new biomimicry portal set out to save the planet by encouraging designers and engineers to emulate nature.

Indie rock got itself a coloring book, dabbled in children’s science education, redefined the recording package as a design vehicle, and made the first-ever album/film hybrid.

We looked at how Helvetica man was born and traced the evolution of symbol signs. Goolery offered a comprehensive database of cool projects using the Google API. We looked at the 6 most compelling efforts in humanoid robotics. A brilliant documentary painted a portrait of our greatest living composer.

Our friends at Green Thing made some sweet glove love, Johnny Carrera resurrected Victorian engravings in a brilliant visual dictionary of curiosities. Minivegas made a visualizer that renders digital sculptures in real-time in response to sound and gestures. A boy harnessed the wind. Winnie the Pooh returned after 81 years. Beau Lotto made us dizzy with some neat optical illusions. Hitotoki unleashed urban storytelling.

The map became art. The UK got itself a museum of everything. We drooled over vintage jazz album covers. An infographic portrait of the East vs. West culture clash became a big hit. Thirty conversations on design gave us some food for creative thought. Public pianos reclaimed urban space.

The Visual Miscellaneum became a bible of information design. A remix of Carl Sagan + Sigur Rós hit the spot for hipster-geeks everywhere. A grassroots movement used music, fashion, photography, design, dance, art and journalism as tools for social justice. Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon was the greatest movie never made.

We went on a shopping spree for nothing. Digital platforms revamped the art of learning. We looked at some superbly creative innovations on the alphabet book classic. We counted down the top 10 conferences that spark interdisciplinary creative cross-pollination. The story of cap & trade shed some light on the latest energy hoax. Gender identity and color had a surprising historical relationship.

A brilliant browser plugin promised to nix annoying online ads while generating revenues for social causes, all at no cost to you. The Mobile Mobile reinvented the Christmas tree. A Broken Social Scene musician explored the implicit melodic qualities of human speech while collecting common wisdom on happiness, a New York Magazine writer set out to test all the theories about what makes us happy, and several hundred people put their happiest moments in jars.

We sent you a beautiful wish for 2010 via Tom Waits and Charles Bukowski.

In 2009, we spent more than 240 hours a month bringing you Brain Pickings. That’s over 2,880 hours for the year, over which we could’ve seen 29 feature-length films, listened to 72 music albums or taken 960 bathroom visits. If you found any joy and inspiration here this year, please consider supporting us with a modest donation — it lets us know we’re doing something right.


Psst, we’ve launched a fancy weekly newsletter. It comes out on Sundays, offers the week’s articles, and features five more tasty bites of web-wide interestingness. Here’s an example. Like? Sign up.

You may also enjoy:

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 30th, 2009 at 8:59 am in art, culture, design, multimedia, photography, science, software, sustainability and was tagged , , .

67 Responses

  1. Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009 | Brain Pickings: Brain Pickings darling Jonathan Harris co-founded an obser.. http://bit.ly/78obXy

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    alfonsowest on December 30th, 2009 at 9:26 am

  2. Personally, I suspect @brainpicker fgured out how to clone: Glorious round-up of astounding year in interestingness: http://bit.ly/6lTQUF

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    TrackerNews on December 30th, 2009 at 12:57 pm

  3. Behold – Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009 – a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG [Please RT!]

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    brainpicker on December 30th, 2009 at 1:33 pm

  4. Behold – Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009 – a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG by @brainpicker

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    ahmednaguib on December 30th, 2009 at 1:35 pm

  5. RT @brainpicker: Behold – Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009 – a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG …

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    yulzrulz on December 30th, 2009 at 1:36 pm

  6. RT @brainpicker: Behold – Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009 – a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG …

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    ZvonkoPavic on December 30th, 2009 at 1:37 pm

  7. Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009 – a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG /via @brainpicker

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    bb__ on December 30th, 2009 at 1:39 pm

  8. RT @brainpicker: Behold – Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009 – a year’s worth of curated interestingness http://ow.ly/R8JG [Please RT!]

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    inakiescudero on December 30th, 2009 at 1:40 pm

  9. Yum! RT @brainpicker: Behold – Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009 – a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    Anita_Lobo on December 30th, 2009 at 1:41 pm

  10. RT @brainpicker: Behold – Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009–a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG Brava!

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    aarieff on December 30th, 2009 at 1:45 pm

  11. Maria at @brainpicker is a wizard at finding the extraordinary, gorge on her favorite things from 2009 http://ow.ly/R8JG

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    MosesHawk on December 30th, 2009 at 1:47 pm

  12. RT @MosesHawk Maria at @brainpicker is a wizard at finding the extraordinary, gorge on her favorite things from 2009 http://ow.ly/R8JG

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    KathyLoh on December 30th, 2009 at 1:55 pm

  13. one of my faves RT @brainpicker Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009 a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    thaz7 on December 30th, 2009 at 1:56 pm

  14. terrific content: @brainpicker Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009 a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    jamieai on December 30th, 2009 at 2:08 pm

  15. RT @brainpicker: Behold – Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009 – a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG …

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    creativeconcern on December 30th, 2009 at 2:11 pm

  16. Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009 – http://ow.ly/R8JG

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    TeddyZ on December 30th, 2009 at 2:21 pm

  17. RT @aarieff: RT @brainpicker: Behold–Brain Pickings Redux:Best of 2009–year’s worth of curated interestingness &innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    AndreaLearned on December 30th, 2009 at 2:23 pm

  18. Behold–BrainPickings Best of 2009, a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG (via @brainpicker) Congrats!

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    HelenWalters on December 30th, 2009 at 3:29 pm

  19. BrainPickings “Best of 2009″ a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation – http://ow.ly/R8JG (via @HelenWalters @brainpicker)

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    karpul on December 30th, 2009 at 3:39 pm

  20. BrainPickings “Best of 2009″ a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation – http://ow.ly/R8JG (via @HelenWalters @brainpicker)

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    klothesapparel on December 30th, 2009 at 3:39 pm

  21. RT @HelenWalters: Behold–BrainPickings Best of 2009, a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG (via @brai …

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    bhc3 on December 30th, 2009 at 4:42 pm

  22. Spectacularly cool digest RT @brainpicker Best of 2009 – a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://j.mp/8H8l0Q

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    digiphile on December 30th, 2009 at 4:55 pm

  23. A year’s worth of ideas, inspiration and innovation from culture’s collective brain. @Brainpicker’s Best of ‘09: http://bit.ly/5vuRpc

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    noahWG on December 30th, 2009 at 4:57 pm

  24. RT @brainpicker: Behold – Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009 – a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG …

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    martindave on December 30th, 2009 at 5:02 pm

  25. RT @brainpicker: Behold – Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009 – a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG …

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    cwolpe on December 30th, 2009 at 5:55 pm

  26. Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009 – a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG /via @brainpicker

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    smartercreative on December 30th, 2009 at 7:26 pm

  27. Dazzling stuff – @brainpicker’s Redux: Best of 2009 – a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    BBHLabs on December 30th, 2009 at 9:27 pm

  28. RT @BBHLabs: Dazzling stuff – @brainpicker’s Redux: Best of 2009 – a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    amolbigw on December 30th, 2009 at 9:27 pm

  29. RT @BBHLabs: Dazzling stuff – @brainpicker’s Redux: Best of 2009 – a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    maidenmedia on December 30th, 2009 at 9:27 pm

  30. RT @BBHLabs: Dazzling stuff – @brainpicker’s Redux: Best of 2009 – a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    LuisDaniel_A on December 30th, 2009 at 9:38 pm

  31. RT @BBHLabs: Dazzling stuff – @brainpicker’s Redux: Best of 2009 – a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    nitjyotsaroan on December 30th, 2009 at 9:39 pm

  32. RT @BBHLabs: Dazzling stuff –Best of 2009 – a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    VinVox on December 30th, 2009 at 10:11 pm

  33. RT @brainpicker: Behold – Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009 – a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG …

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    The6thMyth on December 30th, 2009 at 10:14 pm

  34. RT @BBHLabs Dazzling stuff – @brainpicker’s Redux: Best of 2009 – a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    jamesdrewe on December 30th, 2009 at 10:27 pm

  35. A great round-up of some of @brainpicker’s best stories of the year: Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009 http://bit.ly/7jwNDm

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    paradisetossed on December 30th, 2009 at 11:45 pm

  36. RT @brainpicker: Behold – Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009 – a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation: http://ow.ly/R8JG

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    Innovation360 on December 31st, 2009 at 8:18 am

  37. Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009 from @brainpicker, a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    TheOccasional on December 31st, 2009 at 11:02 am

  38. RT @brainpicker: Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009 – a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    PD_Smith on December 31st, 2009 at 11:12 am

  39. RT @brainpicker Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009 http://ow.ly/1mJeXF

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    neighbourh00d on December 31st, 2009 at 11:54 am

  40. A brilliant must-read – @brainpicker’s Redux: Best of 2009 – a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    melex on December 31st, 2009 at 12:14 pm

  41. RT @brainpicker: Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009 – a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    sbiedak on December 31st, 2009 at 12:17 pm

  42. LOVE RT @melex: A must-read – @brainpicker’s Redux: Best of 2009 – a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    conradlisco on December 31st, 2009 at 12:22 pm

  43. http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2009/12/30/best-of-2009/

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    skipzilla on December 31st, 2009 at 12:23 pm

  44. RT @melex: A brilliant must-read @brainpicker’s Redux: Best of 2009–a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    KatePickering on December 31st, 2009 at 12:32 pm

  45. RT @brainpicker Best of 2009 – a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    JonathanAlger on December 31st, 2009 at 12:35 pm

  46. Brilliant RT @brainpicker Redux: Best of 2009 – a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    Rubber_Republic on December 31st, 2009 at 12:38 pm

  47. brain pickings best of 2009 http://ow.ly/R8JG

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    showbizgirl on December 31st, 2009 at 12:40 pm

  48. RT @brainpicker Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009 http://ow.ly/1mJeXF

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    JonAkwue on December 31st, 2009 at 12:43 pm

  49. @imaniizzi you in particular will love this RT @Rubber_Republic Brilliant RT @brainpicker Redux: Best of 2009 http://ow.ly/R8JG

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    BurnsyBoo on December 31st, 2009 at 12:50 pm

  50. Brilliant! Best of 2009 curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG (via @Rubber_Republic @brainpicker)

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    pedroramirez on December 31st, 2009 at 12:55 pm

  51. brain pickings best of 2009 http://ow.ly/R8JG also via @showbizgirl

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    arnied on December 31st, 2009 at 1:59 pm

  52. My favorite “Best of 2009″ round-up so far: “A year’s worth of ideas, inspiration and innovation” http://bit.ly/6lTQUF (via @brainpicker)

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    juliaxgulia on December 31st, 2009 at 2:08 pm

  53. RT @juliaxgulia: “Best of 2009″round-up so far:”A year’s worth of ideas, inspiration and innovation” http://bit.ly/6lTQUF (via @brainpicker)

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    fadwebsite on December 31st, 2009 at 2:15 pm

  54. RT @brainpicker: Behold – Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009 – a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG …

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    yellowpinkie3 on December 31st, 2009 at 5:29 pm

  55. (If you missed it earlier) Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009 – a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    brainpicker on January 1st, 2010 at 11:45 am

  56. The best of the best: a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation from @brainpicker http://ow.ly/R8JG

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    legalnomads on January 1st, 2010 at 12:35 pm

  57. The brilliant curator, brainpicker, picks the best brains of 2009–a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    MichaelCaruso on January 1st, 2010 at 2:05 pm

  58. A year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation @brainpicker http://ow.ly/R8JG // Fantastic job, Maria!

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    kathodgson on January 1st, 2010 at 2:57 pm

  59. From documentary Objectified to Moment Jars – Year’s worth of Interestingness for 2009 http://u.nu/2dme4 by @brainpicker via @legalnomads

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    designfeast on January 1st, 2010 at 3:37 pm

  60. RT @smartercreative: Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009 – a year’s worth of curated interestingness & innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG /via …

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    PhilMcCreight on January 2nd, 2010 at 12:42 am

  61. A year’s worth of ideas, inspiration and innovation from culture’s collective brain: http://bit.ly/brainpickings

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    BrianBBrian on January 3rd, 2010 at 11:39 am

  62. Reading Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009 http://ow.ly/Sknt

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    colmenares on January 3rd, 2010 at 3:08 pm

  63. Want to read: Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009 | Brain Pickings http://bit.ly/8dwbhs

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    tautoko on January 3rd, 2010 at 3:36 pm

  64. Culture’s collective brain: a year’s worth of ideas, inspiration and innovation: http://bit.ly/brainpickings

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    BrianBBrian on January 3rd, 2010 at 7:59 pm

  65. Excellent as ever: A round up of curatorial goodness from 2009 from @branpicker http://ow.ly/R8JG

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    PatsMc on January 4th, 2010 at 5:47 am

  66. RT @PatsMc: Excellent as ever: A round up of curatorial goodness from 2009 from @branpicker http://ow.ly/R8JG

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    sosticky on January 4th, 2010 at 6:25 am

  67. cool stuff! RT @brainpicker: Brain Pickings Redux: Best of 2009 – a year’s worth of curated interestingness; innovation http://ow.ly/R8JG

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

    sammysahuri on January 7th, 2010 at 1:33 am

Comments? Give Brain Pickings a piece of your mind:

«
»