Posts Tagged ‘bizarre’
27
Aug
2010
it’s a sickness: The Obsession Network
What deviled eggs have to do with Jason Bateman, gay rights and The Beatles.
Obsessions. We all have them. (If you’ve been reading Brain Pickings long enough, you know some of our more esoteric ones include bookshelves, data visualization and David Byrne.) But, historically, obsessions have either been banished to reclusive clubs or shoved under the carpet altogether. No more — it’s a sickness is a bold celebration of obsessions through short tribute films in which people get to, quite simply, geek out about what they’re passionate about.
We believe that no one is ever more interesting than when they talk about what they love. To do your sickness justice is to own it. It is to prove how dedicated and enthralled you are with it. It is to geek out.”
From to Harry Potter to E. E. Cummings to the 80’s, a multitude of obsession groups spanning the serious (gay rights), the necessary (The Beatles) and the tongue-in-cheek (robot uprising) already exist and you can start a new one of your own anytime. Obsessions can be captured in anything from text to image to video, making the platform a Tumblr-like digital scrapbook for your fiercest fixations.
The lounge section features obsession-confessions by celebrities and micro-celebrities, from Jason Bateman’s fixation on classical music (we love you, Jason) to Marisa Tomei’s obsession with hula hoops to Seth Herzog’s devilish lust for deviled eggs.
Beautifully filmed and irreverently candid, the videos are just the kind of thing to put you at ease with your own obsessions by offering a very human angle on famous people’s.
it’s a sickness is part cathartic celebration of our obsessions, part hallmark of the universal need to define and differentiate who we are through what we do and own, part charming zoetrope of human eccentricity.
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02
Aug
2010
These Are Their Stories: Art Based on Law & Order
What mustaches have to do with dead bullies and subway-riding bears.
Earlier this year, the world bid one of television’s longest-running and most revered series adieu — after 20 seasons, Law & Order came to a grand finale. From its iconic characters to the unmistakable dun-dun sound, the show has inspired a cultish following and a number of tributes that transcend the TV airwaves and cross into a variety of media.
These Are Their Stories is a series of artist interpretations of the one-line episode summaries found in the show’s DirectTV program guide. From oil on canvas to comic panels to dioramas, from the literal to the abstract to the downright bizarre, the artwork spans the entire spectrum of artistic style, genre and creative conception by a wide range of artists. (Including Brain Pickings favorite Jason Polan.)
A Band of Teens Attacks a Piano Student by Scott C.
Victim Falls Off a Subway Platform by Lisa Hanawalt.
Detective Benson's Brother by Love Ablan
The brainchild of California artist Brandon Bird, the project has been going strong since 2002, even snagging a Webby award along the way.
Goren Takes on a Chess Master by Carly Monardo
Death of a Bully by Box Brown
Boy Scavenges for Food in the Garbage by Lacy McCune
The project reminds us of Postcards to Alphaville and while Law & Order: Artistic Intent may not be coming to a channel near you anytime soon, the concept offers a lovely example of the cross-pollination of the arts.
via @kirstinbutler
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