Known for her elaborate rivers of direction, line artist linn meyers insists on planning ahead with her pieces. However, she also allows for the natural and organic manoeuvres she may willingly or unwillingly take during her production. We all wobble, the walls and canvasses all naturally grab a-hold with their surface friction. By permitting the distraction from the initial plan and the diversion of ideas within the moment of art creation, linn meyers builds on these phenomena and anomalies to work them into the final piece.


Her recent work named “Let's Get Lost” shows how the individual lines make up a wider image, and with clear moments of shift within the piece, one wonders how much of it was planned and how much intuitive creativity. This method of art creation is much like how many musicians create their pieces. We all have a set piece that we do to warm up, a scale perhaps or a favourite easy tune, and once we begin warming up, we begin to expand on our composition. This is when we break from the norm and produce something different. Often it's improvised changes that end up written down as parts of a song, trial and error can work as well if we have the time!


So when linn meyers met up with Rebecca Bray, Jimmy Bigbee Garver, and Josh Knowles, this key element of their work formed a shared idea. Rebecca Bray designs experiences, and has been involved in several major projects. Jimmy Bigbee Garver is a sound technician and composer, and Josh Knowles designs apps. Their combined skills turned the once brilliant Let's Get Lost into a completely new creation.

​Listening Glass lets you play the artwork like an instrument, using your phone. All the bits go to make individual sounds which have been designed to compliment background music being played in the room. It's also designed to work with many people, so several phones can play simultaneously and it will still create something decent. The best bit is that if a group of people do a synchronised move the program will unlock a special audio effect! Wow.


Have a look at the artwork in action in this YouTube video.  

Mechoopda Tribe member Jacob Meders proudly exhibits his two installations that explore his feelings around cultural assimilation. As a genetic descendant of an authentic Indian Tribe from Chico Rancheria, and an American citizen in the modern age, his unique binocular vision is helping those around him to understand the appropriation of the Native American story by Western colonists and the eventual overthrow of authority throughout the country.


The first exhibit of Mǝǝmento can be found at the Janet Turner Print Museum in Chico. Hand-in-hand with fellow artist Aksum Belle, Jacob Meders combined printmaking, installation structures and interventions on social conformity. Highlighting not only the issues but the solutions to them, from the perspectives of several distinct artists, the pair establish a tangible and thought provoking array of experiences.


Split into Before and Afterwards, Mǝǝmento explains the story of appropriation and assimilation of culture through the medium of art. Before is made up of 34 individual pieces from the museum's archive. Gathering an array of perspective by drawing on Native American and Western artists, the dualistic perspective on the ancient cultures can be fully appreciated. Perhaps by comparing the two idea sets we can understand what led one thing to lead to another. Then head on over to the Jacki Headley University Art Gallery for the second half.


The exhibition named Afterwards is the second half of this double sided page. Meders has his own installation on site, which boasts a responsive element. With social engagement activities involving handing out various newspaper headlines, a huge hanging print, a woven basket made of old computer cables, and a far reaching graphic vinyl, visitors will be completely immersed in the feel of what the artist wants to portray.

​With honesty and the over-sized nature of the items, Meders perhaps really wants to drive home what many people simply don't want to look at. Could it be though, that only when we actually look at the things that make us uncomfortable can we learn to move on and up?

via Red Bluff Daily News

If you wanted to see black culture in a dedicated space, you would usually make plans to head for Washington, USA. There, a large museum dedicated to black culture stands and has been offering intrigue and historical information for many years. With the western standpoint, and a history of slavery, the perspectives offered by the Washington site perhaps take these emotional relevancies into account when portraying the information. Extra care is bound to be taken to spell out the lessons learned and the progress that has been made when considering relations between black and white culture.


Putting another museum of substantial depth in Senegal is a genius move. Because of the opposite side of the story, which is based in Africa after-all, and the effects of colonisation, slavery, and oppression will have had far reaching and varied effects which can best be described from the other side. The emotional relevancies found within Senegal will have different polarities to those in Washington. Offering a stereoscope of culture meaning and progress will no-doubt enrich the world's understanding of this cultural bridge.  
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It has been 52 years since the first plans were laid out for this monumental architectural project. The building has room for 18,000 exhibits spread out over 14,000 square meters of floorspace. I am certain that when laid out, the works will tell a grand and epic story of the black civilisation, how it has branched, grown, and spread out all over the world. As well as historical masterpieces and iconic artefacts, the museum will boast an entire section named Africa Now. This smart addition to black culture highlights everything modern and contemporary coming out of the talent scene.


Senegal was once a French colony. After much political turmoil, which was violent at times, Senegal achieved independence from France in 1960. Since this time, a lot of work has been done to locate and return many cultural items such as works of art. Some of these have indeed been returned and will take pride of place in the national museum of their birth. British and French museums would find many items that originated in black culture and had dubious transferral of ownership. Every item that was stolen, smuggled, pillaged, or otherwise taken without consent eventually must end up in the hands of those who made them. Although no-one alive is responsible for the oppression of black culture, we are responsible for putting wrongs to right. Needless to say, obtaining Senegalese art in the proper way, such as buying from sellers on eBay, is everything right about loving black culture.  
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Read about D'bey, a Senegalese musician featured on Alternative Fruit

Images and info : Shoppe Black

Building sociological purpose into our buildings has been going on for decades. When we first started to build blocks of flats, it was perhaps a simple solution to a housing problem. We maybe didn't think so deeply about what the effects of these places could be, for better and for worse. There are plenty of great books on Amazon about it, which are worth looking into. Putting it simply, we had a problem to fix. The technology arrived at the time we needed it and it was quickly realised that building communities in close-knit living spaces had its own set of dynamic cultural patterns and trends. Where as slum living maintained a tight community, they only extended one storey and were predominantly occupied by members of the same social class and colour. New build estates in the 1950s and onwards filled a role for people of all colours and background. If you needed a home, and many did, one was there for you. Bringing people from everywhere into one place like this has been termed "Social Condensing" 


Now, in the twenty first century, buildings are built with consideration for the effects of condensed social situations. The benefits of bringing people together are well known, and when the environment is set for growth and tension-free society, the outcome is generally positive. These things can be engineered into architecture. One such building designer is Steven Holl. With his iconic buildings work, Steven Holl takes into consideration the genuine effects on society of bringing people together in one common space. There's a wonderful hardback available which outlines his previous best achievements.


His stunning recent building for the American city of Richmond, Virginia, has a primary function as an Institute for Contemporary Arts. This public university building will provide another function of integrating society. Bringing people together under one purpose which has nothing to do with the differences between them actually serves to provide a cultural bridge in which all sides can meet in the middle. It's much like the concept that went into Culture World, a Facebook group run by Alternative Fruit. We'd love you to join.


Richmond is a famously conservative city, with many building styles having shown little change since the early days. This iconic new concept building challenges all these ingrained ideals that many residents will feel attached to. With a design that invites a naturally lit environment full of corridors and corners which inspire curiosity, the museum/exhibition centre will no-doubt encourage a lot of free thinking. From the days of brutalist housing to cosy and intriguing exhibition centres, big picture social purpose has become something that no building can be designed without.

Via Inspiring Good Living