On Summit

I took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather yesterday to visit Scioto Park during my lunch break. The river was running high thanks to a few days worth of rain, but the sun was just starting to peek through the clouds. While I was enjoying the splendor of nature at its most natural, I was struck by a particularly tall and particularly straight conifer on the east slope of the ridge leading down to the river. On closer inspection it turned out this specimen was not a tree at a all, but a cell tower cleverly camouflaged to look like a tree. Of course this is the same park that's more famously known for its twelve foot tall stack of limestone bricks cleverly arranged to look like Leatherlips, so who's to say things have to be what they appear to be. For what it's worth, I support both these initiatives. More monumental sculptures of indigenous peoples and more cell towers that look like something other than cell towers are probably both good things.

The Wexner Center recently screened Sophie Fiennes' documentary "Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow" . This film artfully documents La Ribaute, the studio compound created and maintained by the artist Anselm Kiefer from 1993 to 2008. Located in an abandoned silk factory near Barjac, France, La Ribaute is a surreal amalgam of industrial work spaces, sculptures, tunnels, and installations. Conceived by Kiefer as a kind of "total work of art" the space acts as both a work of environmental art in its own right as well as a place where art is created. Now I'll admit up front that I'm not a huge Anselm Kiefer fan. I find his paintings to be more or less "OK" - and really, given the sturm und drang that Kiefer seems to be aiming for, "OK" suddenly sounds like a pretty insulting assessment. It's not meant to be. It's more an acknowledgement that I get it and I understand it, I'm just not moved by it. Sure, Kiefer has cemented h...

I'm currently in Nashville, taking part in the 2011 PLA Results Boot Camp . This professional development workshop offers library staff the chance to learn about strategic planning, data-based decision making, resource allocation, and change management. As part of the program our group was given the opportunity to tour Nashville's Main Library. Along with the usual amenities offered by a major metropolitan library, the Nashville Public Library also boasts a number of special collections worth checking out. The Wilson Limited Editions Collection includes over 800 books designed and illustrated by artisans for the Limited Editions Club and Arion Press. The Civil Rights Room contains a wide array of media documenting Nashville's role in the Civil Rights struggle. The Nashville Room is a terrific local history resource while Gregory Ridley's copper panels illustrating the story of Nashville represent a terrific example of public art in a library setting. Of course the t...

All of the sudden the arts calendar in Central Ohio is packed with some top-notch shows and events. Here's a rundown of what I'll be checking out in the next month, and why: What: Caravaggio: Behold the Man! The Impact of a Revolutionary Realist. October 21, 2011 - February 5, 2012, Columbus Museum of Art Why: It's a Caravaggio painting. It's in Columbus. Isn't that enough? Seriously, people fly to Europe to see this sort of thing, and this one's going to be in your own back yard. Go see it. What: Alexis Rockman: A Fable for Tomorrow September 16, 2011 - December 30, 2011, Wexner Center for the Arts Why: Maybe you no longer believe painting can tell vital stories. Perhaps you've forgotten what it's like to get lost in a painting. Maybe you've decided that only 19th-century landscape painters can do sublime. If that sounds like what ails you, then Alexis Rockman is the cure. Think big-budget message movie without the shitty dialouge and crappy CGI...

In E.M. Roger's now famous diffusion of innovation theory, adoption of a new product or practice takes the form of a bell shaped curve. This diffusion, as Roger's explains, is "the process in which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system...". Rogers’ Innovation Diffusion Bell Curve Note. From Rogers, E.M. (2003) . Diffusion of innovations, New York: The Free Press. Reading left to right, the curve consists of a sliver of innovators that make up just 2.5% of the population. Those are the people on the "bleeding edge" of innovation. They're followed by early adopters (13.5%), the early majority (34%), the late majority (34%), and laggards (16%). While many people have quibbled over how accurate or meaningful Roger's curve is, it remains at least a recognized model for how we might begin to think about innovation and adoption. I bring it up today as a frame of reference regardi...

You may recall a recent blog post in which I assigned grand metaphorical meaning to the derelict vessel in the alley behind our house. Perhaps counter-intuitively, I made the case that this abandon hull was not the irresponsibly disposed of eyesore it might appear to be, but rather an artifact worthy of our contemplation. Oh, it was a magical boat; the embodiment of our journey and the physical manifestation of fate's inscrutable plans. Thurber would have recognized its importance, and probably Shelley too. This woefully out of place boat was a metaphor, signal, and sign all at once; a 12ft long reminder that our small and oft-battered selves have no idea where life's currents might land us. We are all of us adrift on life's great ocean and the future is unwritten! Well, it pains me to report that not everyone has seen the poetic significance of this sadly landlocked vessel. While I was busy ascribing grand themes to the Mystery Ship of Old North Columbus the neighbors ...

The things that show up in our alley aren't typically blog worthy. It's mostly garbage, discarded furniture, and the occasional pile of construction waste. We live in a transitional neighborhood, with lots of tenants and lots of turnover. It's not uncommon to see what's likely the entire contents of someone's apartment stacked in the alley and around the dumpsters. This is understandable. People without a lot of financial resources or a strong support network often have to make tough choices, and make them quickly. If circumstances compel one to abandon the contents of an apartment and travel light for life's next act, that's what you do. The landlord and the collection agency will sort out the rest. That said, there's a boat in our alley. It's not a boat-on-a-trailer-boat, and it's not a canoe-leaned-up-against-someone's-garage-boat. It's an honest-to-God-derelict-vessel of the the 12ft power boat variety, a good two miles from any sort ...