links for 2009-07-22

the Cloud Project: About
"Developments in nanotechnology and planetary-scale engineering point to new possibilities for us to conform the global environment to our needs. These advances combined with a dream to make clouds snow ice cream have inspired a series of experiments that look at ways to alter the composition of clouds to make new and delicious sensory experiences. Using ice-cream as a catalyst for interesting dialogue, the projects focus is to welcome people into a mobile space that sits outside institutions, letting new audiences experience and imagine emerging scientific developments and their consequences."


Why can't art be allowed to shock? (The Guardian)
"Nobody seems to think there's anything wrong with art being poignant just for the sake of being poignant, or angry just for the sake of being angry, or beautiful just for the sake of being beautiful. So shock seems a perfectly legitimate effect. It is a slightly lumphammer approach, though, because shock is an unsubtle state. To be "in shock" means your faculties are more or less paralysed. These will tend to include the aesthetic, emotional and discriminatory ones. And if you've really shocked the audience, you may find yourself running out of moves. Soon you're playing the fire alarm, not the piano."
(tags: art.criticism Dash.Snow New.York shock.tactics)

Bicycle Kitchen Los Angeles
"Official Mission Statement: Our mission is to promote the bicycle as a fun, safe, and accessible form of transportation, to foster healthy urban communities, and to provide a welcoming space to learn about building maintaining, and riding bicycles."
(tags: environment non.profit.organizations Bicycle.Kitchen Los.Angeles bicycles community)