Link List: 20 Articles + Websites About the Arts
A wide-ranging collection of links on ballet, ugly architecture, Soviet Control rooms, Hokusai, and nifty CSS tools.
A collection of aesthetics from the Consumer Aesthetics Research Institute
I was organizing my browser bookmarks recently and as you might expect, I have a lot of links about the arts!
Rather than keep them to myself, I thought I’d share them with OTA readers. It’s important to push back on the obsession with constant novelty so widespread on the Internet, so some of the links are from the last ±year or so, while others are very old, but still worth reading.
If you enjoy this type of content, let me know – I might make it a monthly series.
How Sergei Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes Revolutionized Dance – The Ballets Russes were a ballet company active in the early 20th century, mostly in Paris – and ironically, never in Russia. Their productions were extremely influential on the arts and involved well-known names like Stravinsky, Kandinsky, Picasso, and Coco Chanel, to name but a few.
Why is Everything So Ugly? – A well-informed rant on the ugliness of modern architecture, IKEA furniture, Apple devices…and just about everything else.
Using Midjourney to imagine Jodorowsky’s Tron – We’re still in the early stages of AI art, but one very interesting potential use case is in imagining What if? scenarios. What if David Lynch directed Barbie? What if Werner Herzog worked with Orson Welles? And so forth. This link imagines the two Tron films in the aesthetic of Alejandro Jodorowsky.
Why I Left Tech to Pursue Art – A nice story about a programmer quitting his tech job to become an animator. Some insightful Hacker News comments too.
The Consumer Aesthetics Research Institute – Not a new site by any means, but one that I love sharing. They catalog “consumer aesthetics,” which include everything from Acidgrafix to Zen-X.
AI and the Future of Pixel Art – A freelance pixel artist uses generative AI to create pixel art – and makes some interesting points about newcomers that “never experienced the trials of the prior era have no nostalgia or stockholm syndrome for less convenient methods.”
Building a video game with AI-generated assets – Echoes of Somewhere is a point-and-click adventure game, notable because its developers are using AI tools to create character models, voices, game locations, and more. This sort of thing is exciting, as it hints at a future where a small team can create games, films, and other artworks that currently require massive budgets and dozens of staff.
Mis.Steps – Pittsburgh has a lot of steps. More than any other city in America, in fact. This writer/photographer visited all 739 public stairways in the city and took a Polaroid + wrote a brief piece of creative non-fiction for each one.
The Print Shop Club – This fun tool simulates Apple’s 1984 software package that made it easy to create posters, greeting cards, and similar paper items. You can use it to create your own design, then download it as a PDF. Note that the application is a bit slow, so be patient.
Cormac McCarthy Loves a Good Diner – Published only six months before his death, this article tracks McCarthy’s use of food across his novels. There’s something about food, especially grimy, cheap, diner food, that makes literature seem more real to me.
A Fresh Look at Flowers in Photography – A newish book, Flora Photographica, features some really beautiful photos of flowers, all taken in the last 30 years.
Miniature Calendar – Every day, this Japanese artist creates a miniature diorama of everyday life, using household objects like potato chips, keyboard keys, and medical masks. The creative choice of objects is the most impressive part.
An Analysis of The Backrooms—Also Known as the Internet's Horror Rooms – A guide to “The Backrooms” a famous photo that spawned (or reignited) the liminal space aesthetic.
The Inner Beauty of Basic Electronics… – Who knew that electronic components looked so cool?
…and Soviet Control Rooms. These spaces look so much cooler than their modern equivalents.
The contagious visual blandness of Netflix – Why does every Netflix show have that same hyper-polished, over-lighted look? The short answer: digital cameras, green screens, and lazy production techniques.
Inside the Business of Book Styling – Who buys and organizes those bookshelves in upscale apartments? There’s an entire industry for it, apparently.
Broider – A nifty tool for creating borders in CSS. Probably not useful for anyone that isn’t a web designer, but it’s fun to play around with nonetheless. The creator’s home page is really cool, too.
What is Literary Criticism For? – The answer is complicated. It’s definitely not for changing the world, according to John Guillory, a well-known literary scholar.
Four must-read books on Hokusai. You already know of The Wave. Maybe you’ve seen a few other ukiyo-e woodblock prints. But how much do you know about Hokusai, the man himself?
Enjoy!