Cross-Reference

“It is better to make a piece of music than to perform one, better to perform one than to listen to one, better to listen to one than to misuse it as a means of distraction, entertainment, or acquisition of ‘culture.’”

— John Cage

Do you like old maps? NYPL has an excellent digital archive of old maps of New York City. While you are there, be sure to check out the previously mentioned amazing photographs of 1930’s New York City.

Did you know you can take a look behind the scenes of the NYPL digital archive? Just like google, they have a lab where they research and develop new projects and features.

Finally, if you are a real map aficionado check out the always interesting Strange Maps blog. I highly recommend it.

One of my (and my wife’s) favorite artists. I love minimalism and he takes it to the extreme, my favorite kind. I think I fell in love with his work when I saw it on display at the DIA:Beacon.

Out of all the amazing work you can see there, Room 19 truly shocked me and really made me stop and think. I think it even took me a minute to convince myself that this was even a piece on display, beyond that, once I was convinced of its status as “for public consumption,” the color and choice of material knocked it out of the park for me. I am a fan.

These two concept videos offer different takes on what the future of digital displays might look like.

First a swarm of tiny illuminated helicopters

how about a swarm of digital display blocks using any available surface?

Curious Displays from Julia Tsao on Vimeo.

(both via boing boing)

Don’t make something unless it is both necessary and useful; but if it is both necessary and useful, don’t hesitate to make it beautiful.

— SHAKER PHILOSOPHY

(via the digging into worpress book)

not the actual thing just a random flickr image of a 3D printer for illustration purposes only

Everyday I am amazed by how fast “the future” becomes reality, so I guess it was inevitable that with all of the 3D printers everywhere, someone would have the bright idea to start printing human tissue with these things.

“The company expects that within five years, once clinical trials are complete, the printers will produce blood vessels for use as grafts in bypass surgery. With more research it should be possible to produce bigger, more complex body parts.”

from this economist article (via kottke)

Is this really what the future of magazines looks like? More importantly, will people be willing to pay for a rich media magazine experience? What’s wrong with paper? Why do people gravitate towards bits and away from atoms? I love atoms.

This collection of amazing photographs of 1930’s New York City in the New York Public Library Archive are really worth a look. But really any of the 700,000 images they offer online are fascinating.