New Orleans Art Insider: Societe' de Ste. Anne, Mardi Gras 2009

Music Box Spring Reopening

The Music Box: A Shantytown Sound Laboratory reopens to the public on April 14, 6–9pm at 1027 Piety Street during the Second Saturday St. Claude District art openings. Visitors will have the chance to explore the conceptual shantytown at night and meet many of the sculptors and sound artists who will be on hand to demonstrate its singing walls, heartbeat-triggered percussion machine, organ staircase, and weather sensitive oscillators. Subsequent visits to the Music Box will be free and open to the public on Fridays and Saturdays from April 20th – June 2nd. A final performance by Quintron and the Music Box Orchestra will take place in June and will be the last chance to visit and hear the Music Box before it is dismantled. A project of New Orleans Airlift and street artist Swoon who is known for her community-driven collaborative endeavors. More>>

Traviesa stars in Greber's A.r.t.i.s.t S.t.a.t.e.m.e.n.t.

New Orleans art experiences rapid change even as some things remain the same. Here Jonathan Traviesa -- a 20-something UNO student a mere decade or so ago, but now something of a gray eminence to a new generation of emerging artists -- stars as Dave Greber, an emerging 20-something video savant in this self-produced "publicity" piece on Vimeo. "Released specifically to combat growing rumors that Greber was losing a battle against pretension, this "artist statement" sets out to show that a typical day for the 'Grebster' is more playful than you'd think. Greber puts on an impromptu fashion show and sits in a comfortable-looking chair reflecting on life and art." More>>

A Tour of Banksy's New Orleans Landmarks

From Nola Vie

by Brianna Smyk

In 2007, Banksy focused his social commentary on New Orleans, when he painted a series of street art pieces around the city. These pieces marked the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and attempted to refocus national awareness on New Orleans. Now, four years later, some of the pieces have been painted over, while plexiglass coverings protect others. These plexiglass coverings broach a discussion about the ephemeral nature of street art. It originally is created to be temporary, but in the wake of its increasing popularity (due to its high selling prices in auction houses and galleries, as well as its inclusion in recent museum exhibitions), people are finding better ways to preserve street art. But that is a conversation for you to have during your own tour. More>>

Occupy Go Round: The Circularity of Influence

“Bloomberg Beware. Zuccotti Park is Everywhere.” —Nov. 17 #OWS chant

The influence of concentric circles in the contemporary world is subtle. Most of us don’t realize how affected we are by concentricity. Most people aren’t privy to the prevalent use of concentric circles for applications such as data mining, or protocols for tactical response by the police and military, or the design of our communities, both virtual and actual... We don’t realize that Microsoft researchers are mapping community dimensionally and using concentric circles to generate algorithms that enable programmers to create simulated environments to appeal to our basic human (circular) sensibilities. More>>

Tibetan Visionary Buddhism

Enlightenment commences with understanding of the possibility of realising Buddha nature. It is only when we understand this possibility of evolution into a higher being and discover the need to visualise our inner potential that we see the necessity for the development of an art form which matches our aspirations. Among the religious arts of the world, the Tibetans have provided as wide a canvas on which to project visualisations of the vast range of possible aspects of the enlightened mind. More>>