For millennia, humans have navigated seas, rivers, and oceans as avenues for trade, exploration, conquest, and colonization. During the Age of Discovery—an era interwoven with what’s known as the Age of Sail—European explorers and traders embarked on journeys around the world to map previously uncharted continents, trade commodities, and establish new socio-political outposts. Imperial forces competed with one another to control as much as they could, all in the name of wealth and power, and individual landowners and traders profited immensely. But sustaining a presence in far-flung places would never have been remotely possible, nevertheless successful, without slavery.

Well into the 19th century, humans were transported through a vast slave network, with millions crammed aboard ships bound for various parts of Europe or North America. For London-based artist LR Vandy, the layered and often fraught legacies of labor, shipping, and trade undergird a distinctive sculptural practice.

Vandy’s studio is based at Chatham Historic Dockyard in Kent, where the history of wooden ships is alive and well. She uses materials such as Manila rope—a thick nautical rope made from the abaca plant, which is native to The Philippines—bobbers, navigation equipment, ship’s helms, hull-shaped wooden forms, and more, to explore the tangles of maritime history.

Vandy’s exhibition titled Rise, in The Weston Gallery at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, marks the artist’s first solo museum show. Many of the works seen here are included in the show, while others represent earlier pieces. In her most recent work, the rope is a central focus as she explores its “entanglement in human
history, its role in the development of civilisations, and its inextricable links to colonial enslavement of people,” says an exhibition statement. Everyday objects are repurposed and manipulated in an ongoing inquiry into process and materials, especially “drawing attention to the social, economic and political systems embedded within everyday objects.”

Anchoring the space at Yorkshire Sculpture Park is a giant, rope-covered form evocative of a maypole, nodding to historic European folk traditions that celebrate community, ritual, and regeneration. Other objects appear to spin or sway, as if skirts are swishing or invisible players move through a series of games. “My practice centres the hidden human costs of colonialism, transportation systems and commodities, and the knotted histories of trade and power they contain,” Vandy says in a statement. “The title, Rise, references ideas of resilience, protest, liberation, and collective joy explored through rituals and dance.”

Rise continues through September 13 in Wakefield. Learn more and plan your visit on the park’s website, and follow Vandy on Instagram for updates.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article LR Vandy’s Rope Sculptures Disentangle Histories of Colonialism and Transportation appeared first on Colossal.

For decades, a guy named Aadam Jacobs has been recording live music shows. His collection of over 10,000 shows since 1984 feature the likes of Nirvana, R.E.M., The Pixies, Björk, Depeche Mode, Liz Phair, Sonic Youth, The Cure, Phish, Fugazi, and so many more. With the help of archivists, the entire collection is making its way onto The Internet Archive.

The growing Aadam Jacobs Collection is an internet treasure trove for music lovers, especially for fans of indie and punk rock during the 1980s through the early 2000s, when the scene blossomed and became mainstream. The collection features early-in-their-career performances from alternative and experimental artists like R.E.M., The Cure, The Pixies, The Replacements, Depeche Mode, Stereolab, Sonic Youth and Björk.

There’s also a smattering of hip-hop, including a 1988 concert by rap pioneers Boogie Down Productions. Devotees of Phish were thrilled to discover that a previously uncirculated 1990 show by the jam band is included. And there are hundreds of sets by smaller artists who are unlikely to be known to even fans with the most obscure tastes.

All of it is slowly becoming available for streaming and free download at the nonprofit online repository Internet Archive, including that nascent Nirvana show recording, with the audio from Jacobs’ cassette recorder cleaned up.

Some of the shows, like this pre-Dave Grohl one from Nirvana, were recorded before the bands hit it big. It’s wild to hear their performance of About a Girl get about three claps from the audience.

Tags: Aadam Jacobs · Internet Archive · music

On the network effect of the weekend: “The essential characteristic of the weekend is not just the having of a day off, but rather that other people have the day off.”

Social

Bij de VVD zijn ze enorm begaan met hardwerkende Nederlanders, terwijl wij ons toch niet geheel aan de indruk kunnen onttrekken dat de VVD-achterban vooral bestaat uit handigwerkende Nederlanders, uit sjacheraars en beroepsvergaderaars. Hoe dan ook, daar blijkt dus helemaal niets van te kloppen, want al die tijd bedoelde de VVD gewoon de "geracialiseerde buitenstaander - buitenlands, immigrant, allochtoon". Om die boodschap kracht bij te zetten, stuurden ze dus Dilan Yeşilgöz (van oorsprong buitenlands, immigrant, allochtoon) naar het front om haar te verkondigen. Dat is nog eens 3d chess, maar ja, laat dat maar aan de VVD over. Hoe dan ook ontzettend zin in deze lezing volgende week donderdag, fijn dat zo'n universiteit de moeite neemt dit te organiseren.

Voorts

Social

With grid hookups slow and turbines scarce, on-site power is starting to look less optional

Bloom Energy says it has an expanded remit from Oracle to provide the energy for its US datacenter buildout plans with up to 2.8 GW of fuel cell systems.…

Proposed law could lock down open source tools and give vendors fresh reasons to inspect print files

California's proposed legislation to put the burden of blocking 3D-printed firearms onto printer manufacturers could effectively sideline open source tools and create new surveillance concerns, digital rights activists argue.…

conspectus_bs posted a photo:

Fuji NHG II 800 expired 07/2001 with Mamiya 645 super and Sekor 35 mm

James Webb Space Telescope posted a photo:

A big question about a big object - planet or star?

Webb directly imaged 29 Cygni b, an object 15 times more massive than Jupiter. In order to be able to classify it as a star or a planet, astronomers needed to figure out how it was formed. Stars and planets result from two different processes. Stars form from clouds of gas that fragment into pieces, each piece collapsing under its own gravity, growing smaller and denser. Planets result from small bits of rock and ice clumping together, and growing larger over time, with the largest planets then collecting gas to become like Jupiter. But is it possible such a big planet could have formed this way? The answer is yes.

Here’s what the data showed us. Webb detected the presence of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, providing strong evidence that 29 Cygni b is rich in heavier elements. This is consistent with objects that formed from a proto-planetary disk. Additionally, astronomers were able to determine that the angle of this planet’s orbit is aligned with the axis around which its star spins. This is similar to what we see in our own solar system.

Scientists are gathering data on three other targets that have similar profiles to 29 Cygni b, which will give us more insight into how the largest of planets form.

Read more: science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasas-webb-redefines-divid...

Credit: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, William Balmer (JHU, STScI), Laurent Pueyo (STScI); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

Image Description: A black square labeled “29 Cyg” at upper right. In the middle, a white star symbol is surrounded by a small blue trapezoid that widens from upper left to lower right of the star. The star is labeled with a capital A. The trapezoid indicates where the star’s light has been blocked by a coronagraph. To the star’s left beyond the blue trapezoid at 8 o’clock is a fuzzy white blob labeled with a lower-case b.

James Webb Space Telescope posted a photo:

A big question about a big object - planet or star?

Webb directly imaged 29 Cygni b, an object 15 times more massive than Jupiter. In order to be able to classify it as a star or a planet, astronomers needed to figure out how it was formed. Stars and planets result from two different processes. Stars form from clouds of gas that fragment into pieces, each piece collapsing under its own gravity, growing smaller and denser. Planets result from small bits of rock and ice clumping together, and growing larger over time, with the largest planets then collecting gas to become like Jupiter. But is it possible such a big planet could have formed this way? The answer is yes.

Here’s what the data showed us. Webb detected the presence of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, providing strong evidence that 29 Cyg b is rich in heavier elements. This is consistent with objects that formed from a proto-planetary disk. Additionally, astronomers were able to determine that the angle of this planet’s orbit is aligned with the axis around which its star spins. This is similar to what we see in our own solar system.

Scientists are gathering data on three other targets that have similar profiles to 29 Cyg b, which will give us more insight into how the largest of planets form.

Read more: science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasas-webb-redefines-divid...

In this image: Exoplanet 29 Cygni b, seen in this artist’s concept, is a gas giant weighing about 15 times the mass of Jupiter. It orbits a type A star (shown at upper right) slightly hotter and more massive than our Sun, at an average distance of 1.5 billion miles. The star is known to possess a dusty debris disk. A hypothetical comet fragment is shown approaching the planet, while previous impacts have left dark splotches on its cloudtops, similar to what was seen from the Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact on Jupiter in our solar system.

Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)

Image description: At left, an illustration shows a gas giant exoplanet whose right half is illuminated while the left half is in shadow. It is mostly orange shading to pinks and purples at the two poles and shows swirling bands of clouds. Three dark splotches on its upper right show locations where comet fragments impacted the cloudtops, and another incoming comet fragment is seen as a bright spot against the nightside. The planet is against a black background speckled with stars. In the upper right corner of the image shines a small white blob representing its host star. A faint edge-on disk of dust extending from 10 o’clock to 4 o’clock on the star is also white. The words “Artist’s Concept” are at lower left.

DEN HAAG (ANP) - Het CDA "gaat rustig kauwen" op de asielwetten waar de Eerste Kamer maandag en dinsdag over heeft gedebatteerd. De partij bezit de sleutel tot een meerderheid voor de wetten, maar senator Madeleine van Toorenburg wilde dinsdag nog niet prijsgeven of haar fractie voor gaat stemmen. De stemming is volgende week.

In haar bijdrage was Van Toorenburg wel positief over de antwoorden van partijgenoot en asielminister Bart van den Brink. Maandag zei ze dat de antwoorden van de minister doorslaggevend zouden zijn voor de keuze van het CDA.

"Het zijn nette wetten die op een aantal punten zijn verduidelijkt", zei Van Toorenburg. "We hebben een tamelijk positief beeld van de wetten die nu voorliggen."

Door de antwoorden van Van den Brink, begon de PVV juist weer te twijfelen, omdat de minister de strafbaarstelling van illegaliteit zou afzwakken. Als de vier PVV-senatoren tegen stemmen, zou er met het CDA waarschijnlijk alsnog precies een meerderheid van 38 zetels zijn.

While some US visitors back their president, shopkeepers who serve the papacy and tourists are on the pontiff’s side

On the wall of the back room of an optician’s in Borgo Pio, a neighbourhood in Rome that borders the Vatican, hang the photos of five popes dating back to the late 1970s, charting both the recent history of Catholic church leaders and the shop itself.

As its owner, Walter Colantini, who fitted glasses for one of the pontiffs, gestured towards them, he recalled the diplomatic strain between the Vatican and White House over the 1991 Gulf war.

Continue reading...

Natasha Cochrane de la Rosa was refused boarding on flight to London because she was not aware of the rule change

A British woman has told how she fears being stranded in Spain for months after being refused boarding a on flight back home to London because she was not aware of new Home Office border rules.

Natasha Cochrane de la Rosa, 26, was born in the UK to a British father and a Spanish mother, but because of archaic laws she was not entitled automatically to British citizenship because her parents were not married. Other women born to unmarried parents have called the rules an “illegitimacy tax”.

Continue reading...

Last month, hundreds of people picked up “Paid Agitator” and “Domestic Terrorist” protest posters to participate in the No Kings March. Each person marching that day showed up because they believe in democracy. These prints serve as a mirror to those committing the dehumanizing attacks on immigrants and protesters and for ICE and the Trump administration to experience their own rhetoric thrown back at them. These prints are a mirror, not a solution. The solution is to treat all people with dignity and as equally human. A number of prints were set aside for people who couldn’t come to pick them up and signed versions will be going on sale this week. Every citizen deserves to have a voice in how our country is shaped. We all matter in the United States and we all have power. 
-Shepard

All four versions of Projection Mirror are available as free downloads HERE.

PRINT DETAILS: Projection Mirror: Paid Agitator Offset Lithograph. 24″ H x 18″ W. Gloss Finished Offset Lithograph on 12pt. cover paper. Signed by Shepard Fairey. $25. Available on Thursday, April 16th @ 10 AM PDT at https://store.obeygiant.com. Max order: 1 per customer/household. International customers are responsible for import fees due upon delivery (Except UK orders under $160).⁣ ALL SALES FINAL.

PRINT DETAILS: Projection Mirror: Domestic Terrorist Offset Lithograph. 24″ H x 18″ W. Gloss Finished Offset Lithograph on 12pt. cover paper. Signed by Shepard Fairey. $25. Available on Thursday, April 16th @ 10 AM PDT at https://store.obeygiant.com. Max order: 1 per customer/household. International customers are responsible for import fees due upon delivery (Except UK orders under $160).⁣ ALL SALES FINAL.

The post Limited Number of Signed Projection Mirror Offsets Available Thursday, April 16th! appeared first on Obey Giant.

In een debat van twee dagen lijkt het CDA in de Eerste Kamer om: de strafbaarstelling van illegaliteit zou maar een kleine groep mensen zonder papieren raken. En nu twijfelt de PVV: is het allemaal wel streng genoeg? De stemming over de twee nieuwe asielwetten is volgende week.

Het ministerie van LVVN, Rijkswaterstaat en de Universiteit Utrecht. Allemaal zijn ze betrokken bij de dode potvis voor de kust van Zeeland. Om zijn staartvin werd een boei gebonden, toch raakte het dode dier zoek. „Hij is even kwijt.”

Het slachtoffer, een man met een beperking, is met brandwonden aan hoofd, rug en armen naar het ziekenhuis gebracht.

Mark Hughes and Giorgio Piola assess the changes Red Bull brought to Max Verstappen's RB22 in Japan.