Last year I posted this essay on the awe-inducing power of murmurations, in which I mused on the relationship between awe and fear: When I’m lucky enough to witness dramatic natural phenomena (or even something as quotidian as an undiluted, infinitely deep, mountain night sky – c.f. Hungry Hyaena, on the Hubble telescope), I’m struck by an overwhelming...

Seaglass Spectrum: Aquamarine to Emerald Jennifer Steen Booher Assemblage artist and photographer Jennifer Steen Booher collects, arranges, and photographs found objects.  Her arrays of beach glass resemble abstract art, or pages from illustrated catalogs of Renaissance wonder cabinets, while household junk becomes almost archaeological. While each...

I recently saw some of Lewis Tardy’s work at a show, and was impressed by the visual impact of his metal automatons against a dark background (particularly the moving pieces). While it’s difficult to call his sleek, modern chrome pieces “steampunk,” exactly — they’re more like high-gloss H.R. Giger — they certainly partake of the steampunk aesthetic,...

I love this meditative video. . . until the moth. It’s a skillful animation, but I feel like it’s going to start dancing with its little legs, singing “What the Moth Says.” Is this a case of insectoid Uncanny Valley? Can that even happen? Liten from Liten on Vimeo.

Detroit-area musician Jeffrey Adam Gutt appeared on Simon Cowell’s talent show X-Factor last year, auditioning with a riveting version of Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” I don’t know if it’s better described as the broken howl of a faded rock star, or the desperate Hail Mary of a struggling artist who never got his break. Either way, it was wasted on the judges...

When Kate Lacour sent me a link to her tumblr, sharkbrains (subtitle: “Body horror beauty – art and comics”), I didn’t know quite what to expect. What I found was delightful – a modern successor to the Codex Seriphinianus. The Codex, if you don’t already know, is one of the weirdest books ever published. Like Kate’s work, it invokes the familiar layout...