Objectus Obscura : An Outerspace Chat w/ Janna Levin

Hey Fam,

Tomorrow's installment in the Terreform One Design + Science series features Janna Levin, an astronomer, physicist and novelist, who'll be taking us on an outerspace journey that delves into questions pondered for centuries. Is space finite or infinite? What's a black hole like?

Smart is an understatement. She's a Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Barnard College of Columbia University. Her scientific research concerns the Early Universe, Chaos, and Black Holes. She's also the author of two novels, A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines (Knopf, 2006), which won the PEN/Bingham Fellowship for Writers, as well as the popular science book, How the Universe Got Its Spots: Diary of a Finite Time in a Finite Space.

We caught up with Janna to ask her a few questions about her talk. Now, we're more than amped to be graced with her knowledge of the universe.

3W: Give us a clue about what you'll be talking about. What we've got you down for is Space, Time, and a Universe in Many Dimensions.

JL: I'm going to share some space-time diagrams, ways of mapping space and time, making a map of the universe in some sense. We'll go from there to talk about what if the universe is finite or infinite, and then even get into black holes, which will get into some fun stuff. I have this theory that there are colliding black holes, which bang into each other like a drum, and one day we will hear them....

3W: Sounds wild. There's a lot of popculture around black holes and their existence. What are black holes like?

JL: There are two ways to think of black holes. One way is to think about black holes as astrophysical objects, made of the dust of stars --and there are hardcore, real observations and documentation to prove their existence. Then there's the purely theoretical terrain, those black holes are often math on paper. These people do the "what's inside of a black hole?" questions. These aren't bad questions. 

3W: So you seem to do a lot, if not everything. You're a novelist too. Do you use a different part of your brain for that?

JL: (Laughs) Yes! It's so strange, it's really a zone. i have to marinate for hours or days before anything really clicks. When it works right it's almost musical. The writing has a musicality or pace to it. i draw storyboards, i almost figure out what i'm doing it's like a sculpture, actually it's more like a space. How the Universe Got its Spots--it's for non scientists. It's more like a little travelogue. There's a different sort of angle--the book is novelistic in tone in writing. I didn't write that book as a professor emeritus coming own from the mountains to educate the masses. It's not authoritative.

3W: Do you ever think about going to space? It seems like with all these privatized missions it's a really possibility if you have money.

JL: It's something I used to think about. Maybe when I'm like 80. 

As you know as part of our Design + Science series, with Terreform One, we're hosting a bunch of awesome speakers who are the brightest minds in a multitude of fields, from physics to fashion design, music to architecture. 

FOR TICKETS FOR JANNA'S LECTURE ON SPACE, TIME AND A UNIVERSE IN MANY DIMENSIONS RSVP HERE >>>

7/26 AMANDA PARKES // GESTURE, FORM, COMPUTATION in FASHION RSVP HERE >>>

8/2 BILL WASHABAUGH // GROUNDBREAKING INTERACTIVE PHYSICAL STRUCTURES

RSVP HERE>>>

For The Young Entrepreneurs Of The World: A Contemporary Guide To 'Making Good'

 

When something attracts praise that ranges from Van Jones to the Freelancers Union to Forbes, our ears perk up. When that something turns out to be a new book co-authored by Billy Parish, the Yale dropout turned Energy Action Coalition founder, we really start paying attention. When the title of that book is Making Good: Finding Meaning, Money, and Community in a Changing World, we're pretty much sold. Who doesn't want to do meaningful, world-changing work while also making money?

Hot off the press from Rodale Books, Making Good is the result of three years of research, interviews and analysis by Parish and his fellow co-author Dev Aujla, with the goal of outlining "step by step how any person can achieve financial autonomy, capitalize on global changes to infrastructure, and learn from everyday success stories—providing the skills and insights this generation needs to succeed." Dubbing itself as the "What Color Is Your Parachute? for the Facebook generation," the book has also been compared to 1989 self-help tome The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

Job-seeking and self-help books can often be empty marketing ploys or unhelpful volumes of outdated advice, but Making Good promises to be different. The Facebook generation has everything constantly at its collective fingertips, and maybe Making Good is just the sort of guidebook needed to help see the forest for the trees. "This book cuts through the illusion of the quick fix and offers real solutions to help you create a life that both makes money and changes the world," says Freelancers Union president Sara Horowitz. Sounds like it's worth a read to us.

For an idea of what you'll find in Making Good, check out this Huffington Post article by Billy Parish and this Forbes article.

-- John Ruscher

Kickstarter Pick: The Hundred Story House

Traveling, miniature, movable libraries aren't a new thing, but they are a wonderful thing, acting as both a mobile book lender and a friendly reminder to put down your phone and pick up a book (because, sadly folks, playing Words With Friends doesn't count as a literary pursuit.) The latest mobile library is Brooklyn's Hundred Story House, a "piece of interactive public art" modeled after a Brooklyn brownstone that literally opens its window to lend you books, about a hundred of them. Or at least it will if it gets funded on Kickstarter by March 2nd. 

The project's founders are asking for $13,000 to build, insure and maintain The Hundred Book House, though we'd bet that most of the subsequent maintenance and costs associated with moving the house around to other Brooklyn parks will mostly be a labor of love. And be honest: How can you not support that?

-- Perrin Drumm

HAPPENING TONIGHT // Vol.1 Brooklyn Serves Up Savory Bites Of Literary Culture

If you're into the Brooklyn literary scene, there's a good chance that you're already familiar with Vol.1 Brooklyn, a local blog that's picked up quite a following since it began in 2009. Vol.1 features everything from daily literature and culture links to book reviews and fiction. We particularly love Sunday Stories, an ongoing series of fiction and nonfiction pieces, and the Band Booking series, in which bands field questions about what they've been reading.

We caught up with the site's founder, Jason Diamond to ask him about Vol.1. "It was honestly just supposed to be a blog where myself and a few of my friends could talk about things we liked," he says. "Those things usually tend to be books and records, or things having to do with books and records. For some reason a lot of people started reading it, and I was also setting up reading events for the heck of it, and I thought, 'We should combine these things.'"

At Vol.1's readings, which have taken place at venues such as WORD, Brooklyn Winery and Bar Matchless, there's a good chance you'll catch a writer's work before it hits the big time. "It's awesome to watch a writer read for us from a manuscript they're working on, and then a year later they end up selling it," Diamond says. "Or when somebody tells me they wrote something for a Vol. 1 event that later ended up getting published for a really big magazine or journal. That's always really awesome." Vol.1 has also presented unique events such as The Greatest Three-Minute Food Stories and The Future of What?: A Panel on Punk in the 1990s.

It doesn't sound like Vol.1 is looking to turn a profit with its literary and culture explorations, but they wouldn't mind a little free caffeine. "If somebody would please foot the bill for all the coffee we drink to make Vol. 1 work, we'd gladly mention your product in our posts," Diamond says.

Tonight you can catch Vol.1 Brooklyn's latest literary throwdown, The Greatest 3-Minute Stories About The 90s, at Bar Matchless in Greenpoint. It will feature writers such as the Village Voice's Maura Johnston, Fluxblog's Matthew Perpetua, the Paris Review's Sadie Stein and Rob Tannenbaum, co-author of the acclaimed I Want My MTV.

-- John Ruscher

ESSENTIAL EVENT // NY Art Book Fair Takes Over MoMA PS1 This Weekend

 

What do you get when you bring together over 200 booksellers, artists, indie publishers, international presses and antiquarian dealers? You get the NY Art Book Fair, which sets up shop at MoMA PS1 in Queens this Friday, September 30, through Sunday, October 2.

The annual fair was founded by NYC-based art book distributor Printed Matter in 2006 and has steadily grown into a major international event. Last year's attendance was around 16,500, and exhibitors came from 24 countries.

In addition to checking out the many exhibitors, you can also attend the fair's conference, which will feature panel discussions ranging from "Pedagogy: Artists' Books in the Juvenile Justice System"and "Radical Print: Samizdat & the Artists' Book," which will focus on underground printing in the Soviet Union. There are also some fascinating classes and special exhibitions, like "We Are The Writing On The Wall," a showcase and discussion of British Punk fanzines, and "Feminine," an exhibition of zines and artists' books by Japanese women.

Head over to the fair's website for the full list of exhibitors and events. Printed Matter is also selling some limited edition artworks to help keep the fair free and open to the public.

The NY Art Book Fair will be open 11am-7pm Friday through Sunday. There will also be a preview Thursday night from 6-9pm.

-- John Ruscher