Watch This Now: MTV Brings Back "Art Breaks" With Help From MoMA PS1 and Creative Time

MTV Art Breaks, old and new, with stills from videos by Jean Michel Basquiat and Rashaad Newsome.

Back in the 80's, when MTV was still airing these things called "music videos," the fledgling rebel cable network decided to take things one step further with "Art Breaks," a series of short video art pieces by the likes of Keith Haring, Richard Prince and Jean Michel Basquiat. The aim was to "bring visual art to viewers who tuned in to MTV for the art of music videos."

Now MTV has revived "Art Breaks," inviting NYC contemporary art authorities MoMA PS1 and Creative Time to curate new videos by artists such as Mickalene Thomas, Rashaad Newsome and Jani Ruscica. You can follow "Art Breaks" on Tumblr and watch both the new segments as well as some of the '80s classics.

"This collaboration allows a younger generation of artists to experiment beyond the walls of the museum and onto the screens of a broad, international audience," says MoMA PS1 Director Klaus Biesenbach, while MTV President Stephen Friedman adds that "creative expression and experimentation are at the core of MTV's DNA." (We will keep our mouths shut on that one, but we do condone this particular project.)

"Art Breaks" will likely get the most exposure online, but we most certainly love imagining "Jersey Shore" viewers being inadverntently turned on to contemporary art in between all of the drama, fights and binge drinking (followed by the binge drinking, drama and fights.)

Meanwhile, watch videos by Mickalene Thomas and Richard Prince below and head to Artbreaks.mtv.com for more.

-- John Ruscher

Around The World With Artist Kurt Perschke's RedBall Project

Kurt Perschke's RedBall Project, Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park, Chicago. Photo by Fuzzy Gerdes.

It's a giant beach ball...it's a weather balloon...it's RedBall. We feel the Superman allusion is warranted, as RedBall, a globe-spanning public art project by New York-based artist Kurt Perschke, maintains something of a superhuman presence. The first RebBall installation took place in St. Louis back in 2001 as a commission from Arts in Transit. With the money from that commission, Perschke took it to Barcelona. Sydney soon beckoned, and pretty soon it RedBall was rolling along, inflating its way into the hearts, imaginations and urban spaces of cities ranging from Chicago and Toronto to Taipei and Abu Dhabi.

For Perschke its not so much about the 15-foot inflatable ball itself, but the potential it represents. "The true power of the project is what it can create for those who experience it," he explains. "It opens a doorway to imagine what if?" Angela Melkisethian offers a similar take in Sculpture magazine: "RedBall's occupation of the spaces that are taken for granted briefly foregrounds the invisible backdrop of urban life. What used to be neglected space becomes a realm of possibilities."

RedBall's next destination is the United Kingdom, where it will tour throughout June. We'd love to experience its spherical red goodness right here in Brooklyn. It would fit in great alongside the epic work that's emerged from 3rd Ward's own Inflatable Sculpture classes.

Meanwhile, here's more from Perschke on RedBall:

-- John Ruscher

Made By Hand Film Series Features 3rd Ward Teacher Megan Paska In 'The Beekeeper'

A still from The Beekeeper.

In November we heard that the Made by Hand documentary series was working on a short film about our very own Rooftop Beekeeping and Chickens in the City teacher Megan Paska, known far and wide for her many outstanding endeavors as the Brooklyn Homesteader. We've been eagerly awaiting the film ever since, and it's finally here—and predictably, it's amazing.

The Beekeeper, the third film in the Made by Hand series, focuses on Paska's working maintaining apiaries across Brooklyn. It features breathtaking shots of rooftop farms, the NYC skyline and her fascinating beekeeping work. Along with her inspiring narrative and music that strikes just the right vibe, this one's as pure and delightful as the Brooklyn honey that she harvests.

Watch it below, but be warned: once you do, it's going to be hard to resist signing up for an upcoming session of Paska's Beekeeping 101.

-- John Ruscher

Chronicled Dissolution: 365 Days In The Life Of A New York City Bicycle

We've all seen those sad, abandoned bicycle frames still chained to a street sign or bike rack. Wheels, seat, handle bars and chain, all gone—everything pilfered, leaving just a lonely rusting triangle of metal. It's hard to imagine that what remains was once a fully-equipped bike that someone pedaled around the city.

Though this video from Red Peak Branding can give you an idea of how a bicycle arrives in such a state. On January 1, 2011 the design firm chained a bike with bells, basket, lights, a water bottle and more on a street in Soho and took a photo of it each day of the year. The bike seems to survive a little over 200 days without too much damage or theft, but its state deteriorates pretty quickly after the basket vanishes on day 212. By day 231 its seat is gone, by day 242 it has lost its rear wheel rack, and around day 251 someone walks off with the front wheel. The rest of the bike vanishes forever on day 270, leaving you with a bit of existential ennui as other bikes come and go for the remainder of the year.

If you'd like to follow the bike's sad demise in real time, Red Peak also created a daily calendar out of their photos. We hope the bicycles in NYC's Bike Share program, which is scheduled to launch this summer, fair better than this poor maroon ride:

-- John Ruscher

UbuWeb Offers Up A Vast Treasure Trove Of Avant-Garde Art

Still from a Salvador Dalí television spot - watch it on UbuWeb.We all have those moments, don't we? You're trying to get work done, but it's just not happening. So you click on over to YouTube for some cat-on-a-vacuum videos, or to [insert any gossip website here] for some juicy tidbits, or to Facebook to see what your friends (and people you haven't spoken to in twelve years) ate for breakfast today. Sure, those escapes can be necessary, but when you finally turn back to your work, you tend to feel a bit dirty, like you've just consumed too much digital fast food.

For a more healthy and enriching diversion we recommend UbuWeb, a website that'll provide a long-lasting diet that's high in intellectual and artistic nutrients. Founded way back in 1996 by poet Kenneth Goldsmith, UbuWeb is a gold mine of artistic goodness, offering a range of materials from "all strains of the avant-garde, ethnopoetics, and outsider arts," including a huge collection of film and video art, an eclectic sound archive, an anthology of conceptual writing, and the always-fascinating Outsiders section, which highlights "broader cultural trends toward the legitimization of Outsider work, be it in the visual, musical, or literary arts."

There's an overwhelming amount of stuff to check out on UbuWeb, so after the jump we've culled five choice nuggets to get you started.  Here they go:

The Blank Generation - Amos Poe's film offers the earliest look at New York's punk scene, featuring Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Blondie, Television and many others.

Salvador Dalí videos - A collection of television ads and other strange moments with the famed surrealist.

Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine archive - The entire decade-long collection of the bimonthly audio publication, which featured works by many experimental and avant-garde downtown New York artists, from Fluxus icon Alison Knowles to Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo to turntable innovator Christian Marclay.

Videos and audio by Mike Kelley - A range of work by the acclaimed interdisciplinary artist, who died earlier this month.

Curated Top Ten lists - Lists of of UbuWeb goodies curated by a wide range of notable figures, including renowned designer Paula Scher, New Yorker music critic Alex Ross, graphic novelist Warren Ellis and Whitney Biennial curator Jay Sanders.

-- John Ruscher

Exploring NYC's Abandoned Underground, From Grand Central To Bushwick Sewers

In it's 100+ year history, New York's subway system has accumulated over 800 miles of track, but it didn't become the massive network that we know today without some hiccups, balks and bad ideas.

Last month, WNYC dug into the history of the city's many underground tunnels, highlighting its eerie abandoned stations and unfinished lines. Stream the story below and check out their cool interactive map of the Big Apple's lost subway lines and empty platforms, from an unrealized underwater route from Brooklyn to Staten Island and a secret station under Grand Central Terminal that is said to have been used by FDR.

"The MTA doesn't want people exploring the abandoned or lost station stops," WNYC says, but that hasn't stopped intrepid souls like urban explorer Steven Duncan and filmmaker Andrew Wonder. We loved their film Undercity, and more recently they've been exploring other subterranean spaces in a video series for Gothamist and MyBlockNYC. Check out their trip into the Knickerbocker sewer extension, which was built in the late 19th century to carry wastewater from Bushwick's thriving breweries to the East River (and even made the cover of Scientific American):

We'll leave you with a requisite disclaimer: don't try this at home.

-- John Ruscher

Call for Entries // Getty Images' Invites You To Remix Its Vast Video And Music Archive For Its Mishmash Competition

For creatives everywhere, Getty Images can be a crucial resource, but also a frustrating tease. It puts a giant treasure trove of high-quality images, video and music at your fingertips, but the price tags force you to take only what really need to get a project done, leaving behind a world of possibilities.

In Getty's annual Mishmash competition, though, you can explore this world and use its vast digital riches for free. On top of that, you'll have a chance for global recognition and some sweet cash!

Now in its third year, Mishmash invites anyone to take advantage of its archive of over 825,000 video clips and 140,000 music tracks—including material from the likes of Universal Studios and Warner Brothers Film—and create a video remix. An earthshaking music video, mind-blowing video art, moving short story, fascinating mini-doc, an amazing ad—the choice is yours.

Feeling like a kid in a candy shop who's been told you can take anything you want? If so, Mishmash is probably for you. Take a look at the competition you'll be up against and then register to get started.

The deadline for entering is February 29, but the sooner you submit your video, the more votes it can rack up for the Public Vote prize (a cool $1000). Your ultimate goal, of course, should be global domination ($5000 and international exposure), but being a regional winner ($2000) or country winner ($1000) wouldn't be too shabby either. All of those prizes will be selected by a jury of top creative professionals.

Now fire up Final Cut and show 'em what you got!

-- John Ruscher

Visual Science // An Animated Look At The Divided Brain

Today we bring you another great video from RSA Animate, the same folks that turned Sir Ken Robinson's "Changing Education Paradigms" into a mind-blowing animation. This time they've taken up their pens to illustrate "The Divided Brain," a lecture by psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist, author of The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World.

McGilchrist explores how the common perception of the brain being divided into to halves, with the left handling logic, reason and language and the right taking care of emotion, visual imagery and creativity, doesn't tell the whole story. The brain is indeed "profoundly divided," he says, and has become more so as humans have evolved, but the major difference between the two hemispheres is the right's capacity for broad sustainable awareness and the left's narrow focus and attention to detail, both of which are needed for reason and imagination.

An imbalance between these two hemispheres, with the left's "what" taking precedence over the right's "how", can be found at the root many problems in contemporary society, McGilchrist says, driving things home with a killer Einstein quote.

Hit play and give both sides of your brain a little exercise:

-- John Ruscher

Watch This Now // Our Top 5 Videos From TEDxBrooklyn

 

Just over a month ago the second annual TEDxBrooklyn took over Brooklyn Bowl to tackle the theme of "redefining better." If you missed it, or just want to relive your favorite moments, you can watch video of the entire program on the TEDxBrooklyn YouTube Channel.

Since it would take you a good chunk of your day to get through all 17 videos, we've handpicked five we found most enlightening, ranging from hacking ethics to urban agriculture, for your immediate viewing pleasure.

Get your brain movin' after the jump.

Chad Dickerson, CEO of Etsy, talks about the definition of a hacker:

Brian Meece, CEO of RocketHub, talks about the science of crowdfunding:

Paul Steely White, Executive Director of Transporation Alternatives, talks about transportation reform:

Julia Kaganskiy & Ciel Hunter talk about The Creators Project:

Viraj Puri, co-founder and CEO of Gotham Greens, talks about innovations in urban agriculture:

-- John Ruscher

Member Pursuits // Noah Wall Creates A Video For "Blue Station," Plays Live Shows Friday And Monday

When we caught up with new 3rd Ward member Noah Wall back in December, we talked with him about both his award-winning web design work and his recent musical pursuits, including the September release of his album Hèloïse, which he celebrated with a scavenger hunt through Manhattan that spelled out the albums name. He also told us that he had a few more musical projects in the pipe. One of those was this video for the Hèloïse track "Blue Station," which premiered on The Fader last week.

Just as fascinating as his scavenger hunt (and, naturally, his web design work), the video employs a mysterious technology, "Colormind," which has its own equally mysterious website stating that it "uses SOUND, SHAPE, HEAT and subliminal COL☯R to condense TIME and bind EMOTIONAL RESPONSE." To demonstrate the technology, the video for "Blue Station" takes the classic Paul Newman Western Hud and "condenses" it into two and a half minutes. Here's The Fader's take:

It's dizzyingly beautiful and the swirling gradients over black-and-white are charmingly anachronistic, though reducing everybody's facial expressions to mood ring colors and debatably evocative shapes renders the actual film that whizzes by mostly illegible. Which is pretty much the fun part, how hard it is to figure out what's supposed to be simple.

Wall also has some live shows coming up. He'll be performing not to far from 3rd Ward at Diamond Mouth Surprise (30 Maujer St. #2C) this Saturday, January 14, and Williamsburg DIY venue Death By Audio on Monday, January 16. We don't know if he'll be able to recreate the Colormind phenomenon on stage, but we're sure he'll put on a fantastic show.

-- John Ruscher