Cinematic fantasy – or pragmatic paternalism…. What else have we come up with?

If there is an urbanistic lesson to be learned in the democratic revolutions of 2011 – especially the peaceful ones – I would volunteer that we take a closer look at transportation as public space.

When I visited the SpaceBuster during the New City Festival I was a bit disappointed to see that it had apparently not evolved from one iteration to another, but excited that the installation involved these deceptively simple chairs.

The workshop at the Festival of Ideas was an opportunity to try out a methodology of making 45 minute manifestos about the built environment – this one being specifically about the Lower East Side.

At PS1 this weekend I stumbled across this phenomenal book: Promises of the Past: A Discontinuous History of Art in Former Eastern Europe

Anyway, I always thought it was one of the great evidences of success of the Cooper project that the slab of concrete that covers the gallery below and echoes the stair near the guard’s desk on the interior becomes, on the exterior, a de facto skate spot

Another photo from recent visit to Detroit.

This is, of course, the Heidelberg Project, a well known public art project that started in Detroit 25 years ago.

In a loft neighborhood of Detroit, a few blocks from the giant Eastern Market farmer’s market and near the intersection of Gratiot and Russel, one finds this door above. “Center for Contemporary Realism.”

After a meeting in Chelsea yesterday I was happy to stumble upon the Donald Judd show at Pace Gallery.

One of the most interesting things happening in art right now, at least what I am starting to follow closely, is the business model for getting things done. This cuts across non-profit, for-profit, and unincorporated, individual or collective tactics.