The art issue

Welcome to Idealog Weekly, the free email newsletter for New Zealand commercial creatives, entrepreneurs and anyone rich with ideas.

The art issue

When you hail from the home of New Zealand’s most controversial art gallery, the Govett Brewster, I reckon it’s your birthright to decide what art is not. It’s not the strip of wallpaper that was once hung, not affixed, to those hallowed gallery walls. It’s not the blank piece of paper that failed to get crowds contemplating either. In issue 14 of Idealog we pay homage to a bunch of Kiwi artists who tick the only art criteria box there is: original thought. There’s Sofia Minson, who makes a very nice living inviting busloads of art buyers into her living room. There are the Ponoko designers who are making art-making a very intimate process—just them, the artist and the public at large. And there are the people making fashion out of utter rubbish, with just a good idea and a good wash in between. Grab the new Idealog on Monday; guaranteed to be more illuminating than a blank piece of paper in any case. Subscriber copies are in the mail.

Sweet as

Imagine plying your coffee with a sweetener that doesn’t force you to make a choice between tooth or brain decay. We have a New Zealand company to thank for this sweet future—and Big Sugar to thank if it all goes sour.

Mind games

The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas unearthed all kinds of impressive technology—but none more so than something you can’t see. A headset lined with brainwave-reading sensors allows the wearer to power the direction of a computer game with their mind—and that’s just the beginning. Mind power has already selected music based on mood, moved Second Life avatars down virtual hallways, and robots down real ones. Kind of makes Wii look a bit pissy doesn’t it?

Hobbit house

To Lord of the Rings fans, this may be the most precious treasure of all: instructions on how to build your very own hobbit house. The materials are simple—stone, mud, straw and reclaimed wood. Digging down to Middle Earth, however, could prove a bit more difficult. (Via Geekologie)

The un-dirty dozen

If you need a fitting car to park in your underground Hobbit driveway, check out the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy’s 2008 list of cars. Turns out, owning one of them doesn’t have to cost any more than building a mud house—the greenest, the Honda Civic GX, will set you back just US$25,000. But, because it runs on compressed natural gas, a cleaner-burning and less carbon-emitting alternative to gasoline, you’ll also need to buy one of Honda’ at-home pumps. Then, with the ability to tap into your own natural gas line, you’ll never have to leave home again— unless, of course, you actually want to drive somewhere.

Toasting the Six Pack

Okay, it’s not so much an event as a date with a pen, pad and a bottle of your favourite creativity igniter, but if you’re an emerging or established writer this one’s a biggie. Six Pack, the well-known NZ short story anthology, is back for a third year and there’s only six weeks left to enter. This year organisers are encouraging writers of essays, travel pieces and biographies to have a go along with authors of short stories, novel excerpts and poetry. To download entry forms and criteria visit NZ Book Month

It’s the Year of the Rat, but you can get yours off to a much less sinister-sounding start at The Lantern Festival in Auckland’s Albert Park. The free event will light up tonight, tomorrow night and Sunday evening with tons of entertainment, food and, very probably, lanterns. 5.30pm–10.30pm

But if family entertainment doesn’t do it for you, maybe this will: Downtown Brown has just brought out a new compilation for Sandwiches Summerset. Let us know why you need some bass in your life and we could very well provide you with some.

Quote of the week

“The entire economic systems of some countries are based on sugar and, all of a sudden, here comes something to challenge that. Just the idea puts a lot of people into fear.”

—Stephen LeFebvre, Sweet Science

More at Idealog online

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