As the Titanic slipped beneath the icy North Atlantic waters in the early morning of April 15th, 1912, a group of musicians continued to play to calm the nerves of the frightened passengers. It’s likely that the performance helped to calm the musicians too as they accepted their fate.

The group is commonly referred to as the Titanic ‘band’ or ‘orchestra’, but they were actually two groups that may have never played together before this final performance. The group was led by Wallace Hartley, whose quintet performed at teatime and after dinner concerts. The other three musicians performed as a trio of violin, cello and piano; and performed in the ‘A La Carte Restaurant’ and the ‘Cafe Parisian’.

At the 100th anniversary of the sinking, a group of musicians from Konzerthaus Dortmund embarked on a journey to pay tribute to the brave musicians of the Titanic by performing ‘The Unfinished’. They journeyed from New York to the site of the last known position of the Titanic, and at 2:20am they played ‘Nearer, My God, To Thee’.

A crate carried along on the expedition contained a buoy shaped like a quaver note with the hymn “Nearer, My God, To Thee” stored on sd-chip inside. This was placed into the ocean the day after the performance.

People were able to follow the expedition in real-time via The Unfinished blog.

Music imprints itself on the brain deeper than any other human experience. It speaks to us in a different language and arouses every emotion. It connects us all, it is a force that ignites our souls.

Alive Inside is a documentary film that follows Dan Cohen’s Music & Memory project, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing personalized music into the lives of the elderly and infirm, thereby vastly improving their day-to-day existence.

Telling a story of hope and beauty, the film follows Dan as he discovers the power music has to “awaken” minds most others consider dormant and deteriorating. The film features Dr. Oliver Sacks, Dr. Bill Thomas and the amazing men and women dedicated to patient care.

Alive Inside premieres at New York City’s Rubin Museum as part of its annual Brainwave series.

Madrid Spain based artist collective Boa Mistura recently gave a small corner of Brazil one very colorful and meaningful typographic makeover. Working with the inhabitants, including the children of Brasilândia Vila, a poor suburb on the outskirts of São Paulo, the team took the narrow streets and covered them with vibrent, colorful paint, leaving only the beautiful words beleza, amor, doçura, firmeza and orgulho (beauty, love, sweetness, firmness and pride) painted on the walls. The bold white typography is drawn in perspective down the narrow corridors, revealing itself to passerby for only a moment as they walk past the one location where the lines merge into the form of words.

The project, made just this year, was supported by the Embassy of Spain in Brazil and sponsored by Singapore Airlines and Montana Colors. The project goes a long way to show the difference art and design can make in the lives of people, especially those whos lives are so infrequently filled with them. Not only do we witness the joyous smiles on the faces of children participating the murals creation, it seems it would be impossible not to be at first shocked, and then inspired by the message as you encountered it around a corner.

Via Visual News

The obliteration room 2011 revisits the popular interactive children’s project developed by Yayoi Kusama for the Queensland Art Gallery’s ‘APT 2002: Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’. In this reworked and enlarged installation, an Australian domestic environment is recreated in the gallery space, complete with locally sourced furniture and ornamentation, all of which has been painted completely white. While this may suggest an everyday topography drained of all colour and specificity, it also functions as a blank canvas to be invigorated — or, in Kusama’s vocabulary, ‘obliterated’ — through the application, to every available surface, of brightly coloured stickers in the shape of dots.

As with many of Kusama’s installations, the work is disarmingly simple in its elemental composition; however, it brilliantly exploits the framework of its presentation. The white room is gradually obliterated over the course of the exhibition, the space changing measurably with the passage of time as the dots accumulate as a result of thousands and thousands of collaborators.

Interactivity became an important component of Kusama’s work in the mid to late 1960s, when her solo public performances expanded into participatory happenings. A product of the postwar Avant-garde, which almost immediately crossed over into popular culture, or at least underground counter culture, happenings developed as unconventional performance events increasingly relying on audience reaction and direct participation. Kusama’s happenings, known as ‘body festivals’ — or ‘orgies’, as they were often sensationally reported in the mainstream press — typically provided platforms for spontaneous and improvisatory behaviour within conceptual and aesthetic frameworks determined by the artist. Often involving public nudity — the artist hoped to contrast the beauty of the youthful human body with the violence of the US–Vietnam War — they challenged prevailing moral frameworks.

Installation view of The obliteration room 2011 as part of ‘Yayoi Kusama: Look Now, See Forever’, Gallery of Modern Art, 2011 / © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio Inc. / Photograph: Mark Sherwood

Via

Whisky is a complex spirit with a range of flavors. The Macallan recognizes that introducing whisky to some people requires a bit of education. Knowing that smell is such an important element in taste, they thought it would be an interesting experiment to teach people about the flavors of whisky. The Macallan‘s partnership with celebrated British perfumer Roja Dove created an olfactory experience to do just that.

The Macallan and Roja Dove Sensory Experience takes people through the spectrum of scent, educating the nose in common whisky notes. It’s meant to help people approach the whisky palate without the immediate—and often overpowering—alcoholic sensation so that later on, tasting the whiskey may bring out characteristics that may otherwise have been missed. “Everybody so far has said that they are shocked that they are able to smell things in the whisky that they have never, ever noticed before,” explains Dove. I was lucky enough to spend an hour going through the Experience with Dove and David Cox, director of The Macallan’s Fine and Rare whiskies and indeed learned to distinguish the various components that give whisky its flavor.

Dove selected 12 pure essences that he felt were representative of different whiskey traits. The first six introduce scent pairs that help distinguish between things like stillness versus volatility, fruitiness versus spiciness, and maturity versus immaturity. Dove’s experience goes back and forth between scents in an opposite way from traditional whisky-tasting, bringing out base notes after the high notes and the sweet before the dry. The kit provides a certain education that a tasting alone cannot. The second set of six scents creates two aromatic blends that imitate whiskies from The Macallan range, which are later used in combination with the whisky during tasting. By the end, the nose has been properly trained and participants leave equipped with the vocabulary to go forward and taste whiskey on their own. It’s perhaps not a surprise that through his own methods Dove has come to appreciate and enjoy whisky. The box contains scent strips for testing and glasses to combine the scents into a “bouquet,” which mirrors the whiskey-tasting experience. Armed with this educational tool, The Macallan’s brand ambassadors are set to spread the essence of their spirit through scent, hoping to convert non-believers to the fascinating world of scotch whisky and provide connoisseurs with an additional tool for appreciation

Via: psssst

The Lapin Kulta Solar Kitchen Restaurant is a concept resulted by the  collaboration between Catalan designer Martí Guixé and Finnish food visionary Antto Melasniemi. Is a concept built around a solar kitchen, where the food is cooked using only alternative energy: the sun. Unlike the traditional way of cooking, solar heat affects the taste and texture of the dish in a surprising and positive way, producing a completely different taste experience.

The restaurant is fully powered by (and therefore dependent on) solar energy, so the amount of sunshine each day will determine the menu of the day.

Via: PSSSSST

Theatre for One is project conceived by Christine Jones , a freelance set designer.

Theatre for One is a portable performing arts space for one performer and one audience member, that turns public events into private acts.

You can check a video here.