Cool Hunting
| 06 January 2004view entries from: this week | this month | view previous day | view next day |
Reflecting Absence
by Josh Rubin
'Reflecting Absence' by Michael Arad has been chosen as the memorial to those who lost their lives in the World Trade Center attacks on September 11th. The piece uses a pair of reflective pools to mark the location of the towers' footprints. While many are criticizing the piece, I quite like it. The minimalism is appropriate and the experience promises to entice a mood most appropriate for this memorial: somber.
Visitors begin their descent into the memorial by entering one of these buildings. This descent removes them from the sights and sounds of the city and immerses them in a cool darkness. As they gradually proceed, step by step, the sound of water falling grows louder, and more daylight filters in from below. At the bottom of their descent, they find themselves behind a thin curtain of water, staring out at an enormous pool that flows endlessly towards a central void that remains empty. A ribbon of names surrounds this pool and the enormity of this space and the multitude of names lining it underscore the vast scope of the tragedy that took place at this site. Standing there at the water's edge, looking at a pool of water that is flowing away into an abyss, a visitor to the site can sense that what is beyond this curtain of water and ribbon of names is inaccessible.
more at lowermanhattan.info
1984 redux
by Josh Rubin
Today Steve Jobs gave the keynote at Macworld 2004 in San Francisco. The iPod mini is very exciting, as is iLife 4. The most exciting thing of the day for me, however, was the little remake of the original Apple Macintosh ad from 1984. My favorite TV commercial of all time has been subtly enhanced by including an iPod. It has been 20 years since the Mac was introduced. We're all hoping for some fantastic 20th Anniversary Mac sometime soon.
