Crochet Coral Reefs, A Feminist Practice. And: Hideaway in Release.

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In 2005, twin sisters Margaret and Christine Wertheim formed the Institute for Figuring in Los Angeles. Its key project: The Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef, which, according to the HCCR site, “resides at the intersection of mathematics, marine biology, handicraft and community art practice, and also responds to the environmental crisis of global warming and the escalating problem of oceanic plastic trash.”

Communities including Scottsdale, AZ have signed on to create community crochet projects. Crocheted coral reefs have been exhibited at museums including the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh and the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. The great majority of the participants, per Margaret Wertheim, are women. Wertheim was a participant in April 2012 at MCA Denver’s Feminism & Co. program. She joined AdobeAirstreamRadio for a wide-ranging conversation about crochet, feminine handcraft, hyperbolic space, womens’ economics, and environmental policy. For more on Margaret Wertheim, her TED talk can be accessed by clicking this link. Margaret Wertheim is a science writer, and Christine Wertheim is an artist and theorist in contemporary aesthetics at the California Institute of the Arts.

Our song this week comes via AdobeAirstream contributing writer Don Simpson and features the Austin band, the Sour Notes. Don writes that the Sour Notes’ sound is in a constant state of evolution, yet their songwriting is consistently top-notch.  Their latest album Last Looks was recently remixed by Grammy award-winning engineer Steve Christensen and mastered by The Lodge’s Joe LaPorta, in preparation for its upcoming release on vinyl. A2Media is excited to feature the newly remixed version of the title track from Last Looks.

An interview with filmmaker Chris Eyre on his new movie Hideaway, that had a release in selected urban markets May 25th, details the pressures on independent filmmakers, and what has changed for Native American filmmakers since he directed Smoke Signals 14 years ago.

And finally, Lucy Madeline previews the Future Generation Art Prize, which offers artists between 18 and 35 years old a big cash prize, and lots of exposure.