Let Yourself Be Distracted

Today I have far too many things to get done. So naturally I’ve found several distractions to help me procrastinate.

Like Bartholomäus Traubeck’s amazing tree ring record player, which plays the grooves of sliced tree trunks.

Or Susan Straight’s class project on what makes a home, which went from an exercise on materials and floor plans to deeply personal revelations:

“I have a huge crazy Filipino family, and we buy so many presents at Christmas you can’t see the tree. I mean it. We throw the presents at each other. If you don’t pay attention you’ll get hit in the head. Home to me — what I want — is to have a tree and throw presents at my kids.”

Author Jonathan Safran Foer’s (author of Extremely Loud, Incredibly Close) current project is being a curator for the collection “Retrospective of S.” He wrote the accompanying text for each painting, making up the fictional painter’s life story and her various artistic phases. A group of artists were then blindly assigned to paint one piece. Here’s one by artist Rochelle Feinstein.

Graphic designer Dinah Fried’s latest project involved recreating meals from famous pieces of literature like Catcher in the Rye and Alice and Wonderland. Here’s one from Moby Dick.

A nod to good distractions.