Welcome to our first edition of A – Z from W – A – X. Below is a collection of things that make us laugh, think, move … or simply help us pass the time. We hope you find something in here to share with friends and fam in your bio-trust and farther afield.

A

Listen to Aqua Barbie Girl, performed by (speech synthesis AI) Slavoj Žižek and Ayn Rand. More fun (and eerie) speech synthesis recordings from Google’s AI team here, including Jay-Z and Barack Obama.

Barbie Girl, Aqua, 1997

voice recognition (ep.28), Brandname™

B

New mixes weekly from Brandname™ (aka Zak) and friends. Tune in at wax.radio 8PM on Thursdays to hear live and archived broadcasts.

C

Movement is keeping us sane, and this simple sequence of “50 Looks” from Merce Cunningham published by The New York Times helps us do it with grace and structure.

Twist, Bend, Reach, Step: A Merce Cunningham Solo Anyone Can Try, The New York Times. Photos by Camila Falquez

Deep Sky Objects, Deep Sky Objects, 2020

D

Dave thinks Deep Sky Objects might be the perfect contemplative album for WFH. Produced by Alexander Dennis (Eprom/Shades) & Andrew Doubek (Stillcold/Bodymusik). Grab it on vinyl here.

E

Kellen’s been conjuring nature into his apartment with Irv Teibel’s Environments. “Very meditative and good for working.” The series of field recordings (1969 – 1979) introduced the world to the therapeutic uses of natural sound.

Environments 9, Irv Teibel, 1978

Still from I Can’t Sleep, Claire Denis, 1994

F

An incredible collection of film dialogues is archived here by the Walker Art Center. Explore more than 60 in-depth portraits of directors, actors, writers, and producers who were celebrated in the Walker Cinema at pivotal moments in their careers.

G

We’re making gardens — some in our window-sills, some in our backyards. Dave made cold frames with screens to keep the deer from a breakfast buffet. Inyeong and friends have a garden in their room. Try growing your own.

Good Vibe Dance, Keone and Mari Madrid

H

A simple series of hand gestures that helps shed negative energy. Push bad vibes away with Good Vibes Dance for your Hands, by choreographers Keone and Mari Madrid.

I

Our friends Christopher Nicolson and Reid Ten Kley at Iliamna Fish Co have just opened up their seasonal salmon share. Order your share of wild sockeye salmon now, and pick it up in the late summer to stock your fridge with sushi-grade salmon filets… and look for their new website designed by us, coming soon.

Judd Chair (found insulation foam, laminated plywood, pine, mdf), Wax Studios, 2019

J

Last year, we made our own version of a Donald Judd Front Shelf Chair, not realizing that a massive retrospective at MoMA was already in the works. Enjoy these images of our process, along with Hal Foster’s great review of the show on Artforum here.

K

Inyeong’s mom shared her Kimchi recipe with us. Make your own and let us know how it turns out!

1.     Prepare the cabbage. Slice two chinese cabbages lengthwise and quarter, wash in water, and salt the cabbage (about 2 – 3 cups of coarse salt). Let sit three hours. Stir once about halfway through.
2.     Prepare the kimchi sauce. Mix one sliced onion, 3 tbs chopped garlic, 2 sliced leeks, 1 cup Korean red pepper powder, 2 tbs fish sauce, a little bit of salt, plum juice (2 tbs, if you have it), 1 tbs sugar, 1tbs minced ginger. Stir all together in a small mixing bowl.
3.     Rinse the salted cabbage in water 3 times in cold water, then dry it out.
4.     Mix kimchi sauce and cabbage together in a large mixing bowl.
5.     Pour your kimchi into jars, and let it sit at room temperature for one day to let it ferment. Then refrigerate and enjoy!

Inyeong’s mom’s Homemade Kimchi

Bio-Trust: On Insides and Outsides, LEONG LEONG via MIT Architecture

L

If anything, this time has brought us a dizzying array of online lectures. We’re grateful to sit in on talks from MIT Architecture and Harvard GSD, along with video collections like this one on Are.na by Crystal Zapata.

M

Monoskop is a delightful wiki for the arts, media and humanities, rich with historical and contemporary art themes, philosophies, artists and references like this collection of avant-garde and modernist magazines.

Back cover of MA 8:1, Vienna, 1922

Nightly Met Opera Streams

N

Nightly Met Opera streams. Free virtual showings of famous operas, from Puccini’s La Bohème to Britten’s Peter Grimes. Get on your evening gown and go to (virtual) Lincoln Center!

O

The latest track from Oni Ayhun, aka Olof Dreijer, the Swedish musician known for his work with The Knife. Zak says “it’s a solid track that’s been on repeat lately.”

OAR003, Oni Ayhun, 2009

Everything Sucks, Princess Nokia, 2020

P

Learning a new skill during quarantine? Queue “Practice” by Princess Nokia. Zak says “it’s a banger.”

Q

… and on that note, missing the club? Visit Club Quarantäne. Commune, listen, dance, interact with others, sweat, and even wait in line for the virtual bathroom. You’ll be feeling virtually euphoric in no time.

CLUB QUARANTÄNE via Instagram

Organic Media, Paul Chan

R

3 Recipes for Sustaining the Self by Paul Chan. On Greene Naftali’s website, Chan introduced these three conceptual recipes to help get through this exhausting time. See his “Organic Media” recipe to learn how to cope with news fatigue.

S

Smithsonian Open Access is an incredible trove with millions of copyright-free images previously unavailable from The Smithsonian. Search for anything, download, use it and share it!

Symantec Lapel Pin, David DeJean

Ten Hours Bouncing Ball Sound by NBAsketballcourt

T

If you’re missing your hoops, cue up this track featuring Ten Hours Bouncing Ball Sound — and let it fade away. Via Cory Arcangel on are.na.

U

Andrew Yang brought up the topic of Universal Basic Income last year, and now’s a great time to continue the discussion. Nathan Heller considers the historical context and angles in this great New Yorker article.

Illustration by Anna Parini via The New Yorker

Vibrations, Michael Paseornek. 1996

V

Do you know anything about techno? Watch this clip from Vibrations and find out why “the world is coming to an end… but we don’t care, because we’re moon-tanned nocturnal, vinyl consuming animals, drifting easy through friendly space and analog trance. Nothing can doom this groove!”

W

Curious about designers’ at-home creative environments? WFH/WFM shares vignettes of how designers around the world are making space to work.

Brooke Irish (Handbuilt) & Armando Martinez-Celis (Kilter) (Co-teaching at CalArts) by Working From Home/Works For Me

forever, Charli XCX, 2020

X

Charli XCX is creating an entire album while quarantined called “how i’m feeling right now”. Kellen says “I love the collaborative nature Charli has always held in her musical process. She’s using Zoom and social media to work with fans and artists to get feedback as she’s writing and recording. The output so far is super DIY and seems very transparent and instinctual.”

Y

Kellen also says “Yaeji has been one of my favorite artists for a long time and one of the best live performances I’ve seen. This album is great for getting work done and has really nice visuals, both design and music videos. It just makes me happy!!” Check out the album What We Drew on Spotify or this great video for Waking Up Down.

WHAT WE DREW, Yaeji, 2020

Stay Classy with Ron, Itai Inselberg

Z

Getting bored of constant daily Zoom meetings? Shake things up with these fun video backgrounds by Itai Inselberg.

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