Culture Surfing - Stuart Horodner’s Top Five

Atlanta College of Art’s new gallery director, Stuart Horodner from Portland, Ore., shares his free-range cultural curiosity in his top five current obsessions.</
1) Relational Aesthetics by Nicolas Bourriaud — A series of essays about how contemporary artists create various “encounters” with the audience. This is similar to my long-standing belief that art is best understood as a verb, not a noun.</
2) The Aristocrats — This film joins The Five Obstructions as the greatest theme and variation exercises since Matisse and the odalisque.</
3) “Iron Chef” (Food Network) — Most late nights I’m glued to “Iron Chef.” I can’t think of anything more entertaining than two master chefs, a state of the art kitchen, one hour, and a secret ingredient.</
4) www.learningtoloveyoumore.com — This project by Harrell Fletcher and Miranda July is certainly one of the smartest and sweetest uses of the Internet around. I suggest assignment #34. [Make a protest sign and protest.] There’s never any shortage of things to be upset about.</
5) Atlanta — Getting to know a new city is wonderful — including MARTA, a dozen raw oysters for $4 on Tuesday nights at Fontaines, woodworking classes at Highland Hardware, and my new ’50s couch from Victory Vintage in Decatur.