Here in the US, we are celebrating Thanksgiving! For many, this marks the start of the holiday season. In New York City, businesses and public parks are getting ready for the holidays. Every year, Bryant Park, adjacent to the New York Public Library in Midtown Manhattan, fills to the brim with festive shops. At the center of the park, visitors take advantage of the cold weather and go ice skating on the park’s rink. From friends skating circles around each other, to couples holding hands, and kids just learning to balance, the ice rink is a hit. The Winter Village is full of both tourists and native New Yorkers, all enjoying the frosty air and the excitement of the holiday season. It’s the perfect place to shop for unique and beautiful gifts for loved ones, or to simply sip hot chocolate and enjoy the festive atmosphere.
Cold, Cold London
England, like much of the American East Coast and Midwest, is currently enduring some very cold temperatures. Almost all parts of the country including London have experienced freezing temperatures this week as well as snow and ice in many places. In London, we ventured out after one of the coldest nights in decades to see the frozen fountain at Trafalgar Square. Those poor mermaids! Stay warm, everyone!
Impulse
Impulse is an interactive art installation made of twelve oversized seesaws that transform the Broadway pedestrian plazas into an urban playground. When visitors to the seesaws climb on top and move them, the seesaws glow with light and emit randomized musical sounds. Located on Broadway in the Garment District between 37th and 38th Streets, Impulse was created by Lateral Office and CS Design in collaboration with EGP Group, and first presented as part of the winter Luminothérapie light festival in Montreal. When we visited the installation over lunchtime this week, we heard a lot of happy shouts, laughter, and the sound of general merriment on the seesaws. Creos, the tour producer of the installation, says the seesaws embody “ideas of serialism, repetition, and variation to produce zones of intensity and calm” and they “animate the public space and its occupants during the cold and dreary winter.” That much is certainly true. The seesaws are on display through January 31.