Utopia Parkway Internet Art

Have you wondered what kind of website Joseph Cornell would have made if he had had the internet? Neither have I! But, someone did. Visit Utopia PKWY to see a work of internet art inspired by Joseph Cornell's house on Utopia Parkway. If you take some time to explore the site, you will be rewarded with haunting music, bizarre video footage, and more. Read the description below for the rationale for the project.

"Utopia PKWY is the street in Flushing, Queens, N.Y.C. where Joseph Cornell lived for most of his life. The home itself (which is the interface for this work) was like a meta-grid of sorts, a Cornell box writ large. The house was not only home to Cornell himself but also to the thousands of objects, papers, and flotsam that he constructed his works from. Cornell's studio was in the basement and he lived on the upper floors with his Mother and disabled brother Robert until they passed away. Tony Curtis would arrive at this humble house in a limo and Andy Warhol had been to tea...it was in essence an uber-box where the uncanny and impossible conversed with the everyday and banal...cages under cage." -- the artist

Research is fun!

Take a look at the Peabody Essex Museums fun, informative, and interactive website about Joseph Cornell.

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Obsessed yet?

As I study the play, Hotel Cassiopeia, I find myself thinking about the imagery of the play more and more. I'm drawn to things I see out in the world that make me think of the play or the artist, Joseph Cornell. So... for the Hotel Cassiopeia super fans, I have some ways you can make your world look a little bit more Cornell-like.

1. Decorate your house. How about movie posters from Algiers or To Have and Have Not? Maybe fill a bowl full of yellow balls of cork. Perfect for your coffee table!
2. Decorate yourself. Watch parts, shells, cockatiels, little bottles of blue sand, feathers. Turn yourself into a Cornell shadow box with Cornell-ish jewelry. Or... get the t-shirt (???)

3. Decorate your desktop. The Joseph Cornell Box website has three different downloadable wallpapers for your computer's desktop. Here's mine...
4. Decorate a shadow box. The Joseph Cornell Box also has pictures, text, and textures you can print out and cut out to make your own Cornell shadow box. Or, you can buy the complete package at Amazon.com
Have fun showing your Hotel pride!

Key Terms: "Huntley and Palmer Shortcake Cookies"

The "Huntley and Palmer shortcake cookies" that Joseph refers to in Scene 1 are probably the Iced Gems that Huntley and Palmers, and English biscuit company began producing in 1910. These little cookies are still produced today by Jacob's Bakery Ltd. and have a small cult following. Anyone need some cookie shaped cuff links or earrings?

For more info...
The Huntley and Palmers Collection
Ritz Food Product Corporation
Nice Cup of Tea and Sit Down Dot Com

Key Terms: Automat

The automat is a self-service cafeteria which keeps its food selections in small compartments that are opened when the customer inserts money into a slot adjacent to the compartment. Automats were popular in New York City during the first half of the century as a place to get an inexpensive, hot meal. They had kitchens with chefs that would make the food, but costs were kept down by the decreased need for waiters and waitresses. The automats of Cornell's time would have had one or two waitresses to make change (the automat machines took nickels.) The rise of the fast food restaurant virtually killed the automats, however with the demand for higher quality food at low prices, they may make a comeback. New York City currently has an automat in operation called Bamn!

Here is a video about Bamn!



Here's a short clip of an automat.

For more information on automats, check out these websites and articles:

• TheAutomat.net
• Logical Views - Remembrances: The World from 1931 to 1942
• Boston.com News - Updated Automat to Open in New York City
• Smithsonian.com - Meet Me at the Automat

Watch these films to see scenes set in automats:

• The Beautiful City-1925
• Easy Living-1937
• Ladies Man-1947
  
• That Touch of Mink-1962
• Naked Lunch-1991
• Dark City-1998

Discovering the Real Joseph Cornell

The Smithsonian online Archives of American Art has an impressive catalog of materials related to Joseph Cornell for the public to peruse. Correspondence, photographs, diaries - it's a goldmine.