TOP TEN

Art or Idiocy? asked Audrey Peiper, an arts administrator, curator and organizer to come up with a TOP 10 list. TOP 10 what? TOP 10 whatever. Just so long as it is art and culture related. This is the smashing pantheon she unleashed to us here at Art or Idiocy? and now on you. Ms. Peiper runs Locus Projects with her husband. Locus Projects is, among other things, a camping battery used to run slide projectors in Chicago's parks for impromptu art events.

1. CANADA

Can
Originally uploaded by Art or Idiocy?.

It's looking very appealing at this point (Note: I wrote this entry right after the election – while the immediate sense of desperation has faded, I feel like these were valid, though naïve, sentiments). We all know its draws: progressive social policies, good arts funding, a diverse population. Perhaps I'm idealizing a bit, but after the despondence I felt (and feel the residual effects of) after election day, it seems like a veritable utopia! Visit slate.msn.com for more details on the Great Northerly Migration – not surprisingly, there's an intelligence qualifying exam. Of course, given the complexities of life, we can't all become instant expatriates, nor should we. But that doesn't mean we can't complain during the next four years.

2. Homo floresensis, a.k.a. tiny prehistoric humans

Hobbit,
originally uploaded by Art or Idiocy?.

In late October news reports announced the discovery of a new branch in the path of human evolution, and I have been fascinated by descriptions of these three-foot-tall creatures that scientists adamantly attest are not a pygmy variation of Homo sapiens but rather a separate species. As a rather short young woman – partnered with a man 120% life size (he's 6') and by extension his family – mother at 5'11" and father at 6'4" I often feel like a tiny person myself. This newly-uncovered species seems to be my kindred folk. My favorite part: in two brief New York Times articles I read, the authors apparently thought diminutive species were so cute that they were referred to as th "little Floresians" a total of TEN times.