On York Boulevard in trendy Los Angeles neighborhood Highland Park, city officials early held a ribbon-cutting ceremony early last week for the city’s newest park — or parklet, to be more precise. For those unfamiliar with the term, the difference between a park and a parklet is that the latter inhabits a very unique location: the parallel parking space.

While the idea of human beings lounging in spaces set aside for our cars, landscape architecture firm Shared Spaces actually furnished L.A.’s first parklet with seating, succulent foliage, and a very slight resemblance to Barcelona’s Park Güell (thanks to local mosaic artist Cathi Milligan). It’s a formula that’s been approved by cities worldwide, from Dallas to Melbourne to Budapest, that traces origins back to 2005. It was then that San Francisco-based art and design studio Rebar, motivated by the fact that 25 percent of the city’s public space was devoted to cars, reclaimed a few square feet of pavement by outfitting it with sod, a bench, and a tree for the duration of two hours, the legal limit of how long they could feed the space’s meter.

That one innovative act of guerilla urbanism is commemorated annually on PARK(ing) Day, the third Friday of September, all over the world. It was observed by 162 countries in 2011, and in the next few days, Los Angeles plans to open two more. The popularity of this urban oddity, which started as a single act of defiance and has since evolved into an authority-sanctioned global trend, is symptomatic of city dwellers’ secret longing for a little contact with nature, despite their cosmopolitan sensibilities. It’s a difficult luxury to come by in the urban jungle, where the competition with our neighbors for space only increases as time goes on. Urban populations increase by 60 million people every year, according to the World Health Organization, which projects that by 2050, the total number of urbanites will have doubled to more than 5 million from just 2.5 billion in 2009.

So, as city populations surge and space becomes a rare and precious commodity, architects and designers like Rebar — creators of a vertical, sky-scraping forest; an underground nature walk; a sustainable city from scratch; or a place to relax at the mouth of the Holland Tunnel — have found increasingly unexpected places to sneak bits of green into our daily lives. In our second installment of our Innovators in Design series, we’re taking a look at the people who are reinventing the way we interact with nature.

To see the innovators who are redesigning the way we interact with nature, click the slideshow. 

Matthew Drutt, Executive Director of the Blouin Cultural Advisory Group, caught up with Canadian artist Jon Pylypchuk at Art Los Angeles Contemporary, where his sculptural installation, “It’s not you, it’s me, I will always love you dear” greeted guests entering Barker Hangar. Watch the video below:

For centuries, actors from David Garrick to Al Pacino have donned the hump to play the title role of Shakespeare’s “Richard III.” So when the bones of the real Richard were recently discovered below a London parking lot, we sought out a reaction from someone who’d  just tackled the role of the classic villain. Paging Ron Cephas Jones, who played this last Plantagenet king in the summer of 2012. The acclaimed actor (Stephen Adly Guirgis’s “Our Lady of 121st Street”) toured in a production of “Richard III” in the Public Theater’s Mobile Shakespeare Unit, a travelling company setting up shop in the most unlikely places in New York City, including Rikers Island, Charlotte’s Place, and the Jamaica Service Program for Older Adults. ARTINFO spoke with Jones about his reaction to the momentous discovery.

Having played Richard III, how did you feel when you heard the news?

I felt an attachment, especially when I heard the word “slender.” That’s an adjective that is often used to describe me. I was fascinated by the photographs that showed the skull with a hole in it, confirming the fact that he was killed in a really brutal way.  There was a curve to the spine, somewhat deformed, adding credibility to his look [in the Shakespeare play].

Do you think it’ll affect future productions of “Richard III’?

It’ll certainly add to the debate among historians and Shakespearean scholars. The story is the story. It won’t change that. But there may well be some directors who will want to explain these discoveries in new adaptations or versions. We’ll see in the future how they’ll treat this new information. But that’s the beauty of Shakespeare and this play. It’s constantly being reinvented.

How did your audiences, which probably aren’t that familiar with Shakespeare, react to your performance as Richard? 

It was probably one of the most wonderful experiences of my acting career because they had every reaction you could possibly fathom.  It’s really community theater, playing prisons and centers, and it’s all about telling a story. There were no sets. It took a little longer for audiences to get involved. But once they got used to the language, they settled into the play, responding in the way that they might to have responded in Shakespeare’s time. Vocally. They brought their children because they felt it was important to expose them to the play.  It was a cut down version [90 minutes] so it moved pretty fast. But they forgot about looking at it with a critical eye and just made a passionate connection to the piece.

Do you suppose the prisoners at Riker’s who saw the play reacted to the news of the discovery with a sense of ownership?

I hope so. They were intrigued, fascinated, and horrified by him. And probably understood him more than other people might because of what they had gone through themselves. But that’s what you want. You want them to leave with a sense of ownership and wanting to know more about the guy. 

Did it whet your appetite to do the role again?

Oh, definitely. Absolutely. Those kinds of roles really take a long time to really get them. I’d love the opportunity to play him again and get even deeper into the play and into this character. There are so many aspects to explore. And I was really happy to be exploring them with the mobile unit. The whole context added so much more to the play.

Did the sight of the bones lend a certain sympathy for Richard that you didn’t have before? 

I found it very moving. When fact and fiction start to collide you more fully realize the humanity of these historical characters in ways you might not have before. It’s an awesome thing.

A serious movie-goer and longtime partisan of what used to be called the New American Cinema, Richard Foreman has cited the influence of Robert Bresson on his approach to non-acting and the example of avant-garde film practice on his unique Ontological-Hysteric Theater.

The relationship was recognized early on. Foreman staged most of his early productions at the old Filmmaker’s Cinematheque on 80 Wooster Street. Reviewing one of these for the counterculture monthly Changes, documentary filmmaker Victoria Schultz called Foreman’s work spiritually closer to that of “Stan Brakhage, Jack Smith, Joseph Cornell, Michael Snow, and others than to contemporary experimental theater… The most striking point the film-makers and Foreman have in common, besides total control of production (the film-makers shoot, direct, and edit; Foreman writes the plays, directs them, and designs the settings) is the tendency to do away with conventional plot, story-line, and dramatic narrative.”

Foreman has also expressed a certain ambivalence regarding cinema, best articulated in the title of his 1987 piece, “Film Is Evil: Radio Is Good,” and the fact that every other decade or so, the artist experiments with a feature-length film or video work. Call it beginner’s luck but the straightforward PortaPak production “Out of the Body Travel,” made in 1975, is still the strongest of those I’ve seen; “Once Every Day,” at Anthology Film Archives through February 14, is the most recent. The presentation is pure Foreman: People have the same weight as props. The movie features a gaggle of non-actors, several ripe young women among them, stuffed in uncomfortable places, engaging in repetitive movements, or staring deadpan at camera, as Foreman himself can be heard barking orders or demanding an answer to some philosophical query. (On-stage direction or dialogue delivered word by word are two tricks Foreman picked up from Jack Smith).

Where Foreman’s plays are actually dramatic, as well as ritualistic and object-like, “Once Every Day” feels immaterial – it lacks presence. The weirdness seems gratuitous (and weirdly sub Lynchian). As demonstrated with his earlier movies like “Strong Medicine,” Foreman can’t activate a screen the way he does a space. “Once Every Day” opens with a cry of “Help me” and the plaintive SOS is repeated throughout – too frequently to be ignored. Far be it for me to give a genius advice, but I wish that, rather than search for a cinematic equivalent to his theater, Foreman would just try to direct a movie and see what happens.

Read more J. Hoberman at Movie Journal. 

For the most recent of Tate Britain’s BP British Art Displays, which look at contemporary and historic British art in the collection, the museum has chosen to use the lens of one of art’s most enduring genres: landscape. “Looking at the View,” curated by Tate Britain’s director Penelope Curtis (through June 2), maps how British artists have been dealing with the natural environment over the past 300 years, from the Romantic movement to Land Art, J.M.W. Turner to Tracey Emin, Pre-Raphaelite painter John Brett to Tacita Dean. Artworks hang in clusters articulated around a similar motif, teasing out conversations between artists from different periods. 

The exhibition, Curtis told ARTINFO UK, “mixes old favourites with little-seen pictures to lead the viewer on a walk through a distant landscape up to a close-up view, across space, and across time.”

To see a selection of artworks from the exhibition, click on the slideshow.

Sony Pictures has announced that it is to make a movie about Oliver Twist and the Artful Dodger meeting as adults 20 years after the end of Charles Dickens’s 1838 novel. This in itself is not dispiriting, though Dickens purists may disagree.

As Peter Carey’s 1997 novel “Jack Maggs” demonstrated, imagining the futures of Dickens’s characters (in that case, Magwitch and Pip of “Great Expectations”) can honor and inform the original book – a literary concept known as “post-colonialism.”

Sony’s “Dodge and Twist” shares a plot element with Tony Lee and artist Paul Peart Smith’s unpublished 2007 comic book “Dodge & Twist,” which was set 12 years after the original novel. Lee has Oliver reluctantly joining the Dodger in a scheme to steal the Koh-I-Noor diamond from the Great Exhibition of 1851. In the film, the Hollywood Reporter discloses, “The two are on opposite sides of the law and get embroiled in an affair to steal the Crown Jewels.”

The similarities were not lost on Lee, who posted several complaints on Twitter claiming that he met with one of the film’s producers, Ahmet Zappa, in 2008 and 2009. Zappa responded to Lee in a tweet, saying that he had not stolen the idea.  

Stylistically, the two projects might not bear much resemblance. Whereas Lee’s story and Smith’s drawings are roughly Dickensian, the movie may be more comedic.

According to the Reporter, the people behind the picture – producers Zappa (son of Frank) and Matt Dolmach, and screenwriter Cole Haddon (NBC’s “Dracula”) – will be “taking a page out of the recent Robert Downey Jr.-starring ‘Sherlock Holmes’ movies.”

The Holmesian influence, if true, should set alarm bells ringing because of the gimmickry and flippancy that characterizes Guy Ritchie’s  “Sherlock Holmes” (2009) and “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” (2011). While the BBC’s “Sherlock” brilliantly transposed Conan Doyle’s Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) – psychological complexity intact – and Watson (Martin Freeman) to contemporary London, the Ritchie films are little more than showcases for Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law’s ironic banter and the bland action setpieces. These films are so smugly distanced from the original spirit generated by the neurotic Baker Street sleuth and the good Doctor, his friend and witness, that they deride it.

Classic books are fair game for literary and cinematic pillage these days – so, too, history (“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter”). Not every appropriation is insulting. Like “Jack Maggs,” “Death Comes to Pemberley,” P.D. James’s murder-mystery sequel to “Pride and Prejudice,” similarly adds to our understanding of Jane Austen’s 200-year-old masterpiece.

The same cannot be said for the various sexed-up “Pride and Prejudice” novel sequels, which have been inspired less by Austen’s Darcy than Colin Firth’s chest and sopping shirt in the 1995 BBC miniseries.

No matter that they may originate in genuine affection for their sources, larky movies and pastiches that colonize the turf are even less likely to offer insight or pleasure. If and when “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” gets made, I will watch it under duress, or torture. I can’t judge this year’s Sundance entry “Austenland,” based on the Shannon Hale novel, until I’ve seen it, but I suspect the time will be better used opening “Emma” or “Persuasion” again.

In the 18th century, French balletmaster Jean-Georges Noverre argued that for ballet to move forward it had to move away from “light and entertaining interludes” toward “dark and serious ballets about incest, murder, and betrayal.” The Russians, arguably, perfected this vision of ballet. The dark subject matter and universal language made it the official art of the Soviet state. The Communist Party, during the early-20th century, was highly invested in the ballet, controlling every aspect of production down to the costumes. Joseph Stalin was said to have spent a lot of time at the ballet and had his own private viewing box at the Bolshoi Theater, “a specially designed bulletproof enclave tucked into the corner of the house to the left of the stage” which “had a separate entrance from the street and an adjoining room stocked with vodka and equipped with a telephone,” according to Jennifer Homans’s “Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet.” Post-war, Stalin’s successor, Nikita Khruschev, claimed he saw “Swan Lake” so many times that it haunted his dreams.

As evidenced by recent events surrounding the legendary Bolshoi Ballet, Noverre’s view of a modern, contemporary ballet is still present. The only problem is it’s not happening on the stage, but in real life. In the past month, the troupe has been embroiled in a scandal involving backstage battles, deep betrayal, and malicious violence, stemming from a brutal attack on artistic director Sergei Filin. In the latest development, dancers are now suspects in the mysterious drama that surrounds them and threatens to tarnish the legacy of the ballet forever.

The Filin incident is of extreme proportions, and the proplems that have plagued the company in recent years seem to have foreshadowed the current state of the ballet troupe. In the fall of 2011, amid a reopening of the Bolshoi Theater after closing down for renovations in 2005, the ballet company – the largest in the world with over 200 dancers – found itself in the middle of a kerfuffle when Gennady Yanin, the deputy director of the company, was forced out after images of him in bed with other men were posted online. The leak of the photos, which were sent by email to many prominent figures in Russian society, was said to be retaliation for Yanin refusing to accept financial blackmail. At the same time, former dancers spoke to The Guardian about how the theater had become “a quasi-escort agency for wealthy donors” where girls were told that they would have a future within the company only if they went to parties organized for donors. The Bolshoi Ballet quickly denied these claims.

It was during this time that Filin was appointed artistic director of the ballet troupe. A former dancer with the Bolshoi Ballet, Filin was forced to retire in 2004 due to a hip injury. He has referred to his short time as the artistic director of the company as “the war,” and ongoing battle over “roles, money, and on-stage glory.” According to an article in The Daily Beast, there were small “revolts” among the dancers and different factions of the ballet’s administration. In the same Beast article, Filin admitted that his tires had been slashed after a disagreement and his personal email had been hacked on numerous occasions.

All this came to a head this year on January 18 when, after several weeks of threats and intimidation, a masked assailant threw sulfuric acid in the face of Filin outside his home in Moscow. Filin suffered third-degree burns and damage to his eyes. Immediately, people in the company believed it was an inside job. Many thought it had to do with how Filin assigned roles to dancers within the highly competitive company. According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, Filin reportedly said that long before he was with the company, dancers sometimes found crushed glass in their pointe shoes.

Although Filin has said that he never expected the strife within the company to lead to physical violence, this type of attack is not exactly new to the Bolshoi Ballet. In 2010, principal dancer Natalia Osipova, in New York as a guest artist of the American Ballet Theater, was mugged after leaving the Metropolitan Opera House. The two assailants struck her in the nose and, oddly, only stole her point shoes and a small hammer used to shape them, reported the New York Times.

So it’s no surprise now that reports over the weekend suggest the main suspects in the acid attack on Filin are dancers of the Bolshoi Ballet. Police have not arrested anyone over the attack, and it’s unclear which, or if all, the dancers are suspected. Filin has stated publically that he knows who committed the crime, and that it is certainly connected to his work, but will not name specific names due to the investigation. Prima ballerina Svetlana Lunkina, who was in Canada during the latest scandal, has said publically that she is afraid to return to Russia, while the Bolshoi Ballet has started reacting against the accusations against them, even threatening to sue one of their own principal dancers who has been uncommonly outspoken.

The blurring of art and life: where do the drama of the stage end and the tragedies of life begin? The scandal of the Bolshoi Ballet shines a light on the highly competitive world of ballet, a real life version of the Natalie Portman-starring psycho-ballet drama “Black Swan.” Even odder: What do you think the first production at Bolshoi Ballet, just over two weeks following the attack of Filin, was?

Of course it was “Swan Lake.”

Earlier this month, Sydney-born New York-based freelance illustrator Simon Greiner sparked a number of ironic headlines when his Brooklyn hipster version of The New Yorker's  mascot Eustace Tilley was published on the magazine cover as a winner of its 2013 anniversary edition design competition. The Regency dandy was drawn by the magazine's first art editor Rea Irvin for its debut issue in 1925, and other than the fact that the image was a joke — which is more ephemeral, the dandy or the butterfly? – little is known about the original inspiration for the image. But the mascot has appeared in some form or another on every anniversary issue since, and for the past several years the Eustace Tilley Contest, which invites outside designers to submit their own takes, has brought in creative interpretations ranging from comic-book Tilleys to Mondrian-esque Tilleys to Tilleys trapped in iPads. (Last year's anniversary cover, featuring the Mac “loading" symbol, was also a contest winner.) 

Greiner’s “Brooklyn's Eustace” certainly pressed the button of one of the 21st-century’s most (overly) debated cultural topics. “Eustace is depicted as a contemporary dandy, the hipster,” the illustrator explains. Of the cover design, he adds, “This is not me. I certainly move in a world where those people exist – they’re all around me – but they’re not my people. I’ve been identified as a Brooklyn hipster, but I’m sure I’m sort of at the edge of that Venn diagram.”

ARTINFO Australia recently got in touch with Simon Greiner to find out more about his illustration. 

What was the inspiration for the “hipster” dandy?

Dandies are basically hipsters separated by a few centuries — it makes sense! A lot of the line work was trying to echo shapes in the original Eustace Tilley illustration.

How would you describe the person you portrayed?

He’s a quintessential hipster, the kind that are a dime a dozen around Williamsburg. There are certainly hipsters of a more extreme/dedicated style, but he’s a solid, upper-mid level hipster dude.

Which artists influenced the style of your portrait?

A lot of my influences come from cartoonists and comics. At this point I feel I can say I've reached a personal style which is an amalgam of influences and basically boils down to a combination of hard-edged line drawing and textured colour.

What are the main characteristics of the “Hipster” dandy?

Hipster dandies need a few core competencies, mostly in the beard, spectacle, and tattoo department. Also a kind of admirable self confidence to dedicate one’s self to one’s appearance. It’s almost performance art.

What has the reaction been to your cover?

Amazing, I think especially from the younger readership of the New Yorker who relate to it instantaneously. There have been a few accusations flung my way as to whether or not I’m a hipster (no comment) and a bunch of emails from bearded Brooklyn guys claiming they’re the subject of the cover!

Where to from here?

I’m just gonna keep on drawing! I look forward as always to new collaborations.

The mood at this year's ARCO Madrid has felt decidedly conservative in comparison to prior editions. With a bolstered VIP program that cut down on press attendance, collectors roam the halls unencumbered, and were buying throughout the initial three days; nevertheless, with halls themselves feeling oversized in proportion to the booths and number of visitors, the fair itself has felt slightly empty. Fortunately, David Ulrichs has been on hand to scour them all, and picked out the ten most intriguing booths and artworks of ARCO 2013.

See the top ten most intriguing booths and works in the slideshow.