#wayfinding

#wayfinding

The Barbican is a maze. A beautiful brutalist, multi-levelled maze of crisscrossing walkways in the sky - but still a maze. In a way, that's part of the cultural institution's charm, always leading visitors to discover surprising corners of the site. There are, however, a few downsides to the Barbican's labyrinthine layout. Sometimes you'll try to meet a friend before a show and find yourself at the opposite side to where you're meant to be (or worse, in the car park).

Twenty hand-painted fiberglass spheres have quietly appeared throughout the neighborhood as part of Walk to the Water 2.0: Hudson Square Storyline , a new public art installation unveiled this week by the Hudson Square Business Improvement District. Created in collaboration with illustrator and data-visualization designer Jenny Goldstick, the project transforms more than 100 stories collected from locals-residents, office workers and business owners-into swirling, data-driven artworks.

Austin Curtis was a prominent Black scientist whose work had spectacularly practical applications. Among his successes: He developed many new uses for peanut byproducts, including rubbing oils for pain relief. His work exploited the untapped potential of materials that others neglected or discarded. I urge you to adopt a similar strategy in the coming weeks, Aries: Be imaginative as you repurpose scraps and leftovers. Convert afterthoughts into useful assets. Breakthroughs could come from compost heaps, forgotten files or half-forgotten ideas.