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Every Tuesday, I film The New Yorker's art director Françoise Mouly and her assistant, Genevieve Bormes, as they talk about how that week's cover came to be. Later in the week, I work with Colin Stokes on his cartoon snaps. While presenting the week's cartoons and caption contest, he'll also perform poetry or office exercises. Finally, the film critic Richard Brody discusses the latest releases, both mainstream and independent.

The New Yorker's Snapchat account reflects the magazine, both reliable and ever-evolving. In Mashable, Sam Reichman called it "mesmerizing."

Beyond the weekly program, Snapchat has been the perfect medium for breaking down big science stories and conducting mini office tours. We’ve also previewed museum exhibitions and gotten a backstage look at The New Yorker Festival. The brevity and layered creativity of a Snapchat story makes it an easy pitch. I've been lucky to meet new collaborators and learn about the magazine through it. If there's a new series you'd like to see, or something else you think we should explore, snap me at elloriginal or newyorkermag.

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Why do I want this t-shirt for my upcoming birthday, you might ask? The answer is that I read an article detailing the mysterious and (literally) magnetic lives of eels. Did you know that all eels are born in the same placid waters in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean? All eels in the world are born in the same place! Then they’re pulled by a magnetic force (we think) to the country where their parents are from. Before an eel dies, it wriggles its way back to its birth waters. 

I am very afraid of snakes, so I’m sure if I encountered an eel in the wild, I would forget about its mystical, magical ways and run away in terror. But like most fangirls, my admiration is in no way lessened because it’s from afar. 

To learn more about eels, read Silvia Killingsworth’s piece in The New Yorker.

To buy this t-shirt, visit Hallie Bateman’s t-shirt shop.

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"When I was little I would often dress up in the work uniform of my family, who are fruit sellers." I'm in love with Jacquemus. 

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It's been great to work with Medium, writing about the "New Wave," of Paris restaurants and cafes. I get transported back to Paris every time I talk to the owners of these places, I love how stories look on Medium, and I'm lucky to have a thoughtful editor in Jamie Pallot.  This is my latest, on Flesh, a BBQ restaurant in Pigalle. I met the chef a couple years ago when he was working at Spring. I tried to convince him that Selena Gomez was the pop artist of the decade and he refused to listen. 

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I love Sarah Lawrence for its outspoken professors, its book-writing students, and its insular, intellectual campus. But above all, like Babara Walters said, I love that at Sarah Lawrence I learned how to ask bigger, better questions.

Second semester freshman year, I wondered about the lack of accessible critical voices at Sarah Lawrence. As an incoming student, grainy YouTube videos and vintage newspaper articles were the only authentic evidence of Sarah Lawrence I could find online. When I saw NYU Local entertaining and educating our bigger, richer city brethren, I interviewed their editor-in-chief. Then I started SLCspeaks in order to more accurately represent Sarah Lawrence. I was lucky to work with some of my favorite people in the process: talented editors, creative thinkers, and hard workers. They diligently came to weekly meetings where we discussed upcoming content, planned events, and distracted ourselves with strings of bad puns.

I’m proud to have started a publication that hosts a variety of perspectives and provokes conversation. I’m thankful to have done it with a group of thoughtful, committed leaders. I can’t wait to be a part of new editorial communities, and I’ll always be grateful to SLCspeaks for being my first.

My first post and my last.

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I have always been fond of pigeons. Spending time in Barcelona, and in its amazing Picasso Museum, has only increased my appreciation. 

PABLO PICASSO. Studio (Pigeons), 1957. Naïve Art.

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Last weekend, I attended SXSW Interactive to help my friends at Contently, meet new people, and soak up the energy of Austin. It was a wonderful blur of speakeasy chilling (thank you HUGE!), parties, and breakfast tacos. The whole experience was, literally and figuratively, glowing. We had thunder and lightning, danced with light batons and glow rings at MRY's party, and finally soaked up rays of generous Austin sun on Monday. Closing out the theme, I visited SXSW's Eco Light Garden in Republic Square on Fifth and Guadalupe.

Monday night in the rain, artists stood by their works, explaining or encouraging visitors to interact. I noticed a group of people wearing all white. "Those must be the creators," I told my friends.  One member of that group was Jon Morris, the artist behind Brooklyn-based Windmill Factory. Inspired by bioluminescence and wind patterns, his team produced “Light Field,” a garden of balloons containing wireless radio-controlled LED light chips. The chips, designed by Lumigeek, are RGB rechargeable and individually addressable. Each weighs only six grams. When singer Leah Siegel said “blue” into a microphone headset, the balloons all turned a shade of aqua.

The team has designed similar installations for MIT Media Lab and the Unfair, but this is the first time they created it outdoors. The rain kept the balloons from taking any strict formation, but we all appreciated the sound of the droplets as they bounced off the installation. "When you work in public space, these are the things you have to battle with," Jon said. "That interplay between nature is really exciting for me. How do you showcase nature’s effect on your work?” Steps away, members of Houndstooth Studio oversaw “Intersection,” a triptych of flickering geometric sculptures. Viewers could control the light distribution, colors, and patterns through software using Leap Motion, a Kinect-like technology that transfers movement onto surfaces. Across the park, a group of people gathered around the Cathedral of Mathgic, a musical experience designed by Ilya “Tinker” Pieper, Team Frabjous, and Clever Maven Experiential.  For SXSW, the artists constructed a wooden sculpture (a type of polyhedron called a Frabjous--20 points and 12 sides) whose points were capped with metal tips containing touch capacitive sensors. When slapped or tapped, each point emitted a different sound.

The whole thing was a welcome reprieve from the chaos of Sixth Street and a playful piece of SXSW's overarching exploratory feel. I'm going to make sure to stop by earlier next year, because it's those quieter conversations and moments of exuberant experimentation that make SXSW a worthwhile destination.

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Now my articles for The Creators Project are viewable in a nice list! Or by searching "Ella Riley-Adams" on the homepage. If you're interested in 3D printed clothes, transhumanist experiments, or crazy floating orbs, it is the place for you. 

Gif via Rafael Rozendaal's Deep Sadness

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This is the only piece of art I want, now.

Selbst mit Meerschweinchen, by Maria Lassnig

And she has a show at MoMA PS1 in a matter of days! A review.

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Conversation

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I'm Interning at The Creators Project!

The greatest thing about technology is that we can learn and share new information all the time. I’m thankful that I’ve been able to explore that ability not only through my education at Sarah Lawrence but also with a variety of internships and freelance jobs. My freshman and sophomore years, I wrote about startups, advertising, and technology. Junior year in Paris, I gravitated towards art and the city’s nightlife scene. In New York the following summer, I helped startups with their social media and brand identities. I learned about design and architecture at Surface Magazine my first semester senior year.

I have loved working with small teams of people to produce writing that can inform, inspire, or make an exchange student feel a little more at home. With every new team I start or join, I want to learn on the job.

I joined The Creators Project because it’s an epic collaborative effort that dives into the most exciting niches at the intersection of art and technology. Already, I’ve gotten to write about iPad faces and a wind-up toy takeover. I have no idea what will be next. But I do know this: I love that TCP celebrates the creative vanguard. And through my time there, I’m starting to get a sense of the wondrous possibilities the future holds.

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In future I would like to swim in my art.

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What color is the Internet???

by Greg Leuch

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I like the platypus aspect especially.

Kazuki Gotanda (Filmout)

Artists on tumblr

Lustik: twitter | pinterest | etsy

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Beta Love: Chromat's First Runway Show Dominates

If you watched Beyoncé perform Drunk in Love at the Grammys, you might have noticed that where her body wasn’t covered in sheer material, it was criss-crossed in leather. The cage-like contraption was designed by Becca McCharen, an architect and urban designer who now specializes in “structural experiments for the human body.” She’s the mind behind Chromat, a fashion line whose inspirations include competitive mathematics and parametric design.

Last night Chromat held its first runway show as part of MADE Fashion week at New York’s Standard Hotel. McCharen describes her FW14/15 collection “BIONIC BODIES” as a love affair between a human and a robotic being. Fittingly, it included her first forays into wearable tech. One model wore a translucent cage dress striped with LED lights while another displayed the LED Cone Bra Cage, programmed to react to movement via accelerometers attached to pulsing lights.

As we all know, where Beyoncé runs so goes the world. I am definitely not opposed to a world in which women can be everyday dominatrix mathematicians, clad in leather crowns.

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In writing about the new teen social network, obviously I created my own canvas. I'm pleased it involves rainbow sprinkles. Read about We Heart It's new brand partnerships here. 

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My first time in Spanish press! They say my feature on Mike Perry and Vincy Cheung could pass for a story in The New Yorker. Onward and upward! Spanish speakers feel free to correct my illusions of grandeur.