A Conversation with UMKC Chancellor on Art, Creativity and Balance - University of Missouri-Kansas City

a tiny handbag for your smartphoneThere’s now room for your AirPods, chapstick, and car key fob on the back of your phone, thanks to a stretchy silicone pocket by Los Angeles-based Ninja Labs. The company has introduced a MagSafe version of its Flex Pouch, a small, expandable compartment that attaches magnetically to compatible smartphones. It can be pulled off whenever you want, turning an ordinary phone into a tiny, stretchy handbag that’s ready to hold all the little things that tend to disappear into our pockets. The pouch can accommodate anything from a single credit card to a thick stack of twenty, according to the company. Lip gloss and wireless earbuds can be squeezed inside, along with a handful of loose change. The contents press against the soft silicone, creating a lumpy silhouette that changes depending on what’s packed inside. Empty it out, and the pocket shrinks back down.images courtesy Ninja Labsmemory silicone stretches to twice its original sizeThe design relies on Ninja Labs’ proprietary silicone blend, which can stretch to twice its original size before returning to its familiar shape.

We recommend titles on fiber art, weaving, and textiles, plus Megan O’Grady on a new John Berger biography. So much has been said about John Berger over the past five decades that it almost feels trite to pile on. You know the familiar takeaways: that the critic and novelist taught us how to look and pay attention, believed art belongs to the people, exposed how the male gaze shapes our perception. So, it’s especially astounding that a new biography by Tom Overton has managed to both capture the scope of Berger’s influence and reframe him, first and foremost, as human. Author Megan O’Grady, who reflects on many of the same questions as Berger in her recent book How It Feels to Be Alive: Encounters with Art and Our Selves, penned a sensitive review of the biography and its approach to addressing the complex personal life of this near-mythologized figure. It’s a poignant, refreshing read, and reminds me of the conversation around the sanctification of artists and writers like James Baldwin, whose work gets flattened in the process. In fact, how we tell the story of an artist’s life (and afterlife) just might be our primary preoccupation this month.