London, Day 2

Brent took me on a tour of the Google office this morning.  As expected, it is a playful space.  One floor has a “park” with a rowboat in it.  His floor has a bus:

When I left there to go to the Victoria and Albert Museum, I found out what happened to Jeeves after that Bertie Wooster thing and the Internet thing didn’t work out quite according to plan:

One deciding factor on what to do today was that there was an exhibit on wedding dresses at the V&A.  Every once in a while, the little girl I used to be who loved dress-ups and dolls emerges from my sweats-clad (no, I’m not wearing sweats today; I feel like I need to wear nice clothes and speak intelligently when traveling to other countries as an apology for my ignorant compatriots who behave in ugly and entitled ways) normal self and I want to play princesses.  I have a love-hate relationship with clothes.  The fashion industry is a major oppressor—of workers, who make the fabrics and sew the clothes, of the environment (cotton is one of the most heavily pesticide-intensive crops), of women, who attempt to conform to odd ideas about what our bodies should look like.  And yet—pretty things!  Many of the dresses I saw were truly works of art and art is its own reason for being.  I continue to live in this state of dissonance until the magic resolution comes.

The other special exhibit was fashion photography by Horst.  I knew nothing about him until today, but his photos are stunning, particularly the surreal ones.  I have no pictures to share from either of those exhibitions because photos were not allowed.

However, I took photos in the exhibit on Disobedient Objects.  Perhaps the gallery decided to allow them rather than have a bunch of protesters take photos anyway.  There were posters and objects from lots of movements, including Occupy, the movement to find the disappeared after the South American coups, the various LGBT movements, and one protesting cuts to education funding.  In that last one, students made Book Bloc Shields by following the directions below:

Students chose the book they wanted to protect and be protected by.  Is that awesome or what?

Finally, here is a picture of a Japanese bowl used in the tea ceremony.  It is here just to be beautiful and amazing: