It's possible that working on our Future Issue is twisting my outlook on life, but I find these "nanoscapes" by University of Georgia professor Michael Oliveri fascinating. The series, which is called Innerspace, takes theoretical lab samples (nano structures, i.e., tiny!) and blows them up big until they look like sci-fi landscapes...and what you're actually seeing below, well, it's complicated. Read more about it here. Oliveri is the Ansel Adams of science, so no wonder he's also the founder and chair of UGA's "Art X: Expanded Forms" program.

Fractal Geometric Valley.

"Undescribable Gallium oxide and silicon oxide structures."

"The balls in this picture are germanium and the wires are zinc oxide. They were fabricated inside a tube furnace system at temperature of 900–1000 Celsius degree."

"The balls in this picture are zinc oxide fabricated inside a tube furnace system."

Opening on Thursday at the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art in Laurel, Mississippi, an exhibition celebrating the world's coolest cat—from his origins in the title sequence of the 1963 movie through the multiple TV cartoon series. The show, Indelible (P)ink: The Pink Panther and Popular Culture, features original animation cels, Pink Panther movie ephemera (including the killer Henry Mancini soundtrack album), production sketches, and more.

Cel from "Service with a Smile" (1993), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc.

Dave Anderson, the genius behind our SoLost series, will be in NYC tonight to discuss his revelatory new photographic series (and book and exhibition), One Block: A New Orleans Neighborhood Rebuilds, with Time magazine's chief photo editor. An exhibition of the photographs opens on Thursday at ClampArt. Dave previously worked in black-and-white (with stunning results), as you can see on his website. The weird thing about Dave is that his previous successes haven't gone to his head—he's the kindest, humblest, and most hard-working professional I've encountered. Tonight's event is at Aperture Gallery, find more details here. You can buy the book (which features an essay by the one and only Chris Rose) at a special discount price here.

After visiting us in Clarksdale this weekend, you should head over to Atlanta for the National Black Arts Festival, which runs through July 18 in and around Centennial Park. The line-up is phenomenal and family-friendly. This year's fest, which honors the music and legacy of Curtis Mayfield, features performances by the great Cassandra Wilson, the Afro-Brazilian percussion group Olodum, and the exuberant dance troupe Philadanco (highly recommended—I've seen them many times); a discussion with the artist Carrie Mae Weems; film screenings; a big band gala (1920s attire requested); and more. The exhibition schedule is outstanding: Sheila Pree Bright (and Deborah Willis) at Sandler Hudson and a group photography show at the Hagedorn Foundation (Malick Sidibe! J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere!), among many other artistic offerings. Everyone's saying how lean this year's fest is, but it seems pretty phat to me.

"Mkpuk Eba" by J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere

"Pineapple Kiko" by J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere

"Modern Suku" by J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere

We Shall Survive without a Doubt, 1971, by Emory Douglas.

For All the World to See: Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Rights is a fantastic exhibition, online presentation, and book on the images that defined—and shaped—the quest for equality in this country. Maurice Davis, who curated the show and wrote the catalogue text, explains that visual media (from newspapers and magazines to films and TV) played an important, and sometimes ambiguous, role in perpetuating stereotypes and exposing racial injustice:

In 1955, shortly after Emmett Till was murdered by white supremacists in Mississippi, his grieving mother distributed to the press a gruesome photograph of his mutilated corpse. Asked why she would do this, she explained that by witnessing with their own eyes the brutality of segregation and racism, Americans would be more likely to support the cause of racial justice. "Let the world see what I’ve seen," was her reply. The publication of the photograph inspired a generation of activists to join the civil rights movement.

The intelligent and thought-provoking presentation spans five decades—encompassing Hollywood movies of the 1930s (Paul Robeson as Joe in Show Boat, for example), the segregation signs of the Jim Crow South, W.E.B. Du Bois's The Crisis magazine, the fly posters of the Black Panther Party, TV "ghetto comedies" of the 1970s (Sanford & Son, for example), and the proliferation of snapshots as cameras became affordable to all. The overarching theme is both original and satisfying, lending a real sense of clarity, and nifty visual surprises abound.

Organized by the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture at the University of Maryland in partnership with the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the exhibition is on view at ICP through September. 

Fan, Evans Memorial Chapel, Saginaw, Michigan, c. 1968.

I Spy #4, 1967.

Two Women.