Blitz

Blitz, a performance by Marcello Maloberti for MACRO (Museum of Contemporary Art Rome).

The Curator’s Code

“While we have systems in place for literary citation, image attribution, and scientific reference, we don’t yet have a system that codifies the attribution of discovery in curation as a currency of the information economy, a system that treats discovery as the creative labor that it is. This is what The Curator’s Code is – a system for honoring the creative and intellectual labor of information discovery by making attribution consistent and codified, the celebrated norm.”

ᔥ Brain Pickings

Animated GIFs: The Birth of a Medium

“GIFs are one of the oldest image formats used on the web. Throughout their history, they have served a huge variety of purposes, from functional to entertainment. Now, 25 years after the first GIF was created, they are experiencing an explosion of interest and innovation that is pushing them into the terrain of art. In this episode of Off Book, we chart their history, explore the hotbed of GIF creativity on Tumblr, and talk to two teams of GIF artists who are evolving the form into powerful new visual experiences.”

Another great video by PBS Off Book series.

Punishment

Punishment is a new series of works by Julius von Bismarck:

“The title of the exhibition points to a pre-Christian legend that says that the Achaemenid King and Egyptian Pharaoh Xerxes had the strait at Hellespont punished with 300 lashes, after bridges that had been built on his order were destroyed by a storm shortly after construction.
Julius von Bismarck took up this anger allegorically for his new series of works. From October to December 2011 he went on a journey through Switzerland, South America and the United States armed with a whip.  At impressive locations he plays with the rhetorical power of this traditional retaliation, whipping nature, defying its power, until he is exhausted. In a contemporary context, he thus rebels against socialization and, as a modern Sisyphus, questions value patterns which are conveyed to people today by societal constructs and authorities.”

Part time virus hunters

“Overly melodramatic and cheesy Boston TV channel news report about a computer virus outbreak discovered by MIT nerds in 1998. Fun because they don’t just report on the virus – they interview geeks, and insert random clips from retro videogames and TV movies to illustrate what a virus is.”

[via dangerous minds]

We, the Web Kids

We, the Web Kids , an essay by Polish political writer and commentator Piotr Czerski. A manifesto for the generation nursed on the web:

“To us, the Web is a sort of shared external memory. We do not have to remember unnecessary details: dates, sums, formulas, clauses, street names, detailed definitions. It is enough for us to have an abstract, the essence that is needed to process the information and relate it to others. Should we need the details, we can look them up within seconds. Similarly, we do not have to be experts in everything, because we know where to find people who specialise in what we ourselves do not know, and whom we can trust. People who will share their expertise with us not for profit, but because of our shared belief that information exists in motion, that it wants to be free, that we all benefit from the exchange of information. Every day: studying, working, solving everyday issues, pursuing interests. We know how to compete and we like to do it, but our competition, our desire to be different, is built on knowledge, on the ability to interpret and process information, and not on monopolising it.”

[via curiositycounts]

LED Wallpaper

LED Wallpaper, by Ingo Maurer. This is awesome!

“The LED wallpaper offers very thrilling possibilities to illuminate rooms: Dimmed, enigmatic light hardly revealing where the shine is coming from or an urban vibrating atmosphere – to mention only a few options. It’s magic! A big advantage also is that the LED wallpaper can be hung in more or fewer strips and lengths according to the architecture and furnishing of a room. Interior designers have the choice.”

[via beautiful decay]

Pussy Riot strikes back

“Feisty anti-Kremlin activists — the ones that terrorized the Red Square with purple smoke bombs and an illegal performance of their hardcore tune Putin Pissed Himself – strike again! Pussy Riot crashed Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour with their new anthem Virgin, Exorcise Putin! and its catchy chorus of “Holy shit, shit, shit/Holy shit, shit, shit.” Watch the video as they trash around and get dragged out by security and Russian nuns.”

[via animalny]

Lace Fence

Lace Fence is a design of Dutch Design House Demakersvan. It is a high-end metal fabric that gives new insights in how you can create unique environments. It combines the ancient craft of lace making with the industrial chainlink fence. Every fence is unique in its design by its craft and assembled patterns, which come in a variety of themes. From antique lace floral to contemporary designs and custom art patterns. Lace Fence shows how something which was meant purely functional can also be decorative. Hostility versus kindness, industry versus craft.

The Nudist Museum


Ellen Harvey, The Nudist Museum, 2010, oil on gesso board with wood shop frames and contemporary magazines, dimensions variable

“A museum is nothing without a gift shop. A museum without nudes is really no fun at all. This the best of all worlds: a museum attached to a gift shop with nothing but nudes.
In her inaugural exhibition at DODGEgallery, Ellen Harvey offers several strangely beautiful and hilarious explorations of the art nude that both question and exploit our fascination with depictions of our naked bodies to create an intentionally contradictory and often incoherent model of art as a form of desire.”

La celebrità al tempo della rete: quando il nome diventa verbo



C’era una volta lo scarlettjohansoning, meme nato in seguito allo diffusione delle foto rubate dal cellulare dell’attrice americana Scarlett Johanson. Un’ondata inarrestabile (a differenza di fenomeni simili, questo non accenna a spegnersi) di ritratti con il fondoschiena ben in vista, rigorosamente scattati con il cellulare davanti allo specchio.
In queste ore la stessa sorte, quella di veder trasformato il proprio nome in un verbo, è toccata ad Angelina Jolie, “colpevole” di essersi fatta fotografare sul red carpet della notte degli Oscar in una posa un tantino costruita: spacco ascellare e gamba destra nuda che spunta di lato (un po’ rinsecchita, a dire il vero). Il neonato verbo, come sempre declinato al gerundio, è angelinajolieing e come il predecessore definisce un preciso atteggiamento, una pratica che ricorda il vogueing di Cicconiana memoria. Stavolta però la moda non arriva dall’alto ma dal basso, e porta con sé una sana dose di ironia. Gli atteggiamenti delle star infatti non solo vengono commentati, imitati, criticati, ma anche, per la prima volta, demitizzati. Una demitizzazione che passa attraverso un gioco globale a cui tutti possono partecipare. Peluche inclusi.