“In late August 2008, McAllen Arts Council member and Voices of Art publisher David Freeman contacted Blue Star Director and sculptor Bill FitzGibbons to congratulate the artist on his ‘public art commission in McAllen.’ FitzGibbons was perplexed. Unbeknownst to him, an artwork with nearly identical qualities to FitzGibbons’s local ‘Light Channels’ had been installed in an Expressway 83 underpass in the South Texas boomtown. […] Strangely, nobody in McAllen seems to know when exactly McAllen’s lights were installed. Stranger still, the project has never been given a formal unveiling, the idea never credited to any person, and the work never titled.” - story (via)
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Reporting on Two Recessionary Shifts in Attitude, Ed Winkleman notes: “The other trend I’ve noticed (and had confirmed by other dealers) recently is a much more aggressive and, seemingly out of nowhere, clueless approach among unrepresented artists seeking gallery representation lately. Whereas we had been getting about 1-3 artists a month who clearly had no idea how best to approach a gallery either send us a package or email, now we’re getting 1-3 a day calling us up and insisting we give them a show. And we’re not the only gallery reporting this.”
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This all sounds so simple and outrageous, doesn’t it: “The British Journal of Photography reports that the band management for Coldplay has been asking concert photographers to sign a contract giving the band all the rights to their photographs” (found here). (Updated below)
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Here’s something that I don’t understand. Twenty five years ago, people would not have volunteered to enter a lot of their private information into an easily accessible public space, but you could have taken their photo without their permission without much of a problem. Today, it’s the other way around: While people share more and more of their sometimes most private information with total strangers online, they’ll get very angry if you take their photo without their permission. The only explanation I can come up with is that it’s about control: Today’s situation corresponds to people having more control over what they want other people to see (even if it makes very little, if any sense, to share as much information as some people do; and one can probably argue about whether it’s really more control). However, if that is true the privacy argument about having one’s photo taken disappears - how inconvenient! In any case, this is an interesting development, isn’t it?
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Alright, move over, Martin Parr. Instead of going to an arms fair, we here at Conscientious have stayed in the comfort of our home and found this promotional video by Rafael Advanced “Defense” Systems, which Wired called ‘the most atrocious defense video of all time’ (see this story; thanks, Tom!).
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“Shit Bernd I’ve had enough. I’m sick of this crap life. Always the same. Everybody is laughing about me, nobody is noticing my potential. I’m serious. I got guns here. Tomorrow, I’ll go to my school, and I’ll have a real nice barbeque. Tomorrow, you’ll hear from me. Remember the name of the town Winnenden. And now don’t tell the police, don’t worry, I’m just trolling.” (my translation, German original of an internet chat quoted here) A day later, 15 people were dead, killed by the 17-year old Tim K., who had taken his father’s Beretta gun (the only one not kept locked up in a safe - click on the image above to see the final [edited] shootout). Tim K.’s chat partner’s reaction to the announcement: *LOL* He only told his parents about what Tim K. had told him the night before after he heard about what happened. (Updated below)
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“Where Facebook is concerned, the line between public and private exists in a sort of parallel (though oddly torqued) universe: like scrapbooks, Facebook is comprised of pages with amalgamations of diverse content, all held together by an individual’s own process of selection. […] Just like scrapbooks, there is a fair amount of posturing and proselytizing, bad grammar and bizarre juxtapositions. There’s a scarcity of snark. And an almost evangelical devotion to stuff: where scrapbook-makers once pasted in pictures of their favorite film stars, Facebook encourages the construction of fan pages, as well as groups to join, causes to support, and so forth.” - Jessica Helfand
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As much as I like to look at modern architecture - well, at least some of it - I’ve recently noticed that one of its problems appears to be that the some of the buildings develop very mundane problems (often right from the start).
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Strictly speaking this is not photo book related, but since it’s about books: Have you ever noticed that paperbacks seem to have expanded along with the rest of America? On the left a paperback from 1980, on the right one from 2006. (Updated below)
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“Over the past decade – until, at least, global credit began to crunch our fun – the art world has developed into a high-turnover, high-visibility international activity that everyone wants a slice of. It’s an exponentially expanded system of artists, audiences, art markets, dealers, galleries, curators, critics, collectors, museums, institutes, foundations, biennials, triennials, quadrennials, fairs, auction houses, art schools, prizes, books, magazines, journals and consultancies. […] In recent months, though, this expansion has been tempered by anxiety. The tighter the credit crunch grips us, the louder you can hear the gloating of those who think a drop in auction prices and a swathe of galleries going under will somehow result in the disappearance of the present art system and the resurgence of some kind of prelapsarian art paradise unfettered by the evils of capitalism and what they perceive to be cultural con-artistry.” - story
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“We are afloat in a world in which the endless invocation of theoreticians, philosophers and political theorists serves very little purpose other than to bolster the cultural capital pretensions of an artworld detached from anything other than its communicative connectivity and its obscure economic value in an economy of fleeting and faddish desires.” - source
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When I was younger I always wondered how so much of our cultural heritage is simply gone, and I learned of burned (and/or looted) libraries and other such disasters. “That,” I used to think, “surely can’t happen today.” Turns out it can: “The building housing Cologne’s municipal archive collapsed on Tuesday, bringing parts of some surrounding structures down with it. At least two people are missing. Some of the documents housed in the archive date back to the year 922.” (story) They’re building a subway nearby - go figure. (Updated below)
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The future?
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Here I am, wondering whether Twitter and other online services actually trigger attention deficit disorder, and the very next day, I find this article, in which a British scientist warns that “Social network sites risk infantilising the mid-21st century mind, leaving it characterised by short attention spans, sensationalism, inability to empathise and a shaky sense of identity”.
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“With Wall Street in self-inflicted ruin it might seem ridiculous to argue that the art market is less ethical than the stock market. Yet that was the position taken last month by art dealers Richard Feigen, Michael Hue-Williams and collector Adam Lindemann in a debate […] They faced artist Chuck Close, critic Jerry Saltz, and auctioneer Amy Cappellazzo, who defended the integrity of the salesroom and the art world in general. This pro-art market team was trounced. […] Here is one losing debater’s perspective on the defeat.” (story)
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Rob linked to this piece written by Jonathan Rosenberg of Google.
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Graphic made by Mike Rosulek (and found here)
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The “Opinion” pages of the Wall Street Journal are well known for its usually extreme tilt to the right, but this article (which I found here) is very noteworthy: “The arts are going to need a better strategy. And in the end it’s going to have to come from art itself, from the benefits art brings, in a world where popular culture — which has gotten smart and serious — also helps bring depth and meaning to our lives.” (my emphasis)
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The New York Times catches up with the blogosphere (see my earlier post). I just love this: “Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Facebook, said in a blog post on Monday that the philosophy ‘that people own their information and control who they share it with has remained constant.’ Despite the complaints, he did not indicate the language would be revised.” So basically he’s saying that people own their information and control who they share it with, except that they don’t, and Facebook won’t change a thing. Nice! If you live in Germany, however, the law is on your side (see this article). Here’s another good post about this mess. (Updated below)
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With so many people - especially from the right - railing against government funding for artists, here’s another way to think about it. Without the US government giving money to photographers to document life during the Great Depression, this iconic photograph, one of the most important and famous photographs ever to be taken in the United States, would not have come into existence (see details of the photo shoot here), and the same is true for many other, lesser known examples from that era.
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“An attempt by Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma to eliminate all arts and museum funding from the [stimulus] bill was defeated. Ironically, Sen. Coburn is the father of the outstanding young soprano Sarah Coburn, who has appeared many times at opera houses supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. Last year the younger Coburn went home to Oklahoma to sing in Lakmé at the Tulsa Opera - a production made possible in part by a $15,000 grant from the NEA.” - Alex Ross
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A casino or other gambling establishment, an aquarium, a zoo, a golf course, a swimming pool, a stadium, a community park, a museum, a theater, an arts center, or a highway-beautification project. Any ideas? Tough one, isn’t it? Not if you’re a politician! Have a look.
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“I’m always somewhat surprised that there are not more artists reacting to environmental conditions. Perhaps it’s from spending so much time among students, perhaps it’s the latent and fizzling art market that plucked hipsters from bars and placed them on art fair stages, but it still seems so many young artists are still concerned primarily in their work with the self […] Yesterday I received an email from a magazine editor looking for images that addresses the current foreclosure and economic problems, specifically boarded up homes, streets full of for sale signs, etc… […] I couldn’t help but wonder where are all the great photographers who are addressing this subject? […] Since last spring I’ve been photographing much of the retail end of the economy downtown for a new project […] In doing so much research I’ve come across a few others who share some of the same subject and concern, and certainly many Flickr examples. But the few I’ve come across pale in comparison to the number of ‘drunken party pictures’, ‘ambiguous ambiguity’ or the ‘pretty portraits of pretty people’ projects. […] I simply can’t help but wonder when a topic so large looms in front of young artists why not the desire to address it through their work? Is the self still so important? Will it really be how we remember the beginning of the 21st century?” - Brian Ulrich
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If you haven’t seen this yet…
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Cute Overload might be the most popular site that exists because people send in their own photographs so that they can appear on the site. How many people have had a look at the “terms and conditions”, though?
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New York City certainly knows about its priorities: With the city plastered with advertizements - they even project ads onto the walls of the subway tunnels so you can watch an ad while you’re trying not to look at the ads inside the trains - somebody who physically cuts up ad posters to turn them into something else certainly is not welcome: “Last night before a benefit he was scheduled to participate in at a loft in Soho, the street artist known as Poster Boy was arrested by an undercover cop.” (story)
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I remember a time - not so long ago - when a lot of people used to make fun of Japanese tourists, who’d get out of their tour buses and spend just enough time at any given place to take a photo. After all, what kind of experience was that if all you did was to take a photo? Fast forward to today, and there we are, with our digital cameras and/or cell phone cameras. I found the above photo at Tomorrow Museum.
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“In the Place du Tertre, the cobbled square at the top of the hill of the Paris quarter of Montmartre, more than a dozen artists are selling their work to tourists. […] This is a bigger business than it looks. More than 10 million tourists visit this area each year. Many buy paintings of Parisian landmarks, like the nearby Sacre-Coeur basilica, to take home as souvenirs. […] Today, some 300 officially licensed artists work here. […] They may not produce great art but they are skilled painters. And now they say their livelihoods are at risk because many of the souvenir shops in the area are selling cheap, mass-produced paintings from China and Eastern Europe.” - story
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“How can you have, as the authors [of a study published in Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication] write, ‘too much of a good thing?’ They hypothesize that ‘Individuals with too many friends may appear to be focusing too much on Facebook, friending out of desperation rather than popularity, spending a great deal of time on their computers ostensibly trying to make connections in a computer-mediated environment where they feel more comfortable than in face-to-face social interaction.’” - story
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“John Updike, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, prolific man of letters and erudite chronicler of sex, divorce and other adventures in the postwar prime of the American empire, died [today] at age 76.” - story
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“Rocked by a budget crisis, Brandeis University will close its Rose Art Museum and sell off a 6,000-object collection that includes work by such contemporary masters as Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, and Nam June Paik.” (story)
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“Time has stood still in an eastern German apartment which has only just been opened after evidently being abandoned in a hurry in early 1989.” (story) Some photos here.
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“Because it’s the product of three independent parties - photographer, camera, subject - the photograph cannot be owned. Indeed, it can affect us in ways the photographer might never have foreseen or desired.” - William T. Vollmann
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I caught a Fresh Air interview with Shepard Fairey the other day. Fairey is the guy who created both the Obey and the Obama campaign posters (which nobody - incl. the artist - seems to find even remotely ironic). What I remember most vividly from the interview was Fairey talking about getting arrested during the Democrat’s national convention, while he was trying hang his own poster somewhere in Denver.
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“Sad days have marked this transition from one year to the next. This sadness emanates from the events in Gaza, which illustrate the least glorious aspect of humanity. Here the horror of the human race appears in all its nudity. […] This display of horror is pornographic, […] privileging the principle of death over the love of life, suspending the renunciation and the reserve which make civilisation what it is and hastening the advent of destructive, instinctive barbarity which, in according primacy to violence, spreads death and transforms populated areas into ruins and graveyards.” - Abdelwahab Meddeb
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Some ideas are so simple, yet so good: Photoshop Adbusting in Berlin. (via Art Threat)
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(via Alex Ross)
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“The bubble in contemporary art is about to pop. It has exhibited all the classic features of the South Sea bubble of 1720 or the tulip madness of the 1630s. It has been the bubble of bubbles - balancing precariously on top of other now-burst bubbles in credit, housing and commodities - and inflating more dramatically than all of them. […] In his book, Manias, Panics, and Crashes, Charles Kindleberger observed that manias typically start with a ‘displacement’ that excites speculative interest. It may come from a new object of investment or from the increased profitability of existing investments. It is followed by positive feedback as rising prices encourage less experienced investors to enter the market. Then, as the mania gets a grip, speculation becomes more diffuse and spreads to other types of asset. Fresh assets are created at an ever faster rate to take advantage of the euphoria and investors try to increase their gains by borrowing to buy assets or using derivatives. Credit ultimately becomes overextended, swindling and fraud proliferate, and the mania ends in panic as investors seek to liquidate their positions. The art market has adhered spookily to Kindleberger’s model.” - full story (via things magazine)
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I have been thinking about photography on the internet a lot lately (what to do, how to do it, how to advance discussions, etc.), and I keep coming back to this following fact: You could write about the most innocent topic (e.g. “I love kittens”), and there would still be people who would have to publicly disagree (“I don’t. I love puppies.”).
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“I wondered: how does the broken windows theory apply to online spaces? Perhaps like so:
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“Next week, the most important art fair in the world — “Art Basel Miami Beach” — will begin amid gloom and financial chaos. What used to be a symbol of the art market’s golden age could now help launch a global art market depression.” - source
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As Mel (whose blog pointed me to this video) dryly asks: Is Flickr next?
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No, seriously! This reminds me of the following - taken from the introduction of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus - which could serve as one of those very useful rules of good writing: “what can be said at all can be said clearly, and what we cannot talk about we must pass over in silence.” (my emphasis)
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There’s an interesting then-versus-now comparison of one of the most beautiful public spaces in the US, New York City’s Grand Central Station, here. Gone: The Coloramas, ads. Now present: Ginormous flags.
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I would have missed this article if Rob hadn’t pointed it out. With copyright issues usually almost entirely centered on money and/or the law, an important read.
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“Pornographer Ben Westwood has been protesting outside parliament against a bill that could outlaw the kind of extreme images he makes. He tells Emine Saner why he thinks his work is worth defending and what it was like growing up as Vivienne Westwood’s son” - story (oh, and here is the same writer’s most recent piece on Vivienne Westwood)
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“Studs Terkel, the ageless master of listening and speaking, a broadcaster, activist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author whose best-selling oral histories celebrated the common people he liked to call the ‘non-celebrated,’ died Friday. He was 96.” (story; also see this story; photo taken and kindly provided by Alec Soth)
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There was an article in New Yorker magazine about genius and age and their relation. The question of age is actually a very important question, and discussing it in the context of “genius” unfortunately is like trying to observe stars during the day: People are so obsessed with the concept (idea?) “genius” that everything else just fades away.
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“A new online encyclopedia of European culture, called ‘Europeana,’ is set to debut in November. It’s a rival to the Google Library Project, but also something else — the start of a vast digital backup copy of what’s in Europe’s libraries, museums and national film collections.” - story
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“Who are the people of America? What are we thinking? What makes us angry and frustrated? What gives us hope? Are some of us really all blue and some all red? Or are we mostly shades of purple? What is the American Dream today? InSight America is an innovative documentary project that aims to explore these questions on the eve of one of the most important elections in American history. Calling on the talents of some of the world’s most respected photojournalists, using the Web to update their observations daily, InSight America is a collage of personal investigations and reflections that attempts to capture the things preoccupying Americans during the weeks leading to Election Day.”
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