Subversion, not Sexism, in Internet Culture | The Underwire from Wired.com

Inaccurate claims from keynote Alice Marwick at ROFLCon "Popular blogs are all written by white guys … and the most popular YouTube videos are of hot girls." via Wizard is Hungry

Erik Benson, Staying Up All Night, 2004, acrylic and canvas on wood panel, 40 x 72 inches. West Collection

International emerging artists have until October 1st 2008 to submit their applications to Paige West’s competition. Aptly named the West Prize, a total of $100,000 will be given out to young artists, the grand prize being a total of $25,000 in addition to a West Collection acquisition. Artists applying should take a look at her collection to get a better idea of the kind of work she responds to. It’s no small amount of money being given out, so you’ll really do yourself a favor by doing a bit of research before submitting. Notable artists in the collection include, Amy Bennett, Vic Muniz, Erik Benson, Larissa Bates, Roxy Paine, Eve Sussman and more.

ArtCal - Greenwich Village - Judison Memorial Church - Adriana Varella, The Art Project

Weird. The second project I’ve listed within the course of a week situated at a place of worship. Adriana Varella’s Exorcising the Church Project is a site-specific installation on the front doors of the Judson Memorial Church.

ArtCal - Jersey City - Curious Matter - Hocus Pocus

Sort of a cheesy title, but AFC featured artist Tara Giannini is in the show so it’s recommended.

The Dark Knight is a Remake | SpoutBlog

“A comparison between trailers of Tim Burton’s Batman and this summer’s The Dark Knight make the new film look like a remake of the old.” Not sure what if anything is gained from this, but whatever. The Dark Knight premieres July 18th, and I’ll be watching it.

Another Unknown Time

New Travis Hallenbeck compressed video stills. Mostly I’m linking the site because I haven’t before and the animated header with midi file is really sweet.

The Infinite Cat Project - Slide #1 - Frankie

It’s like Men of the Internet for cats

Bennett Williamson of the Double Happiness surf blog wrote the following to me last night an email exchange about April 18th’s summation of the Futures of the Internet panel.

I am interested in the question of the internet leveling things vs. the internet having hierarchy, but less politically and more (in a slightly Convergence Culture way) technically. Less interested in the search engines organizing what is supposed to be an “open playing field” and more interested in how our actions/expectations change as ease of information and exposure to a variety of mediums all gets presented through the same browser screen.

Cultural convergences as I understand it typically discusses the intersection between the commercial and amateurism, a popular point of interest for many surf bloggers. I pull it from the quote above if for no other reason than it’s useful to name. Of course, for me, what an artist does with that material in the process of finding it or after seems to be the point at which art happens, an aspect I think many people find confusing simply because there isn’t enough history and discussion about the practice for many viewers to feel comfortable labeling what works for them and what doesn’t.

Adding to Williamson’s comments about the browser, I’d like to begin by noting that medium specificity has always created unique viewer relationships. People experience sculpture differently than painting for example, because there is a different physical and spatial relationship to the object. In many ways these concepts remain the same when viewing art on a computer even if the variables change. So for example, unlike a photograph or a sculpture, a net artist has less control over a viewers interaction with its framing mechanisms. The size of screen or the color of the browser a user choses to view their work in, vary from household to household, and there’s very little an artist can do to customize that experience. Other aspects remain constant — viewers will experience work on a flat screen, images will be always seen at 72 dpi, they will always be framed by a browser, in all likelihood the smallest screen size will be 800 pixels which informs how an artist works.

All of this of course is old hat to designers and net artists, who have been working with this set of problems for a while. However, for those who don’t think about these concerns all that often, it’s worth remarking that a large part of an artist’s web practice — whether they think too much about it or not — is implicitly concerned with image file management and display. In other words, decisions about the size and placement of a jpg or video file are always being made. In this way, I see a lot of aesthetic similarities between net art to collage and photography, because frame, composition, and layering, are always a concern. This of course, doesn’t speak to the element of interactivity or the conceptual concerns of the artist, but since we’re just talking aesthetics here, those topics are beyond the scope of this post.

A series of posts I really enjoy from Loshadka. Check the blog out regularly - there’s usually something good up.

I like that this jpeg is damaged. Image link.

Image link

museumofthevoidafteracidaftersmithsonafterafterrainbowroad.jpg

Copyright crazies gaining steam in Canada - Boing Boing

The “non-partisan’ Public Policy Forum is holding a major, one-sided IP symposium on Monday. Invited are the U.S. Ambassador to Canada, and other big-stick-swingers for American-style copyright disasters. Uninvited is noted copyright scholar Howard Knopf.

C-Monster.  Julian Schnabel and Mastercard - Priceless.

According to the fine print, the winner is entitled to a: 4-day trip for (2) to New York before 10/13/08 for Julian Schanbel (”Artist”) (30) minute consultation regarding commissioned Portrait by Artist & $175,000 check for tax burden offset (Prize ARV=$530,000/Estimated Odds 1: 3,588,229).

Jo Mitchell, Photographing Girl on a Motorcycle, 1999/2007

Maybe it’s the rain, but I haven’t been dying to weigh in on today’s art news stories. If you can forgive the late start, a few links of interest below.

• Jerry Saltz reviews the Dan Colen Nate Lowman collaboration Wet Pain at Maccarone accusing it of looking too much like other shows and calling it flippant, which is precisely the problem with this kind of ticky tack art. Certainly you can identify those who have some skill in arranging objects, but even the good work looks a little too much like everything else.

• Despite a miss leading post title reading Paris Journal, A Break From Music, ArtsBeat the New York Times art blog, will be reporting on music when they return home from Europe. An observation worth remark: Between the New York Times and the NYTimes magazine, the publication hosts three art blogs, none of which feature significant coverage of Fine Art. You’d think between The Medium, The Moment, and ArtsBeat a little more energy could be devoted to the field - there’s certainly a lot more to talk about than art fairs, biennials, and the occasional highly priced auction item.

• Speaking of The Medium, Virginia Heffernan writes Sepia No More for New York Magazine, discussing the flickr style photograph. “While pretty and even cute, these images are also often surreal and prurient,” says Heffernan, going on to describe the digitally manipulated photographs of Rebekka Guoleifsdottir, one of the sites most popular members. Of course, once you see the work being discussed, it’s hard to stay too interested. Amateur art has its merits, but I can’t imagine a less engaging genre than the sentimental pony photograph, or the bright commercial signage landscape that apparently dominates the site. Surely there’s more engaging activity going on there.

• Speaking of photography, VVork links to a Jo Mitchell [pictured above] I quite like despite the fact that it’s flanked by seemingly countless robo-women torsos.

• I meant to link to this last week and then lost track of it: Charlie Rose by Samuel Beckett. Thanks to Greg.org and Steven Stern for that link.

Padded Butt Briefs - Featured on BuzzFeed

Finally, underwear for the consummate metrosexual: Padded briefs for guys with flat asses. This same company also offers "pouch pads".

b3n.muxtape.com

Perfect. Via Ben Gold

Frozen Wave Phenomenon on Lake Huron

Cool! Via PC