Monday, November 20, 2006
Quote: Warmth
Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax. -Arthur Schopenhauer, philosopher (1788-1860)
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Art: The Art of Pricing Great Art
A good Economix column from the NY Times by David Leonhardt: The Art of Pricing Great Art.
Excerpt:
For the last five years, though, a man named David W. Galenson, an art lover, modest collector and tenured professor of economics at the University of Chicago, has been trying to change this. He has developed something approaching a unified theory of art, which hasn’t won him many fans in the art world but does a surprisingly good job of explaining the relative value of the world’s great paintings.
---
So he began collecting data on the sale price of works by Warhol, Jackson Pollock and other American artists, and he discovered a pattern. Most of them produced their most valuable work either very early in their career, like Warhol, or very late, like Pollock. When he expanded his research to European painters, he found the same pattern.
Not only that, but the two groups tended to approach art, and to talk about it, in strikingly different ways. The young geniuses, like Gauguin, Picasso and Van Gogh, were conceptual innovators whose paintings broke sharply from previous work. They typically had a precise goal in mind when they started a piece and didn’t need long to finish it. “Above all, don’t sweat over a painting,” Gauguin once told a friend. “A great sentiment can be rendered immediately.”
The late bloomers, on the other hand, arrived at their innovations gradually, through trial and error, making their major contributions late in life. They painted the same subject again and again, experimenting on the canvas, often reluctant to say that a painting was finished. Consider that Cézanne, who did his most valuable and celebrated work in his 60s, signed few of his paintings.
Mr. Galenson has extended the theory to novelists, poets and beyond, arguing that most creative people fall on one end or the other of the spectrum, and he has earned a fair bit of attention. Malcolm Gladwell, in a speech at Columbia University, described “Old Masters and Young Geniuses,” which Mr. Galenson published this year, as “a really wonderful book.” Wired magazine recently profiled him under the headline, “What Kind of Genius Are You?”
Excerpt:
For the last five years, though, a man named David W. Galenson, an art lover, modest collector and tenured professor of economics at the University of Chicago, has been trying to change this. He has developed something approaching a unified theory of art, which hasn’t won him many fans in the art world but does a surprisingly good job of explaining the relative value of the world’s great paintings.
---
So he began collecting data on the sale price of works by Warhol, Jackson Pollock and other American artists, and he discovered a pattern. Most of them produced their most valuable work either very early in their career, like Warhol, or very late, like Pollock. When he expanded his research to European painters, he found the same pattern.
Not only that, but the two groups tended to approach art, and to talk about it, in strikingly different ways. The young geniuses, like Gauguin, Picasso and Van Gogh, were conceptual innovators whose paintings broke sharply from previous work. They typically had a precise goal in mind when they started a piece and didn’t need long to finish it. “Above all, don’t sweat over a painting,” Gauguin once told a friend. “A great sentiment can be rendered immediately.”
The late bloomers, on the other hand, arrived at their innovations gradually, through trial and error, making their major contributions late in life. They painted the same subject again and again, experimenting on the canvas, often reluctant to say that a painting was finished. Consider that Cézanne, who did his most valuable and celebrated work in his 60s, signed few of his paintings.
Mr. Galenson has extended the theory to novelists, poets and beyond, arguing that most creative people fall on one end or the other of the spectrum, and he has earned a fair bit of attention. Malcolm Gladwell, in a speech at Columbia University, described “Old Masters and Young Geniuses,” which Mr. Galenson published this year, as “a really wonderful book.” Wired magazine recently profiled him under the headline, “What Kind of Genius Are You?”
Monday, November 13, 2006
Quote: Libraries and bicycles
Hear hear!
"My two favorite things in life are libraries and bicycles. They both move people forward without wasting anything. The perfect day: riding a bike to the library." -Peter Golkin, museum spokesman (1966- )
"My two favorite things in life are libraries and bicycles. They both move people forward without wasting anything. The perfect day: riding a bike to the library." -Peter Golkin, museum spokesman (1966- )
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Music: Live - The Rapture
The Rapture @ Emo's: the best show I have seen this year. Not a single person was standing still. WOW!
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Art: Artwork as one possible solution
An excerpt from an interview of Gabriel Perez-Barriero by Luis Camnitzer:
"The reason I invited you [Luis Camnitzer to the 6th Mercosur Biennial] was that I’ve been following your ideas in art education and was drawn to your belief that art is education and education is art. I also like how you have challenged the idea that education consists of the transmission of data from “specialist” to “novice” and how you have developed a series of activities that takes the artist’s intention and sees the artwork as just one possible solution to a particular problem, but that the problem is larger than the work and requires or demands a continuous thought process on the part of the viewer."
"The reason I invited you [Luis Camnitzer to the 6th Mercosur Biennial] was that I’ve been following your ideas in art education and was drawn to your belief that art is education and education is art. I also like how you have challenged the idea that education consists of the transmission of data from “specialist” to “novice” and how you have developed a series of activities that takes the artist’s intention and sees the artwork as just one possible solution to a particular problem, but that the problem is larger than the work and requires or demands a continuous thought process on the part of the viewer."
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Art: LCRA Mural
This mural is at the Mansfield Dam. It was done (in the 50s?) by Art Anderson - an engineer at LCRA.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Music: New CD - The Longcut
The Longcut EP - Brit band, driving rhythm section like a galloping horse, piercing guitars and vocals, stretched out songs.
Friday, October 13, 2006
Technology: Participation inequality on the web
From Jakob Nielsen's latest AlertBox newsletter: Participation Inequality: Encouraging More Users to Contribute
"In most online communities, 90% of users are lurkers who never contribute, 9% of users contribute a little, and 1% of users account for almost all the action."
"In most online communities, 90% of users are lurkers who never contribute, 9% of users contribute a little, and 1% of users account for almost all the action."
Monday, October 02, 2006
Art: A Turner Prize juror's experience
An insightful article about the world of contemporary art - How I Suffered For Art's Sake - about Lynn Barber's experience as a Turner Prize juror. She is a journalist for The Gaurdian.
Excerpt:
"I hate to say it, but my year as a Turner juror has seriously dampened, though I hope not extinguished, my enthusiasm for contemporary art. There is so much bad work around, so much that is derivative, half-baked or banal, you can't believe that galleries would show it. I think what happened is that the huge success of the YBAs in the Nineties has created a peculiar post-boom glut whereby there are now more galleries looking for young artists than worthwhile artists to fill them."
Excerpt:
"I hate to say it, but my year as a Turner juror has seriously dampened, though I hope not extinguished, my enthusiasm for contemporary art. There is so much bad work around, so much that is derivative, half-baked or banal, you can't believe that galleries would show it. I think what happened is that the huge success of the YBAs in the Nineties has created a peculiar post-boom glut whereby there are now more galleries looking for young artists than worthwhile artists to fill them."
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Quote: Art is experience
"Art is not a handicraft, it is the transmission of feeling the artist has experienced."Leo Tolstoy
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Quote: Kindness and wisdom
Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom. -Theodore Rubin, psychiatrist and writer (1923- )
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Art: Can art change the world?
A very good article by Jerry Saltz in the Village Voice- The Whole Ball of Wax: Can Art Change the World? A Holistic Theory
An excerpt:
"In concert with other things, however, art can change the world incrementally and by osmosis. This is because art is part of a universal force. It has no less purpose or meaning than science, religion, philosophy, politics, or any other discipline, and is as much a form of intelligence or knowing as a first kiss, a last goodbye, or an algebraic equation. Art is an energy source that helps make change possible; it sees things in clusters and constellations rather than rigid systems.
Art is a bridge to a new vision and the vision itself, a medium or matrix through which one sees the world, and that grants that pleasure is an important form of knowledge. Art is not optional; it is necessary. It is part of the whole ball of wax."
An excerpt:
"In concert with other things, however, art can change the world incrementally and by osmosis. This is because art is part of a universal force. It has no less purpose or meaning than science, religion, philosophy, politics, or any other discipline, and is as much a form of intelligence or knowing as a first kiss, a last goodbye, or an algebraic equation. Art is an energy source that helps make change possible; it sees things in clusters and constellations rather than rigid systems.
Art is a bridge to a new vision and the vision itself, a medium or matrix through which one sees the world, and that grants that pleasure is an important form of knowledge. Art is not optional; it is necessary. It is part of the whole ball of wax."
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Art: Anna Schuleit - two steps of courage and three of doubt
Anna Schuleit was awarded a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant.
An excerpt from her website about how she finds art projects:
"How does the idea of a project present itself to you?...
By running imaginary tests. Canceling out yesterday's colors. Engaging in doubts as if they were your primary reason for being there. Taking two steps of wavering courage forward, and three of certain doubt back. Somewhere inbetween the piece begins to take shape."
An excerpt from her website about how she finds art projects:
"How does the idea of a project present itself to you?...
By running imaginary tests. Canceling out yesterday's colors. Engaging in doubts as if they were your primary reason for being there. Taking two steps of wavering courage forward, and three of certain doubt back. Somewhere inbetween the piece begins to take shape."
Monday, September 18, 2006
Art: Is the museum a place for contemporary art?
A good article from the Boston Globe - The Art of the New.
Excerpt:
The paradox of a contemporary museum becomes most overt when an institution that deals in established status enters a realm where doubt is both inevitable and essential. It isn't clear that the museum is the best place for new objects to be tested. With so much invested-financially, culturally, and even politically-in these institutions, their tendency is to cover up the vital uncertainty of the moment (everything from the quality of the work to its meaning and eventual role in history) with a wealth of supporting material.
Excerpt:
The paradox of a contemporary museum becomes most overt when an institution that deals in established status enters a realm where doubt is both inevitable and essential. It isn't clear that the museum is the best place for new objects to be tested. With so much invested-financially, culturally, and even politically-in these institutions, their tendency is to cover up the vital uncertainty of the moment (everything from the quality of the work to its meaning and eventual role in history) with a wealth of supporting material.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Music: New CD - The Rapture and Junior Boys
Junior Boys: So This is Goodbye - Synth-pop, subdued, melodic, rich
The Rapture: Pieces of the People We Love - Dance-y, jittery, infectious
The Rapture: Pieces of the People We Love - Dance-y, jittery, infectious
Monday, September 11, 2006
Art: Exit Art (9/11)
How best to commemorate 9/11. I seem to have it on my mind a lot this year.
I read about the Exit Art exhibit from the Library of Congress on this Artful Manager post. To quote:
"...the Exit Art collection, which asked for creative responses to the attacks, confined to 8-1/2 x 11 pieces of paper. They received over 2400 from all over the world.
Art is clearly not a frill. It is a force."
I read about the Exit Art exhibit from the Library of Congress on this Artful Manager post. To quote:
"...the Exit Art collection, which asked for creative responses to the attacks, confined to 8-1/2 x 11 pieces of paper. They received over 2400 from all over the world.
Art is clearly not a frill. It is a force."
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Art: Engage Islamic art on its own terms
A good article form The Gaurdian: It's time to engage with Islamic art on its own terms - not as a bridge between east and west.
To quote:
When you hear the words "Islamic culture" these days, you are less and less likely to think of a carpet. But a carpet forms the centrepiece of the Victoria and Albert museum's new Jameel gallery, displayed in a glass case, but laid out on the floor, as a carpet should be. To preserve its colours, it is kept for 20 minutes out of every half hour in gloom. On the half hour and the hour exactly, the lights click on. Whatever they have been looking at, visitors turn, astonished, as if the gates to a beautiful garden have been thrown open. Even the guards come forward for another look. The subtlety and complexity of the pattern, the depth and richness of the colours, and the gigantic scale of the invention almost defy description. Ten minutes pass, and the lights click off; all around there are audible sighs of satisfaction and pleasure.
...
At present, our interest in Islamic culture, if it exists at all, seems to be limited to these two things: a museum culture and a culture of dissidence. Our attention is like a light shining in that general direction for 10 minutes every now and again, before plunging back into darkness. If we want to promote exchange and a proper respect, we ought to start taking an interest in living Islamic cultures. And in the first instance, that will probably mean not relating everything, from glassware to carpets, back to the actions of a few suicide bombers.
Friday, September 08, 2006
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Quote: Problems and humor
I think the next best thing to solving a problem is finding some humor in it. -Frank A. Clark, writer (1911- )
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Quote: Morality and theology
Whenever morality is based on theology, whenever right is made dependent on divine authority, the most immoral, unjust, infamous things can be justified and established. -Ludwig Feuerbach, philosopher (1804-1872)
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Books: Verisimilitude and veracity
Two excerpts from an article on Arts Journal by Jack Miles - The Da Vinci Coda: Retrospective Reflections on a Pop Culture Phenomenon
A related phenomenon, I would suggest, is the blurring in public discourse of verisimilitude and veracity. Comedian Stephen Colbert’s truthiness, a coinage intended to mock presidential rhetoric, was recently declared “The Word of the Year” by an association of semanticists. But truthiness is a fair synonym for verisimilitude, the “truthlikeness” that novelists have long cultivated in realistic fiction. What strikes me is how large an American political constituency seems fully prepared to accept presidential verisimilitude as a fair substitute for presidential veracity. This willingness to accept plausible official fiction where verified fact would once have been required seems to me to be of a piece with the widespread inclination, in the case of The Da Vinci Code, to read undisguised but only barely plausible historical fiction as settled fact. The same gullibility seems to operate in both cases.
....
Obviously, The Da Vinci Code is not literally about any of that. But the dream history at its center, the history that has attracted all the attention, is a story of how “we” once had something pretty wonderful and “they” took it away from us. In fact, we never had it, and they never took it; but at a time when real peril is mounting and when the line between history and fiction is progressively disappearing, the myth of a past suppression may easily enough made to stand in for the dream of a future restoration. That dream—whether encoded by accident or by design—may be the secret ingredient that has turned this ingenious novel into so gigantic a cultural phenomenon.
A related phenomenon, I would suggest, is the blurring in public discourse of verisimilitude and veracity. Comedian Stephen Colbert’s truthiness, a coinage intended to mock presidential rhetoric, was recently declared “The Word of the Year” by an association of semanticists. But truthiness is a fair synonym for verisimilitude, the “truthlikeness” that novelists have long cultivated in realistic fiction. What strikes me is how large an American political constituency seems fully prepared to accept presidential verisimilitude as a fair substitute for presidential veracity. This willingness to accept plausible official fiction where verified fact would once have been required seems to me to be of a piece with the widespread inclination, in the case of The Da Vinci Code, to read undisguised but only barely plausible historical fiction as settled fact. The same gullibility seems to operate in both cases.
....
Obviously, The Da Vinci Code is not literally about any of that. But the dream history at its center, the history that has attracted all the attention, is a story of how “we” once had something pretty wonderful and “they” took it away from us. In fact, we never had it, and they never took it; but at a time when real peril is mounting and when the line between history and fiction is progressively disappearing, the myth of a past suppression may easily enough made to stand in for the dream of a future restoration. That dream—whether encoded by accident or by design—may be the secret ingredient that has turned this ingenious novel into so gigantic a cultural phenomenon.
Monday, August 21, 2006
Art: Attention is vitality
A quote by Susan Sontag from an article about her in last Friday's NY Times by Holland Cotter - On Sontag: Essayist as Metaphor and Muse
“Do stuff. Be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration’s shove or society’s kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It’s all about paying attention. Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. Stay eager.”
“Do stuff. Be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration’s shove or society’s kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It’s all about paying attention. Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. Stay eager.”
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Quote: Talent
Talent is nothing but a prolonged period of attention and a shortened period of mental assimilation. - Konstantin Stanislavsky
Friday, August 18, 2006
Books: So you want to be a writer
A good excerpt from an Atlantic article: So You Want to be a Writer
Galbraith's first suggestion was to resist the fantasy that good writing can only be accomplished during moments of inspiration:
All writers know that on some golden mornings they are touched by the wand—are on intimate terms with poetry and cosmic truth. I have experienced those moments myself. Their lesson is simple: It's a total illusion. And the danger in the illusion is that you will wait for those moments. Such is the horror of having to face the typewriter that you will spend all your time waiting. I am persuaded that most writers, like most shoemakers, are about as good one day as the next (a point which Trollope made), hangovers apart. The difference is the result of euphoria, alcohol, or imagination. The meaning is that one had better go to his or her typewriter every morning and stay there regardless of the seeming result. It will be much the same.
He also emphasized the importance of revision. "Anyone who is not certifiably a Milton," he wrote, "had better assume that the first draft is a very primitive thing. The reason is simple: writing is difficult work."
Galbraith's first suggestion was to resist the fantasy that good writing can only be accomplished during moments of inspiration:
All writers know that on some golden mornings they are touched by the wand—are on intimate terms with poetry and cosmic truth. I have experienced those moments myself. Their lesson is simple: It's a total illusion. And the danger in the illusion is that you will wait for those moments. Such is the horror of having to face the typewriter that you will spend all your time waiting. I am persuaded that most writers, like most shoemakers, are about as good one day as the next (a point which Trollope made), hangovers apart. The difference is the result of euphoria, alcohol, or imagination. The meaning is that one had better go to his or her typewriter every morning and stay there regardless of the seeming result. It will be much the same.
He also emphasized the importance of revision. "Anyone who is not certifiably a Milton," he wrote, "had better assume that the first draft is a very primitive thing. The reason is simple: writing is difficult work."
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Art: Vigilance, self-awareness, self-criticism
A good article from the NY Times by Holland Cotter about a summer group show in Chelsea: At a Group Show in Chelsea, the Art Is Sharp but the Categories Blurry
Excerpt:
Ms. Backstrom’s contribution to this show is political in a very different way. Rather than address specific in-the-news issues, it poses skeptical questions about the very concept of group behavior, whether in the macrocosmic form of wars, politics movements and global markets, of which the art industry is one; or in the microcosmic form of artists’ communities, collaboratives and collectives, like those included in the show.
No group, she suggests, is beyond making a compromise. And Mr. Heitzler is clearly aware that his show keeps one foot in the commercial world at the same time that it is trying to feel out firm ground in an alternative sphere. The necessary ingredients are vigilance, self-awareness, self-criticism — resistance to the passivity that holds the present art world in its grip. Mr. Heitzler brings this message home to Chelsea. May it continue to be brought home in a hundred ways this fall.
Excerpt:
Ms. Backstrom’s contribution to this show is political in a very different way. Rather than address specific in-the-news issues, it poses skeptical questions about the very concept of group behavior, whether in the macrocosmic form of wars, politics movements and global markets, of which the art industry is one; or in the microcosmic form of artists’ communities, collaboratives and collectives, like those included in the show.
No group, she suggests, is beyond making a compromise. And Mr. Heitzler is clearly aware that his show keeps one foot in the commercial world at the same time that it is trying to feel out firm ground in an alternative sphere. The necessary ingredients are vigilance, self-awareness, self-criticism — resistance to the passivity that holds the present art world in its grip. Mr. Heitzler brings this message home to Chelsea. May it continue to be brought home in a hundred ways this fall.
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Design: User experience publisher
A new publisher of books on user experience: Rosenfeld Media
"Founded in late 2005, Rosenfeld Media is a publishing house dedicated to developing short, practical, and useful books on user experience design. Our books will explain the design and research methods that web professionals need to make informed design decisions."
"Founded in late 2005, Rosenfeld Media is a publishing house dedicated to developing short, practical, and useful books on user experience design. Our books will explain the design and research methods that web professionals need to make informed design decisions."
Monday, August 14, 2006
Music: New tunes - Kanye
Downloaded a bunch of Kanye West songs from iTunes. I love the soul/r&b samples - addictively sweet. I played Through the Wire constantly over the weekend.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Art (Theater): American Fiesta
I saw Steven Tomlinson's monologue American Fiesta twice last summer - I loved it. He is reprising it this summer for a two week run and the Statesman has an article about it. I like the fact that they included an image of his notebook - so you can see his work process.
Friday, July 14, 2006
Art: Making art is tyrannical
A good article by Roberta Smith from last week's NY Times about art museums in Basel - In Basel, Contemporary Art Enjoys a Bounty of Friends
"...the very drive to make art is at heart tyrannical; it wills into existence something that no one else can imagine or imagine needing. We are often blessed by these impositions, and equally blessed by the people who figure out how best to conserve and display them."
"...the very drive to make art is at heart tyrannical; it wills into existence something that no one else can imagine or imagine needing. We are often blessed by these impositions, and equally blessed by the people who figure out how best to conserve and display them."
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Quote: Kind vs. True
Today I bent the truth to be kind, and I have no regret, for I am far surer of what is kind than I am of what is true. -Robert Brault, software developer, writer (1938- )
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Art (Theater): Intergalactic Nemesis website!
The new Intergalactic Nemesis website is up. WOW! Blog entries by Molly, Tim and Jean Pierre. And a weekly comic. I love it! All this is leading up to a New York Broadway opening this spring (we are keeping our fingers crossed).
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Music: New CD - DJ Cheb i Sabbah
DJ Cheb i Sabbah - La Kahena
Great North African/Middle Eastern music with electronic beats and super vocalists.
Friday, June 23, 2006
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Music: New CD - Peloton
Peloton - EP
One of the staff at Waterloo had this on the back wall with a recommendation. What a neat find. Shoegazey indie pop.
Design: Healthier by design
A good slide show article from Slate - Healthier by design: A new charitable trust asks whether good architecture can help cancer patients.
Excerpt from the last slide:
"One lesson of Maggie's Centres is that architectural talent is too precious to be confined to cultural monuments and—in Lord Rogers' case—high-end office buildings. It's nice that art museums and corporations have great architecture, but it would be nicer—and much more valuable for most of us—if hospitals had it, too."
Excerpt from the last slide:
"One lesson of Maggie's Centres is that architectural talent is too precious to be confined to cultural monuments and—in Lord Rogers' case—high-end office buildings. It's nice that art museums and corporations have great architecture, but it would be nicer—and much more valuable for most of us—if hospitals had it, too."
Monday, June 19, 2006
Books / Technology: Books seep out of their bindings and weave themselves together
An excerpt from - Scan this book - from the NY Times Sunday magazine:
Search engines are transforming our culture because they harness the power of relationships, which is all links really are. There are about 100 billion Web pages, and each page holds, on average, 10 links. That's a trillion electrified connections coursing through the Web. This tangle of relationships is precisely what gives the Web its immense force. The static world of book knowledge is about to be transformed by the same elevation of relationships, as each page in a book discovers other pages and other books. Once text is digital, books seep out of their bindings and weave themselves together. The collective intelligence of a library allows us to see things we can't see in a single, isolated book.
Search engines are transforming our culture because they harness the power of relationships, which is all links really are. There are about 100 billion Web pages, and each page holds, on average, 10 links. That's a trillion electrified connections coursing through the Web. This tangle of relationships is precisely what gives the Web its immense force. The static world of book knowledge is about to be transformed by the same elevation of relationships, as each page in a book discovers other pages and other books. Once text is digital, books seep out of their bindings and weave themselves together. The collective intelligence of a library allows us to see things we can't see in a single, isolated book.
Friday, June 09, 2006
Art: Theory is neat. Art is not.
A good excerpt from an artnet article - Learning on the Job - by Jerry Saltz. Found the link on the MAN ArtJournal blog.
To me, theory and positions are important, but they often lead to dogmatic thinking, obscure writing and rigid taste. Knowing where you're coming from means knowing what you like before you like it and hating what you hate before you hate it. This takes all the life out of art. Theory is about understanding. Art is about experience. Theory is neat. Art is not. My only position is to let the reader in on my feelings; try to write in straightforward, jargon-free language; not oversimplify or dumb down my responses; aim to have an idea, a judgment or a description in every sentence; not take too much for granted; explain how artists might be original or derivative and how they use techniques and materials; observe whether they're developing or standing still; provide context; and make judgments that hopefully amount to something more than just my opinion. To do this requires more than a position or a theory. It requires something else. This something else is what art, and criticism, are all about.
To me, theory and positions are important, but they often lead to dogmatic thinking, obscure writing and rigid taste. Knowing where you're coming from means knowing what you like before you like it and hating what you hate before you hate it. This takes all the life out of art. Theory is about understanding. Art is about experience. Theory is neat. Art is not. My only position is to let the reader in on my feelings; try to write in straightforward, jargon-free language; not oversimplify or dumb down my responses; aim to have an idea, a judgment or a description in every sentence; not take too much for granted; explain how artists might be original or derivative and how they use techniques and materials; observe whether they're developing or standing still; provide context; and make judgments that hopefully amount to something more than just my opinion. To do this requires more than a position or a theory. It requires something else. This something else is what art, and criticism, are all about.
Friday, June 02, 2006
Art / Design: Choreography in public spaces
A great article from last Sunday's NY Times - At the New JetBlue Terminal, Passengers May Pirouette to Gate 3 - that was linked on a new blog I found - The Artful Manager.
Excerpt:
"The two men thought a lot about which public spaces in New York were well "choreographed" — that is, which shaped people's movement successfully — and which were not.
Mr. Rockwell had been pondering the general subject for decades. Even while a student at Syracuse University, he would stand on the roof of the architecture building and study the patterns carved in the snow by a sort of unspoken group will, patterns he would later connect to those described by the urbanist William H. Whyte in his classic studies of public space. What caused them? It wasn't just expedience, because the paths were often curved, where a straight line would be more direct. People moved as they did, Whyte believed, at least in part because they sought out pleasing experiences; they voted with their feet.
If Whyte was right, then why are so many public spaces so deeply unpleasurable — and sometimes almost dangerous — to move through? How could the exquisite choreography of Grand Central Terminal, with its powerful beams of natural light making what Mr. Rockwell called a "gateway inviting people into the city," coexist with the claustrophobic purgatory of Penn Station? (Penn Station seems to sneer and say, "Get lost!") How could the Grand Foyer at Radio City have the same function as the bewildering entry to the Marquis Theater on Broadway, which is cruel enough to suggest that the place was named for the Marquis de Sade?"
Excerpt:
"The two men thought a lot about which public spaces in New York were well "choreographed" — that is, which shaped people's movement successfully — and which were not.
Mr. Rockwell had been pondering the general subject for decades. Even while a student at Syracuse University, he would stand on the roof of the architecture building and study the patterns carved in the snow by a sort of unspoken group will, patterns he would later connect to those described by the urbanist William H. Whyte in his classic studies of public space. What caused them? It wasn't just expedience, because the paths were often curved, where a straight line would be more direct. People moved as they did, Whyte believed, at least in part because they sought out pleasing experiences; they voted with their feet.
If Whyte was right, then why are so many public spaces so deeply unpleasurable — and sometimes almost dangerous — to move through? How could the exquisite choreography of Grand Central Terminal, with its powerful beams of natural light making what Mr. Rockwell called a "gateway inviting people into the city," coexist with the claustrophobic purgatory of Penn Station? (Penn Station seems to sneer and say, "Get lost!") How could the Grand Foyer at Radio City have the same function as the bewildering entry to the Marquis Theater on Broadway, which is cruel enough to suggest that the place was named for the Marquis de Sade?"
Quote: Writer vs. Author
Sit down and put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it. -Colette, writer (1873-1954)
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Music: New CD - Deerhoof
Deerhoof - Milkman: A third Deerhoof album to add to the shelf. Discordant and melodic. This one is loosely a concept album about the Milkman pictured on the cover.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Art: Criticism
"Critic's descriptions are lively. Critics write to be read, and they must capture their readers' attention and engage their readers' imaginations. Critics want to persuade their readers to see a work of art as they do. If they are enthused, they try to communicate their enthusiasm through their choice of descriptors and how they put them together in a sentence, a paragraph, and an article." --Terry Barrett, Criticizing Art: Understanding the Contemporary.
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Music: New CDs - Talking Heads
I had the Stop Making Sense record when I was a teen. Today, as I was surfing around some music blogs I came across a reference to the Talking Heads. Hmm.. off kilter rhythms by an arty band. Off I went to Waterloo Records and got three cds:More Songs About Buildings and Food
Remain in Light
Speaking in Tongues
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Quote: Reading as excercise
Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. -Joseph Addison, essayist and poet (1672-1719)
Monday, May 22, 2006
Quote: Reading to write
The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book. -Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784)
Friday, May 19, 2006
Design: Is management of agreement still an issue
An article - The Abilene Paradox: Is the Managment of Agreement Still an Issue - linked from a David Pogue blog post.
Excerpt:
It is provocative to ask why people would actually speak against their own desires. What psychological reasons are there for doing something that is bound to result in both individual discomfort and in a lack of full and valid information for the group and our organizations? It is believed, according to Harvey, that people behave in this manner because they are afraid of the unknown. His hypothesis, quite different from others, is that we know what we are afraid of and that it generally has to do with loneliness, being left out, separation, and alienation. To avoid these, we will actually act against our best interests, hoping to be "part" of something, members of the whole.
We also tend to believe that any decision or action is better than no action at all. The problem is that there is incomplete information in individual minds. The need to act together, to be seen as cohesive, overrides the need to be explicit about group assumptions, desires, opinions, and even facts. Harvey calls this "action anxiety" and he believes it works in close conjunction with another piece of the paradox puzzle: negative fantasies. These are fantasies each individual harbors of what they think would happen if they actually spoke their minds and offered their desires or opinions to the group.
Excerpt:
It is provocative to ask why people would actually speak against their own desires. What psychological reasons are there for doing something that is bound to result in both individual discomfort and in a lack of full and valid information for the group and our organizations? It is believed, according to Harvey, that people behave in this manner because they are afraid of the unknown. His hypothesis, quite different from others, is that we know what we are afraid of and that it generally has to do with loneliness, being left out, separation, and alienation. To avoid these, we will actually act against our best interests, hoping to be "part" of something, members of the whole.
We also tend to believe that any decision or action is better than no action at all. The problem is that there is incomplete information in individual minds. The need to act together, to be seen as cohesive, overrides the need to be explicit about group assumptions, desires, opinions, and even facts. Harvey calls this "action anxiety" and he believes it works in close conjunction with another piece of the paradox puzzle: negative fantasies. These are fantasies each individual harbors of what they think would happen if they actually spoke their minds and offered their desires or opinions to the group.
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Quote: Thoughts lead to....
Giselle sent this: "I really liked this one young grasshopper…"
Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions, they become habits. Watch your habits, they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.--Frank Outlaw
Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions, they become habits. Watch your habits, they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.--Frank Outlaw
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Music: New CD - Gnarls Barkley
Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere: A good blend between old school R&B soul and hip hop. Short poppy songs - very enjoyable.
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Zeitgeist: Talent is overated - Practice makes perfect
An article from Sunday's NY Times - A Star is Made - reviews research by Anders Ericsson, a 58-year-old psychology professor at Florida State University from his upcoming book Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance.
An excerpt:
"...the trait we commonly call talent is highly overrated. Or, put another way, expert performers — whether in memory or surgery, ballet or computer programming — are nearly always made, not born. And yes, practice does make perfect. These may be the sort of clichés that parents are fond of whispering to their children. But these particular clichés just happen to be true.
Ericsson's research suggests a third cliché as well: when it comes to choosing a life path, you should do what you love — because if you don't love it, you are unlikely to work hard enough to get very good. Most people naturally don't like to do things they aren't "good" at. So they often give up, telling themselves they simply don't possess the talent for math or skiing or the violin. But what they really lack is the desire to be good and to undertake the deliberate practice that would make them better."
"Deliberate practice entails more than simply repeating a task — playing a C-minor scale 100 times, for instance, or hitting tennis serves until your shoulder pops out of its socket. Rather, it involves setting specific goals, obtaining immediate feedback and concentrating as much on technique as on outcome. "
An excerpt:
"...the trait we commonly call talent is highly overrated. Or, put another way, expert performers — whether in memory or surgery, ballet or computer programming — are nearly always made, not born. And yes, practice does make perfect. These may be the sort of clichés that parents are fond of whispering to their children. But these particular clichés just happen to be true.
Ericsson's research suggests a third cliché as well: when it comes to choosing a life path, you should do what you love — because if you don't love it, you are unlikely to work hard enough to get very good. Most people naturally don't like to do things they aren't "good" at. So they often give up, telling themselves they simply don't possess the talent for math or skiing or the violin. But what they really lack is the desire to be good and to undertake the deliberate practice that would make them better."
"Deliberate practice entails more than simply repeating a task — playing a C-minor scale 100 times, for instance, or hitting tennis serves until your shoulder pops out of its socket. Rather, it involves setting specific goals, obtaining immediate feedback and concentrating as much on technique as on outcome. "
Friday, April 28, 2006
Books (Comics): Phantomville
A new graphic novel publisher in India (read about them in Time Out Mumbai): Phantomville
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Books / Art: Michiko Kakutani & criticism
A good line from a Slate article about NY Times book critic Michiko Kakutani. Good words to remember for the art reviews I write.
As a student at Oxford, the future drama critic Kenneth Tynan got back a paper with this comment: "Keep a strict eye on eulogistic & dyslogistic adjectives—They shd diagnose (not merely blame) & distinguish (not merely praise.)"
As a student at Oxford, the future drama critic Kenneth Tynan got back a paper with this comment: "Keep a strict eye on eulogistic & dyslogistic adjectives—They shd diagnose (not merely blame) & distinguish (not merely praise.)"
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Music: New CD - Built To Spill & The Knife
Built To Spill - You in Reverse: A bit more sprawling and less polished than their last one. Always enjoy Doug Martsch's distinctive vocals and crunchy lead guitar.
The Knife - Silent Shout: The yummiest sounding synths. The album peters off towards the end though.
The Knife - Silent Shout: The yummiest sounding synths. The album peters off towards the end though.
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Art: Bonnard by Kimmelman
A good article from last week's NY Times by my favorite art critic Michael Kimmelman: Pierre Bonnard Retrospective at the Musee d'Art Moderne in Paris.
An excerpt that comments on the current state of art:
"...Bonnard could not have known that young artists in the year 2006 would operate in a commonplace world of budget air travel, proliferating art fairs and museums for contemporary art, where peripatetic pilgrims encounter endless objects once and mostly never again. This, the artist and writer Art Spiegelman pointed out to me recently, may be the biggest change in art during the last half-century or so: that more and more artists make works they never expect will be lived with, looked at day in, day out by the same person; that much art is made for fairs or museums, designed to grab a distracted passerby's attention without needing to be experienced twice. Culture slides into the realm of entertainment.
It is no wonder, then, as Bonnard could say even about his own day, that "few people know how to see, to see well, to see fully." In our visual age, amid a glut of freshly minted, clueless collectors, it's truer now.
But fortunately, Bonnard's work is still around to show us a different truth."
An excerpt that comments on the current state of art:
"...Bonnard could not have known that young artists in the year 2006 would operate in a commonplace world of budget air travel, proliferating art fairs and museums for contemporary art, where peripatetic pilgrims encounter endless objects once and mostly never again. This, the artist and writer Art Spiegelman pointed out to me recently, may be the biggest change in art during the last half-century or so: that more and more artists make works they never expect will be lived with, looked at day in, day out by the same person; that much art is made for fairs or museums, designed to grab a distracted passerby's attention without needing to be experienced twice. Culture slides into the realm of entertainment.
It is no wonder, then, as Bonnard could say even about his own day, that "few people know how to see, to see well, to see fully." In our visual age, amid a glut of freshly minted, clueless collectors, it's truer now.
But fortunately, Bonnard's work is still around to show us a different truth."
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Quote: Piety vs. Goodness
Experience makes us see an enormous difference between piety and goodness.
-Blaise Pascal, philosopher and mathematician (1623-1662)
-Blaise Pascal, philosopher and mathematician (1623-1662)
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Art (Film): Drawing Restraint 9
From the film review: 'Drawing Restraint 9,' a Film Steeped in Ritual, With Whales and a Wedding, a great line -
Bjork, repeats a life-affirming motto in broken musical phrases: "From the moment of commitment, nature conspires to help you."
Bjork, repeats a life-affirming motto in broken musical phrases: "From the moment of commitment, nature conspires to help you."
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Music: New CD - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Show Your Bones - intense and insistent. Less raw and more listenable than their first release.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Music: New CDs - Hard-Fi
Hard-Fi: Stars of CCTV - I bought their EP and love the ska tinged post-punk. The full lenght is more varied. Been playing the Hard to Beat remix over and over.
Friday, March 17, 2006
Quote: Poems reverberate
The writing of a poem is like a child throwing stones into a mineshaft. You compose first, then you listen for the reverberation. -James Fenton, poet and professor (1949- )
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Zeitgeist: Foolish Chances With Words
A personal essay by Michael - Foolish Chances With Words. I enjoyed it especially because I still love the physical act of writing with a fountain pen on good paper.
If you're male, you probably acquired, when you reached the brink of adolescence, a machine that burned gasoline or shot bullets, and with it you risked your own life and endangered the lives of others. It took you far from home and gave you an early taste of adulthood's dark cracks. When I was 14, I acquired a typewriter. An aunt of mine, a high school teacher, had rescued it from her school's defunct typing classroom in Michigan, and in doing so she rescued me, too. With a manual Olympia typewriter as my companion for the next 10 years, I endangered myself and others and let it take me far from home so it could give me an early taste of adulthood's dark cracks...
If you're male, you probably acquired, when you reached the brink of adolescence, a machine that burned gasoline or shot bullets, and with it you risked your own life and endangered the lives of others. It took you far from home and gave you an early taste of adulthood's dark cracks. When I was 14, I acquired a typewriter. An aunt of mine, a high school teacher, had rescued it from her school's defunct typing classroom in Michigan, and in doing so she rescued me, too. With a manual Olympia typewriter as my companion for the next 10 years, I endangered myself and others and let it take me far from home so it could give me an early taste of adulthood's dark cracks...
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Books: Making a book
I read about Blurb in the NY Times a few weeks ago. Other options listed in the comments section of the Lifehacker blog. I am going to consider one of these to make Taxi Journal books for all the participants.
Technology / Design: Why is Usability Important
Some good articles and resources to make the case for usability from the UPA website:
Usability in the real world
Usability in the real world
Saturday, March 11, 2006
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Music: New CD - I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness
I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness - Fear is on our side
Athmospheric, melodic - this is my kind of music. I liked it the minute I put it in the CD player. Local Austin band.
Monday, March 06, 2006
Technology: Cool website tools
Found some cool tools for building websites on smarkets:
Ruby on Rails (Used by the 37Signals guys to build BaseCamp etc.)
Zeraweb
If I get some time, I am going to use Zeraweb to build a site.
Ruby on Rails (Used by the 37Signals guys to build BaseCamp etc.)
Zeraweb
If I get some time, I am going to use Zeraweb to build a site.
Friday, March 03, 2006
Art: What Does Islam Look Like?
A good article from last week's NY Times about contemporary Islamic art - What Does Islam Look Like?
It mentions Karkhana and Shazia Sikander.
Excerpt:
The [Danish] cartoon issue isn't primarily an art story, any more than the destruction of the mosque at Ayodhya in India was an architecture story, or the censure of "The Satanic Verses" was a story about contemporary fiction. It's a political story, an ancient and universal one, about how an image, and almost any image will do, once it is fused to cultural identity — Islam, in this case — can end up being used as a weapon.
As it happens, at the same time that intense partisan heat is being generated around the topic of popular images and Islam, we are getting a number of exhibitions of contemporary work to which the name "Islamic" is attached. Some shows approach the Islamic connection hesitantly; others embrace it. Together they tell us very different things about the reception of a cultural category called "Islam" in the West.
It mentions Karkhana and Shazia Sikander.
Excerpt:
The [Danish] cartoon issue isn't primarily an art story, any more than the destruction of the mosque at Ayodhya in India was an architecture story, or the censure of "The Satanic Verses" was a story about contemporary fiction. It's a political story, an ancient and universal one, about how an image, and almost any image will do, once it is fused to cultural identity — Islam, in this case — can end up being used as a weapon.
As it happens, at the same time that intense partisan heat is being generated around the topic of popular images and Islam, we are getting a number of exhibitions of contemporary work to which the name "Islamic" is attached. Some shows approach the Islamic connection hesitantly; others embrace it. Together they tell us very different things about the reception of a cultural category called "Islam" in the West.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Quote: Pluralistic world
Let us face a pluralistic world in which there are no universal churches, no single remedy for all diseases, no one way to teach or write or sing, no magic diet, no world poets, and no chosen races, but only the wretched and wonderfully diversified human race. -Jacques Barzun, professor and writer (1907- )
Music: New CD - Arctic Monkeys
All the critics are raving about the Arctic Monkeys. About half the album is very good and the rest is decent.
Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Art: Atypical art collectors
A good article from the NY Times about an art collecting couple from Spain: Atypical Collectors With Art to Share
Excerpts:
Still, they said, even then what really interested them was not to possess art, but to participate in social and cultural change through an intellectual engagement with artists who were rebelling against the existing art world.
Unsurprisingly, then, they also see collecting as an art. "That's what Duchamp said," Mr. Herbert said later over lunch, "You can 'paint a collection' together by choosing your works and bringing them into a context. We try to do that, and I think that in Barcelona you see a kind of vision of a whole."
Excerpts:
Still, they said, even then what really interested them was not to possess art, but to participate in social and cultural change through an intellectual engagement with artists who were rebelling against the existing art world.
Unsurprisingly, then, they also see collecting as an art. "That's what Duchamp said," Mr. Herbert said later over lunch, "You can 'paint a collection' together by choosing your works and bringing them into a context. We try to do that, and I think that in Barcelona you see a kind of vision of a whole."
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Music: New CD - Love is All and Deerhoof
Love is All - Nine Times That Same Song - Post punk swedes with great female vocals and horns that add a touch of ska.
Deerhoof - Apple O' - I am becoming a fan of the frenetic but tight Deerhoof sound.
Monday, February 06, 2006
Books: Phillip Pullman in New Yorker
A good article from the New Yorker about Phillip Pullman, author of "His Dark Materials" trilogy. Excperts:
“we can learn what’s good and what’s bad, what’s generous and unselfish, what’s cruel and mean, from fiction”; there is no need to consult scripture. As Pullman once put it in a newspaper column, “ ‘Thou shalt not’ might reach the head, but it takes ‘Once upon a time’ to reach the heart.”
In his Carnegie Medal speech, he said, “We need stories so much that we’re even willing to read bad books to get them, if the good books won’t supply them. We all need stories, but children are more frank about it.” What angers Pullman most about theocracy, in the end, is that it blinds people to the true purpose of narrative. Fundamentalists don’t know how to read stories—including those in the Bible—metaphorically, as if they were Lord Asriel’s imaginary numbers.
“we can learn what’s good and what’s bad, what’s generous and unselfish, what’s cruel and mean, from fiction”; there is no need to consult scripture. As Pullman once put it in a newspaper column, “ ‘Thou shalt not’ might reach the head, but it takes ‘Once upon a time’ to reach the heart.”
In his Carnegie Medal speech, he said, “We need stories so much that we’re even willing to read bad books to get them, if the good books won’t supply them. We all need stories, but children are more frank about it.” What angers Pullman most about theocracy, in the end, is that it blinds people to the true purpose of narrative. Fundamentalists don’t know how to read stories—including those in the Bible—metaphorically, as if they were Lord Asriel’s imaginary numbers.
Sunday, February 05, 2006
Art: Hiroshi Sugimoto
An exhibit of Hiroshi Sugimoto - History of History - at the Japan Society, NYC.
A gem of a paragraph about art and artists from the exhibition catalog written by Sugimoto:
"Ever since the age of cave painting, humans have wanted a unified vision with which to see the chaos of this world of ours. It has been largely those people known as artists who have filled such a role - and they still hold this function today. No matter how brilliantly religion and science might explain and persuade, shadowy areas will always remain. Scooping up shimmering particles with which to fashion decoding devices that afford us a look around in the gloom, the handiwork of these people of vision is now known as art."
From the Japan Society website:
This exhibition juxtaposes Sugimoto's exquisitely minimalist works, selected from the photographer's past and most recent series, with fossils, artworks and religious artifacts ranging from prehistoric to the 15th century, all drawn from his own collection. The result is an extended exploration of time, life and spirituality as perceived in the contexts of nature and history. The exhibition, Sugimoto writes, addresses "recorded history, unrecorded history, and still another history--that which is yet to be depicted… like parts waiting to be assembled in a do-it-yourself kit."
A gem of a paragraph about art and artists from the exhibition catalog written by Sugimoto:
"Ever since the age of cave painting, humans have wanted a unified vision with which to see the chaos of this world of ours. It has been largely those people known as artists who have filled such a role - and they still hold this function today. No matter how brilliantly religion and science might explain and persuade, shadowy areas will always remain. Scooping up shimmering particles with which to fashion decoding devices that afford us a look around in the gloom, the handiwork of these people of vision is now known as art."
From the Japan Society website:
This exhibition juxtaposes Sugimoto's exquisitely minimalist works, selected from the photographer's past and most recent series, with fossils, artworks and religious artifacts ranging from prehistoric to the 15th century, all drawn from his own collection. The result is an extended exploration of time, life and spirituality as perceived in the contexts of nature and history. The exhibition, Sugimoto writes, addresses "recorded history, unrecorded history, and still another history--that which is yet to be depicted… like parts waiting to be assembled in a do-it-yourself kit."
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Books: Curry
Book review from yesterday's NY Times - How Curry, Stirred in India, Became a World Conqueror. Excerpt:
"She is a good postmodernist who scoffs at the idea of authenticity when it comes to food. One of her goals, in tracing the evolution of curry and the global spread of Indian cuisine, is to pull the rug out from under the idea that India, or any other nation, ever had a cuisine that was not constantly in the process of assimilation and revision. The very dishes, flavors and food practices that we think of as timelessly, quintessentially Indian turn out to be, as often as not, foreign imports or newfangled inventions. That includes chili peppers and tea."
"She is a good postmodernist who scoffs at the idea of authenticity when it comes to food. One of her goals, in tracing the evolution of curry and the global spread of Indian cuisine, is to pull the rug out from under the idea that India, or any other nation, ever had a cuisine that was not constantly in the process of assimilation and revision. The very dishes, flavors and food practices that we think of as timelessly, quintessentially Indian turn out to be, as often as not, foreign imports or newfangled inventions. That includes chili peppers and tea."
Friday, January 27, 2006
Music: New CD - Deerhoof
Deerhoof - The Runners Four
I heard a Deerhoof song - Twin Killers - on a music blog - You Ain't No Picasso - and was wowed. Discordant but melodic, improvisational but tight.
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Art: Indian Artist Enjoys His World Audience
An article about Tyeb Metha in today's NY Times - Indian Artist Enjoys His World Audience
Excerpt
'The central passion of his work stems from his country's central wound: the 1947 partition of British India that left a million people dead, drove millions from their homes and inscribed a deep sense of anguish across his imagination. In the Hindu-Muslim clashes that broke out around 1947, Mr. Mehta watched as his neighbors butchered a stranger to death. The victim was Hindu and the attackers were Muslim, but it happened the other way around in other neighborhoods. Many Indians his age have an identical memory.
"That violence gave me the clue about the emotion I want to paint," he explained. "That violence has stuck into my mind."
The bull became a favorite figure. Not a bull in repose, but a tied-up, writhing, mutilated bull. "I was looking for an image which would not narrate, but suggest something which was deep within me, the violence that I witnessed during partition," Mr. Mehta said. "Have you seen a bull running? This tremendous energy being butchered for nothing."'
Monday, January 23, 2006
Art: Peter Tucker at Polvo group show
Peter is featured in a group show of Texas artists at Polvo gallery titled - What I Like About Texas....
Yours truly is part of the performance piece that was done during the New Amercian Talent opening at Arthouse.
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Art (Theater): Intergalactic Nemesis
This was the preview/tune up show for SVT before they went to New York to present it at the Bowery Poetry Club. Go SVT!
Art: Postcards From Cutting Edges of Downtown's Art Scene
Good article from the NY Times - Postcards From Cutting Edges of Downtown's Art Scene. I like the description of the type of art critic Kim Levin is:
"For many years, Ms. Levin wrote the brief capsule reviews for the Choices section of the Voice, and she was a master of that short form. She rarely wrote negatively, and she freely dispensed stars to shows she deemed of particular interest. She was not a militant anti-elitist, but her impulse was to share rather than to exclude; you feel that openness and wide-ranging curiosity in the Feldman exhibition.
The hoarding of ephemera may seem compulsive or maniacal, but there is a sense of fun and love in it, too. Every day can be a treasure hunt for the New York art critic, professional and amateur alike. You just have to keep your eyes and mind open, like the exemplary Ms. Levin."
"For many years, Ms. Levin wrote the brief capsule reviews for the Choices section of the Voice, and she was a master of that short form. She rarely wrote negatively, and she freely dispensed stars to shows she deemed of particular interest. She was not a militant anti-elitist, but her impulse was to share rather than to exclude; you feel that openness and wide-ranging curiosity in the Feldman exhibition.
The hoarding of ephemera may seem compulsive or maniacal, but there is a sense of fun and love in it, too. Every day can be a treasure hunt for the New York art critic, professional and amateur alike. You just have to keep your eyes and mind open, like the exemplary Ms. Levin."
Friday, January 13, 2006
Art: Who Needs a White Cube These Days
A good article from the NY Times about alternative art spaces by Roberta Smith: Who Needs a White Cube These Days?
Excerpts:
"In a small storefront on Grand Street, overseen by Emily Sundblad, a Norwegian artist, and John Kelsey, an American critic, the operation [Reena Spaulings] has provided an adamant reminder that a gallery is a social organism - even a kind of family - that combines aspects of living room and studio."
"At Orchard everything is hashed out by the collective's 11 members, which also tends to expose the secret emotional life of galleries, where ambition, idealism and vulnerability intersect and conflict."
"It is difficult to be a full-service gallery and maintain a high degree of deviation for long. Friedrich Petzel, who took over the Printed Matter space next to his gallery on West 22nd Street, spoke in September of using it without benefit of a white-box redo or a set schedule. But by December, both were nearly in place, Mr. Petzel said, largely because of pressure from his artists. "
"But even the folks at Reena Spaulings admit that their artists want big careers and that they were impressed by the activities of deliberate, rather than accidental art dealers while participating in the Liste art fair in Basel, Switzerland, last spring."
Excerpts:
"In a small storefront on Grand Street, overseen by Emily Sundblad, a Norwegian artist, and John Kelsey, an American critic, the operation [Reena Spaulings] has provided an adamant reminder that a gallery is a social organism - even a kind of family - that combines aspects of living room and studio."
"At Orchard everything is hashed out by the collective's 11 members, which also tends to expose the secret emotional life of galleries, where ambition, idealism and vulnerability intersect and conflict."
"It is difficult to be a full-service gallery and maintain a high degree of deviation for long. Friedrich Petzel, who took over the Printed Matter space next to his gallery on West 22nd Street, spoke in September of using it without benefit of a white-box redo or a set schedule. But by December, both were nearly in place, Mr. Petzel said, largely because of pressure from his artists. "
"But even the folks at Reena Spaulings admit that their artists want big careers and that they were impressed by the activities of deliberate, rather than accidental art dealers while participating in the Liste art fair in Basel, Switzerland, last spring."
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Music: New CD - Sufjan Stevens
Epic, sprawling, magnificent album.
This is the original cover art by artist Divya Srinivasan (who use to live in Austin and was one of the artist's on Richard Linklater's animated film - Waking Life)
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Technology: NoteShare collaboration tool
Read an article in the Sunday NY Times about NoteShare. Excerpt:
"Whether this program will work commercially, I have no idea. Its Mac-only nature obviously limits its market. But its design expresses two impulses that are both the history and the future of the computing business: letting people connect more thoroughly, broadly and richly; and making it steadily easier for them to do so."
"Whether this program will work commercially, I have no idea. Its Mac-only nature obviously limits its market. But its design expresses two impulses that are both the history and the future of the computing business: letting people connect more thoroughly, broadly and richly; and making it steadily easier for them to do so."
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