Nails, robots and tapestries
Loading - week 3
things I found
1 - Karaoke Torii
Karaoke Torii (2017) is an art installation by Benoit Maubrey. 300 recycled loudspeakers, bluetooth receivers, microphone, line in, 1 amplifier. A 4-channel speaker system allows the public to express themselves directly via a microphone, a line in or their smart phones and wireless technology.
Commissioned by Kamiyama Artist Residency Program (KAIR) , Japan.
2 - When Guys Turn 20
For the past several years, artist Joshua Citarella has targeted his research-based practice on the political behaviors of the young and very online. Jacob Hurwitz-Goodman has similarly used his documentary practice to investigate emergent political modes like Seasteading. Together in When Guys Turn 20, they explore how users across the political spectrum deploy memetic tactics on social media, as well as how the rhetoric and reality of Silicon Valley diverge.
Cycling through a variety of locales and roles (teacher, Twitch streamer, prisoner, Sith Lord), Citarella narrates online political methods and mechanisms of propaganda. From MMORPGs as a proof-case for socialism to the tricks of meme extremists to the problems of Big Tech, When Guys Turn 20 offers a behind-the-servers glimpse into various expressions of platform capitalism.
3 - Web Tapestries
Eva Ostrowska (b.1989) is a French visual artist whose mixed media work offers critiques of social dynamics and romantic relationships using a raw and unapologetic combination of humour, sarcasm, and irony. Ostrowska provides a commentary on love and relationships in the digital era, the dissonance of which is made even more impactful through the use of ancient mediums such as weaving and knitting to depict modern digital realities like the text message.
4 - Open-source intelligence is a thing
“Under the pseudonym Intel Crab, University of Alabama sophomore Justin Peden has become an unlikely source of information about the unfolding Ukraine-Russia war. From his dorm room, the 20-year-old sifts through satellite images, TikTok videos, and security feeds, sharing findings like troop movements and aircraft models with more than 220,000 followers on Twitter. Peden said that his posts have reached 20 million people and his follower count has increased by over 50,000 people over the past month, according to his Twitter analytics. Today, Peden is one of the most prominent open-source intelligence (OSINT) figures on Twitter”. - [via]
5 . Photography and AI
Kyle Chayka just published a very interesting article on the New Yorker on computational photography. Worth a read. “Have iPhone Cameras Become Too Smart?”
”For a large portion of the population, “smartphone” has become synonymous with “camera,” but the truth is that iPhones are no longer cameras in the traditional sense. Instead, they are devices at the vanguard of “computational photography,” a term that describes imagery formed from digital data and processing as much as from optical information. Each picture registered by the lens is altered to bring it closer to a pre-programmed ideal. Gregory Gentert, a friend who is a fine-art photographer in Brooklyn, told me, “I’ve tried to photograph on the iPhone when light gets bluish around the end of the day, but the iPhone will try to correct that sort of thing.” A dusky purple gets edited, and in the process erased, because the hue is evaluated as undesirable, as a flaw instead of a feature. The device “sees the things I’m trying to photograph as a problem to solve,” he added.”
6 - Uncanny Robot Podcast
A collection of absurd AI-generated stories read by humans.
7 - Can not do nails
In 1974 Chris Burden made a performance titled “Trans-Fixed” in which he was crucified onto a Volkswagen Beetle. In this lithograph we can read a note that was presumably written by his partner that morning. She was asking him NOT to nail himself to that car...
new entries on my bookshelf
Federico Antonini, Simplifying My Library: Episodes of Backward Shelving, 2021
Sofian Audry, Art in the Age of Machine Learning, 2021
Alessandro Mininno, Graffiti Writing in Italy 1989–2021, 2021
things that are coming soon
31st March - "Carino! Il potere inquietante delle cose adorabili", book launch, Mr. Ibis Ludopub, Roma - 6.30 pm
things I did recently
17 March 2022 - I wrote an introduction for the book “Arte e Social Media” by Kamilia Kard, Postmediabooks [in Italian]
21 March 2022 - “New Media Art Today”, my Masterclass for Campus Creativo, Chile, in collaboration with NABA [video in Spanish]
the great wall of memes updates
The Great Wall of Memes is a research project in the form of a visual archive.
I started it in 2012 and it’s the place where I collect images and memes that feel relevant. Click here to see the latest uploads.
That’s all for this week. Feel free to send me an email or leave a comment.