Roblox Car Crashes, Magical Gnomes and Burning Pop-Stars
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things I found
1. Michael Jackson on Fire
I could watch Bobby Fingers’ videos all day. This time, he made a diorama of when Michael Jackson’s hair caught on fire during the filming of a Pepsi commercial in 1984. But believe me when I say that this isn’t remotely the most interesting thing about this film…
2. Roblox Car Crashes
I just found out that Roblox Car Crash Videos are a thing: “also known as BeamNG Roblox, refers to videos of car crashes taken in the video game Roblox, edited to replicate real-life dashcam car crashes by downgrading the quality and adding audio from car crash videos”. This trend is insanely weird (and good).
3. The LOL Verifier
The LOL Verifier is a device that sits between your keyboard and your computer and only lets you type “lol” if you’ve truly laughed out loud. Bringing authenticity to the least authentic place: the internet. Great project by Brian Moore.
4. Learning to Learn
Since people talk so much about “machine learning” these days, I think we should go back to the basics and listen to the people who first began to investigate the idea. Here is the amazing Gordon Pask, English cybernetician and psychologist, interviewed by the BBC in 1974. Here you can find one of his best writings, here is a good article about his concept of “maverick machines”, and here is a video lesson about him by Paul Pangaro.
5. Smashing Things
This must be one of my favourite performance artworks of all time: Jimmie Durham, Smashing (2004): “Wearing a suit, Jimmie Durham sits behind a desk like a bureaucrat performing his duty: smashing things. In an orderly manner, a person goes in, delivers an object, Durham smashes it with a prehistoric stone tool, violently but impassively. He stamps and signs a piece of paper as receipt and gives it to the same person, who goes off-scene. The same order of events is repeated several times during 92 minutes. This video-performance was part of Durham’s teaching residency at Fondazione Antonio Ratti in Como, Italy, in 2004.” – source
6. Beware of the Gnomes
I’ve been hearing about gnomes A LOT lately – even garden gnomes! – in the context of paranormal and horror stories. This painting by Woodrow White sums up the mood of this trend very well. Here is the video-inspo for the painting.
7. The Shape of All Stories
In this amazing lecture writer Kurt Vonnegut diagrams the shape of all stories: from Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” to “Cinderella”. Please watch it. [via]
8. Never Let Yourself Feel Bad
A good description of this video by Jack Stauber can be found in the comments: “This man literally take his nightmares and turn them into awesome songs”.
things I did recently
STUFF YOU CAN READ, HEAR AND WATCH
March 28th - Sottolineature Podcast - interview about Memestetica (in italian)
March 23rd - The Square - TV interview about Memestetica on Sky Arte (in italian)
March 16th - Supernova #87 / Menti Esplosive on Radio Raheem - Interview on Artificial Intelligence and Art (in italian)
March 17th - Alla Scoperta del ramo d’oro - TV interview on Artificial Intelligence and art on RAI3 and RAIStoria - Watch it on RAIPLAY (in italian)
March 9th - Perché un’immagine diventa meme - MELE Podcast interview (in italian)
AND OTHER STUFF…
March 29th - Questo mondo è tutto immagini - online course
March 22nd - Valentina Tanni: dal primo modem a Memestetica - Talk at Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma - Scuola di Nuove Tecnologie dell’Arte
March 3rd-5th - Hacking AI. Usi impropri di intelligenze artificiali - Workshop at La Scuola Open Source, Bari
March 1st - Premio Paul Thorel - selection committee
February 3rd - Salto nel vuoto. Arte al di là della materia. Exhibition Catalogue - Bergamo, GAMeC - a cura di Lorenzo Giusti, Domenico Quaranta. I wrote texts about Evan Roth, Elisa Giardina Papa, Vladan Joler, Mark Lombardi, John F. Simon Jr, Ai Weiwei e Addie Wagenknecht (in italian).
new entries on my bookshelf
Alex Kitnick, Distant Early Warning: Marshall McLuhan and the Transformation of the Avant-Garde, 2021
Marco Enrico Giacomelli, Ma dove sono le opere d'arte?, 2023
Enrico Monacelli, The Great Psychic Outdoors. Adventures in Low Fidelity, 2023
James Ballard, All That Mattered Was Sensation, 2019
Alva Noë, Strani strumenti: L'arte e la natura umana, 2022
Svetlana Boym, The Future of Nostalgia, 2008
David Toop, Oceano di suono: Musica ambient e ascolto radicale nell’era della comunicazione, 2023
Tommaso Guariento, Miti, meme, iperstizioni, 2022
my website is officially 20 years old. let that sink in
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 now! Feel free to send me an email or leave a comment.