Good friend and great person Jessica Findley is applying for the “best job in the world.” Awesome video. Watch and vote below:
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bShnMlzPYE]vote for her here: http://www.islandreefjob.com/applicants/watch/0bShnMlzPYE
Lots of cool edits to the page – see the history as well.
Huge debate roaring as well. My favorite quote here (followed by mini argument) is by Wikipedia user “shmeck,” aka contemporary artist Shane Mecklenburger:
KEEP The Wikipedia Art page is a self-aware example of Wikipedia’s mission of collective epistemology. It enacts and exposes Wikipedia’s own strengths, weaknesses, potential, and limits as a system of understanding and as a contemplative object of beauty. The page is also a self-aware example of the strengths, weaknesses, potential, and limits of new media art as a an object of contemplation. New media art is an example of how the boundaries between art and every other discipline from epistemology to microbiology disintegrated (see interdisciplinarity) in the 21st Century. This page is an example of how a Wikipedia page can go beyond simply existing as a Wikipedia page, while retaining its basic utilitarian Wikipedia function. Those who care most about Wikipedia’s mission would probably agree that Wikipedia already is a collaborative art form. If you feel that Wikipedia is a beautiful thing, then at some level (whether or not you admit it) you consider Wikipedia an art form, with its own codes and conventions. This is an example of something that explains art, explores art, and is art all at the same time. Deleting this page would be a statement that the exegesis of conceptual art and/or new media art has no place in Wikipedia, except on the tired, lifeless, and opaque conceptual art and new media art pages. Why shouldn’t a tiny, obscure corner of Wikipedia-brand collective epistemology be preserved for an instructive, self-referential, and ever-changing living example of what an art object can be in the 21st Century? Should this page be judged invalid only because it refers to itself? This artwork can only exist as a Wikipedia page that refers to itself. Therefore, deleting would not only send the message “this is not Wikipedia”; it would also be saying “this is not art.” comment added by Shmeck (talk • contribs) 00:27, 15 February 2009 (UTC)
++++ The above is a wonderful commentary, but Wikipedia is not your web page to wax eloquently about what you think ought to exist. Bus stop (talk) 00:34, 15 February 2009 (UTC)
—- UPDATED, more nice stuff
I’m mostly finishing up what will be the next to last draft of my PhD dissertation, prepping for my new classes (awesome!), and working on several art projects that will be launched in the first half of this year – video, print, net, conceptual, interactive, and many combinations in between. But I also spend a LOT of time circumventing my inbox. You know what I mean. Here’s a great li’l quote from Merlin Mann, via Clay Shirky, which was printed on Andrew Sullivan’s blog by Patrick Appel (my brain hurts just typing that interconnection):
Email is such a funny thing. People hand you these single little messages that are no heavier than a river pebble. But it doesn’t take long until you have acquired a pile of pebbles that’s taller than you and heavier than you could ever hope to move, even if you wanted to do it over a few dozen trips. But for the person who took the time to hand you the pebble it seems outrageous that you can’t handle the one tiny thing. “What ‘pile’? It’s just a pebble!”
And of course, the only reason they handed you the pebble in the first place, is cuz they like the work you had been doing until you had to spend all your time answering email.
myartspace.com announced the top winners of their 2008 Undergraduate Scholarship Competition this week. The site and blog have been amazingly supportive of emerging artists with their community, interviews/blog and competitions over the last 2 years since their inception. I myself have become more and more involved with them (after an interview with Brian, I’ve begun doing a few guest blogs, which will increase in the coming months), and have started encouraging both my grads and undergrads to join, post their work, enter the competitions. Via their site, below are the top-3 winners of the recent competition where the winning undergraduate students will split $8000 in cash scholarships. To see the 50 finalists, click HERE.
——— Via the myartspace blog ———
First Place Winner: Sara Susin (Stanford University)
Sara Susin was born in Denver, Colorado. She is currently completing her BA at Stanford University with a major in Studio Art and a minor in Creative Writing. She has been painting at the Art Students League of Denver since 1990. She has taken classes from Heather Delzell, Kevin Weckbach, Kim English, Ron Hicks, Ken Velastro and Quang Ho. In 2004, Sara won the Allied Arts Award. In 2005 she was highlighted in Southwest Art Magazine’s annual “21 under 30” feature. Sara has sold paintings to private and corporate collections including the Kaiser Permanente Corporate Collection. Sara plans to pursue a career as an oil painter. To read an interview with Sara, Click HERE.
Back to the Sun, 40″ x 48″, oil on wood. Sara Susin‘s Winning Gallery
Second Place Winner: Jessica Brown (University of Alaska)
Jessica Brown is completing her BA in Art degree at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Jessica has participate in a number of solo and group exhibits. In her own words “I believe in the off-kilter, the beauty of the asymmetrical, and the balance of opposition. I revel in the surprising, messy and often humorous nature of life. My works are inspired by the question marks surrounding cultural dualities such as mind/body, man/nature, and self/other. Whether with painting, performance, or installations my aim is to stimulate introspective dialogue in my viewer and expand their intrigue of the absurdities of life.” To Read an interview with Jessica, click HERE.
Match Book, altered book, ink and matches. Jessica Brown’s Winning Gallery
Third Place Winner: Zach Stein (University of Kentucky)
Zach Stein’s installations, monotypes, and paintings tend to be experimental in nature. This is achieved by the fact that Zach utilizes a variety of mediums in an intuitive manner– everything from hot glue to rum. He is an artist who is not afraid to test the limits of his materials. Zach is currently a student at the University of Kentucky. Zach is currently and undergraduate student in art education/studio at University of Kentucky. To read an interview with Zach, click HERE
faulter, 60×60, acrylic on plastic bags. Zach Stein’s Winning Gallery
Catherine McCormack-Skiba, the founder myartspace and CEO noted “The student body within myartspace is significant in size and importance. We devised a scholarship program for both our graduate and undergraduate students to compete for consideration and win a meaningful cash scholarship. We hope to expand this program each year.”
Catherine McCormack-Skiba went on to say, “We had entries to the scholarship program from students at over 1,200 colleges and universities. The unbridled spirit and creativity from this group is quite impressive. While the top winners receive their recognition and award money, virtually all the submissions were of top-notch quality. We applaud the young contemporary artists in school today. Their contribution to the fine art world will be felt for decades to come. We are so excited from this first scholarship program we will be launching our 2009 scholarship program later this year and hope to see more than double the participation. Myartspace remains focused on improving the lives and careers of its community members.â€
About myartspace:
myartspace, the premier online venue for contemporary art, is one of the fastest growing and diverse communities on the internet. Its members include more than 50,000 artists, collectors, galleries and other art world professionals from across the globe, and it currently hosts the work of nearly 30,000 artists. Membership is free and artist can upload an unlimited amount of work including images, music and video. Myartspace is created and run by CatMacArt Corporation. www.catmacart.com.
Here’s a great project by A. Bill Miller and Brandon Bauer in Milwaukee.
Blatz Beer Baron
Say the artists (slightly edited):
The work was presented at the Blatz Building in Milwaukee as part of the Make Your Own History group exhibition. This site is more in line with what we originally intended for the project.
The 15 animated gifs act as portraits across time, highlighting two important moments in the history of Milwaukee.
Each of the 15 Beer Barons/ Breweries that were in operation in Milwaukee at one time is represented by one portrait. This moment was the rise of Milwaukee industry and effected how the city became what it is. The texts come from Milwaukee newspaper coverage of the Brewery Union Workers strike that, according to some local historians, eventually lead to the end of beer brewing in Milwaukee. This in turn lead to the departure of industry and jobs from Milwaukee and effected how the city became what it is now.
Link – some great animations!
Tis the season to be giving. Remember: net.art and digital art and interactive art would not be where they are today without turbulence.org. They don’t offer memberships, don’t have a community list-serv, don’t have comments on their site. But every other major community -with memberships or not- is constantly and consistently talking about what they do, and who they support. They have several amazing, ad-free blogs, have commissioned hundreds of international projects, and are all-around ongoing supporters of the arts in ways that have touched all of us in some way.
I gave $25 before I did my holiday shopping. Please, if you have not spent all your money for the year yet, you should, too. Every dollar counts.