We Mine Deeper

Toothpicks, 2008 by Chris Jordan – Depicts one hundred million toothpicks, equal to the number of trees cut in the U.S. yearly to make the paper for junk mail.

Lately I’ve been especially conscious on the build and quality of the things I buy. This article nicely summarizes why we need to go back to making good, strong products that will last. Have been having a lot of fun visiting MEC and army surplus stores lately just to check out the design of things.

As for the article’s philosophies. Even if you take away their ‘it’s for the environment’ argument, the benefits still outweigh this cluttered, non-nonsensical form of disposable consumer culture we’ve created.

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the above image wasn’t part of the exhibit, but it’s lovely and important so it’s here

Yesterday and today I visited the Vancouver Art Gallery to pay homage to the Andreas Gursky exhibition that was on. It’s really fucked me up quite a bit. I relate to his work more strongly than anything I’ve seen in years… the vantage points, the magnitude, the details within that magnitude, his attitude (and lack of)… and looking at the progression in his style and philosophy really makes me question my own and where I’m going with things.

One of the biggest topics in my head concerned the perception of photography and its moral boundaries both in the industry and to a general audience. Gursky’s disregard for ‘normal’ photographic conventions (especially on the ethics of manipulation) give his work such a powerful voice that I find so lacking in much work out there now, and this includes my own. But I’m still not entirely sure if this is a good thing. Should I continue to strive for the honest depiction as so-valued in the reportage world, or can I manipulate it in order to represent it? And even then, do I represent it with visual accuracy or focus on the feeling? I feel like this is an issue that I should be over by now, but it seems to be a huge roadblock in my path. Gursky just brought the issue up and instead of being sympathetic, fired it back in my face.

Then there is his play on visual tricks. They’re fascinating and make so much of the current work we produce look dated. Gursky has broken down the communication that occurs between the eye and the brain and reconstructed this exercise in his work in ways that I’ve never even thought possible.

There is also the attractiveness of Gursky’s work. It definitely pushes boundaries from a photographic and art-world sense, but is also something that joe-public can understand. I respect an artists’ ability to achieve this immensely.

If there is at least one thing that I do know for sure after seeing that exhibition, it’s that I am for the first time convinced by the following paragraph, and that really changes how things move on from here.

This is also true of Rhein. I wasn’t interested in an unusual, possibly picturesque view of the Rhine, but in the most contemporary possible view of it. Paradoxically, this view of the Rhine cannot be obtained in situ, a fictitious construction was required to provide an accurate image of a modern river. The same thing happened when I visited over 70 world-famous industrial companies. Most of them had a socio-romantic air I hadn’t expected. I was looking for visual proof of what I thought would be antiseptic industrial zones. If these companies had been systematically documented one would have had the feeling one was back in the days of the Industrial Revolution. After this experience I realized that photography is no longer credible, and therefore found it that much easier to legitimize digital picture processing.

Another thing I do know for sure after seeing this exhibit? I haven’t lost hope in contemporary art, which is nice because I’ve been quite the cynical fucker so far.

Blood of the Young interviewed Bobby Doherty who makes some really dope super-current internet art. There’s an art history term for you – super-current. I’m going to mention that in my next class and drive everyone nuts.

Anyway, give it a quick read. Doherty’s wit definitely isn’t contained to only his art.

Describe Facebook in three words.
you x 1,000,000,000.

The Nine Eyes of Google Street View is a really great essay by Jon Rafman. If you are interested in photography, coincidences, art theory, morals and ethics, culture, the streets, kids in ireland giving cameras the finger, general facts, cool points of view, and even just Google, definitely check this one out.

My friend Kaleigh and I made a lolcat photo. It was a very enriching experience.

It must be Singapore day on WMD or something. Yanda Tan of TheArtistAndHisModel just posted up a great collection of work by Singapore artist John Clang which is definitely worth a peek. This is dope.

Múm – Half Noise

This series was made months ago when Andy Chung showed us a cool audio-visual app. I played music from my computer while the app ran in the background. After each song was done, I’d take a screenshot. but I can’t remember the name of the app anymore. (yo if you see this please email me the link to it).

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Rachel Hulin just posted a list of art grants as compiled by Leah Oates. I’ve copied it here, and please send it to anyone you think it might help.

CONTEST/GRANTS/RESIDENCIES:

http://www.womenarts.org/fund/

http://www.artcalendar.com/adlisting/index.asp?EntryFee=0

http://www.pennymccallfoundation.org/resources.html

http://www.crt.state.la.us/arts/GrantOutline.shtml

http://www.pkf.org/grant.html

http://www.foundationforcontemporaryarts.org/grant_programs/artists_grants.html

http://www.georgesugarman.com/framepage.html

http://www.calfund.org/receive/fellowships.php

http://www.creative-capital.org/application/

http://www.cciarts.org/funding.htm#

http://www.puffinfoundation.org/grants/prospectiveapplicant.html

http://www.skylarkfoundation.com/

http://www.remahortmannfoundation.org/visualarts.php

http://www.joanmitchellfoundation.org/mission.html

http://irvine.org/grants_program/howto/strong_proposal.shtml

http://www.unitedstatesartists.org/Public/GrantsProgram/BecomingaFellow/indexcfm

http://www.artadia.org/forartists.html

http://artmattersfoundation.org/contact.html

http://printedmatter.org/about/index.cfm?email=&cookie1=5257074.9&return=/index.cfm

http://www.creativetime.org/index.php

http://www.diacenter.org/

http://www.atoa.ws/

http://www.nationalcollage.com/

http://www.newamericanpaintings.com/

http://afonline.artistsspace.org/

http://www.drawingcenter.org/viewingprogram/submissions_guidelines.cfm

http://www.artpace.org/programs.php#travelGrant

http://www.kcai.edu/artspace/artist/

http://www.bemiscenter.org/residency/

http://www.chinati.org/information/artist-in-residence.php

http://artsusa.org/news/afta_news/default.asp#item1

ARTS ORGANIZATIONS (with free membership)

http://www.nyfa.org/login.asp?id=8

http://artistsregister.com/opportunities.phtml

http://www.artscams.com/

http://www.artisthelpnetwork.com/

http://www.iapaa.org/memberlist.html

http://www.artmotelradio.com/

http://art2102.org/pages/about.html

http://www.makcenter.org/MAK_General_Info.php

http://www.cca.rca.ac.uk/docs/application/index.html

http://losangeles.foryourart.com/

http://beautifuldecay.com/mission/

http://dailydujour.com/

http://www.artslant.com/

“I killed a coyote in my car today” – Jesse Smith

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via andychung