The Art Reference

Seth Godin´s Daily Post

2012-07-08T10:38:00.000-03:00

The artist says, "that sounds like business, and I want nothing to do with it. It will corrupt me and make me think small."

The businessperson says, "art is frightening, unpredictable and won't pay."

Because the artist fears business, she hesitates to think as big as she could, to imagine the impact she might be able to make, to envision the leverage that's available to her.

And because the businessperson fears art, she holds back, looks for a map, follows the existing path and works hard to fit in, never understanding just how vivid her new ideas might be and how powerful her art could make her.

There's often a route, a way to combine the original, human and connected work you want to do with a market-based solution that will enable it to scale. Once you see it, it's easier to call your bluff and make what you're capable of.

- by Seth Godin

Rethinking Information Diversity in Networks - by Eytan Bakshy

2012-03-07T21:27:00.000-03:00

How do your friends shape the information you see and read online? Social networking technologies like Facebook let us connect to hundreds, even thousands of people -- and have fundamentally changed how people get their information.

While much of our time is spent communicating with close friends about events in our personal lives [1], we also use online networks to share breaking news, discuss political issues and learn about new trends. In 2010, my colleagues Itamar Rosenn, Cameron Marlow, Lada Adamic and I conducted a study on Facebook to understand the nature of information spread in social networks.

Some claim that social networks act like echo chambers in which people only consume and share information from likeminded close friends, stifling the spread of diverse information. Our study paints a different picture of the world.

Instead, we found that even though people are more likely to consume and share information that comes from close contacts that they interact with frequently (like discussing a photo from last night’s party), the vast majority of information comes from contacts that they interact with infrequently. These distant contacts are also more likely to share novel information, demonstrating that social networks can act as a powerful medium for sharing new ideas, highlighting new products and discussing current events.

The research suggests that Facebook isn’t the echo chamber that some might expect – online social networks may actually increase the spread of novel information and diverse viewpoints.

Social Networks as Information Pathways

Economic sociologist Mark Granovetter was one of the first to popularize the use of social networks in understanding the spread of information. In his seminal 1973 paper, The Strength of Weak Ties [2], Granovetter found that surprisingly, people are more likely to acquire jobs that they learned about through individuals they interact with infrequently rather than their close personal contacts.

To explain this phenomenon Granovetter used social graphs to illustrate how networks relate to information access (Figure 1). When a person interacts with two individuals frequently, those individuals are also likely to interact with one another. It follows that people tend to form dense clusters of strong ties who are all connected.

Figure 1: We are connected to core groups of strong ties that we interact with frequently and weak ties that we interact with infrequently. Granovetter's hypothesis about the "strength of weak ties" states that weak ties facilitate information flow from disparate clusters of people.

What do these structures have to do with information access? Since people in these clusters all know each other, any information that is available to one individual spreads quickly to others within the cluster. These tight-knit social circles tend to be small relative to people's entire social network, and when it comes to information about future job opportunities, it can be hard to find new leads.

Granovetter used the relationship between interaction frequency and social structure to explain why information about jobs is instead found through weak ties that we interact with infrequently. Weak ties help spread novel information by bridging the gap between clusters of strong tie contacts. The strength of weak ties informs much of the popular understanding of information spread in social networks.

Birds of a Feather Surf Together

But what about information that is more widely available, like news on the Internet? To understand the flow of more general types of information in society, it’s important not only to take into account how people are connected, but also the commonalities that promote the spread of information. One of the most robust findings in social networks is that of homophily [3], the tendency of individuals with similar characteristics to associate with one another. Individuals are connected to each other through workplaces, professions, schools, clubs, hobbies, political beliefs and other affiliations. The homophily principle holds true for any kind of social network you can think of: close friends, professional contacts, classmates and even the people you ride the bus with.

Today, these commonalities not only shape how often people interact and what they talk about, but also what kinds of information they as individuals seek on the Web. Homophily suggests that people who interact frequently are similar and may consume more of the same information. Individuals that interact less often tend to be dissimilar and may consume more diverse information. This view of the world is illustrated in Figure 2 below.

Figure 2: Information spread in online social networks. Our study suggests that strong ties are similar and more likely to be tuned into the same web sites. Weak ties, being more dissimilar, tend to visit different websites.

Interest and Novelty

To understand how online social networks affect the spread of information, we used random variation in the News Feed to determine how likely a person is to share Web content if she did or did not see the content shared by her friends. We found that people are more likely to share the information they were exposed to by their strong ties than by their weak ties on Facebook (Figure 3).

Figure 3: People are more likely to share information (links to Web pages) that they were exposed to by strong ties in their News Feed [4]. Tie strength between two individuals is measured by the number of comments a person received from their friend on Facebook. Other measurements of tie strength, like the number of messages, co-appearances in photos, and discussion on posts are discussed in our paper [5].

There are many possible explanations for the increased flow of information across strong ties. One reason is that close contacts are more likely to be similar to one another, and therefore find content shared by their close friends more interesting. An alternative explanation is that strong ties are more "influential", so that people are more likely to be persuaded to share information from their close contacts.

We also investigate how Facebook amplifies information distribution. That is, if a friend shares something on Facebook, how many times more likely are you to share that information as a result of seeing it in the News Feed? The figure below shows how this multiplicative effect depends on the strength of your tie with that friend.

Figure 4: Weak ties spread novel information that people are unlikely to otherwise see. The figure above shows how many times more likely people are to share a page because of exposure via the News Feed from strong and weak ties.

We found that information shared by a person's weak ties is unlikely to be shared at a later point in time independently of those friends. Therefore, seeing content from a weak tie leads to a nearly tenfold increase in the likelihood that a person will share a link. In contrast, seeing information shared by a strong tie in News Feed makes people just six times as likely to share. In short, weak ties have the greatest potential to expose their friends to information that they would not have otherwise discovered.

The Collective Influence of Weak Ties

Ultimately, we are interested in how these network effects shape information spread as a whole. Even though a person is more likely to share a single piece of information from one of their close contacts, it turns out that weak ties are collectively responsible for the majority of information spread.

Let's consider a hypothetical example (illustrated in Figure 5). Let's say a person has 100 contacts that are weak tie friends, and 10 that are strong tie friends. Suppose the chance that you'll share something is very high for strong tie friends, say 50%, but the weak tie friends tend to share less interesting stuff, so the likelihood of sharing is only 15%. Therefore the amount of information spread due to weak and strong ties would be 100*0.15 = 15, and 10*0.50 = 5 respectively, so in total, people would end up sharing more from their weak tie friends.

Figure 5: People are more likely to share information from their strong ties, but because of their abundance, weak ties are primarily responsible for the majority of information spread on Facebook. The figure above illustrates how a majority of influence (orange) can be generated by weak ties, even if strong ties are individually more influential.

It turns out that the mathematics of information spread on Facebook is quite similar to our hypothetical example: the majority of people’s contacts are weak tie friends, and if we carry out this same computation using the empirical distribution of tie strengths and their corresponding probabilities, we find that weak ties generate the majority of information spread.

Conclusion

The information we consume and share on Facebook is actually much more diverse in nature than conventional wisdom might suggest. We are exposed to and spread more information from our distant contacts than our close friends. Since these distant contacts tend to be different from us, the bulk of information we consume and share comes from people with different perspectives. This may provide some comfort to those who worry that social networks are simply an echo chamber where people are only exposed to those who share the same opinions. Our work is among the first to rigorously quantify influence at a mass scale, and shows that online social networks can serve as an important medium for sharing new perspectives, products and world events.

Footnotes

[1] Common experience would suggest that we spend most of our time communicating with only a few individuals on Facebook. To a large extent, this is true, and documented in Backstrom, et al. Center of Attention: How Facebook Users allocate Attention. ICWSM, 2011.

[2] M. Granovetter. The Strength of Weak Ties. American Journal of Sociology, 1973.

[3] An extensive and accessible introduction to homophily can be found in McPherson et al. Birds of a Feather Flock Together. Annual Review of Sociology, 2001.

[4] It is important to note that very often, information does not "cascade" very far along the network. This phenomenon has been observed in earlier research on Twitter in Everyone's an Influencer: Quantifying Influence on Twitter and has been studied across other networks more extensively in upcoming work by Sharad Goel and Duncan Watts at Yahoo! Research, NY.

[5] The Role of Social Networks in Information Diffusion. E. Bakshy, I. Rosenn, C.A. Marlow, L.A. Adamic, ACM WWW 2012

This was written by

Eytan Bakshy

KHAN ACADEMY

2012-02-22T17:52:00.001-02:00

I am kind of nerd and I love finding cool stuff / references online!!! Here anotehr GRET one. If you love learning more and more and like a special attention, you will just love KHAN ACADEMY, an online academy with tons of educational videos of various subjects...AND AND AND among of them is ART HISTORY!

Rothko, No. 3/No. 13, oil on canvas, 1949 from Smarthistory Videos on Vimeo.

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KHAN ACADEMY:
http://www.khanacademy.org/

SMART HISTORY:
http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org
VIDEOS:
http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/videos.html

COWBIRD - new social network!

2012-02-20T23:18:00.001-02:00

If you have been following me, you know I love Jonathan Harris, a computer artist. Harris has amazing projects and a portfolio filled with love and art.

COWBIRD is the newest one! You will definitly love it. After two entire years of codes, Harris released his witness to life social network. The concept surpasses what current social networks purpose.

Cowbird allows you to keep a beautiful audio-visual diary of your life, and to collaborate with others in documenting the overarching “sagas” that shape our world today. Sagas are themes and events that touch millions of lives and shape the human story.

Check it out! You won´t regret.

Check COWBIRD: http://cowbird.com/

Jonathan Harris´ works: http://www.number27.org/

The Joy of Books

2012-01-14T12:02:00.002-02:00

Cautious Optimism at Chinese Art Auctions - by Nicholas Forrest

2011-12-12T21:28:00.001-02:00

Although the latest round of auctions of Chinese artsuggest that the rate of growth of the Chinese art market appears to have slowed somewhat, the results are far from disappointing. In fact, the sheer volume of works being sold combined with the prices being paid for many of the most desirable works appearing at auction in China is difficult to fathom. While most of what we know about the market for Chinese art comes from Western sources, the true state of the Chinese art market can really only be determined by looking beyond the results of Western auction houses such as Christie’s and Sotheby’s, to the results of Chinese auction houses such as China Guardian auctions and Beijing Poly International auctions.

When delving into the depths of the epic auctions held by China Guardian and Beijing Poly International it becomes apparent that the Chinese art market is very much still dominated by works produced using traditional techniques and displaying a classical aesthetic. Traditional style ink on paper paintings clearly influenced by Chinese calligraphy occupy so many of the top prices paid atauction in China that one could be forgiven for thinking that Chinese buyers aren’t buying anything else. Although the 2011 Autumn auctions held by China Guardian and Beijing Poly yielded some truly remarkable results that seem to create a positive picture of the Chinese art market, the market’s reliance on such a narrow niche is cause for concern.

The highlight of the 2011 Chinese Autumn auction season was the sale of Xu Beihong’s ‘Cultivation on the Peaceful Land’ which was sold by Beijing Poly International for a record RMB 266,800,000(42,108,586.09 USD). Coming in a close second was Fu Baoshi’s masterpiece ‘Chairman Mao’s poetry octavo volumes’ as sold by Beijing Hanhai auctions for an artist auction record of RMB 200,000,000 million (31,565,656.74 USD). Shengjia auction sold “Chairman Mao’s poetry octavo volumes” in 2003 for 19,800,000 – a record at the time for Baoshi’s work. The third highest price went to an album of landscape paintings by the master Qi Baishi which fetched RMB 194,000,000 (30,618,687.03 USD) at China Guardian’s “Grand View: Chinese Paintings Highlight” held on the 13th of November. Previously sold by China Guardian for RMB 5.17 million in 1994, Baishi’s landscape album is an good example of how rapidly the market for Chinese art has developed. Also breaking the RMB 100 million mark was Wang Hui’s “Chinese poetic figure” which was also sold by China Guardian for RMB 126,500,000 (19,965,277.89 USD).

One of the most notable diversions from the traditional ink on paper paintings was the sale of San Yu’s CHRYSANTHEMUM oil on board for RMB 34,500,000 ( 5,445,075.78 USD). The Chinese born, Paris trained artist’s CHRYSANTHEMUM resembles the work of European abstractionists more than the work of any traditional Chinese artist, but still exhibits elements reminiscent of the traditional Chinese aesthetic. The auction record for a work by Yu is USD 14,726,564.

iamges:

1. ‘Chairman Mao’s poetry octavo volumes’ by Fu Baoshi

2. ‘Cultivation on the Peaceful Land’ by Xu Beihong

**Nicholas Forrest is an art market analyst, art critic and journalist based in Sydney, Australia. He is the founder of http://www.artmarketblog.com, writes the art column for the magazine Antiquesand Collectibles for Pleasure and Profit and contributes to many other publications. LINK

Battles - Ice Cream

2011-12-12T21:13:00.002-02:00

BBC´s Great video of David Attenborough - Wonderful World - and the Nature!

2011-12-10T10:11:00.001-02:00

For you to get inspired!!!

The erosion in the paid media pyramid - Seth Godin -Learn how to sell

2011-12-03T10:05:00.001-02:00

Starting from the bottom:

Free content is delivered to anyone who is willing to consume it, usually as a way of engaging attention and leading to sales of content down the road. This is the movie trailer, the guest on Oprah, the free chapter, the tweets highlighting big ideas.

Mass content is the inevitable result of a medium where the cost of making copies is inexpensive. So you get books for $20, movie tickets for $8 and newspapers for pocket change. Mass content has been the engine of popular culture for a century.

Limited content is something rare, and thus more expensive. It's the ticket that everyone can't possibly buy. This is a seat in a Broadway theater, attendance at a small seminar or a signed lithograph.

And finally, there's bespoke content. This is the truly expensive, truly limited performance. A unique painting, or hiring a singer to appear at an event.

Three things just happened:

A. Almost anyone can now publish almost anything. You can publish a book with out a publisher, record a song without a label, host a seminar without a seminar company, sell your art without a gallery. This leads to an explosion of choice. (Or from the point of view of the media producer, an explosion of clutter and competition).

B. Because of A, attention is worth more than ever before. The single gating factor for almost all success in media is, "do people know enough about it to choose to buy something?"

C. The marginal cost of one more copy in the digital world is precisely zero. One more viewer on YouTube, one more listener to your MP3, one more blog reader--they cost the producer nothing to produce or deliver.

As a result of these three factors, there's a huge sucking sound, and that's the erosion of mass as part of the media model. Fewer people buying movie tickets and hardcover books, more people engaging in free media.

Overlooked in all the handwringing is a rise in the willingness of some consumers (true fans) to move up the pyramid and engage in limited works. Is this enough to replace the money that's not being spent on mass? Of course not. But no one said it was fair.

By head count, just about everyone who works in the media industry is in the business of formalizing, reproducing, distributing, marketing and selling copies of the original creative work to the masses. The creators aren't going to go away--they have no choice but to create. The infrastructure around monetizing work that used to have a marginal cost but no longer does is in for a radical shift, though.

Media projects of the future will be cheaper to build, faster to market, less staffed with expensive marketers and more focused on creating free media that earns enough attention to pay for itself with limited patronage.

>>> Seth Godin´s Blog LINK

ART DUBAI´s Art Week Education Programme

2011-11-29T20:43:00.001-02:00

Art Dubai is delighted to announce the launch of the Art Week Education Programme, providing opportunities for young people in the UAE to get involved in the world of contemporary art and design.

A new series of monthly seminars will begin at the Pavilion, Downtown Dubai, on December 4, 2011 as part of Art Dubai’s continual efforts to grow art audiences, support local talent, and provide educational opportunities for locally-based students and graduates.

Art Week (March 15-25, 2012) is an umbrella initiative that includes new gallery exhibitions and artists’ projects, fairs, performances and major museum shows, taking place across the UAE and the Gulf to coincide with Art Dubai.

The aim of the new seminars is to offer participants an opportunity to gain a broad understanding of contemporary art and design; meet like-minded students, graduates and enthusiasts; and the chance to apply for a place on the Art Week Internship Programme.

The seminars take the form of a series of talks and workshops by leaders within the field. Once a month, from December to March, attendees will have access to experts sharing their knowledge, insights and practical advice. The seminars will also be an opportunity to network with the speakers, like-minded students, graduates and individuals.

The seminars will cover a wide range of topics; from an introduction to Art Week and the internship programme; gallery management and exhibition-making; foundations and the not-for-profit sector; artists’ residencies; and the contemporary design industry. Talks will be given by industry key figures, gallery owners, educators, previous interns and artists.

The seminars are also targeted at potential interns and on-site fair assistants.

“I have interned with Art Dubai twice already. It’s a great experience to get exposed to the art world, gain valuable knowledge, meet people and make contacts for the future,” said Madiha Qadir Sheikh, from the College of Fine Arts, Sharjah.

“The office is a very active place where people are open to new ideas. I felt I was contributing as I was given a few responsibilities. It was fantastic to be part of the team and learn how a major international art fair is organised and managed.” Noor Al Khaja, American University of Sharjah.

“We are delighted to be growing Art Dubai’s educational programme to encompass year-round seminars and educational initiatives that will offer insight on the latest developments in the Middle East’s contemporary arts landscape. These programmes have been designed to offer students, graduates and arts enthusiasts a chance to actively participate in successful international fairs, immerse themselves in the local cultural community and engage with artists, gallerists, curators, filmmakers and other visionaries,” said Antonia Carver, Fair Director, Art Dubai

“Our foremost ambition is to create a platform where local participants can create and exchange ideas and play an interactive role as the region’s art sector develops.”

Art Dubai’s internship Programme was initiated in September 2007. Since then over 300 students and recent graduates from 40 nationalities and 18 educational institutions have participated in the scheme and gone on to find further work experience opportunities and permanent placements within Art Dubai and its partner organisations.

ART DUBAI: http://www.artdubai.ae/

Meryl Streep Movie List

2011-11-26T12:28:00.001-02:00

More and more I fall in love with Meryl Streeps work. Lately, I am watching lots of movie of her. If you dont know already, IMDB.com (Internet Movie Database) is a great source for you to search about actors, movies and put together a great Movie List for the weekend. I am having trouble sleeping lately, so I take my laptop to bed with me and watch a movie every other day.

I´ve done a Meryl Streep List and I have watched so far:
1. The Devil wears Prada
2. Lions for Lambs
3. Mamma Mia!
4. Kramer vs Kramer
5. The Bridge of Madison County (I am still crying over this one!)
6. The hour
7. Its complicated!
8. Doubt
9. Prime

I have just finished watching The Bridge of Madison County and I am still crying over it. It was so simply, deep, thoughtful and delightful. This is one kind of movie you always want to watch but I end up not having the chance to. I have always had it in my To-Watch list and finally I did it. Meryl Streep plays an Italian woman called Francesca and Clint Eastwood plays Robert Kinkaid, a National Geographic´s landscape photographer. Meryl Streep is a house wife mother of two and Clint ends up knocking on her door asking for directions. They have a four day affair and iniciate a lifetime platonic romance. It is so dense and beautiful.

At the end, Robert sends her a book with a Lord Byron poem:
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.
- Lord Byron

Movie quotes:

Francesca: And in that moment, everything I knew to be true about myself up until then was gone. I was acting like another woman, yet I was more myself than ever before.

Robert Kincaid: This kind of certainty comes but once in a lifetime.

Robert Kincaid: I don't want to need you, 'cause I can't have you.

Francesca: Robert, please. You don't understand, no-one does. When a woman makes the choice to marry, to have children; in one way her life begins but in another way it stops. You build a life of details. You become a mother, a wife and you stop and stay steady so that your children can move. And when they leave they take your life of details with them. And then you're expected move again only you don't remember what moves you because no-one has asked in so long. Not even yourself. You never in your life think that love like this can happen to you.
Robert Kincaid: But now that you have it...
Francesca: I want to keep it forever. I want to love you the way I do now the rest of my life. Don't you understand... we'll lose it if we leave. I can't make an entire life disappear to start a new one. All I can do is try to hold onto to both. Help me. Help me not lose loving you.

Robert: When I think of why I make pictures, the reason that I can come up with just seems that I've been making my way here. It seems right now that all I've ever done in my life is making my way here to you.
Francesca: So, do you want more eggs or should we just fuck on the linoleum one last time?

Francesca: I realized love won't obey our expectations, it's mystery is pure and absolute. What Robert and I had, could not continue if we were together. What Richard and I shared would vanish if we were apart. But how I wanted to share this. How would our lives have changed if I had? Could anyone else have seen the beauty of it?

Robert Kincaid: Things change. They always do, it's one of the things of nature. Most people are afraid of change, but if you look at it as something you can always count on, then it can be a comfort.

The bridge of Madison County at IMBD LINK

The next Meryl STreep movie I want to watch is Sophie´s Choice, but I am kind of reluctant on this one. It seems really sad. I would need to be in the mood for it...I just dont know if I need to be in a bad-down mood and watch it to cry it all or to be in a good mood to look at it with other eyes....I never know the best mood to watch certain kind of movie......If it is a good mood for a down movie, a down mood for a down movie, a good mood for a fun and light movie or a down mood for a funny movie...There are lot of choices before watching a movie...aff !

lets see which day!!!

Manchester Orchestra - Simple Math

2011-11-20T15:45:00.001-02:00

Afff!

2011-11-18T22:20:00.001-02:00

Funny days these days! Kind of not in the mood for anything other than laying in bed under the sheets and watching movies or dr House. Sarcastic humor! No books, no magazines, no museums, no references...aff!!!

Record Club: Skip Spence "Books Of Moses" by Beck Hansen

2011-11-13T14:46:00.001-02:00

Record Club: Skip Spence "Books Of Moses" from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Question Book - My Release

2011-11-12T13:08:00.001-02:00

I am really proud and happy to announce that I have released my first book: The question book or Livro das Perguntas. It is a game-pocket-book with 317 questions about life, experiences, love, religion, politics and else with the objective for you to get know more and more your friends! It is a great game to take to the camping, the beach, the bar and play with friends along with great food and drinks!

My friends and I playing the game after the book release!!!

I created a character, an EGG, called EMBURRADINHO or Little SULK (egg on the picture).

Book cover!

The Question Book promotion winner, Felipe Rollin, with his Ass-Egg picture! Congrats Felipe!

Very funny!

I ate my character! Indeed!

Actress Mariana Bassoul, the funny egg and I giving out tongues

Bernardo Souto request a book kiss!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/LIVRO-DAS-PERGUNTAS/299135780101794

Promotion: Winner Ass-Egg: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.302486149766757.94918.299135780101794&type=3

Little SULK at RIO: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.306609212687784.95951.299135780101794&type=1

To buy: SARAIVA ONLINE BOOKSOTORE: http://www.livrariasaraiva.com.br/produto/3686651/livro-das-perguntas/?ID=C8BA0D9E7DB0B040E1D220744

Little SULK at the beach having a coconut water!

Tongue egg at the beach!

Little SULK egg among my golf ball collection!

Book illustration!!!

Promotion picture!

Which came first: the egg or the chicken?

Egg's cellulitis !!!

Ostrich egg from Northfield, Missouri! Thanks Herreid Family!

Promotion picture!

So that's why I am not posting a lot here at the blog. I have been really busy lately with the book release! My bad!!!

Hugs from Brazil...

Questions for a new entrepreneur - Seth Godin

2011-10-30T10:47:00.001-02:00

A few things came up over coffee the other day. His idea is good, his funding is solid, there are many choices. Some of the questions that don't usually get asked:

Are you aware of your cash flow? The thing about a fish in the stream is that it doesn't care if the water is six inches deep or a foot deep. As long as it never (ever) goes to zero, it's fine. What's your zero point? What are you doing to ensure you get to keep swimming?

Are you trying to build profit or equity? A business that builds a brand, a footprint, a standard and an audience might end up being worth millions (witness Tumblr, which has many millions of value but zero profitabilty). On the other hand, a business with no exit value at all might spin off plenty of profit (consider the local doctor's office). It would be great if you could simultaneously maximize both the value of your company and the profit it produces (in the short run), but that's unlikely.

What's your role? Do you want to be a freelancer, an entrepreneur or a business owner? A business owner is the boss, but it's a job, a place that is stable and profitable. An entrepreneur is an artist of sorts, throwing herself into impossible situations and seeking out problems that require heart and guts to solve. Both are fine, but choose.

Are you trying to build a team? Some business owners want to minimize cost and hassle. Others are trying to forge a culture, to train and connect and lead.

Which kind of risk is okay with you? There's financial risk, emotional risk and brand risk (among others). Are you willing to put your chips on the table daily? How about your personal reputation?

And finally, and most important, why? Why are you doing this at all?

* No reason for context of this pictures. It is just random.

Seth Godin´s Daily Message

2011-10-30T10:19:00.002-02:00

The paradox of expectations

Low expectations are often a self-fulfilling prophecy. We insulate ourselves from failure, don't try as hard, brace for the worst and often get it.

High expectations, on the other hand, will inevitably lead to disappointment. Keep raising what you expect and sooner or later (probably sooner) it's not going to happen. And we know that a good outcome that's less than the great one we hoped for actually feels like failure.

Perhaps it's worth considering no expectations. Intense effort followed by an acceptance of what you get in return. It doesn't make good TV, but it's a discipline that can turn you into a professional.

Woody Allen singing at Carlyle in New York

2011-10-29T18:06:00.000-02:00

Real Life Version of Simpsons

2011-10-29T12:19:00.000-02:00

I did not know Lisa was red-headed!
I liked the fact that Simpsons are ugly in real life, but I bet there were better actors to represent them!

My last five girlfriends

2011-10-09T16:58:00.000-03:00

I am slow lately, coach potato, if you will. Watching lots of movies. And this English movie is a good (silly romantic style) one: My last five girlfriends! I loved the theme park metaphor to relationships in life.

After yet another failed relationship, 30-something Duncan (Brendan Patricks) decides to quiz his last five girlfriends to find out what went wrong in order to figure out how to find love. With advice from bizarre sources and intense flights of fancy, finally Duncan realises that love is a battleground where only the fittest can survive.

Duncan's suicidal note:

What you've collectively done to me is quite an achievement. Four years ago, I was happy to believe in a very simple concept. You might have heard of it, it's called LOVE. But thanks to the five of you, I now know that love is a lie, a myth specifically concocted to bring me as much pain and misery as possible. Wendy: were you ever really that interested in me, or was I merely a holiday while you and him went through a dull patch? Olive: almost everything I told you was a lie. Sorry about that. Rhona: who'd you think I was? If I was that wrong for you, then you really should have paid more attention at the start. Natalie: okay, so I know I've had enough of this one, but did you really want ME, or just someone? And Gemma: what should I say to you? I suppose I should forgive you.

This is a suicide note, after all. Okay, I forgive you. But I don't want that to make you feel any better... I'm sure you'll all find someone. You might even think you're in love, but don't kid yourselves: we're all just playing out scenes we've seen in films, the only difference is that our stories have depressing endings. When real people walk towards a sunset, no music swells, no credits roll - they just get to the end of the beach, have a row, and walk back to the car. And that's depressing! In fact after reading this, you might feel your only option is to join me! And that's the one thing I wouldn't blame you for. Bye then: Duncan.

Jockey Club Wall´s Grafitti

2011-10-01T22:17:00.001-03:00

ARTRio - International Art Fair

2011-09-25T18:36:00.000-03:00

BRAZILIAN INTERNATIONAL FAIR

FIRST BRAZILIAN INTERNATIONAL FAIR

A GIFT TO THE CITY

ART RIO FAIR

Two weekends ago, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) fianlly received a most deserved gift of all. Rio steps out of the shadow of São Paulo’s art world prominence this week as the launch of ArtRio.

In this first edition, ArtRio brings to Rio’s port region the collections of some 80 national and international galleries, ranging from the modernist avant-garde to contemporary art, with many works never before seen in Brazil.

The event also includes the Art Video Program, by curator Alberto Saraiva, and the Solo Project Program, by curators Julieta Gonzalez (co-curator of Latin American art at the Tate Modern) and art dealer Pablo Leon de la Barra, who will gather artworks by a select team of 15 foreign artists, produced especially for the Fair.

Organizers Brenda Valansi Osorio and Elisangela Valadares (picture), experienced artist and gallerist respectively, were inspired by the vibrant art festival feel of the Miami Basel art fair. It’s an appropriate inspiration for ArtRio, as Brenda explains to The New Yorrk: “There’s a similarity between the cities, with the tropical themeand tourism…you can see that Miami Basel really benefits the city culturally and economically which is something we want for Rio too.”

I can say that the fair received the huge response it did from the public because of the partnership with two Brazilian multi-millionaires from the entertainment business, Alexandre Accioly (below) and Luiz Calainho (left).

LINKS:

Site--> http://www.artriofair.com.br

Pictures --> http://www.artriofair.com.br/en/fotos.asp

Sponsors --> http://www.artriofair.com.br/en/patrocinadores.asp

Galleries --> http://www.artriofair.com.br/en/galerias.asp

I had the privilege to visit the fair and spend there almost 7 hours.

Here are some pictures.

I hope you like!!!

PAVILLION #2

Adriana Varejao @ Athena Gallery Art

Pinakotheke Cultural Gallery

Pavillon #2 @ 2pm - opening time

Outside the PIER

Book Store where the seminars were held.

Really nice book selection.

Marcos Lopez from Spain @ Il Museo - Fernando Pradilla

Moises Mahiques

OsGEMEOS - Brazilian Grafitti Artists

José Bento @ Celma Albuquerque Galeria de Arte

Luiz Hermano @ Amparo 60

Approved and Denied Stamp

Sex Symbols with the hands

Os Gemeos

Cicero Dias´ Atelie

Cícero Dias is one of the foremost contemporary Brazilian painters. His work can be said to pass through distinct moments, although it does not follow a rigorous chronology and neither are the periods entirely mutually exclusive. In the first phase he approaches fantasy art. From 1940 he envolved slowly towards the abstract, to return to the figurative in the 1960′s.

The one that I most liked is the one on top with the piano.

Icon Ferrari @ DAN Galeria

Vicento do Rego Monteiro

Di Cavalcanti

Emiliano Augusto Cavalcanti de Albuquerque Melo (September 6, 1897–October 26, 1976), known as Di Cavalcanti, was a Brazilian painter who sought to produce a form of Brazilian art free of any noticeable European influences. His wife was the painter Noêmia Mourão, who would be an inspiration in his works in the later 1930s.

Lassar Segal

Silvan Nunes

Marcos Di Giorgio

Jeseus Soto

Fernando Botero

(check my previous post about Botero)

Fernando Botero

Shiró

PAVILLION #1

José Patrício

Calder

Artur Luiza Piza

Piza´s works illustrates SARAMAGO´s books.

Samarago is the author of Blindness which turned out into a Hollywood movie.

Cicero Dias

Mouri Patmi

Free herbal tea at the fair

I tried one to make me calm !!!

Uhul. Foda-se and Não fode as my friend said are great lines to know in Portuguese.

Hope you liked it. I did !!!!

There is something weird with BLOGGER. I cant post anything else other than the title...ARE YOU HAVING THE SAME PROBLEM?

2011-09-25T11:38:00.002-03:00

Michael Kaiser´s Q&A interview

2011-09-03T21:02:00.000-03:00

here is one guy that I admire. Micheal Kaiser. He heads the Kennedy Center in Washington.
I have read his book on Art Management and got some good advises on how to run an art business.

I hope you like this videos. I know it is long, but it is worth it!

Tim Burton

2011-09-03T15:55:00.001-03:00

Tim burton's first stop-motion work. It's a short story about a boy named Vincent Malloy who wanted to be just like Vincet Price. Voice by Mr. Price himself. Subtitles in portuguese.