D&DN

Noted: Why less than 5% Germans tweet; drawing the line at data-driven emotional manipulation; ethical algorithms; geofencing the Barbican; and guess who’s a jerk?

Hello@D&DN (Unknown) — Tue, 8 Jul 2014 01:11:00 +0100

Why Germans shun Twitter, The Economist (audio edition).

‘Facebook’s [timeline] experiment reveals a much deeper problem with the internet today’, writes entrepreneur and Forbes’s contributor Tarun Wadhwa.

The current relationship between consumers and internet companies is unsustainable. … The reality is that in an environment where companies control all the information … you will always be a ‘lab rat’.

Woodrow Hartzog, assistant professor of law at Samford University, and Evan Selinger, associate professor of philosophy at Rochester Institute of Technology, submit ‘the way to fix it’.

If we’re to learn something from the debate over the ethics of Facebook’s emotion study and move forward, the answer must lie in collective action.

Owen Barder, Senior Director for Europe at the Center for Global Development, foresees an ethical debate over driverless cars.

Would you buy a [self-driving] car programmed to put the interests of strangers ahead of the passenger, other things being equal?

Digital artists have erected a geofence around the Barbican’s Digital Revolution exhibition, in response to Google’s efforts.

Demanding artists to use some Google technologies to create art is also a bit awkward. It’s like asking a sculptor to use graffiti as a medium. Let artists choose and create their own tools … If you want to reach out to the [digital] art community, don’t spend your money on a marketing stunt: buy our art instead.

And Eric Schwitzgebel, professor of philosophy at University of California, captures the ‘worldview of the jerk’ — and engenders further discussion about the offensiveness of offensive language.

How to Make a Happening (1966): Listen to Allan Kaprow’s 11 rules of unpredictable art

Hello@D&DN (Unknown) — Fri, 4 Jul 2014 16:45:00 +0100

Legendary American painter Allan Kaprow instructs listeners in how, and how not, to make a ‘happening’.

Forget all the standard art forms: don’t paint pictures, don’t make poetry, don’t build architecture, don’t arrange dances, don’t write plays, don’t compose music, don’t make movies. And above all, don’t think you’ll get a happening by putting all these together. […] The point is to create something new.

Read the full transcript here.

Rik Mayall (1958–2014)

Hello@D&DN (Unknown) — Mon, 9 Jun 2014 20:53:00 +0100

Video: Alan B’stard, the sleazy British politician brilliantly portrayed by Mayall in the 1980s sitcom The New Statesman, proposes shutting down the healthcare service.

Beloved comedian and actor Rik Mayall has died at 56.

Guardian columnist Mark Lawson pays tribute.

@UKComedyNews has collated video clips from many of Mayall’s best performances (here).

How to Do Visual Comedy

Hello@D&DN (Unknown) — Wed, 28 May 2014 03:09:00 +0100

How to do visual comedy like filmmaker Edgar Wright.

via kottke

Interview with multi-media artist Russell Mills - video

Hello@D&DN (Unknown) — Wed, 21 May 2014 16:58:00 +0100

(via WN)

russellmills.com

Music: HNNY’s ‘Music For Listening’ mixtapes

Hello@D&DN (Unknown) — Sun, 18 May 2014 23:39:00 +0100

Fantastic mixtapes compiled by Stockholm producer Johan Cederberg, aka HNNY. Classy vintage soul and easy-going jazz — with a dash of cocktail lounge and exotica — shaken and stirred with slices of dialogue from schmaltzy Hollywood films.

You can listen to the latest compilations above or download Music For Listening in its entirety here.

LINE SEGMENTS SPACE (2013) - video

Hello@D&DN (Unknown) — Sun, 18 May 2014 17:07:00 +0100

Video of digital artists Elliot Woods and Mimi Son’s ‘LINE SEGMENTS SPACE’, a beguiling light and sound sculpture installed at the Seoul Art Space in 2013.

A tectonic equivalent of Ryoichi Kurokawa’s Oscillating Continuum.

Jacqueline Mina: Gold

Hello@D&DN (Unknown) — Fri, 16 May 2014 22:40:00 +0100

A lovely, four-minute film about contemporary British goldsmith and jeweller Jacqueline Mina OBE and her unorthodox use of traditional goldsmithing techniques. ‘Gold’’ has a contemplative feel of beauty, wonderment and tranquility.

(via Crafts Council)

Short film: Internet Machine - trailer

Hello@D&DN (Unknown) — Fri, 16 May 2014 01:29:00 +0100

Trailer for Timo Arnall’s multi-screen film, Internet Machine, which documents the massive Telefónica data centre in Alcalá, Spain.

(via The Verge and elasticspace)

URME anti-surveillance mask

Hello@D&DN (Unknown) — Fri, 9 May 2014 14:49:00 +0100

(via CNET and Leo Selvaggio)

Book-in-progress: Game Programming Patterns

Hello@D&DN (Unknown) — Thu, 8 May 2014 01:15:00 +0100

Electronic Arts alumnus Bob Nystrom’s Game Programming Patterns is shaping up nicely to become a must-read for game developers.

You can start reading the book online and follow and comment on the work in progress at the code-sharing website GitHub.

‘Inside New York’s Art World’: Interview with Chuck Close, 1979 - video

Hello@D&DN (Unknown) — Wed, 7 May 2014 17:20:00 +0100

Television interviewer Barbaralee Diamonstein talks to renowned American photorealist Chuck Close, whose paintings eschew ‘elegant or meaningful or powerful art marks’ in favour of a rational system of incremental marks and colour.

In this archive interview, Close speaks openly and in detail about his work and process, revealing his unique sensibility, vision and adeptness to hold several apparently contradictory ideas in harmony.

You can browse the collection of artist interviews from ‘Inside New York’s Art World’ here.

Cento Lodigiani’s fun animated take on ‘The Illusion of Life’

Hello@D&DN (Unknown) — Thu, 1 May 2014 16:30:00 +0100

New York-based motion designer Cento Lodigiani takes inspiration from Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston’s 1981 animator’s bible, Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life, in creating his visual exposition of the basic techniques of classical animation.

(via Cento Lodigiani)

Matthew Carter’s TED2014 talk: My life in typefaces

Hello@D&DN (Unknown) — Sat, 19 Apr 2014 01:34:00 +0100

Type designer Matthew Carter speaking at TED2014 conference.

The question is, does a constraint force a compromise? By accepting a constraint, are you working to a lower standard? I don't believe so, and I’ve always been encouraged by something that Charles Eames said. He said he was conscious of working within constraints, but not of making compromises. The distinction between a constraint and a compromise is obviously very subtle, but it’s very central to my attitude to work.

(via ted.com)

Computer simulations teaching themselves to walk

Hello@D&DN (Unknown) — Fri, 18 Apr 2014 03:09:00 +0100

That’s one small step for an ill-proportioned human, one giant leap for slapstick biological cybernetics.

Impressive natural-looking motion based on 3D skeleton interaction and muscle geometry — triumph and failure in equal measure.

(via asbradbury)

This entry was updated on 25 April 2014.

Artist Simon Bouisson’s nine-hour film of a man walking backwards through Tokyo

Hello@D&DN (Unknown) — Tue, 8 Apr 2014 00:19:00 +0100

In this nine-hour sequence of long takes, photographer Ludovic Zuili seems to be walking through a city moving backwards in time.

(via Simon Bouisson and France 4)

This entry was updated on 18 May 2014.

Video: Black Francis narrates children’s storybook ‘Lost Sloth’ by J Otto Seibold

Hello@D&DN (Unknown) — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 14:38:00 GMT

[In this video] Lost Sloth — illustrator J. Otto Seibold’s fantastical picture book about a narcoleptic sloth trying to make it across town in time to claim his prize of a shopping spree; and, fanboy Black Francis (aka Frank Black) — Pixies’ left-field frontman who wrote this song about an alien lost on holiday. Perfect match.

Wait, there’s more: Francis and the Guardian cartoonist Steven Appleby are reportedly collaborating on a graphic novel titled ‘The Good Inn’, to be published early next year by SelfMadeHero (UK) and Harper Collins (US). The synopsis. is. bonkers.

Watch Bridget Riley at work: Arts Council of Great Britain film, 1979

Hello@D&DN (Unknown) — Mon, 2 Dec 2013 23:49:00 GMT

Great half-hour film on British Op art painter Bridget Riley. The queen of perceptual disruption speaks about her work.

Part I, Part II and Part III above.

Listen to artist Grayson Perry’s fascinating talks from Playing to the Gallery: BBC Reith Lectures 2013

Hello@D&DN (Unknown) — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 18:45:00 GMT

Turner Prize winner Grayson Perry as his female alter ego Claire

Grayson Perry, winner of the 2003 Turner Prize, delivers the annual BBC Reith Lectures — the first ever by a visual artist. In four fascinating talks, the self-described ‘Essex transvestite potter’, (known for his ceramic works, printmaking, drawing, sculpture and tapestry) explores the role of art in society, the limits of contemporary art and the idea of how we judge quality.

Dip into audio, transcripts and video clips of Playing to the Gallery on The Reith Lectures site, or listen to all four lectures available on SoundCloud below.

Audio

Lecture 1: Democracy Has Bad Taste

In his opening Reith Lecture, Grayson Perry reflects on the idea of quality and examines who and what defines what we see and value as art. Recorded at Tate Modern, London.
Lecture 2: Beating The Bounds

In the second lecture, delivered at St George’s Hall in Liverpool, the artist analyses the common tests of a piece of art — from commercial worth to public popularity to aesthetic value.
Lecture 3: Nice Rebellion, Welcome In!

Recorded in front of an audience at The Guildhall in Londonderry, Perry asks if revolution is a defining idea in art, or has it met its end?
Lecture 4: I Found Myself In The Art World

In his final lecture, Perry discusses his life in the art world: the journey from the unconscious child playing with paint, to the award-winning successful artist of today. Recorded at Central St Martins School of Art, London.

Artist image via Flickr

George Maciunas: Piano Piece (1962) — an outrageous absurdist composition in 12 movements

Hello@D&DN (Unknown) — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 17:05:00 GMT

(Referenced in Jon Henricks’ Fluxus Codex.) Instructions on how to perform all twelve movements of Piano Piece, the 1962 absurdist score by Lithuanian architect and graphic designer George Maciunas (then-leader of the avant garde collective Fluxus):

No. 1: Let piano movers carry piano into the stage

No. 2: Tune the piano

No. 3: Paint with orange paint patterns over piano

No. 4: With a straight stick the length of a keyboard, sound all keys together

No. 5: Place a dog or cat (or both) inside the piano and play Chopin (hell no!)

No. 6: Stretch three highest strings with tuning key until they burst

No. 7: Place one piano on top of one another (one can be smaller)

No. 8: Place piano upside down and put a vase with flowers over the sound box

No. 9: Draw a picture of the piano so that the audience can see the picture

No. 10: Write ‘piano composition no.10’ and show to the audience the sign

No. 11: Wash the piano, wax and polish it well

No. 12: Let piano movers carry piano out of the stage

Watch several of the movements, (including Carpenter’s Piece — No. 13, 1964, an ancillary composition in which performers hammer nails into piano keys) successively staged by artists and musicians in 1985 at Denmark’s Festival of Fantastics, below.

Let the racket begin …

Music video: Aphex Twin — ‘On’ (1993), stop-motion dir. Jarvis Cocker

Hello@D&DN (Unknown) — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 15:10:00 GMT

(via)

PBS short: Is Code the Most Important Language in the World?

Hello@D&DN (Unknown) — Mon, 11 Nov 2013 18:01:00 GMT

What is code and why does it matter? In this persuasive PBS Arts episode, several programming evangelists hold to the opinion that ‘everyone should learn to code’.

But as interface designer Bret Victor, in his 2012 essay ‘Learnable Programming’, points out:

Programming is a way of thinking, not a rote skill. Learning about ‘for’ loops is not learning to program, any more than learning about pencils is learning to draw.

You can read Victor‘s incisive essay here.

Video: Buster Keaton stars in silent short ‘High Sign’ (1921)

Hello@D&DN (Unknown) — Tue, 5 Nov 2013 00:25:00 GMT

Masterly. Enjoy.

The Punk Singer theatrical run

Hello@D&DN (Unknown) — Mon, 4 Nov 2013 19:14:00 GMT

Documentary (screening in US) about Kathleen Hanna, fearless lead singer of feminist punk band Bikini Kill. Directed by Sini Anderson (trailer above, website).

Actor Ernest Borgnine was no Johnny-come-philately, a 1978 30-second TV PSA on collecting stamps

Hello@D&DN (Unknown) — Fri, 1 Nov 2013 23:47:00 GMT

Best public service announcement ever. Beefy actor Ernest Borgnine — known for villainous roles — clobbers a punter in a bar-room brawl scene, right before he breaks character, steps off camera and blows the lid on stamp collecting.