Archive for the ‘art’ Category
So, I guess we should all be freelancing for free?
So, I guess we should all be freelancing for free?:
I just don’t understand anything anymore.
Wealthy musician Amanda Palmer, who last year raised $1.2 million on Kickstarter to produce and release a record, recently used a TED talk to expand on the idea that artists should be willing to work for free. After relaying a story about how she used to be a street performer, Palmer, who is married to a very successful author named Neil Gaiman, told an audience of people who’d paid $7,500 apiece to be there that musicians shouldn’t “make” people pay for their work, but rather “let” people pay for their work. She also explained that she found it virtuous when a family of undocumented immigrants huddled together on their couch for a night so that she and her band could have their beds, because her music and presence was a fair exchange for the family’s comfort. After about 13 minutes of explaining why she is content with people giving her things, Palmer received a standing ovation.
[I know that visual artists are very vocal about this issue. My experience is that they have more concerns about this than others seem to. Maybe they get more requests for free work? I'm not sure. But I disagree with the analysis above. I don't think Ms. Palmer was asking anyone to work for free. She was suggesting as many do, that you need to flip the model, and use that in your attempt to cut through the clutter and noise. Offer people the opportunity to purchase your art… a model that works for some people and not others, and some cases and not others. In short there's a difference between "talent for hire" and "art". And a lot of folks think of their work for hire as art. It's not for me to say, but I think the distinction I'm trying to draw is important when it comes to "free".]
Source: Luc Latulippe
Marveling at the existence of the greatest phone ever made.
Marveling at the existence of the greatest phone ever made:
If I tell you the greatest thing about the iPhone 5 is how it “feels,” you’ll accuse me of being a superficial aesthete who cares more for form than function. You don’t care how a phone was built or how it looks; you just want it to work. But I think that argument misses something important about what it means for a phone to “work well”: When you’re holding a device all the time, how it feels affects its functionality. Or, as Steve Jobs might say, how it feels is how it works.
[I know this to be true from objects I craft myself. If people are going to touch it, how it feels is a huge part of how it works. I recently built some objects that were "so nice" that the folks they were built for refused to use them as they were designed. In short, they put a cover on them. An utter failure.]
The Rule of Transformation
I find the notion of transformation is a pretty good question to ask about copyright conundrums. Did the copier transform the work? If yes, then the derivative is not really a “copy”; it’s been transformed, mutated, improved, evolved. That is still a judgement call, but it is the right question.
[Good stuff.]
Source: The Technium
David Garcia Studio: Pessoa Clock
David Garcia Studio: Pessoa Clock:
In an attempt to formalize the ritual of waiting, a clock was devised to leave traces of poems while it was turned on. The clarity of the traces is directly proportional to the amount of time one has to wait. The text engraved in the base is a poem by Pessoa, depicting concepts of time, and the futility of understanding them fully. Cinnamon is slowly dropped by the rolling cylinder, leaving traces on the street.
[I'd want up with cinnamon everywhere… but I like the idea of creating some art while I wait. I dislike waiting when it's because the other party is late...]
Source: Chris Adler
Teller Reveals His Secrets | Arts & Culture | Smithsonian Magazine
Teller Reveals His Secrets | Arts & Culture | Smithsonian Magazine:
Magic is an art, as capable of beauty as music, painting or poetry. But the core of every trick is a cold, cognitive experiment in perception: Does the trick fool the audience? A magician’s data sample spans centuries, and his experiments have been replicated often enough to constitute near-certainty. Neuroscientists—well intentioned as they are—are gathering soil samples from the foot of a mountain that magicians have mapped and mined for centuries.
[Awesome.]
Street Art meets Poetry
The Scottish artist, Robert Montgomery, like countless street artists who came before him, hijacks billboards and bus stops to display his melancholic verse. For ten years, he’s been replacing ad pitches with poetry and presenting commentary on culture, ranging from consumerism to beauty…
[While the hijacking makes me queasy, I love the words and the result. Such is art.]
Source: Design You Trust
Lists of Note: Thelonious Monk’s Advice
Lists of Note: Thelonious Monk’s Advice:
- Just because you’re not a drummer, doesn’t mean you don’t have to keep time.
- Pat your foot & sing the melody in your head, when you play.
- Don’t play the piano part, i’m playing that. don’t listen to me. I’m supposed to be accompanying you!
- Don’t play everything (or every time); let some things go by. Some music just imagined. what you don’t play can be more important that what you do.
- A note can be small as a pin or as big as the world, it depends on your imagination.
- When you’re swinging, swing some more!
- You’ve got it! If you don’t want to play, tell a joke or dance, but in any case, you got it! (to a drummer who didn’t want to solo).
- Whatever you think can’t be done, somebody will come along & do it. A genius is the one most like himself.
- They tried to get me to hate white people, but someone would always come along & spoil it.
[A picked a few faces. Can't have enough Monk. Can. Not.]
