My friend Reuben shot this video about five years ago in Liverpool, I just happened to find it after repairing an old broken hard drive. The dancing bear man was a Liverpool institution, and I hear he’s passed away, so the video is a bit sad. One commenter on YouTube said, “this is literally the most beautiful video i have ever seen.” Enjoy.
Here’s some info on a talk I’m doing at apexart next week. I honestly don’t know what it will be about, and it promises to be either hilarious or incredibly awkward, or both.
ser·en·dip·i·ty (srn-dp-t)
n. pl. ser·en·dip·i·ties
1. The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident.
2. The fact or occurrence of such discoveries.
3. An instance of making such a discovery.Current apexart resident Rebecca Key and curator/media historian Michael Connor meet for the first time in person. What can you learn about a person in the first meeting? What will they talk about? Anything…..everything……or nothing?
Objects, characters, events, TV, lectures, apexart, Liverpool, art, narratives, life, film, New York, fabricated situations, confusions, residency, authors, journeys, memories, artists, and randomness may be discussed.
Come and witness their first encounter at apexart.
Gawker has an article today about how Julia Allison may have broken the law by converting 2,500 of her Facebook ‘Friends’ into ‘Fans’ without their consent. Apparently, this violates laws against commercial appropriation – “simply put, the right to control whether one’s name and likeness is used in an advertisement to give the appearance of an endorsement.” Consenting to be friends with Julia Allison isn’t the same as consenting to publicly endorse her as a ‘Fan.’
The article quotes privacy expert Daniel Solove, who has written that the way that Facebook uses the ‘Become a Fan’ feature is actually against privacy law in all cases:
Suppose Michael Jordan says on national TV that he likes Wheaties. Does this allow Wheaties to use his image on its cereal box or in a commercial? The answer is no. The fact that Jordan says he likes Wheaties can be used in a news story; it can be used in a biography of Jordan. But it cannot be used in a commercial advertisement.
By extension, Solove argues, if Michael Jordan decides to ‘Become a Fan’ of Wheaties on Facebook, that information cannot be used in a commercial advertisement either – but on Facebook, it often is.
The Beall Center has just published a new catalog about the work of Jennifer and Kevin McCoy on Lulu. The catalog includes an essay I wrote about their piece The Constant World. My essay looks at the work’s relationship to artist Constant Nieuwenhuys, Godard’s film Alphaville (watch the full video online here), and the Atomium building created for the 1958 Universal Exhibition in Brussels.
Here’s a picture of the Atomium to whet your appetite:
If you’re in Philly this Saturday and you love Beanie Babies, go check out the premiere of Andrew Jeffrey Wright’s new standup comedy video ‘Live at Space 1026: Art Jokes.’ The screening is at Space 1026 at 8PM and it’s free. The video is on sale after the screening (signed edition of 100).
I even have a tiny writing credit!
I used to watch this series occasionally on PBS with my Dad when I was little and it made a weirdly huge impression on my little mind. Super excited that they’re online!
I’ll be speaking at a symposium at the Columbus Museum of Art on May 1 and 2. Tying in with the CMA’s George Tooker exhibition, the symposium “addresses the ways in which the visual arts confront or collude with surveillance, and the particular effects of surveillance that the visual arts might be best at revealing or manifesting.” I am super excited; the lineup includes artist Julia Scher and a keynote by David Simon (creator of The Wire).
Next,
