British artist and former hacker James Howard uses spam text and imagery to make deliciously unsettling digital (and physical) collages.
Sandhi Schimmel Gold (above) makes stunning collages with junk mail and other ephemera.
And a little shameless self-promotion on a chilly Saturday night: The Spam Oracle knows all (but might not tell you much).
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Objects often have stories attached to them. They can commemorate an event; they are often transformed into family heirlooms and passed on with the stories associated with them. Amalthea also tell stories, but these stories are online, so have the potential to include text, video, image and music. They can be added to over time, creating a repository of memories and information.
Next-generation sculpture and ceramics by British artist Michael Eden, using QR codes and 3D printing – among other technologies.
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It’s all about libraries at the moment.
Jane McGonigal‘s new game Find the Future launches May 21 at the New York City Public Library – an awe-inspiring building in its own right, where you could (and should) get totally lost for hours and hours. Don’t miss Pooh. (Bring Kleenex; you’re a sap).
Alas the teleporter is in the shop, so I’ll have to settle for playing the online version after the event launch. I’d love to see a similar event for Melbourne – drop me a line if you’re interested in collaborating. (Especially if you have any contacts at the state library.) (Or are Jane McGonigal.)
Fortunately it’s not all topside love – for us antipodeans there’s Libraryhack, a data-mashing competition sponsored by the National, State and Territory libraries of Australia and New Zealand (NSLA). The competition officially opens May 1, but plenty of datasets have already been made available.
The competition has three categories:
Each with a $6K prize; submit as many entries as you like, no entry fee.
There goes my “evenings away from the computer” plan …
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This is what happens when I let myself fall three years behind on sifting my folder of potential blog posts:
I miss cool things.
I think it’s time to start paying attention again.
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Nothing mind-bending here, but a recent LA Times column by Gregory Rodriguez (which has unfortunately fallen into some kind of archival black hole and rendered itself unlinkable) mentions Ray Oldenburg and his theory of Third Places, which Rodriguez fears will be the next victims of the tanking economy. The suburbs have already dealt a massive blow to this much more vibrant way of life, which is probably why the very thought of them sends deadening chills down the spines of most urbanites.
“In the absence of informal public life, living becomes more
expensive. Where the means and facilities for relaxation and leisure
are not publicly shared, they become the objects of private ownership
and consumption.”“What suburbia cries for are the means for people to gather easily,
inexpensively, regularly, and pleasurably — a ‘place on the corner,’
real life alternatives to television, easy escapes from the cabin fever
of marriage and family life that do not necessitate getting into an
automobile.”“Most needed are those ‘third places’ which lend a public balance to
the increased privatization of home life. Third places are nothing more
than informal public gathering places. The phrase ‘third places’
derives from considering our homes to be the ‘first’ places in our
lives, and our work places the ‘second.’”"The character of a third place is determined most of all by its
regular clientele and is marked by a playful mood, which contrasts with
people's more serious involvement in other spheres. Though a radically
different kind of setting for a home, the third place is remarkably
similar to a good home in the psychological comfort and support that it
extends…They are the heart of a community's social vitality, the
grassroots of democracy, but sadly, they constitute a diminishing
aspect of the American social landscape."
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Nothing like scooping the WSJ by, oh, 4 freakin years.
And yet, the Journal totally fails to grasp the current news hook on this dusty old story: How will the jesters fare in the court of Obama?
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I can't stop watching this. It's hypnotizing.
And it makes me want to sell off all my worldly possessions (again), pack a very small bag, and go hobo (again).
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I'd never even heard of Max Mosley before running across this story at work.
There's something quite compelling about it—I can't get it out of my mind. Not the S&M angle so much as the intriguing tension between his personal attitude toward the scene and decision to spend a lifetime hiding his involvement from his family. That must have done his head in something fierce at times.
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