Nic Rad and the PeopleMatter project sits on the panel tonight at the ArtsTech meetup along with a great cast of characters.
Check it out here.
The wait list is packed, but hey, give it a whirl.
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Social Media Week: ArtsTech Panel
Zachary Adam Cohen: True Blogmance
This lunatic wrote an article about my project.
He got it all completely wrong. Being called a modernist is a horrifying insult, but it takes a good deal of arcane education to understand why.
To that end- I love Zach. His insults are meant as compliments- vice versa.
You’d probably like his blog. It’s fun. And more or less insane. Don’t be fooled by his semi professional tone and content. He’s a sociopath. I mean that in the most endearing terms. I’ve painted the bastard…
Bartering for Art: Everything is Free!
The Britts have given up on capital exchange entirely–Art is purchased through barter.
You can trade just about anything you want for tiny birds screaming out of a telephone.
Believe it!
I Return in A Fury, Full of Wonder and Rage
It’s been a rather productive month for the People Matter project- but you wouldn’t know it here. Secret deals requiring all kinds of anonymity and mysterious players have subsumed me. Twice I was offered inflated positions on the boards of major corporations–desperate acts of a dying epoch. I rejected them of course. Be wary of proposals made at the gallows.
As it turns out, the entire world has embraced gift economics, scarcity markets have completely collapsed and been replaced by a soft brand of willful social exchange. In some parts of the country you can buy groceries with Tweets, or request healthcare by updating your Facebook status. There are entire subcultures in which you can explicitly barter your emotional and physical needs by properly commenting on message boards and posting well lit photographs of your ‘equipment.’
I’ve been deluged with evidence of this radical shift. It is being carefully collected and catalogued in a secret physical file with a complex locking mechanism (designed by a rouge defector from Smith&Wesson!). No one should be surprised to learn that this information is highly sensitive and controversial.
Physical copies are important. I’ll balk at explaining the doomsday scenarios I’m sure you can conjure. Fear is the tactic of the fearful. Ramble on, good blogger.
Until recently this media project of mine had moseyed with a quaintly apolitical approach. There was a time, circa 2009, when one could remark casually on the methods and transfer of information–but that time has passed.
From here on in, brave reader, this journey grows wicked and strange.
On guard!
Bowls of Candy: Exercise in Social Capital
Here is a cheaply produced mostly lousy video that looks at reasons one might “steal free candy.”
Dan Ariely had something do with it. He’s cool.
editorial note: Always end with the line–”Clearly, there’s more going on here than what meets the eye.”
Jimmy Wales: Compassionate Objectivism
Mr. Wikipedia fields the question on how he feels about not being fantastically wealthy. A very interesting take for a Rand man:
Sarah Palin: A Generous Spirit
Sarah is giving her book away.
But not really.
How classy. On thanksgiving Newsmax wants to offer some bait and switch. In order to get the book you must subscribe to “Newsmax” magazine for 49.95 with ‘automatic renewal.’ Sounds awful.
Also be sure to check out their other offer for a Free Emergency Radio!
“America’s homeland security, your family’s, is essential. That’s why Homeland Security* has advised all Americans that every home needs an emergency radio, in the event of hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, electric power outages, and even terrorist attacks.”
photo from a lovely blog (http://ideasandrevolution.net/)
tipoff on the marketing promo from the twitter of a site running the ad: @mediaite
Lawrence Lessig on Institutional Corruption
It’s Thanksgiving: let us talk healthcare, government corruption, gift corruption, and oil tanker spills.
You should have plenty of time for this video today, and it will make for excellent table talk. I suggest raising issues in between main and dessert courses, where your audience is captive: fat and sated. They will want to get away, but hypoglycemia and tryptophan will give you a considered advantage. Bludgeon your relatives with high rhetoric! Impress them with academic zeal! Erase all doubt that your higher education was indeed pointed and necessary.
Later, regain their confidence by getting a third helping of pumpkin pie, or publicly farting.
Our man Lessig is rather well known for his work developing Creative Commons. Here’s a little gem of a powerpoint on sweeping topics from the difference between Blagovichian corruption and the kind we should really worry about.
Relevant here at the 18:20 mark where Lessig touches on the idea that Pharmaceutical gifting is ‘bribes that aren’t considered bribes.’”
Also catch the 22:44 mark where he discuss’ issues of institutional corruption and journalism.
For a stirring conclusion, fast forward to the 25:35 mark where Lessig draws a metaphor between the passive privileged and the co workers of a drunk captain driving a super tanker.
Penny Pusher
Happened upon this project by Alexander Ho. He’s having you write him a check for 1 cent. Then he will write you a check for 1 cent. Each party loses 44 cents on a stamp… he will mail you a photo of the checks. And maybe something else. How curious:
I’m currently developing a photographic series dedicated to identifying the intangibility of money.
This work spawns as a response, and in an effort to highlight invisible, electronic, capital exchange (an action which banks profit upon). This series will, in addition, on an infinitesimal scale, utilize and corrupt the resources behind the transferring of money electronically. I am asking you, as my friend, distant acquaintance, or an encourager of my art making to contribute to this series.
The manifestation of this process demands a collaborative effort between me and you.
The procedure is simple: write out a check to me (Alexander Ho) for 1cent ($0.01 USD). The transfer of this “money” will be deposited to my bank account and, in return, I will return to you a check for 1 cent ($0.01). The action of such an exchange will be traced and documented on a physical medium, yet tangible capital does not move physically or actually exist.
For those whom are not in New York City and cannot track me down in person, I request, with great gratitude, that you mail a check, which demands that you invest in a 44cent stamp and self addressed envelope (so I can mail you back a check) to me:
Alexander Ho
231 Conselyea Street
Brooklyn, NY, 11211
I will also provide to you an equal investment of postage on my behalf, a check in return, a photographic print of your check in exchange for your participation, and maybe a surprise!
William Powhida: Biting All Hands
The more I read William Powhida’s twitter, the more I like him.
That never happens.
He has long conversations there. They are both outwardly critical and self championing, but of course that’s the point. He’s honest.
Here’s a not entirely typical example of his work (but probably just go look at his website):
His work is part criticism, part illustration, part facile sweat equity, part fan fiction–
It’s a lot of things that I love and distrust mashed together. It’s so Insidery it’s hard to take it seriously at all. But he’s dead serious. Earnest I mean.
Here’s a quip from his bio:
Currently, the artist is suffering a malaise brought on by bouts of crushing doubt about the ability of the market to cope with his rash of provocations and insinuations. When it goes south, so will he. Most likely, you’ll be able to find him somewhere in South America selling paintings of the ocean to tourists.
I’m focusing energy on gift exchange; which is not inherently positive, but is always tangled up in the creative dialogue.
So what does Powhida give? Frustration mostly. And a voice to ambivalent creators melting down against the limited pool of recognition, wealth, and respectability. Controlled by the insiders, whose major crime is somewhere between market manipulation and ego stroking. His career is devoted to deciding who is how much of what and why. Then charting that against his ego. Brutal.
Respect.
Currently, the artist is suffering a malaise brought on by bouts of crushing doubt about the ability of the market to cope with his rash of provocations and insinuations. When it goes south, so will he. Most likely, you’ll be able to find him somewhere in South America selling paintings of the ocean to tourist