by Sarah Hamilton | October 27th, 2011
New Art/Science Affinities is available for purchase through print-on-demand service Lulu, or for free download via the Miller Gallery website
Contributors: Andrea Grover, Régine Debatty, Claire Evans, Pablo Garcia, Thumb Projects
Published by: Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University + CMU STUDIO for Creative Inquiry
Publication date: October 2011
I wanted to check out New Art/Science Affinities 1) because of the precocious method of writing it, and 2) because I like art and science and I’m a follower of collaborator Regine Debatty.
1)How it was written: for one week in February, the writers and designers did a “book sprint”. That is, they sat down and wrote the book together. So far, I’ve observed there’s less ego in the writing, and though the personal sense of the “writer” is missing, the interviews and statements by artists interspersed throughout the book seems to give it that blood.
2) So far the book is refusing to take on a grave tone of importance as it relates to the art. Don’t get me wrong, it’s sober, but it’s not self-important. Instantly palatable.
I’m enjoying going through it and you can too. It’s available from Lulu.com ($45.75) or download it for free from the Miller Gallery website.
by Sarah Hamilton | October 20th, 2011
Friedrich Kittler, in an undated photo
Media theorists mourn the loss of one of the greats this week: Friedrich Kittler. Kittler, whose works include “Gramophone, Film, Typewriter” and “Optical Media”, is considered the “Lacan/Derrida/Foucault of Media Theory”, though I think that the blogger Jussi Parikka nailed it when he said “I think he would have liked to be thought of as, well, I guess “Any-Band-Member-of-Pink-Floyd – of Media Theory.”
Kittler was a professor at the European Graduate School, that wonderful place where academics congregate to teach the best and brightest in the world. He will be missed.
Read some Kittler:
Introduction to Gramophone, Film, Typewriter
Discourse Networks, 1800/1900
The City is a Medium
by Sarah Hamilton | October 13th, 2011
From Epcor, graph illustrating water usage during men's gold medal hockey game, 2010 Olympics.
I love art as much as the next person, don’t get me wrong, but these days my favorite reads are actually sports blogs. Articles about hockey and baseball, actually. Totally addictive. And at the top of the blogs for me is ESPN’s Grantland.com. So as part of my obligatory blogging for the week, I’m reblogging some of my favorites from the site.
The Collapse of the Red Sox ( I don’t know if anyone cares, but the Cubs picked up the Red Sox GM Theo Epstein this week, which could mean a turn-around for the team)
Screw Boston which features the bad ass graph of water usage during a the Men’s Gold Medal game at the 2010 Olympics
Toronto: The Worst Sports City in the World (6 out of 10 of the biggest riots in Canadian history started at a hockey game.)
by Sarah Hamilton | October 6th, 2011
Courtesy of shitbox (http://halien.tumblr.com/day/2010/11/05)
We’ve all thought about it. Here’s some modern advice for modern problems
From my new favorite blog shitbox.
Also, for fun one day just google “shitbox”. You can thank me later.
by Sarah Hamilton | September 29th, 2011
…but Alessio Rastani can.
He’s this week’s meme: the trader who spoke the truth. Here’s (a link to) Rastani on the BBC:
Screen shot, Alessio Rastani on BBC
The first guess was that Rastani was a member of the Yes Men, but Felix Salmon of Reuters seemed to discredit that theory quite quickly, though he offered up an interesting hybrid theory that Rastani is both Yes Man and stock trader (he’s not). Today on the Guardian online, The Yes Men formally stated that Rastani was/is not a member of the group. They also go on to say something I don’t think I could say better:
“Something has been speaking in very plain language to millions of people. The crowds amassing in cities from New York to Athens to Paris are just the tip of the iceberg, just the most visible of all those who have long known, viscerally, that Rastani’s point of view is actually mainstream. Those people also know that, armed with truth and awareness, anything is possible.
As Michael Moore pointed out to those occupying Liberty Plaza near Wall Street, in America it’s just 400 people who own as much as most of the rest of us put together. And when the rest of us decide we really want to change the rules of the game, and take back this country for all the people, those 400 won’t be able to do anything about it.”
All eyes are now on Wall Street, and its not on the footage of the closing bell, but of the people on sidewalk, on the street. This is going to be a very interesting Fall.
by Sarah Hamilton | September 22nd, 2011
This is the conversation I had with my brother this morning:
Sarah: Alex, has anyone ever confronted you about about why you’re not Facebook friends with them?
Alex: No…wait! Yes. My friend Jen* said some really mean things about me to my girlfriend once, so I unfriended her. Then like 6 months later, she re-added me and I ignored it. Then like a week later I got another friend request from her and I was like “Ok, FINE! I guess this is really important to you.”
S: And?
A: And that was 3 years ago and I haven’t heard from Jen since. At all.
S: So what if you delete someone? Facebook isn’t a real space, it’s virtual. It doesn’t preclude the continuation of a relationship in real life. Is it the equivalent of walking away from someone at a party?
A: I think we’ve come to a point where being friends with people on Facebook does preclude any personal relationship. You meet them, you friend them, there’s an open line of communication between you now.
S: But what about people who aren’t on Facebook?
A: Their existence is fading.
S: I don’t know how to respond to this situation. Prior to social media, no one would confront you about why you lost touch. It’s paradoxical to confront someone about not being a part of their life.
A: You don’t have to respond. That’s the whole point. If this were a letter to an address you were no longer living at, then it would just get returned to sender. If it were a phone call to a number you no longer owned, the caller would receive an out of service notification. You can still try to be out of reach. The internet makes it hard, but not impossible.
Lars and the Real Girl has something to say about this…
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