Artist and writer Kate Durbin is both an internet scavenger and connoisseur. Like a cultural anthropologist, she prowls the immaterial space of Tumblr, discovering user-generated content that describes the semi-anonymous emotional outpourings of masses of women, girls and young people. I first discovered her project “Girls, Online,” through a Facebook post.
January 16, 2013
Posted inOpinion
The Best Artist Statement Generator I’ve Seen Yet
There have been artist statement generators before, and there will be more to come. In the meantime, however, I’ve found my favorite artist statement generator of all: 500 Letters.
Posted inArt
What Makes a Library a Library?
The latest controversy striking the tumultuous world of libraries (a very shocking place) is the announcement of a bookless library to open this fall in San Antonio, Texas. The new space will look and function more like an Apple store than what we would traditionally think of as a library, but how much does that matter when it comes to providing public access to information?
Posted inArt
The Refrigerator as a Window onto the Soul
To peer into one’s refrigerator is to peer into one’s soul — at least, that’s the premise of You Are What You Eat, a photography series by San Antonio–based photographer Mark Menjivar, on view at Boerum Hill’s delightful micro gallery 0.00156 acres. The seven photographs featured in the exhibition depict the interiors of refrigerators in various US households, images Menjivar took over three years spent traveling across the nation, curious about America’s eating habits.
Posted inOpinion
A Look Back at Aaron Swartz’s Open-Internet Art Project
Aaron Swartz, the 26-year-old internet pioneer, Reddit co-founder, and activist programmer who tragically committed suicide last week, made an intriguing entry into the art world last year at Rhizome’s Seven on Seven conference, which brings creative technologists into collaboration with artists. Swartz participated with Taryn Simon, an American artist who often works to visualize sets of data with her photography.
Posted inNews
MTA Rejects Advertising for Looking Too Much Like Graffiti
The Museum of Modern Art may be one step closer to recognizing graffiti as a legitimate art form, but New York City is not. Writer Adam Mansbach, who took part in last week’s “Writers and Writers” event at MoMA, has a post on the Awl about being denied subway advertising space that he was prepared to pay for because the writing in his ad looked too much like graffiti.
Posted inArt
The Relationship Between Science and Art, Explored Through Laboratory Architecture
BRIGHTON, UK — Tucked behind an aging mews of terraced houses in the historic city of Cambridge is a hidden modernist science facility. Negotiating tight security and an immaculate grey gravel drive, expectations climb as you approach an understated entrance in a warm yet sleek façade. The straight lines inspire; a horizontal accent calms. The building has also been sunk a little to root the botanical research lab in the present. If you ever held childhood aspirations toward being a scientist, this structure is designed to revive those dreams before you even cross the threshold.
