![Post image for New Aesthetic Watch: Google Beatbox [UPDATED]](http://hyperallergic.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/google-beatbox-HOME.jpg)
All Your Beatbox Are Belong to Us. I’m not kidding.
LOS ANGELES — Look out, world, the New Aesthetic is coming. Or is it? We here at Hyperallergic thought we might start collecting more evidence of the tide of new aesthetics sweeping our tweeting-clicking-instagramming.
This week’s Required Reading has a talk by Ji Lee, Anthony Weiner on the street, Samarqand pics, Lucien Freud’s subjects speak, the Museum of (in)Tolerance, Google image search changes, Matt Black’s Mexican photos and James Schamus on art in times of crisis.
After all the serious back-and-forth debate about social media-based art around here lately, we figured it would be nice to lighten things up a little …
Community is enough to make Google+ worth a whirl, but what exactly does the site provide for artists? Conversely, what is it missing? A few initial thoughts based on a week’s worth of use.
In another giant leap for art online, Google has released Art Project, a collaboration with a group of 17 international art museums, including New York’s own Metropolitan and Museum of Modern Art, to put their collections online. But this isn’t just a rehash of some online slideshow. Museums participating in Art Project can be digitally toured in two ways: as a Google Street View-style walking trip through the physical museum itself, as well as an artwork-by-artwork tour, with masterpieces of museum collections viewable in a slick image window. Here’s what Art Project does better than any other digital art viewer out there.
Some time in 2004, I logged onto Facebook for the very first time. My alma mater was one of the few allowed coveted access to the Harvard-originated social network. I filled out a profile, uploaded a picture and began adding friends. A coast away, Tim O’Reilly coined the term “Web 2.0” … Computers and the Internet, after decades of association with nerds and misfits, were on the brink of mainstream cool.
First MoMA acquires “@” and now the Library of Congress (aka @librarycongress) is acquiring every tweet since March 2006. It’s always great to see institutions look past the monetary value of things and elevate the bonds we all share. So, next time someone luddite asks you “Who do you think is interested in what you had for breakfast?” You can confidently respond, “The Library of Congress, asshole!”
Far too often great art on the Internet gets lost amidst the clutter of virtual mediocrity, or simply gets far too buried in the “shared” list of your RSS aggregator of choice. We’ve done the detective work for you and present five great pieces of art that should be on your radar (or at least saved to a different Bookmarks folder) …
