Required Reading

This week, it’s a mixed bag of artist interviews, design and social media infographics.

 Earlier this month, artist Miranda July wrote about her taste for shoplifting in The New Yorker. She writes:

… I may have realized that I didn’t need to be a criminal to be an artist. Art itself could be the crime—could be scary and dangerous enough to shoulder my rebellion.

 Jason Polan of The Believer interviews Glasgow-based artist David Shrigley. When he was asked if he draws everyday, he replied:

I don’t draw every day. I tend to draw intensely during certain periods of time. I draw to amuse myself on occasion, when I am bored and drawing is the only fun to be had.

 You may have heard of Dieter Rams, the classic modernist designer best known for his work with Brauns which inspired Apple’s best design work, but do you know the actual objects? Here are 15 classic masterpieces by him. His desk fan [pictured above] is stunning, though why does MoMA list it as the work of Reinhold Weiss and Jürgen Greubel? Hmmm… (h/t Kottke)

 The Awl has an interview with artist Duke Riley and when asked what he would tell his 20-something self, he replied:

I don’t know. I would definitely say that when you’re in high school, people always say you thought you knew everything, and then you grow up. I look back and think, “Maybe I did actually know everything.” I feel like my outlook on the world when I was a teenager, a lot of those things have come true.

 Business Week takes a look at the Greek financial crisis through the prism of culture. They talk to the 71-year-old billionaire art collector Dakis Joannou who offers his ideas about culture as business. “Culture is a big business that people are hungry for and we have huge assets,” he explains.

 Over at the LA Weekly, Kyle Chayka explores the idea of avatars as self-portraits, which he also did for our #TheSocialGraph exhibition last year. And one day very soon our catalogue for that show will see the light of day!

 LACMA is offering a free California design app for iPhone or iPad. Is any other US state so into itself like California?

 And finally, a mind-blowing Facebook infographic. Over 50% of the social network’s 800 million active users log into Facebook every day. RELATED: How recruiters use social media to screen candidates.

Required Reading is published every Sunday morning-ish, and it is comprised of a short list of art-related links (10 or less) to long-form articles, videos, blog posts or photo essays worth a second look.