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# Required Reading
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/required-reading-28/
- Published: 2011-09-18T16:10:27.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T15:35:59.000Z
- Description: This week … insights into Ai Weiwei's photos, photos of Japan's gangs, aesthetics of interactive space, William Gibson on cities, fake Guggenheims, superhero costumes, art thefts in Toronto, vintage street art & graffiti spots in New York.
- Author: Hrag Vartanian
- Tags: Opinion, #image-position-hidden, Art Crime, Graffiti, Guggenheim Museum, John Yau, Required Reading, Street Art, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-11-17 09:23 (2009-2011)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/09/japan-gangs-600.jpg)

A detail of one of Anton Kusters's images of Japanese gangs (via businessinsider.com)

Here is the linkage for this Sunday’s edition of Required Reading.

![](http://c2771442.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/H-12.png)

*Brooklyn Rail* art editor John Yau [gives us some insight](http://brooklynrail.org/2011/09/artseen/ai-weiwei-new-york-photographs-1983-1993?ref=hyperallergic.com) into this past summer’s Ai Weiwei photo show.

![](http://c2771442.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/H-12.png)

 A photographer [explores Japan’s most notorious gangs](http://www.businessinsider.com/strippers-tattoos-and-caskets-a-crazy-photog-takes-us-inside-the-world-of-japans-most-notorious-gangs-2011-9?ref=hyperallergic.com). My question is “how did he convinced them to give him access?”

![](http://c2771442.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/H-12.png)

 Tom Chatfield writes about [gaming and the aesthetics of interactive space](http://thecreatorsproject.com/blog/guest-column-gaming-and-the-aesthetic-of-the-interactive-space?ref=hyperallergic.com) over at The Creators Project:

> It’s become an increasingly common practice in recent years to dismiss the worst and most vacuous kinds of art in other media — in cinema, on television, even in books — as “like video games.” What’s usually meant by this is a mindless kind of frenzy: anaesthetizing, undifferentiated action involving metal, muscles and guns. Some games do look like this from the outside, and the worst ones play like it, too. But this is a brand of criticism that couldn’t be further from the truth.

![](http://c2771442.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/H-12.png)

 Boing Boing [interviews William Gibson](http://boingboing.net/2011/09/01/william-gibson-interview-boing-boing-exclusive.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) about his new book, Zero History, but they also touch upon the GOP presidential race, industrial design and his Twitterfeed.

> *Related: Gibson was* [*interviewed*](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=gibson-interview-cities-in-fact-and-fiction&ref=hyperallergic.com) *in* Scientific American *about depicting cities in fact and fiction, he also published an essay in the September edition of the magazine about “*[*Life in the Meta City*](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=life-in-a-meta-city&ref=hyperallergic.com)*” but that is only available to subscribers.*

![](http://c2771442.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/H-12.png)

 A fascinating [story of the fake Guggenheims](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/business/the-guggenheim-connection-fame-riches-and-a-masquerade.html?ref=hyperallergic.com).

![](http://c2771442.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/H-12.png)

 A helpful [infographic](http://www.colourlovers.com/business/blog/2011/09/15/the-colors-of-good-vs-evil-comic-book-color-palettes-infographic?ref=hyperallergic.com) that documents what the color of a superheros costume usually tells us about the character. *h/t fanboy*

![](http://c2771442.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/H-12.png)

 There’s been a rash of art thefts in Toronto this year, so [this article](http://www.thegridto.com/culture/arts/monet-for-nothing/?ref=hyperallergic.com) explores the city’s art theft underground. The article presents the following fact:

> That’s not to say art theft isn’t astonishingly lucrative: **It’s the** **fourth-largest global black market**, with annual revenues that stretch easily into the billions.

![](http://c2771442.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/H-12.png)

 Luna Park gives WNYC some [spots in New York](http://culture.wnyc.org/articles/features/2011/sep/13/graffiti-walking-tour/?ref=hyperallergic.com) you can visit to see vintage graffiti and street art, including works by REVS, COST and Lee Quiñones.

[*Required Reading*](http://hyperallergic.com/tag/required-reading/) *is published every Sunday morning, 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.*