> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://hyperallergic.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Required Reading Debuts
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/required-reading-debuts/
- Published: 2011-01-09T12:00:29.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T15:36:09.000Z
- Description: Mary Louise Schumacher on Steve Martin's art world novel — Carolina Miranda on the "new shape of street art" in ARTnews — "Smithsonian" of Arab art in Qatar — Filip Dujardin's architectural remixes — Star Wars Modern blogs on art and technology
- Author: Hrag Vartanian
- Tags: Opinion, #image-position-hidden, Carolina Miranda, John Powers, Qatar, Required Reading, Steve Martin, 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/2011/01/requiredreading-1-top.jpg "requiredreading-1-top")](http://www.esquire.com/features/this-way-out/ipad-humor-0910?ref=hyperallergic.com)

*Starting today and continuing every Sunday morning at 7am EST, Hyperallergic will be posting a short list of art-related links. Some may be long-form articles or videos of interest, while others may be short blog posts or photo essays. Whatever they are, you can be assured they will be worth a second look.*  

**Required Reading* will bring you what you need to know in 10 links or less. We hope you enjoy a leisurely Sunday catching up on the week’s best.*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/01/futuristsbuildings.jpg "futuristsbuildings")

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2010/01/h-12.png)

**Mary Louise Schumacher** of the *Milwaukee Journal Sentinel* [reviews **Steve Martin**‘s new book](http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/entertainment/113005374.html?ref=hyperallergic.com), *An Object of Beauty*. A taste: “But the novel is more than an art-world takedown. Martin … reminds us of art’s transcendent nature, too.”

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2010/01/h-12.png)

The January 2011 edition of *ARTnews* magazine features [a cover story](http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art%5Fid=3158&ref=hyperallergic.com) by **Carolina Miranda** on the “new shape of street art.” BONUS LINK: “[Street Art: Das Musical](http://www.rebelart.net/diary/parasites4-bronco-street-art-das-musical/007640/?ref=hyperallergic.com)” via Rebel:art

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2010/01/h-12.png)

The *Economist* [explores the new “Smithsonian” in Doha, Qatar](http://www.economist.com/node/17797006?story%5Fid=17797006&fsrc=rss&ref=hyperallergic.com) that will showcase modern art in the Arab world. I have to say that I usually avoid propagating the notion of an “Arab country” rather than a country where Arabs are a majority since there are many minorities — many of whom are indigenous — that still live in those same nations (Copts of Egypt, Aramaic of Syria, Assyrians of Iraq … ) and the notion of an *Arab* country diminishes their importance.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2010/01/h-12.png)

Swissmiss points us towards the [Photoshop creations of **Filip Dujardin**](http://www.swiss-miss.com/2011/01/filip-dujardin-%E2%80%93-fictions.html?ref=hyperallergic.com), who takes photographs of nondescript buildings and remixes them into architectural fantasies. *I think they look quite a bit like late Soviet architecture.*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2010/01/h-12.png)

**John Powers**, who you may know as **Star Wars Modern**, has been evolving a lengthy series named *Art Then Technology*. His [latest post](http://starwarsmodern.blogspot.com/2011/01/art-then-technology-part-6-authority-is.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) (part 6) explains:

> Just as Art is a modern technology, a denatured form of systematized knowledge totally unlike its premodern anticents on display at the Cloisters, and far more closely related to the moden technology of scientific knowledge … , modern authority is a modern technology distinct from early forms of authority.

A sculptor and blogger, Powers has a voracious appetite for digesting disparate ideas. His recent series offers a lot to chew on, and I enjoy how he uses his blog an evolving notebook of ideas that offers some insight into the anxieties and realities of a 21st century sculptor in New York. Here are the other posts in the series:

- Part 1: “[I Want to Be a Verb](http://starwarsmodern.blogspot.com/2010/12/art-then-technology-part-1-i-want-to-be.html?ref=hyperallergic.com)“
- Part 2: “[Turn Off, Tune Out, Drop Back](http://starwarsmodern.blogspot.com/2010/12/art-then-technology-part-2-turn-off.html?ref=hyperallergic.com)“
- Part 3: “[Hitchhiking in Flatland](http://starwarsmodern.blogspot.com/2010/12/art-then-technology-part-3-hitchhiking.html?ref=hyperallergic.com)“
- Part 4: “[Sympathetic Summery](http://starwarsmodern.blogspot.com/2010/12/art-then-technology-part-4-sympathetic.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) \[sic\]”
- Part 5: “[Abstract Art Is a Technology](http://starwarsmodern.blogspot.com/2010/12/art-then-technology-part-5-abstract-art.html?ref=hyperallergic.com)” — *perhaps the best title?*

*Image caption: Left,* [*one*](http://www.ilovebelgium.be/blog/filip-dujardin-fictions?ref=hyperallergic.com) *of Filip Dujardin’s architectural* Fictions*, right, the* [*Georgian Ministry of Highway Construction*](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tbilisi%5FRoads%5FMinistry%5FBuilding?ref=hyperallergic.com) *(*[*image*](http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=76676&ref=hyperallergic.com)*) building in Tbilisi, Georgia, which was constructed during the late Soviet period.*