Snappy Snaps

I wrote this a while ago but didn't know where to put it:

The man in Snappy Snaps in Cornmarket Street, Oxford, UK, wore a St Pauli sweatshirt and I thought at the time he was Romanian or Albanian. He told me that the policy now is that I must pay when placing the order for the prints - no longer when I come to collect them. He said that he trusted me, but his boss would not allow it, because people keep leaving orders and forgetting to come to collect them. Upstairs they have boxes and boxes of unclaimed photos. In an attempt at a humorous exchange, I suggested he stage an art exhibition of all the uncollected photographs. I didn’t even like the idea much but it was one of those things that must have already been done somewhere. He wrinkled his nose in dissatisfaction. He said, with an earnestness that slapped my art-student-knowingness sideways, that most of the photos are of such bad quality that it would not be worth exhibiting them. His grammar left occasional ambiguities in his speech, but I understood perfectly when he looked into my eyes and remarked,

“The digital camera has destroyed the art of photography, today it is more like a machine gun”.

Error?

Not sure what happened here, in Rainbow Painter, but I like it.

Upcoming Events

VCS Exhibition and Symposium:

http://www.visualandcritical.net/symposia/2011

here, by the way, you can also find my VCS profile and other links related to the Visual and Critical Studies dept at SAIC.

I am also speaking at eChicago, 2011, on the panel Technology and Revolution, on Friday, 22nd April at 2.15pm, held at University of Illinois, Chicago. See schedule.

I shall also be giving a short talk on Walter Benjamin at the 3rd Annual Platypus Convention, on Saturday, April 30th, at 2.45pm (time tbc), held at the School of the Art Institute, Chicago. See schedule.

options

lololololol

This Program is called GraphX and it mimics DeluxePaint for Amiga

thought?

Are we making our technology over in our own (past) images?

Are we making our images over in our past technology

Are we making our images over in our past images

Are we making our technology over in our past technology

Are we making ourselves over in our past selves

Are we making ourselves over in our past images

Are we making ourselves over in our past technology

Are we making our technology over in our past images

Are we making our technology over in our past selves

Are we making our images over in our past selves

‘Mankind is preparing to outlive culture, if need be.’ – WB: Experience and Poverty

‘Its self-alienation has reached such a degree that it can experience its own destruction as an aesthetic pleasure of the first order.’- WB WorkOfArtMechanicalReproduction

Glovesadjusted.

A brief midterm paper, close description of The Print Collector, by Honore Daumier.

Posted here with an image from some collage stuff I was doing a year or so ago, that included a sketch of the same painting. I keep returning to it in the Art Institute, it is one of my favourites.

The thinking behind the collages came from a little section on Gloves in Walter Benjamin's One-Way Street, and from a very nice pair of gloves that I got for Christmas from my Auntie and left in a scanner at school, and when I went back they had gone.

My favourite paint tool so far

This is my beautiful Dorena by Craig Hickman

you can download it here

Craig Hickman was the original creator of KidPix.

My Beautiful Dorena is a quirky tool, with a narrative and sound effects that go with it. It is a program that has really been designed for the fun of making as many cool effects as possible.

He also has a lot of other strange tinkerings on is website to explore. And some interesting photomontage.

computer club website

I'm not quite sure what the parameters are, there doesn't seem to be a theme, but there are some interesting an quirky things being posted. Some better than others. These are some of my favourites.

http://www.computersclub.org/drawing_society.html

"Sampler" - Cotton Reels as Pixels

http://www.devorahsperber.com/brooklyn_musuem/index.html

Although I don't normally go for gimicky art projects, my whole current project is gimicky so I may have to revise this idea (esp. since I recently posted a pick by Patrick Hughes, maybe I do actually like gimicky stuff anyway). However maybe this project (Devorah Sperber's) is not actually gimicky, or rather it is, but it has been really well excecuted, so I like it.