thepete.tumblr.comPosts tagged art
My life. Follow me at: http://daronnefcy.com/
This is totally me… well, if I weren’t a guy, but aside from that… yeah… me.
“The Empowered Man,” by a Utah tea party painter who loves liberty and is not at all making a racial comment.
“There’s something simmering deep inside the soul of all Americans,” the artist says. “We want to know that we’re a free people. That the government acknowledges our individual rights and that fiscal responsibility is an absolute requirement.”
Along with Carhartt jackets and blue jeans.
“Do we have freedom when one half of the country pays taxes to support the other half?” the artist asks.
Maybe he should stick to painting and grumbling to himself about this “other half”. We’ve debunked his statement here, and here, and here, and here.
It’s amazing that people can look at a document and interpret so incredibly differently from the way others do. It’s hard to not look at this guy and think he’s an idiot—and he probably is, but calling him that to his face won’t help. I just wish there was a way to encourage everyone to be critical of everything and no trust anything our parents taught us. I feel like that’s the right’s big problem. If they were good at critical thinking they’d realize that can’t be rich/greedy and get into a heaven that can’t be proven to exist. They’d also realize that this country has, as its advertising slogan, the principle of equality for all—so banning gay marriage, abortions, mosques too close to Ground Zero, etc, shouldn’t be things they are for.
Aside from all that, it’s a shame this guy doesn’t understand subtlety.
Sci-FI NES Games from a Parallel Dimension
ianbrooks: We were unfortunate enough to live through such horrible movie-licensed games like Robocop, Total Recall, and E.T. (or as we usually refer to it: That Game Which Shall Not Be Named), but perhaps somewhere in an alternate timeline where good things happened and people knew how to make good movie-based vidya gaemz, we could have had such instant classics like “They Live!” (with real 3D glasses action? Give me that) and MST3K (do you play the movie they’re watching, or just Press A to quip?)
Red Dwarf!! MST3K!! …if only!
I Love You Poster
Too scared to say those three little words? Man up. Or buy this poster and have it do the talking for you.
I just want to say this to Japan. Does Japan have a Tumblr?
IKEA KNÄPPA
Yesterday I attended a VIP sneak preview of the new IKEA PS designer furniture line in Malmö, Sweden. I was not the slightest bit interested in the designer furniture. I was there for one reason, to play with and acquire the new IKEA KNÄPPA, the cardboard camera.
The event started with everyone getting a big yellow sticker to put on their chest, a sort of VIP stamp á la IKEA, if you will. After waiting for everyone to arrive, the IKEA people announced that we could move on to the area they’ve prepared with all the furniture. On our way there, IKEA staff handed us small gift bags. This is where I knew the camera was going to be. I was ecstatic. I look down and there it is. Wrapped in classic folded IKEA carton.
They then presented us with a different assortment of food and snacks while one of the staff members showed us how the camera was operated.
They had a small presentation of all the furniture and they then let you off to roam around.
During this time I asked the staff about the camera. They told me that the camera was NOT going to be sold to the public, and that it was just made to promote this new line of designer furniture (great marketing tactic if you ask me).
After this, I quickly went home to start shooting.
Now, about the actual camera.
Description and assembly:
It is made of thick cardboard wrapped around a piece of PCB plastic.
The camera uses 2 x AAA batteries (using IKEA batteries here, obviously).
There’s two buttons in the front, the big one for turning on/taking a photo/turning off the camera (more on that later) and a small one to delete the photos from the device.
On the back there’s a small green LED light indicator and the small vinyl bolts and nuts to keep the camera together.
On the side of the camera there’s a male USB connector.
Assembling the camera is easy. You slide the two batteries in the battery compartment and you bring the other cardboard flap of the camera over to keep the batteries in place.
You then put the bolts/screws in to the mounting holes and screw the nuts on.
This is from the front and the back.
How to take a photo:¨
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGGFuD5n5go
Now how does the camera actually perform?
Well to actually get to the photos you need to plug the camera into a USB port. When you first connect it, Windows 7 automatically installs the drivers. If you haven’t taken any photos, you’ll find two files in the 15.3MB drive. One is a photo.
This is a photo of all the products in the IKEA PS line.
The second file is a README file from IKEA. I’ve attached it here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14056668/README.PDF
Now as you can see from the photo above, the quality is not that great. Its like a camera phone from 2006. Here’s more examples:
You can get quite decent photos if you manage to keep the camera steady and the scene well lit. The shutter of the camera is slow, so you’ll need a steady hand.
In conclusion, this is essentially a digital pinhole camera. But there’s something extra about it, it has that certain feel. It’s not a Leica but its made out of friggin cardboard! But even though it’s cardboard the build quality of it is surprisingly robust. Image quality isn’t always everything nowadays. I would love it if IKEA started selling these. It would gain a big following.
I know this review is somewhat long, but I hope you’ve gotten something out of it! Feel free to ask me any other questions about it.
This looks so cool… don’t know why Ikea doesn’t sell this for real. I would totally buy it and I’d imagine so would others. Thing looks like it shouldn’t cost more than $10. For that? I’d buy it in a heartbeat.
Pleeeease, Ikea!?!?! :)
I’m reeeeally not that good at this landscape stuff. I think I’m somewhat better with architecture, but only slightly. Ah well, practice makes perfect… eventually!
“Vignelli’s 1972 map wasn’t just lovely to look at. Its obsessive clarity turns out to be the perfect basis for digital information. It’s more modern looking than any of the maps that followed it. Now that people at the M.T.A. have figured out that this map is good for things other than dresses, why don’t they go the rest of the way, and bring it back as the basis for a more complete interactive map that will be kept live seven days a week?”
Yes please! The one we have now makes Manhattan look all short and fat. Completely not accurate to how it really looks.
Looks like my various streams are largely 911-ghoulishness free. I can start paying attention to the world again. :)
And don’t worry, I remembered the victims and their loved ones, but I did it positively at a short film festival at the Japan Society called “Films for Hope”. Most of these films were warm and positive and reminded me of why we should cherish life as much as we do. Humanity has an immense capacity for good. It’s a shame we focus so much on the negative. I do it, too, but I hope to change that. This is part of how I remembered 911 victims. In fact, making the world a better place through storytelling has been my life’s goal since long before 911.
Making people think, question, learn, change and grow is what art can do.
When all we do is focus on fear and suspicion we kill our imagination and our potential. I hope what I have written and what I will write will inspire people to do more than just that.
So, perhaps next year at this time we, as humans, will be able to remember the victims in more positive ways, reflect on how best to serve their memories, and not feel compelled to relive their passing. I hope what I do in the coming year (and years), along with what others do, will help us all get to that place.
Fresh work by Murakami @ Art Basel 2010
The skull is an enduring motif in Japanese art.
The skull is an enduring motif in art, period. But Murakami is a pretty amazing artist. Saw his show at the Brooklyn Museum a couple years back. Neat stuff!
rainbowhill