Google Bible

Moses Parting the Red Sea, from God’s Eye View, a series of scenes from the Bible re-imagined via Google Earth.
All works by The Glue Society.
Found on the Creative Review blog.

2057 - The City of the Future

What scientists and technology developers have accomplish and plan to have accomplished by 2057. Hosted by Michio Kaku.

Watch the video here | digg story

The Fourth Plinth

What do you think about having high-profile contemporary art in public spaces in London, such as on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square?

Public art is part of art, part of life, part of society and part of democracy.
Now, the interesting thing, the plinth project on Trafalgar square. I would love Jeremy Deller's The Spoils of War (Memorial for an unknown civilian) to be on the plinth (picture above). I think it would be seen and 'heard', I think it's needed and missing and this piece feels exactly like this: filling a hole. As soon as I imagine it up there, it becomes very obvious to me. Synthesizing many things at once, this piece would make our consciousness manifest.

‘It is not an artwork, but the remains of a vehicle that has been destroyed in an attack on civilians in Iraq’ says Jeremy Deller.

Right. The other pleasing proposal (below) to see on Trafalgar square is Bob & Roberta Smith Faîtes L’Art, pas La Guerre (Make Art, Not War), powered by the sun and the wind. It's all positivity, feel good plinth artwork. So?
Join this exciting debate here.

Le Sale Boulot

'Le sale boulot' ('dirty work') is the theme of Vladinir Cruells' artistic research. Like a metaphore for contemporary society, the ambiguous phrase suggests a complex take on reality. Concerned with the details that make up history, his work aims to make us think differently about our surroundings, tracing the path of a dissident memory.

All images from the series 'Encombrants et autres monstres'(2007)

American smile

Michael Bierut, one of the partners at Pentagram New York contributes an image to The American Idea, a special section in the 150th anniversary issue of The Atlantic.

CIA borrows logo from Ghostbusters

“A CIA 'Terrorist Busters' logo has been outed for its similarity to one used by the 1984 comedy film 'Ghostbusters', starring Bill Murray and Dan Akroyd.
The US intelligence agency's logo uses the international red sign for forbidden as used in the 'Ghostbusters' logo but instead of a ghost there is a terrorist, dressed in black and holding up an AK47.
The logo has been in use by the CIA's counter-terrorism office in Langley, Virginia, for six years but only recently came to wider consciousness with much scorn from bloggers on the internet.
Some questioned why the terrorist is black while the ghost is white. Some wondered why taxpayers' money had been spent on designing the logo and others simply thought it must be a joke.
The intelligence agency said that the logo was not intended to offend anyone and was designed to reflect "the determination and spirit of those who were working tirelessly to overcome what we still know today to be a truly dangerous threat".
It also said that the symbol was not designed to represent any specific terrorist group or individual.”
Clearly not just a joke, check out the CIA's website .


Via Brand Republic.

LSD - The Beyond Within [Part1 of 9]

A recommended favorite from the other half of the blogus, not to be missed!
The other chapters are on YouTube.

Ever seen this?

This diamond mine is in Mirny, Eastern Siberia. It is 525m deep and 1200m in diameter. The world's largest diamond mine, but not the the largest man-made excavation on earth, which is apparently Bingham Canyon copper mine, Utah, US (805m deep and 4000m in diameter).
What is striking with the Mirny mine is the difference in scale with the city standing at the edge of the pit. The surrounding air zone is closed for helicopters after a few accidents when they were 'sucked in' by downward air flow.



The red arrow points to a giant truck called a ‘Bellaz’.

Here is a picture of a Bellaz.

Hometown Baghdad

Hometown Baghdad is a web documentary series about life in Baghdad.
The first three episodes of this co-production between NY-based Chat the Planet and a group of Iraqi filmmakers in Baghdad were released on Monday, March 19th, on the fourth anniversary of the beginning of the war in Iraq.

The series is intended to show the world what their lives are like today and be apolitical.

Also, check out Alive in Baghdad, a weekly video blog that shows the occupation through the voices of Iraqis. Through the work of a team of Americans and Iraqi correspondents on the ground Alive in Baghdad brings testimonies from individual Iraqis, footage of daily life in Iraq, and short news segments from Iraq.

Face2Face

The Face2Face project consists in making portraits of Palestinians and Israelis doing the same job and to post them face to face, in huge formats, in unavoidable places, on the Israeli and the Palestinian sides. The photos are taken with a 28mm lens 10cms away from the subject, to ‘catch the breath’ of the person who is photographed.

From the website:

‘These people look the same; they speak almost the same language, like twin brothers raised in different families.
A religious covered woman has her twin sister on the other side. A farmer, a taxi driver, a teacher, has his twin brother in front of him. And he his endlessly fighting with him.
It's obvious, but they don't see that.
We must put them face to face. They will realize.
Our wish is that, at last, everyone laughs and thinks when he sees the portrait of the other alongside his own portrait.’

This art project is not sponsored by any institution or brand.

Welcome to the EU

A few snapshots sent by Rami ‘le tsigane’ Adwan, our envoy extraordinary in Bucarest, Romania. Here are his impressions on the situation there:

“This is what Romania looks like... it is not at the eve of its accessing the EU... it had become a full member when these pictures were taken.... wish me luck and... a short stay in this crazy country!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

End of message.

Gen X–aternadad-grup thing

Here is a post taken straight from Piers Fawkes’ excellent marketing-branding-anything-inspiring blog, www.psfk.com.
Couldn’t resist... There’s a couple of interesting new words to learn and it might speak to some of you:

“Most of you probably remember that New York Times Magazine article about Grups - thirty and forty somethings who refuse to grow up. That fundamental idea has been expanded upon in a new book by Neal Pollack, entitled Alternadad.

Leah McLaren of Globe and Mail has a somewhat more cynical assessment towards the whole Gen X–aternadad-grup thing, as well as the new book.

In his new book, Alternadad, American writer Neal Pollack explores a hipster's journey through fatherhood.

Like many Gen X hipster types, he spends most of the book desperately trying to avoid replicating the mundane middle-class family life of his childhood. Unlike his parents, he is determined to raise a "cool kid." Except that conventional life (or "corporate parenting culture," as he calls it) has clearly come home to roost. He's sitting watching The Wiggles with a two-year-old, after all. And while that's nice, there's nothing alternative about it.

After pages and pages of babble about the idiosyncrasies of the authors child, McLaren comes to the conclusion that:

Even more tedious than the cute-kid stories (which most of us have come to accept and tolerate) is the alternaparent stance of, "I'm a Dad now -- isn't that ironic?" No. It's not. I know you partied hard in your 20s. I know you made art your priority. I know you vowed to never sell out by owning a car or a house or any of that bourgeois crap. I can see how surprised you are by your own ability to do a 180 on this position and become the guy in the park with the baby jogger. But guess what? No one else is surprised. You are a mammal. Your job on this planet is to procreate. And no amount of rave-going or ecstasy-dropping was ever going to change that.”

Posted by Jeff Squires on January 23, 2007 on PSFK.com

The whole story:
http://nealpollack.com/

Anti-National Front demonstration in Second life

Depuis que le parti d'extrême droite s'est installé un bureau virtuel, les placardages et mouvements de protestations se multiplient.

www.liberation.fr
vendredi 12 janvier 2007