On The Ground Looking Up

The Amazing Phone Book Carvings of Alex Querel

Philly's own Alex Queral is a sculptor who uses phone books as his carving medium, which pretty outstanding results. See some of them below, or click here for many more.

A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter

Rarely am I so perplexed and inspired by one thing. But today is one of those days. After reading a post by @meat99 (Tom Ajello) on A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter by Caleb Larsen.

What is ATTDAS? Good question. And after my brief explanation you still may not know.

Yes, it is a work of art. Yes it is a black box. Yes it posts itself to EBAY continuously for resale. Wait a second, what?!?

As the artist explains, ATTDAS is a work of art that has a physical and a perpetual online state. If either of these cease, then it no longer is noticed as a work of art by the artist that created it (whether this reduces the art value of it will be up to the collector to determine). So you buy the piece of art off of EBAY. You then get it in the mail, plug it in to Ethernet and it will re-post itself at the last paid bid (current bid: $4,250). You are agreeing under contract with the artist that when and if it sells, you will send it to the new highest bidder (and pay the artist 15% of your appreciation). The next person gets it and does the same. Whether you have it for 1 week or 10 years will be determined by the desire for the artwork. The artwork itself is predicated on it always being offered for auction. 

Talk about augmented reality! Is the physical piece a work of art in itself or simply a representation of a concept that is auctioned off virtually and in perpetuity? 

 

As noted from the agreement you make when buying the artwork:

"A. Artist has created a work of art titled “A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter (2009)” (“the Artwork”) which consists of a black box that places itself for sale on the auction website “eBay” (the “Auction Venue”) every seven (7) days. The Artwork consists of the combination of the black box or cube, the electronics contained therein, and the concept that such a physical object “sells itself” every week.

B. Collector understands and agrees to the underlying concept and function of the Artwork and that the sale of the Artwork by Artist is dependent and conditioned upon Purchaser’s agreement and adherence to the below terms. Such terms are fundamental and crucial to the on-going viability and artistic integrity of the Artwork."

and

"Any failure to follow these terms without prior consent of Artist will forfeit the status of the Artwork as a legitimate work of art. The item will no longer be considered a genuine work by the Artist and any value associated with it will be reduced to its value as a material object and not a work of art."

My brain is still hurting a bit while thinking of this, but it is a truly inspiring (and perhaps meaningless) approach to the collaboration between technology, desire and creativity and it encourages me to think differently than I had, which is what I strive to do as much as I can.

How much is the current bid? You can always track it at http://atooltodeceiveandslaughter.com.

Random Images From My Desktop 17

 

10,000 American Apparel Shirts And Not A Scantily Clad Woman Among Them

Check out this amazing suspended structure using 10,000 American Apparel t-shirts. I love the idea of turning everyday items into something completely different. It does sort of remind me of the GE Appliances event we did in Times Square a few years ago.  Many more images and description of the sculpture here.

Interactive Architectural Projections

Great fun with projections and interactivity.

via Adverblog via Kimchee @ 215blog

Happy 2010!

Feeling very optimistic about this year and looking forward to more creativity, more interesting discussion and more connections with all of you out there.

Art by Patrick Thomas

Portrait Of The Blogger As A LEGO

Made from the just released LEGO free app on iPhone.

Happy Twismas!

Interference's own Mad Genius-In-Residence, Alpay Kasal, created this little holiday gem. Based on the technology we utilized for GE's Twitter Windows, he created a set of Christmas tree ornaments that have LED lights in each of them.

Each ornament is tied to a specific holiday word, which when anyone mentions in it in a tweet, causes the light to flash. Twitter search terms include: Christmas, Xmas, Santa, mistletoe, peace, cheer, consumerism, joy, presents, jingle bells, happy new year, 2010, and many more. So get to tweeting those words and make this tree light up!

Video to come soon.

Guitar Hero Christmas Lights

I think he has too much time on his hands! Happy Holidays from geeks, nerds, techies, wii, the future, unicorns, goths, santa, stephen hawking, and more!

Converse Goes Artsy

Our friends at Guerrilla Communication just reported on this fantastic 'I wish I had thought about this' idea from Converse to turn old shoe boxes into pinhole cameras and then use the images in your social networks. So simple and yet so smart. Activating the emerging creative class, in any market, is a great way to get attention from those very same people who are using the social media tools to share their passions.

Read more here.