- Keith Haring’s art is on a new line of sex toys, and the staff of AnimalNY took it upon themselves to ensure the “uber-advanced vacuum fuck cups” were up to par. Best review: “Still feels like I’m fucking a rubber egg.” [AnimalNY]
- Jonathan Jones, that voice of art criticism cloaked in arcane classicism, has stated in recent tirades that cavemen weren’t artists, Big Ben is a timeless work of art, and if given the option, Rembrandt should be shown over Andy Warhol. Somehow, he still has room to like Bruce Nauman. [The Guardian]
- For a time, Sweden’s biggest criminal was a wayward librarian. Nobody suspected the librarian had been stealing rare and valuable books, even though he was living the life of luxury, with “Armani suits, silk ties, Cuban Cohibas and a Mercedes.”After he was caught, he committed suicide, and became a posthumous celebrity in Sweden, with a TV mini-series and radio documentary. Now, one of his stolen manuscripts, containing the first Atlas of the Americas, has been recovered, a map worth almost half-a-million. [The New York Times]
- At yesterday’s contemporary sale, Phillips de Pury showed the bigger auction houses that they, too, can shatter records. Some examples: they brought in the highest-ever dollar amount for a Wade Guyton and for a Basquiat-Warhol collaboration.We’d predicted the Guyton would move quickly, noting he’s been a charmer to collectors in our cheat sheet to the sale. [Art Observed]
- Someone vandalized Billy the Kid’s tombstone in the Fort Sumner Museum. [Auction Central News]
- The best K-pop art ever. And yes, that is a group of shirtless boys squirting each other with a hose. [Hancinema]
- The National Academy announces its newest artist members to the academy, a group including Cindy Sherman, Bill Viola, and Robert Gober. You may now refer to them as “National Gallery Academicians.” Although this is an entirely honorary title, it’s the first time the organization has allowed artists working in video, photography, and installation to enter join the academy’s ranks. [Media Bistro]
- The Coalition on the Academic Workforce (CAW) just released a report on the abuses of part-time college faculty. The report finds that almost half of the entire higher education faculty in the United States is part-time and the median pay per course for these part-timers is a measly $2,700 per semester. [CAW]
- Don’t miss Amanda Fucking Palmer at The Seaport Museum tomorrow night. We predict awesomeness. [South Street Seaport Museum]
- Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg have apparently trademarked “Cinemagraph.” [Cinemagraph]
- If you’re in Baltimore, come listen to The Sound of Art! It’s included in an exhibition at Guestspot through August 4th. [Guestspot]
Friday Links! Arty Sex Toys and a Swedish Librarian
by Corinna Kirsch on June 29, 2012 · 8 comments Massive Links
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Anyone can trademark something, but then you have to establish a property interest in the mark. This isn’t the same as a patent. Apple has an app called Cinemagram, and Google is using something they’re calling Cinemagraphs to announce events. Beck/Burg will have to sue to “police their mark” if they want it to be anything other than an official-looking “TM” logo on their website. They will likely lose when courts decide what the rest of us already know: there’s nothing new or unique about a photo with a single moving element. (Or the name that describes it.)
My bad. I added that link and the comment saved wonkily. There’s a part of me that wants this to go to court, just so I can read their argument. That’s one wish though, that I can live without seeing filled.
Surfing around looking for the term “cinemagraph” it appears both Google and Microsoft are using that word to describe animated GIFs with a single moving element.
Google is using them for events and calling them “cinemagraphs,” as described here: http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/google-plus-events-cinemagraphs-party-mode-post-event-reminders/
Probably copying Apple’s “cinemagrams,” Microsoft has an app called “cliplets” that you can use to make what they refer to as cinemagraphs (along with other effects): http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/cliplets/
Apple’s cinemagram app is here: http://itunes.apple.com/app/cinemagram/id487225881?mt=8
If Beck/Burg successfully sued one of these giants they might demonstrate a protectable interest in that word. But the fact that there are quick-and-dirty apps available to make animated GIFs with a single moving element suggests that the artistic breakthrough they ballyhooed on PBS just isn’t that special (and by extension, neither is the word they use for it).
Yeah, I agreed with you and must appreciate you. I think they might be demonstrate safe and secure stuffs in those words.
That first link is really disturbing to my sense of feminism. I mean, for that site to pay a female reporter to listen to their accounts of their jerking off–how is that different than phone sex? Why didn’t one of those “men” who work there and did write it themselves? I’d be thoroughly creeped out and embarrassed if I was that female blogger. A bunch of dudes just basically tricked her into letting them masturbate for her and then making her listen to all the various accounts of their junk and how they get off. In any other office, that might qualify as sexual harassment. Kind of pathetic that any woman would let themselves be coaxed into that.
AFAIK, Marina (the person you’re white-knighting for here) is neither creeped out nor embarassed; knowing her, and knowing blogging, I’m pretty sure the piece was her idea. She’s behind just about all the even vaguely art-related content on Animal, and I don’t know many blogger-editors who would come up with a quick, guaranteed-traffic post idea like that and then let someone else get the byline. It just doesn’t make sense, in this industry.
So yeah, maybe she was pathetically tricked and needs a hero and you’re gonna save the day, but it’s much more likely that she’s a grown-ass woman who can write about sex, even other people’s sex, when it suits her.
(and THAT’S how you white-knight!)
Will Brand is pretty sure the piece was Galperina’s idea, but instead of checking, he will unleash the white hot power of his sarcasm.
I want the old AFC back!. Paddy always handled commenters deftly.
I think it’s pretty clear this person is a Marina-specific troll. Speaking of which I’m going to delete both comments. I don’t want this kind of bullshit on the blog.
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