- On Sunday, activists occupied the British Museum to protest the oil industry’s cultural sponsorship of prominent British art museums, coming at the heels at the Tate Modern occupation in June. Since 2011, Britain’s “big four” — the British Museum, alongside the Tate, the National Portrait Gallery and the Royal Opera House — have benefited from a five year £10 sponsorship with BP. With the deal coming up for renewal in 2016, the pressure is on to force the institutions not renew. [The Guardian]
- If you’re interested in the connection between science fiction, afrofuturism and social justice, you can watch a livestream today of “Ferguson is the Future”, a public symposium organized by Princeton’s Department of African Studies. [Livestream]
- Whatever happened to Google Books? After a 2008 settlement between Google and authors and publishers was thrown out in federal court, the project has languished with congress. Despite the Authors Guild proposing a solution — an “extended collective licensing” system, which would ensure owners of scanned, out-of-print library be able to payout to authors — everyone agrees that an internet full of out-of-print books isn’t going to happen in this lifetime. [New Yorker]
- I’ve never been a fan of the internet first-person essay, simply because it’s resulted in so many bad, navel-gazing Thought Catalogue confessionals. Laura Bennett discusses the “first-person industrial complex”, contextualizing it as a post-media industry collapse phenomenon that exploits easy, low-paying clickbait from young writers. [Slate]
- The Lower East Side is officially colonized. A condo owner is threatening to sue gallery owner Hong Gyu Shin for the faux massage parlor which is a quirky set for a show of photos by Nobuyoshi Araki. Writes resident in an email published on artnet News:
I live up the street. I paid $1.3 million for my condo at 50 Orchard Street. I have contacted the Dept. of Consumer Affairs, and other city agencies to come investigate and slap a fine on you and your trashy installation and front of a massage parlor. There are prices listed on the door. This is no art installation. We’ve also hired a lawyer to sue Shin Gallery for damages to the value of our condominiums. See you in a Court of Law.
Is this condo owner just straight up crazy? Art as a gentrifying force has become such a known narrative that it’s almost a cliche. This year alone, we’ve seen it used to sell co-working spaces during Bushwick Open Studios and office space during a No Longer Empty show in Harlem. Industry City literally has taken out millions in loans in its plan to use art to become the next Chelsea Piers, and this resident is suing Shin gallery for the pop-up? Some people have money to burn. [artnet News]
- The Broad Museum opens. Holland Cotter gives it a mixed review, praising the parts of their collection that focus on under-known Los Angeles artists and criticizing the large number of predictable blue chip masterworks in the collection. Cotter doesn’t care for the Diller, Scofidio and Renfro building either, which he describes as having “the color and texture of gefilte fish”. [The New York Times]
- Christopher Knight also complains that the Broad collection is mostly tested, blue chip, art works but he likes the early focus on pop art. Seems like no one’s totally sold on the museum. [The Los Angeles Times]
- Looks like AFC may need to provide readers with Panda Cam once again as Republican squabbling threatens to shut down the government (and the Smithsonian’s live panda cam) over Planned Parenthood funding. Ted Cruz and ilk don’t want to compromise with Democrats to pass a budget, preferring to fight for a doomed bill that would defund it entirely. [The New Republic]
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