Keiichi Matsuda [h/t Gizmodo]
- In order to get their AI to speak less like a robot, Google force-fed it thousands of romance novels and created a new language game to teach the bot to create paragraphs out of two statements. What resulted is some weird, lonely poetry. Someone get this thing a drink. [Android Authority]
- In other “why would humanity even want this technology?” news, Keiichi Matsuda follows the burgeoning field of “augmented reality” to its logical conclusion: an annoying world full of pop-up ads and invasive game-like marketing. [Gizmodo]
- The British Museum closed yesterday after Greenpeace activists climbed the columns on the museum’s facade and unfurled banners advertising a fake “Sunken Cities” exhibition about the effects of climate change, listing locations such as New Orleans. The demonstration was in protest of oil company BP’s funding of the museum, which many claim has impacted the way museums discuss climate change and other environmental issues. [artnet News]
- Joan Miró’s grandson, Joan Punyet Miró, auctioned off 28 works by the artist to raise nearly $70,000 for refugees yesterday. The elder Miró, like many Spanish artists of the era, was himself a refugee during the Spanish Civil war. [Hyperallergic]
- Be still our hearts: Betty Tompkins and Marilyn Minter discuss being a woman in art school in the 70’s, dive bars, and how damn long it took to achieve “success” in the art world. [Blouin Artinfo]
- Whoa. Researchers at the University of Maryland have developed a process to turn wood transparent. The article discusses the obvious implications for architecture, but this could be the next big material for sculptors. [The New York Times]
- Here’s an article arguing that cities should stop investing in museums and champion music festivals instead. According to writer Jonathan Wynn, they are preferable because they are cheaper, adaptable and require less public funding. [The Conversation]
- People love to talk about how the CIA boosted the careers of abstract expressionists, but the CIA’s own art collection is ironically a tad closer to Soviet Realism, in that it depicts the glorious (and often secretive) fruits of its own workforce’s labors. Lots of historical representation here, as well as a cryptic still-life. Is the next big conspiracy theory that the CIA launched the wave of photorealism in 1970’s painting? [NPR]
- Novelist Helen DeWitt does Frieze Magazine’s Questionnaire. This isn’t our cup of tea—it’s too self-promote-y and pompous—but we’ve seen it get a few high fives over twitter regardless. You be the judge. [Frieze]
- Art collector Jho Low is being investigated by the FBI for shady dealings with Malaysian financial corruption. This has led to Low liquidating assets such as shares in a Manhattan hotel and his Basquiat painting, which he sold at a nearly $14 million loss to another finance douchebag. Does anyone else have news fatigue from trying to figure out exactly what the illegal/unethical, convoluted thing crooked investment people did when reading about the art market? [The Wall Street Journal]
