- Paul Mason makes a convincing argument that we’re quietly teetering on the cusp of “postcapitalism.” Markets have failed, the correlation between labor and wages is shaky, and economies based on information make no sense financially; there’s no scarcity of knowledge and it’s human nature to share (rather than monetize) it. [The Guardian]
- Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, and many other non-insane people think weaponized AI is a terrible idea. Can’t we all agree to just let the bots do what they love: making weird pictures with dog faces, spamming the comments section of blogs, and posing for “sexy” videos at Japanese convention centers that creep everyone out on YouTube? [TIME]
- There goes the neighborhood: Jeff Koons bought up 50,200 square feet of West 52nd Street. It looks like he’s creating a massive new Hell’s Kitchen studio after being ousted by his former Chelsea landlord. [Realty Today]
- The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo is asking Makoto Aida to change or remove his latest piece. The museum planned a summer exhibition aimed at children and (for some reason) invited the notoriously controversial artist to contribute work. His submission, a collaboration with his wife and teenage son, is a political rant aimed at the education system. [The Japan Times]
- Look! It’s a bathtub-headed sim. [Daniel Rourke]
- Artist and writer Sara Clugage writes about her near-spiritual obsession with Britney Spears, both as a teen and as an artist. At one time, Clugage writes, Spears was pretty much a celebrity cipher: “I saw that emptiness in Britney Spears, too. Given an icon without meaning, we pour in our own souls, making gods in our own image. I saw a writhing mass of contradictions: a visual promiscuity but a verbal purity, a public persona but an unknown person, a Hollywood starlet but a Louisiana girl. I imagined her as a saint, one of the highly sexualized Catholic ones with a baroque mixture of pain, ecstasy, and physicality.” [Pelican Bomb]
- The Church of Satan has unveiled its giant Baphomet statue during a massive ceremony on the banks of the Detroit River. Of course, Christians showed up to protest. The sculpture is itself an act of protest against displays of Christian symbols on government property. It is also so much cooler than any of the other lame religious art that’s been hanging out on red state capital buildings and courthouses. [International Business Times]
- The Seattle Art Fair is luring out some big-name gallerists. Are galleries like Gagosian going after the Pacific Northwest’s tech-industry new money? Here’s a handy little guide to art collecting aimed at techie collectors. Bitcoin is not recommended. [artnet News]
- Hey, photography curators, apply for this two-year curatorial fellowship at the Michener Museum in Pennsylvania. The fellow will be salaried and receive benefits. [Michener Museum]
Tuesday Links: Postcapitalism, Britney Spears, Satan, and AI Killing Machines
by Michael Anthony Farley and Corinna Kirsch on July 28, 2015 Massive Links
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