writer (Los Angeles Times, Wired UK, Frieze, etc) // former editor of rhizome.org
BIO
Cao Fei "Play Time" at Lombard Freid Projects
Cao Fei "Play Time" at Lombard Freid Projects:



With Shadow Life, a work composed of three distinct narrative sequences Cao Fei invokes the days of childhood. The narrative draws upon the remembrance of a Chinese Spring Festival Gala celebration that ran on China’s official Central Television...In East Wind, the charmingly naive smile of Thomas, the British cartoon train engine, is superimposed on the front of a Chinese-manufactured Dong Feng truck (literally “East Wind” truck), which barrels across urban highways and overpasses with a single mission: to deliver refuse from a construction site in the city to a trash dump on its outskirts. The title of this work has clear historical overtones centring on Mao Zedong’s famous declaration that the east wind prevails over [the] west wind. This statement is associated with Mao’s so-called Third Front strategy, which sought to protect China from invasion by foreign powers by building industrial installations in western China. China’s “East Wind” (Dong Feng) automobile was founded in 1969 as a part of this campaign. But today, as this Western face is married to the Dong Feng truck, the power relationship between the two take on an indeterminate quality, just like the plight and pattern we see in the real world...
With a reconstituted urban model, Cao Fei’s installation work, Play Time perpetuates the open space created in RMB City, which offers a mode and mentality for more people to enjoy and participate in. In this fingerboard skate park sculpture, the buildings that Cao Fei uses as references come from all over the world. They are all charged with authoritarian and mystical connotations and take the form of some sort of belief. In this ...
1954 (2004) - Bojan Sarcevic




The collages’ vague sense of time and place is located somewhat more precisely by their title, 1954 (all works 2004), which refers to the 1954 edition of the German architectural journal Baumeister, from which the pictures are taken. Germany in 1954, after two lost decades and the horrors of war, was tentatively starting to rebuild its traumatized national morale (helped in no small measure by the country’s unexpected World Cup victory that same year.) And, despite the absence of the country’s greatest modern architects, Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, architecture flourished in the steady rebuilding of cities reduced to rubble by Allied bombing, and was characterized by a cautiously optimistic Modernism. This was the year that Mies began his monumental Seagram building in New York, but the pictures Sarcevic collects here are more modest examples of a socially oriented Modernism, felt at the time to be not only an expression of, but also a form of active participation in, the creation of Germany’s new democracy. - Kristy Bell, Frieze magazine
Depixelizing Super Mario World
The algorithm to create smooth vector graphics from pixel art applied to Super Mario World. Via Image Oscillite
Weekend Clicking

Links for your weekend:
I didn't have time to be anyone's muse... I was too busy rebelling against my family and learning to be an artist. Leonora Carrington Is Dead at 94. (NYT) Chris Marker Day on Dennis Cooper's blog. Also, Gorgomancy Chris Collins writes an epilogue to his story of Ron Tye, Luzy, and tyepilot.com (AFC) Jia Zhang's Platform and The World reviewed on Notcoming On the misuse of Occam’s Razor The important part of the sentence is not about simplicity, but about selecting a hypothesis. When you’re trying to figure out which explanation for something you’ve observed is correct, the best approach is to test the hypothesis that you can eliminate most quickly. Zanran - A Search Engine for Graphs An algorithm that depixelizes 8-bit pixel art into "lush vector graphics." Björk interviews Arvo Pärt Ballet depends on the power of a woman’s body but rarely celebrates it. If anything, ballet encourages women to torture their bodies, rewarding their ability to be strong while appearing physically vulnerable. What choreographer Karole Armitage and her Armitage Gone! Dance company offer is not precisely a refutation of this rule, but its counterpoint. The Punk Ballerina (The Paris Review) ASCIImeo takes Vimeo video and plays them as ASCII art. (via Kottke) When Man First Met Troll (The Atlantic) Videos from NYU GAME Center lecture series including talks by Erik Wolpaw, Richard Garfield, Kellee Santiago, and McKenzie Wark. Also: MIT GAMBIT Lab Videogames 101 Event Lectures Simon Reynolds essay on Ariel Pink: What resulted seemed to be a semi-conscious attempt to recreate the primal scene of the child falling in love with pop for the first time with an ear cupped to an imperfectly-tuned transistor. This illusion was created ...
White Wall Tehran (2007) - Anahita Razmi

The video work “White Wall Tehran” results from a trip to Iran in January 2007. On the streets in Tehran I was stopped by the Iranian revolution guards, because I had been filming them with my videocamera. They erased 27 seconds of my video by filming the white inner wall of their headquarters. The re-recording only is producing the white imagery, that is showing nothing, but at the same time is consisting of various sound fragments: a radio transceiver, somebody stirring his coffee, music playing.
Editorial Fellow
Deadline:
Fri Dec 28, 2012 14:00
Rhizome seeks an Editorial Fellow from January through May 2013. The Fellow will support the editorial department at Rhizome through research and writing for the website. This position is a unique opportunity for a person with strong dedication to the fields of contemporary art and technology to further develop professional skills.
The Editorial Fellow is ideally based in New York and must be able to commit to 16 hours of work per week for 5 months. This position is unpaid, but academic credit may be arranged. The Editorial Fellow will coordinate and assist in production of Rhizome's website and weekly newsletter Rhizome News. Fellow will support daily publishing and maintenance of the blog, as well as researching and writing editorial essays, reviews, and opinion pieces.
QUALIFICATIONS: Candidates must have a high level of familiarity with contemporary art and technology. Education or advanced experience beyond the undergraduate level is preferred. The candidate must have very strong writing, editing, and analytical skills, and very high internet literacy.
TO APPLY: Please email a cover letter, resume or c.v., two references, and three writing samples (url or attachment) to Joanne McNeil at editor(at)rhizome.org. Deadline Dec 28, 2012. Review of applications will begin immediately. Starting date is January 2013.
The Editorial Fellow is ideally based in New York and must be able to commit to 16 hours of work per week for 5 months. This position is unpaid, but academic credit may be arranged. The Editorial Fellow will coordinate and assist in production of Rhizome's website and weekly newsletter Rhizome News. Fellow will support daily publishing and maintenance of the blog, as well as researching and writing editorial essays, reviews, and opinion pieces.
QUALIFICATIONS: Candidates must have a high level of familiarity with contemporary art and technology. Education or advanced experience beyond the undergraduate level is preferred. The candidate must have very strong writing, editing, and analytical skills, and very high internet literacy.
TO APPLY: Please email a cover letter, resume or c.v., two references, and three writing samples (url or attachment) to Joanne McNeil at editor(at)rhizome.org. Deadline Dec 28, 2012. Review of applications will begin immediately. Starting date is January 2013.
Improving Prometheus
The script is available on his website. Here is the link again to http://starwarsmodern.blogspot.com/2012/08/prometheus-rebound_14.html
Editorial Fellow
Deadline:
Fri Aug 24, 2012 19:45
Rhizome seeks an Editorial Fellow from September through December 2012. The Fellow will support the editorial department at Rhizome through research and writing for the website. This position is a unique opportunity for a person with strong dedication to the fields of contemporary art and technology to further develop professional skills.
The Editorial Fellow is ideally based in New York and must be able to commit to 16 hours of work per week for 4 months, beginning in Summer 2012. This position is unpaid, but academic credit may be arranged. The Editorial Fellow will coordinate and assist in production of Rhizome's website and weekly newsletter Rhizome News. Fellow will support daily publishing and maintenance of the blog, as well as researching and writing editorial essays, reviews, and opinion pieces.
QUALIFICATIONS: Candidates must have a high level of familiarity with contemporary art and technology. Education or advanced experience beyond the undergraduate level is preferred. The candidate must have very strong writing, editing, and analytical skills, and very high internet literacy.
TO APPLY: Please email a cover letter, resume or c.v., two references, and three writing samples (url or attachment) to Joanne McNeil at editor(at)rhizome.org. Deadline Aug 24, 2012. Review of applications will begin immediately. Starting date is Sept 17, 2012.
The Editorial Fellow is ideally based in New York and must be able to commit to 16 hours of work per week for 4 months, beginning in Summer 2012. This position is unpaid, but academic credit may be arranged. The Editorial Fellow will coordinate and assist in production of Rhizome's website and weekly newsletter Rhizome News. Fellow will support daily publishing and maintenance of the blog, as well as researching and writing editorial essays, reviews, and opinion pieces.
QUALIFICATIONS: Candidates must have a high level of familiarity with contemporary art and technology. Education or advanced experience beyond the undergraduate level is preferred. The candidate must have very strong writing, editing, and analytical skills, and very high internet literacy.
TO APPLY: Please email a cover letter, resume or c.v., two references, and three writing samples (url or attachment) to Joanne McNeil at editor(at)rhizome.org. Deadline Aug 24, 2012. Review of applications will begin immediately. Starting date is Sept 17, 2012.
NA - Further Thoughts
Hi Patrick,
Thanks so much for these comments. You are right that the New Aesthetic is a broad conversation, but James Bridle's investigation is definitely political, unfortunately many of his points have been missed in the ongoing metacommentary. It seems a lot of people are confused by the visuals, which aren't *the* the New Aesthetic so much as artifacts *of* the New Aesthetic.
The NA Tumblr was Bridle thinking out loud, and something to consider in tandem with his writing/talks. Meanwhile, the conversation about these ideas has gone on for over a year now, over a number of blogs, mostly based in London
In addition to James Bridle's talks and notes, this is what I recommend reading to understand what the New Aesthetic conversation is really about:
Aaron Straup Cope's notes from SXSW:
http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2012/03/13/godhelpus/#sxaesthetic
Chris Heathcote: A New Fashion Aesthetic
http://anti-mega.com/antimega/2012/04/02/a-new-fashion-aesthetic
Many, many BERG posts:
http://berglondon.com/blog/2011/05/13/sensor-vernacular/
http://berglondon.com/blog/2012/02/06/robot-readable-world-the-film/
http://berglondon.com/blog/2011/08/03/the-robot-readable-world/
We are the droids we’re looking for: the New Aesthetic and its friendly critics by JJ Charlesworth
http://blog.jjcharlesworth.com/2012/05/07/we-are-the-droids-were-looking-for-the-new-aesthetic-and-its-friendly-critics/
Honor Harger:
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A2=ind1204&L=new-media-curating&F=&S=&P=20818
Tom Armitage:
http://infovore.org/archives/2011/05/21/waving-at-the-machines/
Greg Borenstein:
http://urbanhonking.com/ideasfordozens/2011/06/07/on-the-future-and-poetry-of-the-calibration-pose/
Natalia Buckley:
http://ntlk.net/2012/04/12/on-the-new-aesthetic/
Other notes from SXSW are linked here:
http://booktwo.org/notebook/sxaesthetic/
this was my favorite New Aesthetic tumblr post, btw:
http://new-aesthetic.tumblr.com/post/21437296950/i-used-to-go-to-the-trocadero-in-central-london-as
Thanks so much for these comments. You are right that the New Aesthetic is a broad conversation, but James Bridle's investigation is definitely political, unfortunately many of his points have been missed in the ongoing metacommentary. It seems a lot of people are confused by the visuals, which aren't *the* the New Aesthetic so much as artifacts *of* the New Aesthetic.
The NA Tumblr was Bridle thinking out loud, and something to consider in tandem with his writing/talks. Meanwhile, the conversation about these ideas has gone on for over a year now, over a number of blogs, mostly based in London
In addition to James Bridle's talks and notes, this is what I recommend reading to understand what the New Aesthetic conversation is really about:
Aaron Straup Cope's notes from SXSW:
http://www.aaronland.info/weblog/2012/03/13/godhelpus/#sxaesthetic
Chris Heathcote: A New Fashion Aesthetic
http://anti-mega.com/antimega/2012/04/02/a-new-fashion-aesthetic
Many, many BERG posts:
http://berglondon.com/blog/2011/05/13/sensor-vernacular/
http://berglondon.com/blog/2012/02/06/robot-readable-world-the-film/
http://berglondon.com/blog/2011/08/03/the-robot-readable-world/
We are the droids we’re looking for: the New Aesthetic and its friendly critics by JJ Charlesworth
http://blog.jjcharlesworth.com/2012/05/07/we-are-the-droids-were-looking-for-the-new-aesthetic-and-its-friendly-critics/
Honor Harger:
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A2=ind1204&L=new-media-curating&F=&S=&P=20818
Tom Armitage:
http://infovore.org/archives/2011/05/21/waving-at-the-machines/
Greg Borenstein:
http://urbanhonking.com/ideasfordozens/2011/06/07/on-the-future-and-poetry-of-the-calibration-pose/
Natalia Buckley:
http://ntlk.net/2012/04/12/on-the-new-aesthetic/
Other notes from SXSW are linked here:
http://booktwo.org/notebook/sxaesthetic/
this was my favorite New Aesthetic tumblr post, btw:
http://new-aesthetic.tumblr.com/post/21437296950/i-used-to-go-to-the-trocadero-in-central-london-as
Editorial Fellow
Deadline:
Tue May 01, 2012 10:00
Rhizome seeks an Editorial Fellow from June through September 2012. The Fellow will support the editorial department at Rhizome through research and writing for the website. This position is a unique opportunity for a person with strong dedication to the fields of contemporary art and technology to further develop professional skills.
The Editorial Fellow must be based in New York and must be able to commit to 16 hours of work per week for 3 months, beginning in Summer 2012. This position is unpaid, but academic credit may be arranged. The Editorial Fellow will coordinate and assist in production of Rhizome's website and weekly newsletter Rhizome News. Fellow will support daily publishing and maintenance of the blog, as well as researching and writing editorial essays, reviews, and opinion pieces.
QUALIFICATIONS: Candidates must have a high level of familiarity with contemporary art and new media. Education or advanced experience beyond the undergraduate level is preferred. The candidate must have very strong writing, editing, and analytical skills, and very high internet literacy.
TO APPLY: Please email a cover letter, resume or c.v., two references, and three writing samples (url or attachment) to Joanne McNeil at editor(at)rhizome.org. Deadline May 4, 2012. Review of applications will begin immediately. Starting date is June 4, 2012.
The Editorial Fellow must be based in New York and must be able to commit to 16 hours of work per week for 3 months, beginning in Summer 2012. This position is unpaid, but academic credit may be arranged. The Editorial Fellow will coordinate and assist in production of Rhizome's website and weekly newsletter Rhizome News. Fellow will support daily publishing and maintenance of the blog, as well as researching and writing editorial essays, reviews, and opinion pieces.
QUALIFICATIONS: Candidates must have a high level of familiarity with contemporary art and new media. Education or advanced experience beyond the undergraduate level is preferred. The candidate must have very strong writing, editing, and analytical skills, and very high internet literacy.
TO APPLY: Please email a cover letter, resume or c.v., two references, and three writing samples (url or attachment) to Joanne McNeil at editor(at)rhizome.org. Deadline May 4, 2012. Review of applications will begin immediately. Starting date is June 4, 2012.