In a scrupulous world, this would be a really cool idea. As part of his residency with EyeBeam in New York City, Aram Bartholl has created an interesting sociological experiment. An anonymous, offline, peer-to-peer file sharing network. On the sly, he has secreted USB flash drives into walls, buildings and street curbs, in publicly accessible spaces
Although they’ve seen a surge in popularity over the past decade, tattoos are basically created the same way they have been for eons. Ink forced under the skin by a sharp implement. Now, thanks to an international team of researchers, led by John Rogers at the University of Illinois, subdural illumination could soon be coming to a tattoo parlor near you.
Only 23 years young, contemporary Portuguese artist Alexandre Farto, aka Vhils, chips away at established notions with his destructive approach to street art. Reverse graffiti, architectural sculpture, creative vandalism? Whatever you chose to call it, the images he scratches into building facades with jackhammer and pick are downright mesmerizing, haunting even. Weather-worn faces gazing out from alleyways, lonely apparitions consigned to oblivion.
Radical Cartography is the website of historian and cartographer, Bill Rankin. Currently working on a PhD at Harvard, Rankin has done considerable research on the changing technologies of cartography (map making) and navigation in the twentieth century. His mapping activity is focused on reimagining everyday urban and territorial geographies by pushing techniques of statistical information design and rethinking everyday cartographic conventions.
Rankin’s maps help us visualize racial divides in Chicago (as featured below), university campuses surrounding Boston, building heights in Manhattan, the spread of agriculture over the past 300 years, and the location of every nuclear explosion around the world since 1945.
Dedicated to youth-led multimedia production, YAK Films started as a mixed team of young photographers and filmmakers looking to offer an alternative to what they consider “played-out mainstream media”. And here at Watch.Read. Repeat., we’re all for supporting that mission.
Per YAK’s website, their work with urban dance began with the TURF FEINZ crew from Oakland, CA, innovators of the TUF dancing style. Appraise for yourself the modestly magnificent camera work (and superhuman foot work) in the video below.
Sometimes we find beauty in unexpected places. Set to Brendel’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major, this video reveals to us the surprisingly elegant process of creating printing ink, from start to finish. Like a master vintner, the professional inkmaker hand mixes various components and colors to achieve the desired result.
Building on their esteemed collection, innovative programming, and an already digitally-savvy approach, MoMA continues to position itself as a standard-bearing institution of the 21st century with today’s release of their free iPhone application. The mobile software integrates familiar features from the museum, like
Many thanks to Ryan and the folks at Wooster Collective
There are two kinds of naked in the art world: “Performance art” and “Call the police.” Saturday’s show at Conner Contemporary Art (in Washington D.C.) featured both, which made for a lively opening night.
Matt Forcey
Watch. Read. Repeat. 