Geekfarms of Yesteryear

Eric Eberhardt's 5th grade writing assignment (click on the image for a larger, more legible pic), via Dork Yearbook, which mostly contains pretty hilarious photos of child geeks. Eberhardt adds, "[r]ecently I purchased the entire 1994-1997 run of WIRED magazine from a variety of sources on eBay. I know the articles are free online, but without all the ads for 56K modems and The Sierra Network, what’s the point?"

I guess artifical intelligence capability could be handy in 5th grade.

Mars Dunes

It's worth clicking on the image for a close-up; more info here (thanks, Ben!)

Fusebox Festival in Austin, TX

I've begun my usual obsessive analysis to figure how I can see as much of the stuff I think I'm most interested in as possible, and it's a challenge because it looks like there'll be lots (Festival schedule here).

I've already come across at least a couple of participatory works that you might want to take action on more or less now (in addition to procuring Festival tix).

One is GuruGuru, the description of which reads, "Five participants (each receiving different instructions via their earpieces) talk together with a televised character whose role flicks uncannily between spiritual and marketing guru. Revelling in the absurdities of marketing technique and group therapy, [the artists] Hampton, Koyama and Khroustaliov reverse the awkward history of consumer research by allowing their audience to create their own animated therapist – by means of a focus group!" (If you've been reading this blog, you know this would sound interesting to me; see, e.g., this.) The installation will be ongoing for the duration of the Festival, but since only five people can participate at a time, reservations are recommended.

The other is 12:19 Library, which you can participate in remotely at any time (until they close it, as I assume they will at some point?) "The 12:19 Library invites people from all over the world to chronicle a single minute of their lives, 12:19 to 12:20 PM, on any day of their choosing . . . . Make some sort of image . . . a photo, a video, an audio file, a text file, a map, whatever you like." The lead artist is Ron Berry, who I understand to be the driving force behind this Fest.

"Obama and Habeas Corpus -- Then and Now"

Excellent article by Glenn Greenwald at Salon.

Habeas corpus was one of many Constitutional rights shredded by W. It's the right to a summons commanding a governmental authority that's detaining an individual to bring her or him before the court in order for the court to determine whether there is any lawful basis for imprisoning the individual, and if not, to order her or his release.

It is NOT a get-out-of-jail-free card; it just says, you can't kidnap and imprison someone without ever even having to explain, to anyone, why. Habeas corpus has long been considered one of the most fundamental of rights and historically has been crucial in defending individuals against incompetent or tyrannical governmental action (see Wikipedia).

The Obama administration has now fully embraced W's shredding of habeas corpus, notwithstanding that that position has been emphatically rejected by U.S. courts.

Greenwald writes that the ACLU's Jonathan Hafetz explained in a recent interview,

'What happened was, these people were picked up in this global war on terror, were brought to Guantanamo in 2004, and once Guantanamo became subject to habeas corpus review [because of a U.S. Supreme Court decision], . . . the Bush administration stopped bringing people there, and started bringing them to Bagram [a prison in Afghanistan], and Bagram's population has shot up, and it's become in some sense the new Guantanamo. . . . And so what you have is you have a situation where the Bush administration, was free to, and the Obama administration will continue to be free to, create a prison outside the law.'

"The Obama DOJ is now squarely to the right of an extremely conservative, pro-executive-power, Bush '43-appointed judge on issues of executive power and due-process-less detentions. Leave aside for the moment the issue of whether you believe that the U.S. Government should have the right to abduct people anywhere in the world, ship them to faraway prisons and hold them there indefinitely without charges or any rights at all. The Bush DOJ -- and now the Obama DOJ -- maintain the President does and should have that right . . . ."

Much more at Salon, including anaylsis of the absurdity of those who now claim, as W supporters claimed before, that we should trust the Prez with unlimited power.

More from NYC

Again, these pics and vidis could use tweaking or editing but didn't get it. Even so, I thought they came out pretty well considering they were shot with a new camera; all credit due to it, a Panasonic LX3, and my dear, sweet sig. other who gave it to me.

This is for the Jacksons (from Coney Island).

I love the seal + reflections footage from the Aquarium in the vidi here – I'm thinking about calling it art even without doing anything more to it.

Also happy with the vidis starting here (trains manipulating light).

This was at the "Sayonara Serenissima" party at Market Hotel (someone remarked, "What's the word for this place!"; as usual, I blurted the obvious: "Condemned."), organized as a send-off for SWOON and her art-boats. It was a great party for everything except dancing; this guy tried desperately nonetheless (kudos from moi). (After I got home, I discovered Texas's Tony Bones is on Swoon's team.)

Visuals starting here are from an event at Galapagos Art Space. (As you'll see, there's an abundance of aerialists in NYC.)

Visuals starting here are from a charming, semi-pro production by The Sky Box at House of Yes featuring 25 aerialists, a space ship, and a giant octopus in a lesbian Romeo + Juliet involving feuding aliens and robots. Probably the best aerialist performance I saw in NY was here; I also really liked the music (by SK5); and also the costumes and props, all made by the performers.

Another evening I enjoyed took place at HiChristina, self-described as "your home for avant garde art, performance, and uncommon expression"; I'd add, and total, sweet-natured wackiness. The event I attended was called "Shake (Hands)(Booty)(Milk)," and the main things that title leaves out are, it was highly participatory and I got to make some cool new friends. I got no visuals, but Fritz was shooting as if our very existence depended on it, so maybe visuals will come, so (tree in the forest) to speak (sorry, couldn't resist).

(UPDATE: The Village Voice is featuring HiChristina as one of their picks for "Best Wacky Gatherings of 2010.")

The Kippenberger exhibition at MoMA was fabulous; another fave exhibition was Horowitz at P.S. 1 (pics unfortunately not allowed at either).

The City Reliquary (visuals start here) is purportedly the museum of the City of New York, a small, all-volunteer place in Brooklyn that happened to have a fascinating and only-too-timely exhibit on milk cooperatives (along with a charming, general collection of artifacts). During the last Great Depression, a handful of milk distribution companies, abetted by the governmental representatives whose campaigns they financed, were underpaying farmers for milk and overcharging consumers. Farmers were literally losing their farms to mortgage banks, while mothers couldn't afford milk for their children. Finally farmers and consumers in New York State formed a cooperative to by-pass the distributors. After just one year, the coop was already successful enough to distribute profits to coop members. Such coops also introduced innovations such as the milk carton, much more efficient than the old glass bottles. I learned all that there, and more.

Visuals start here of the Boiler, a cool new space opened by Pierogi to accommodate works too large for their existing gallery.

Someone asked last nite whether I went to any shows, and I mentioned Big Art Group's production, SOS, which was probably my fave show; but I did also see two other laudable productions: one, M4M, a timely and intelligent re-working of Shakespeare's "problematic" Measure for Measure as a commercial transaction; and the other a highly entertaining comedic/musical re-working of Beowulf (I bought the CD).

Ok there's one more thing I have to mention before proceeding to the tap-dancing finale. I went to a reading by two humorists at the powerHouse Arena, with Benjamin Nugent, who writes for The New Yorker, and Simon Rich, who writes for Sat. Nite Live; and someone asked why they don't blog, and they both said it was because they have to revise everything they write a million times. So I took that as supportive of one of the policies/caveats stated in my sidebar at left.

You thought I was kidding; but no: here's some pretty kick-a**, subway tap-dancing (tho' the automated subway audio now loudly announces it's illegal to solicit money in the subway, the main effect of which seems to have been to reduce the number of competitors thereby reducing the overall quality -- there's "capitalism" for ya').

My posts on the March art fairs are here: Armory (more pics and vidis starting here), Pulse (more pics and vidis starting here), Scope (more pics and vidis starting here), Volta (more pics and vidis starting here); plus my succinct take on the trends here.

Firetagging

While still wet, the graffiti paint's lit, adding "burned accents" to the tag.

I understand some people are tagging with lighter fluid, with less permanent results, making graffiti more of a performance.

Don't try this at home, or at my home.

Via Gizmodo.

Calling Channel 10

Too good not to reblog:



Via boingboing (thanks, Ben!).

Ten Principles for a Black Swan-Proof World, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

B.t.w., one of my take-aways from this economic implosion is, we all need to work harder to understand what's being done to us. "Trust but verify": another Reaganism that never made sense to me (how is trust different from distrust, if you have to verify either way?). Instead, I'd say, trust where you have nothing to lose; but don't where you do, esp. where someone else has something to gain.

Here (emphasis supplied):

1. What is fragile should break early while it is still small. Nothing should ever become too big to fail. Evolution in economic life helps those with the maximum amount of hidden risks – and hence the most fragile – become the biggest. 2. No socialisation of losses and privatisation of gains. Whatever may need to be bailed out should be nationalised; whatever does not need a bail-out should be free, small and risk-bearing. We have managed to combine the worst of capitalism and socialism. In France in the 1980s, the socialists took over the banks. In the US in the 2000s, the banks took over the government. This is surreal. 3. People who were driving a school bus blindfolded (and crashed it) should never be given a new bus. The economics establishment (universities, regulators, central bankers, government officials, various organisations staffed with economists) lost its legitimacy with the failure of the system. It is irresponsible and foolish to put our trust in the ability of such experts to get us out of this mess. Instead, find the smart people whose hands are clean. 4. Do not let someone making an “incentive” bonus manage a nuclear plant – or your financial risks. Odds are he would cut every corner on safety to show “profits” while claiming to be “conservative.” Bonuses do not accommodate the hidden risks of blow-ups. It is the asymmetry of the bonus system that got us here. No incentives without disincentives: capitalism is about rewards and punishments, not just rewards. 5. Counter-balance complexity with simplicity. Complexity from globalisation and highly networked economic life needs to be countered by simplicity in financial products. The complex economy is already a form of leverage: the leverage of efficiency. Such systems survive thanks to slack and redundancy; adding debt produces wild and dangerous gyrations and leaves no room for error. Capitalism cannot avoid fads and bubbles: equity bubbles (as in 2000) have proved to be mild; debt bubbles are vicious. 6. Do not give children sticks of dynamite, even if they come with a warning . Complex derivatives need to be banned because nobody understands them and few are rational enough to know it. Citizens must be protected from themselves, from bankers selling them “hedging” products, and from gullible regulators who listen to economic theorists. 7. Only Ponzi schemes should depend on confidence. Governments should never need to “restore confidence”. Cascading rumours are a product of complex systems. Governments cannot stop the rumours. Simply, we need to be in a position to shrug off rumours, be robust in the face of them. 8. Do not give an addict more drugs if he has withdrawal pains. Using leverage to cure the problems of too much leverage is not homeopathy, it is denial. The debt crisis is not a temporary problem, it is a structural one. We need rehab. 9. Citizens should not depend on financial assets or fallible “expert” advice for their retirement. Economic life should be definancialised. We should learn not to use markets as storehouses of value: they do not harbour the certainties that normal citizens require. Citizens should experience anxiety about their own businesses (which they control), not their investments (which they do not control). 10. Make an omelette with the broken eggs. Finally, this crisis cannot be fixed with makeshift repairs, no more than a boat with a rotten hull can be fixed with ad-hoc patches. We need to rebuild the hull with new (stronger) materials; we will have to remake the system before it does so itself. Let us move voluntarily into Capitalism 2.0 by helping what needs to be broken break on its own, converting debt into equity, marginalising the economics and business school establishments, shutting down the “Nobel” in economics, banning leveraged buyouts, putting bankers where they belong, clawing back the bonuses of those who got us here, and teaching people to navigate a world with fewer certainties. Then we will see an economic life closer to our biological environment: smaller companies, richer ecology, no leverage. A world in which entrepreneurs, not bankers, take the risks and companies are born and die every day without making the news. In other words, a place more resistant to black swans.

The writer is a veteran trader, a distinguished professor at New York University’s Polytechnic Institute and the author of The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable.