Company f.k.a. Diebold Admits Electronic Voting Machines Seriously Flawed

If election officials have to "verify what the machines are telling them," the point of the machines is . . . ?

Ahmet Ögüt's "Clear Blue Sky"

"AK: You also use 'found history' for your installation at SITE Santa Fe, Clear Blue Sky versus Generous Earth, mixing slogans from a civilian-defense manual, which you've reprinted on red tote bags for visitors to take, with an urban legend, which you've painted lowrider-style on a car hood. How did you think to bring these elements together?

"AÖ: I used an urban legend about a cow falling from a plane and sinking a Japanese trawler as a starting point, and I wanted to illustrate this legend in a way that would engage with Southwestern lowrider culture. The reprinted warnings are from Los Alamos, and out of context, they become a parody of insecurity. Together, the urban legend and the civil-defense warnings are metaphorical elements, with the sky playing the role of the nomadic forces and Earth as the place of rightful nations."

Who doesn't love a free tote bag.

More at artkrush and SITE Santa Fe.

Australian Government Plans to Require Payments to Original Artists on All Subsequent Sales

[The Australian Government] "is determined to introduce a resale royalty scheme this year giving artists a percentage of the sale price whenever their work is sold. The details have yet to be finalised but some industry bodies have called for a flat rate of 5 per cent on all sales and for the royalty to apply to all works sold for more than $500. That would mean an artist who sold a work 10 years ago for $500 could reap up to $10,000 if it was sold again for 200,000." Per The Sidney Morning Herald (more that the foregoing link), via artkrush.

New Company to Assume Production of Polaroid Materials

"The investor and philanthropist Daniel H. Stern and long-time Polaroid artist John Reuter have reached "an agreement in principle" to assume production of the chemicals and products needed to make Polaroid images, The Wall Street Journal reports. . . . [but they are apparently interested in producing] a particular, and rather rare, form of Polaroid. Their new company, 20X24 Holdings LLC, will support only the Polaroid 20x24, which was introduced in the late 1970s as a glamor product. The 20x24 produces large-scale images and, according to [The WSJ], 'requires a camera as big as a refrigerator, an enormous lens, movie-bright lights, and, crucially, skilled operators.' Though only six of these cameras were ever made, the 20x24 was critical to the careers of such artists as Chuck Close, William Wegman, Lucas Samaras, Elsa Dorfman, and Timothy Greenfield-Sanders." Via Artinfo; more at the link.

ok it starts with a shredded forearm

Best DU OP of the Month

What if huge oil reserves were discovered up dick cheney's *ss?

Would we invade and occupy? Would the ol' face shooter move to an undisclosed location to protect his assets?

Would we drill there, drill now?

As one respondent said, "Shock and Ow!"

Thanks, Philosoraptor!

Why I'm not sure I can ever stay on Manhattan again, unless it's for free.

The cupcakes are cool; but.

If only the implicit promise were true, that you'll be cute if what you eat is cute!

For What It's Worth

Some work I'd have liked to have included in The Program, if we'd had the means, by the Russian collective, AES+F: see here et seq. (from the 2007 Venice Biennial; as usual, I felt like I missed getting the best parts) and here.