benjamin - the work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction

One might subsume the eliminated element in the term “aura” and go on to say: that which withers in the age of mechanical reproduction is the aura of the work of art. This is a symptomatic process whose significance points beyond the realm of art. One might generalize by saying: the technique of reproduction detaches the reproduced object from the domain of tradition. By making many reproductions it substitutes a plurality of copies for a unique existence. And in permitting the reproduction to meet the beholder or listener in his own particular situation, it reactivates the object reproduced. These two processes lead to a tremendous shattering of tradition which is the obverse of the contemporary crisis and renewal of mankind. Both processes are intimately connected with the contemporary mass movements. Their most powerful agent is the film. Its social significance, particularly in its most positive form, is inconceivable without its destructive, cathartic aspect, that is, the liquidation of the traditional value of the cultural heritage.

Read the full essay here.

abc3d by marion bataille

a real life tranformer

Introducing Prada Transformer, a collaboration between the Prada Foundation and iconic Dutch architect, Rem Koolhaus.

"The interesting thing about this building is the acknowledgement of the transformer as a dynamic organism, opposed to simply a static object, which arbitrarily fits program. Prada Transformer helps add an extra dimension regarding the treatment of this typology by allowing it to be moulded in real time, depending on the specific programs it intends to facilitate inside."

– Rem Koolhaas

Is kinetic architecture the future of architectural design? Is is inspired progression or is it indulgent excess?

Learn more about the Prada Transformer here.

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Images from the NY Times, Art in America, and Designboom.com

for all you design nerds

Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which recently celebrated its 50th birthday in 2007) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives.

Helveticafilm.com

Want more? Check out Hustwit's (same director) newest documentary, Objectified, which examines how industrial design affects our lives.

just get kopi

tara donovan

Untitled, 2003
Paper plates, Glue, Dimensions variable

Untitled (Detail)

Strata, 2000-2001
White glue, 45' 9 1/2" x 20' 1/2" x 1/8"

Strata (Detail)

Untitled, 2003
Styrofoam cups, Hot glue, 6' x 20' x 19' 2"

Untitled (Detail)

Haze, 2003
Plastic drinking straws, 12' 7" x 42' 2" x 7 3/4"

Haze (Detail)

Tara Donovan makes I-can-do-that sculptures by taking a household item—a Styrofoam cup, straight pin, drinking straw, or toothpick—and positioning it among thousands of its ilk. You could do it, but you wouldn't. You wouldn't log hundreds of hours meticulously assembling, arranging, affixing, or otherwise conjoining countless identical consumer goods. The results, when seen from afar, offer gestalt experiences that, paradoxically, often conjure natural associations, with, for example, waves, clouds, and mountains.

Brian Sholis
Artforum.com

See more of her work here.

experiences 09

Interested in studying in the US, UK, or Canada? Check out Experiences '09 - The US University Convention.

do schools kill creativity?

"Why don't we get the best out of people? Sir Ken Robinson argues that it's because we've been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. Students with restless minds and bodies -- far from being cultivated for their energy and curiosity -- are ignored or even stigmatized, with terrible consequences. 'We are educating people out of their creativity,' Robinson says."

TED: Ideas Worth Spreading

Do you agree? (It's ok if you say yes. :))

i heart ny

Kat MacLeod
New York, 2008
Giclee Print, Edition of 50

not the case for mid-years

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Image from Indexed

jim denevan

"Jim Denevan makes freehand drawings in sand. At low tide on wide beaches Jim searches the shore for a wave tossed stick. After finding a good stick and composing himself in the near and far environment Jim draws-- laboring up to 7 hours and walking as many as 30 miles. The resulting sand drawing is made entirely freehand w/ no measuring aids whatsoever. From the ground, these drawn environments are experienced as places. Places to explore and be, and to see relation and distance. For a time these tangible specific places exist in the indeterminate environment of ocean shore. From high above the marks are seen as isolated phenomena, much like clouds, rivers or buildings. Soon after Jim's motions and marks are completed water moves over and through, leaving nothing."

Jimdenevan.com

Denevan's work is reminiscent of land artists such as Andy Goldsworthy and Robert Smithson. Land art began as a movement against the perceived artificiality and commercialization of the art world. It calls to question issues of permanence, authorship, and the organic.

kumi yamashita

City View , 2003
Light, Aluminum, Shadow

Origami, 2005
Light, Aluminum, Shadow

Feather, 2006
Light, Wood, Shadow

Exclamation Point, 1995
Wood, Light, Shadow

A Japanese artist who uses light and shadow to play with our sense of reality. See more of her work here.

If you like this work, also check out Tim Noble and Sue Webster.

anonymity and the artist

From Ananda K. Coomaraswamy's Christian and Oriental Philosophy of Art

In all respects the traditional artist devotes himself to the good of the work to be done. The operation is a rite, the celebrant neither intentionally nor even consciously expressing himself. It is by no accident of time, but in accordance with a governing concept of the meaning of life, of the goal is implied in St. Paul’s Vivo autem jam non ego, that works of traditional art, whether Christian, Oriental or folk art, are hardly ever signed: the artist is anonymous, or if a name has survived, we know little or nothing of the man. This is true as much for literary as for plastic artifacts. In traditional arts it is never Who said? but only What was said?

What role does the identity of artist play in the perception of an artwork? And consider how and why this has changed over time. What function does art serve today, and how does this compare with the function of art in the past? With that in mind, does the existence of an art market eliminate (or at very least limit) the an artist's anonymity?

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Image from Suicide Blonde