May 2008

The New York Times sends its intrepid reporter out into the wilds of the internet and midtown Manhattan and uncovers a new trend...drumroll...steampunk (subscription may be required on your wood-trimmed computer). The article takes the tried and true "subculture about to break large" angle. Mentioned are goth, William Gibson, and Iron Man (obligatory plug no matter how tangential) but not The Difference Engine (a key text), LARPing, or Renaissance fairs. Mad Max and Brazil are namechecked but not The Wild Wild West or Philip Pullman. Most of the people interviewed appear to be alienated web designers looking to cash in on their hobby. Another relevant precedent, at least as the Times frames the "trend," would be the artists McDermott and McGough, who've actually lived a 19th Century lifestyle, refusing to use plastic or modern plumbing, as opposed to the swell described in the article:

Yes, he owns a flat-screen television, but he has modified it with a burlap frame. He uses an iPhone, but it is encased in burnished brass. Even his clothing — an unlikely fusion of current and neo-Edwardian pieces (polo shirt, gentleman’s waistcoat, paisley bow tie), not unlike those he plans to sell this summer at his own Manhattan haberdashery — is an expression of his keenly romantic worldview.

This is why we buy publications made on quaint old printing presses: to separate the poMo practitioner from the poseur. For the record, "steampunk" as envisioned in William Gibson's and Bruce Sterling's 1991 novel The Difference Engine was an outgrowth of cyberpunk--a noirish story set in a world of steam powered military hardware and punch card computers. The "punk" in the portmanteau makes it ideal fodder for current trendmongering.

Some exquisite Microsoft Paintbrush drawings by drx (Dragan Espenschied) in this online cartoon strip (also in book form). I've said it a hundred times, Paintbrush is so much better than its Microsoft-"improved" version Paint it's a crime. You can actually paint with Paintbrush, whereas with Paint you can't do anything subtle or expressive. I don't even want to know what's happened to Paint on Vista. Paintbrush is even better than MacPaint, I would go so far as to say.

Regarding his strip, drx explains:

For all the people that do not understand German: The two ravers want to go to Ibiza, but take the wrong flight and end up in the desert. They are frustrated and fly back home, only to find out that the biggest rave ever was happening in the desert a short time after they left.

[via Lektrogirl]

copied and pasted:

contest where one participant guides another's line drawing through several circles "blind" using only verbal instructions
browser within browser loads pages by various artists
video from POV of Internet shopper looking for imagined docile, traditional, pre-feminist, but Web-savvy mate, 2000
open browser windows hover like clouds in landscape photos
3-D wall drawing of satellite connects electrical socket to water cooler
webcam-like view of people milling about church interior--someone with backpack (artist? student?) walks around floor maze
dense spiderweb of black yarn covers piano and recital chairs
still from extreme camera angle video of women reciting details of a kidnapping (or something--the Quicktime is choppy) as if in a seance
artist strips while quoting speeches by critics, collectors, curators, politicians (YouTube)
nude, seminude women stand in formation, ogled by collectors (YouTube)
car sculpture: crystal shape made of glass (supposedly), metal, and bolts rests on axles connecting standard rubber auto tires
sculpture of streetlights bent down from bridge to near surface of river, illuminating water
animated GIF of highway receding to vanishing point
painting of highway receding to vanishing point
photo of man holding assemblage of joined-together foodstuffs in his mouth (apple, cauliflower, etc)
eating a hamburger as video art, 3: artist "destabiliz[es] pre-established codes of perception by sabotaging the very logic of his material"
eating a hamburger as video art, 2: warhol plus four others
eating a hamburger as video art, 1: warhol
exhibition where scrap cars serve as individual performance spaces
life-sized tattoo-like line drawing of erotic-costumed anime kewpie doll on nude body of Japanese woman
drawings of heads with curving or curling directional arrows in place of facial features
polluting rivers for art, 3: green dye in Gran Canal, Venice
polluting rivers for art, 2: "nontoxic" green dye in four cities' rivers (artist has bigger travel budget)
polluting rivers for art, 1: red powder in Lin Xian, Henan Province, China
acrylic painting with 200 Euro note collaged onto Qing Dynasty Brick
people stand on each others' shoulders and pretend to hold up bridges and concrete ceilings (performance photos)
bad lookalikes pose in front of Flavins (YouTube)
hamish fulton-like walks directed by the wind, filmed and plotted by GPS
positions of gallery visitors captured on webcam, mapped with LEDs
red thread suspended in monofilament grid graphs artist pulse compared to Sarajevo temperature
backlit wall-silhouettes of Native Americans
youtube of judy garland vocal science
digital line drawing with wireframe mountains seen through window
photo of photographer photographing black leather catsuited headless woman
multi-beveled panel cut in shape of chinese calligraphic character "double happiness," painted in gold glitter paint with red and black trim
copper & nickel clump made of 10 Swedish crowns (coins) exposed to electrolysis and redistributed through ionization onto 2 copper plates
real-time webcam feed of Washington DC augmented by a virtual overlay of approaching flood
ordinary people pose with photoshopped-in "giant" items--floppy disc, CD
socialist ballad slipped into musical repertoires of over 100 London buskers for a week
glass, aluminum, vacuum gear, computer, high voltage transformer, tantalum grids sculpture