Julian Spalding: “If you want a pickled shark in a tank, you don’t have to pay the $12m Steve Cohen paid for the one selected by Hirst. You only pay that much for the artistic content that Hirst has added to it. If there isn’t any, what are you buying? … Damien Hirst isn’t an artist. His works … have no artistic content and are worthless as works of art. They are, therefore, worthless financially.”
Tag: 03.27.12
What Publishers Should, Or Could, Learn From “Pottermore”
The Harry Potter e-books came online this week, and publishers need to take note – and change their ways. “If book publishers could only learn one thing from the Pottermore launch, it should be this: that one of the biggest drivers of piracy is the inability to find or consume the content that a user wants in the format or on the platform or at a time they wish to consume it.”
Salman Rushdie Gives Resounding Defense Of Free Expression In Delhi
At a conference in the capital (where he replaced a speaker who withdrew because of his presence), the author declared that “a combination of religious fanaticism, political opportunism and public apathy is damaging that freedom upon which all other freedoms depend: the freedom of expression.”
So Here’s Science At Its Outer Fringe. Doesn’t It Sound Like Art?
“The fringe of physics is not a sharp boundary with truth on one side and fantasy on the other. All of science is uncertain and subject to revision. The glory of science is to imagine more than we can prove. The fringe is the unexplored territory where truth and fantasy are not yet disentangled.”
‘Italian Oscars’ Accused Of Rank Corruption
“The famous David di Donatello awards, widely regarded as the country’s top film honours, are, according to Il Fatto Quotidiano, in urgent need of drastic overhaul,” being “riddled with nepotism and corruption.”
Are the Days of Human Piano-Tuners Numbered?
“Haye Hinrichsen at the University of urzburg in Germany proposes a solution to this problem that may make it possible for electronic tuners to match the performance of the best human tuners. His idea is that tuning can be considered a problem of entropy minimisation.”
Easter Peeps As Political Art
Not just for Easter anymore, a Peeps show takes on Occupy.
Creativity Is Essential For Succeeding – So Why Aren’t We Investing In It?
“Creativity is the most essential skill for navigating an increasingly complex world — or so said 1,500 CEOs across 60 countries in a recent survey by IBM. And yet federally funded research and development — creativity, institutionalized — is down 20% as a share of America’s GDP since the late 1980s.”
Publishing – Threatened By Automatons?
“Great content on the Web ends up being a desired opportunity for brands on a direct basis. Networks are losing to the machines and moving towards context-based selling, and so are publishers. We get caught up talking about technology but in my mind it always comes back to great content.”
Bronx Museum Of The Arts Institutes Free Admission
“Though previous admission fees were only suggested – $5 for general admission, $3 for students and seniors – they did create a cost barrier in the low-income South Bronx, according to the museum’s executive director, Holly Block. ‘We know it matters because Friday is our free day, and that’s our busiest day,’ she said.”