via The Smoking Gun:

“Cops: Man created public art with items swiped from construction site
JUNE 12–A North Carolina man is facing criminal charges for creating an amusing piece of public art from construction barrels. Joseph Carnevale, 21, was nabbed Wednesday after a Raleigh Police Department investigation determined that he was responsible for the work constructed May 31 on a roadway adjacent to North Carolina State University. Carnevale, pictured in the mug shot at right, was charged with misdemeanor larceny for allegedly building his orange monster from materials pilfered from a construction site. According to an arrest warrant, Carnevale ‘destroyed three road blocking barrels by cutting and screwing them together to form a statue.’ Police estimated that Carnevale’s artwork caused $360 in damages to Hamlett Associates, the North Carolina construction company that owned the barrels. Carnevale is scheduled for a July 21 court appearance in Wake County.”

Read the full article here.

Hope everyone has had a great week. On this weeks roundup we check out Murakami’s latest video for Louis Vuitton, a new article on Marina Abramović, and Wallpaper Magazin’s collection on Tart Cards. Have a good weekend and hopefully we will see you at the closing of Green Lantern.Viva La GL!

• Lori Waxman has a great article on the Tamms Year Ten mud stencils in New City.
• Takashi Murakami released his new ad for Louis Vuitton, Superflat First Love. Why do I feel like I have already seen this?
• Wallpaper Magazine lets designers take a stab at London’s tart cards. Here are my faves: 1, 2, 3,
• Art Review has a write up on Marina Abramović.
• Disco jail?  Adrian Searle’s video of the Venice Biennale highlights.
• Want to know what is going on at Basel besides Brad Pitt and his new Neo Rauch? Check out what Art Fag City is checking out here, here, and here.
• IDK if anyone has said this but ThreeWalls has extended their residency and project deadlines until July 1. So, get on it.
• Camera or Voltron? The toy I always wanted.
• The Museum of Modern Art will be hosting a retrospective of Tim “I ruined Planet of the Apes” Burton on Nov. 22

Last Saturday Lauren and I checked out Gary Hustwit’s latest film Objectified at the Gene Siskel Film Center. I have to be honest, I loved Hustwit’s previous documentary Helvetica, so I was really excited to see a new design documentary. The film asks the viewer to not only confront the idea that all of the objects we encounter in our day to day lives are designed but also who designed these objects. The all star  cast includes Chris Bangle, Davin Stowell, Dan Formosa , Dieter Rams, Nato Fukusawa, Jonathan Ive, Mac Newson, Rob Walker, and the entertaining Karim Rashid.

I enjoyed Dieter Rams’, the former design director for Braun, list of what makes a good design. In essence , he believes a good design requires the least amount of designing. He names apple as one of the companies with the best design. As much as I enjoy apple products I wish the film felt less like an apple ad and investigated some more aspects of their designs. Like why are their computers designed in a way that makes them difficult to take apart and reassemble without destroying?

I felt like the movie was really easy to consume. Everything is very agreeable, even the geek chic soundtrack. I wished they went a little more into the topic of consumerism, though. In the end all of the designers are designing for a pay check, and this was touched upon, but I wanted to see a bit more of the marketing of goods that most people already own.

John Mahoney, summed up Hustwit’s strengths in his post on Gizmodo, saying “But what’s great (and where Helvetica also ruled) is that Hustwit is a master interviewer. He gets his subjects to speak about what can be a jargon and marketing-voodoo laden industry with total clarity and comfort that folks that didn’t go to design school can comprehend freely. Ive, holding up the single aluminum block from which a unibody MacBook is hewn while trying to control his massive biceps, speaks about how designers are ultimately obsessive, borderline neurotic people. He can’t look at an object anywhere without seeing the multiple layers of intent involved-who designed it, who it’s designed for, what it does well. To Ive, it’s an illness.”

When Lauren and I walked out of the theater we both questioned what Hustwit would come up with next. According to the documentary blog, Hustwit has said that this film is in fact the second part of to a “design trilogy”. I am excited to see what he has in store next, but doubt it could top Helvetica.

Check out Hustwit’s twitter page to see where the film will be screening.

Objectified will be playing at the Gene Siskel at the Following times. For more info check out their website.

June 5–11
Fri. and Mon.-Thu. at 6:00 pm, 7:30 pm, and 9:00 pm;
Sat. at 3:00 pm, 4:30 pm, 6:00 pm, 7:30 pm, and 9:00 pm;
Sun. at 3:00 pm, 4:30 pm, and 6:00 pm

I am in Denver at the moment watching my sister box in the US National Championships.  I am heading over to the MCA Denver to check out their Damien Hirst and Anthony Goicolea shows. For Tuesaday’s pick I chose Anthony Goicolea’s Act of Contrition.