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Art Babble

Christopher — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 18:09:44 +0000

Art Babble has for a while been for me a great example of a institution just putting a few people to work and creating something on the net that is both useful, fun, well designed and not covered from head to toe with the trappings or promotion of the parent institution. Conceived, initiated, designed, built, sculpted, programmed, shot, edited, painted and launched by a cross-departmental collection of individuals at the Indianapolis Museum of Art Art Babble takes IP that they already have and presents it in a way that is greater then the sum of it’s parts. Too bad Art institutions haven’t been able to do the same with the net or social media on average.

We Are Hunted: Music Discovery Site

Christopher — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 07:00:58 +0000

It’s nothing dramatic to say that radio is largely dead and discovering new music you like is both simultaneously easier and much much harder then ever before.

Myspace was a solution at one time, as was marketplace solutions like iTunes, Amazon & Zune.

Thesixtyone.com was a solution for a specific genre that was and still is quite good and in that vein “We Are Hunted” was created. It attempts to crawl the web for the top 99 relatively new songs that a majority of people are talking about then displays them on the site for your listening pleasure.

It’s not a one stop shop but definitely a nice tool in your music safari arsenal. Enjoy and find that new song for your summer fun or maybe just this weekend.

Review: Manystuff #1, One Possible Catalyst

Martine Syms — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 22:42:43 +0000

Photo by Charlotte Cheetham © Manystuff

Manystuff is a blog, edited by the mostly anonymous Charlotte Cheetham, that offers a “daily selection” of graphic design. Manystuff has a devout, international following of 5,000+ visitors a day, they regularly organize design exhibitions and recently began publishing a magazine. Manystuff #1 is actually the second issue. Manystuff #0, More Real Than Fiction was released in 2008, but I wasn’t able to get my hands on it, so it remains less real to me.

Manystuff #1, One Possible Catalyst states its case modestly. The objective is to “fix a laboratory of experiments and meditations released from formal and theoretical prejudices.” One Possible Catalyst is not for those seeking a practical treatise about running your own studio or how to do-it-yourself, nor those looking for a barrage of striking images to consume. It comes as a refreshing counterpoint to the glut of design thinking, design within reach, and design sponging that currently abounds. One Possible Catalyst is for serious thinking about Design. Read it when you’re feeling cynical, but not when you’re feeling sleepy.

(Contributors were asked to diverge from the following three themes:)

Photo by Charlotte Cheetham © Manystuff

Less is more
This way of life has become a cliché and/or vice versa. Less is More is an argument for minimal graphic design that features an essay on the public notice by Rob Giampietro, a collection of business cards from Christian Brandt and a historical survey by Olivier Marcellin. Succinctly, “Use of a sans-serif and a uniform background.”

Support Graphic Design
Support Graphic Design is a catalog of structures used to hold posters and other designed objects, including outdoor benches from EventArchitectuur, billboards from Experimental Jetset, and a mobile bookshop from Robin Gadde. I was struck by the beauty and economy of the mobile bookshop, a succession of plywood sheets with rectangle cut outs for shelves.

Transmission
The headline asks “What about intergenerational relations between designers?” I often wonder if it’s even possible to establish intergenerational relationships outside of an institution. Sometimes I lament that the only way I’ll be able to meet so-and-so is to go to X school or secure another internship with no pay but lots of prestige. Although One Possible Catalyst provides no alternatives, it does offer a series of texts pairing educators with students and employers with interns that contemplate the role of generational exchange within the field.

Manystuff #1, One Possible Catalyst features contributions from Christian Brandt, Lorena Cardenas, Change is good, David Conte, Pinar Demirdag, Neil Donnelly, Laurent Fétis, Kees de Klein, Wayne Daly, Bear Demen, EventArchitectuur, Experimental Jetset, Robin Gadde &team, Rob Giampietro, Hannes Gloor & Stefan Jandl, Catherine Guiral & David Cluzeau, Arnaud Daffos, Vincent Lalanne, Aurélie Guérinet, Rikard Heberling, Hey Ho, Hyoun Youl Joe, Julia, Konst & Teknik, Sacha Leopold, Olivier Marcellin, Fanette Mellier, Pipi Parade, Please Let Me Design, Thibaut Robin, Grégoire Romanet, Mathias Schweizer, Maki Suzuki (Åbäke), Pierre Vanni, Karen Willey, and Ivor Williams.

It is available now at Manystuff.

Maybe Hip: Internet TV out of Chicago

Christopher — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 04:09:52 +0000

Maybe Hip which has been broadcasting from Chicago only since Nov/Dec of 2009 is already starting to find it’s feet successfully as the new independent pop culture-focused internet television network. Their stated goal, to be a place where original video entertainment centers on all things that may – or may not – be hip.

Be it music, film, TV, pop culture, news, events in Chicago or around the world the crew of Maybe Hip are successfully writing, filming, producing & creating high level content on a shoestring budget. It’s funny, driven and earnest in it desire to inform & entertain. Needless to say it reminds me of another group I knew 5 years or so ago.

The company, founded in 2009 by Patrick Lothian, Robby Silver, and Lexi Scherr looks to add to the growing internet television industry discussion by creating original content for Generation Next that is more mainstream then the work done by people like Revision 3. It’s raw, it wears it heart on it’s sleeve & it wants to have fun and bring everyone along.

Time will only tell if the group can continue to refine their voice, onair chemistry & most of all get past the coming wall that is continuously meeting weekly deadlines for more then a year with no budget. So far though it looks to be a group worth keeping an eye on and more importantly, watching.

Infosthetics.com Celebrates 5 Years by Displaying all their Posts Aesthetically On One Page

Christopher — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 05:33:39 +0000

Infosthetics.com a site dedicated to collecting, sharing and promoting the art of pleasing data visualization celebrates it’s 5th birthday with a flash visualization of all their posts over that time broken down by time, category, comments & author using color and line. Bad at Sports would like congratulate Infosthetics “Where form follows data” and we follow them. Keep up the good work!

Art Critics Can Have Beautiful Websites Too

Claudine Ise — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:20:15 +0000

New City art editor, Frieze contributor, independent curator and culture essayist Jason Foumberg has a new website, designed by Ryan Swanson, that kicks ass. Professional writers know how important it is to have all of their written material online in an easy to access format. Foumberg’s site shows an eye for typography and design and has tons of flair. It’s actually fun to navigate – check it out for yourself! Bravo to Ryan Swanson for his bang-up job here, and to Foumberg for reminding us that writers and other culture workers deserve to have gorgeously designed personal websites too.

In 7 Days Everything Changes

Christopher — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 08:46:07 +0000

Download audio file (maps_valium-in-the-sunshine.mp3)

Duncan MacKenzie, Hacker?

Christopher — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 07:10:41 +0000

ESPN Homepage Hack Screenshot

It is unknown when exactly the hack was added but on Monday 4/27 it was discovered that entering the Konami cheat code (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, enter) at the official ESPN Web site made glittery pink unicorns with rainbow manes and tails pop up all over the site. And more clicks led to more unicorns.

In addition to this visitors also got their headlines in hot pink and the Comic Sans font (every designers fav font).

We at Bad at Sports want to officially deny any rummer that Duncan MacKenzie was behind this in any way whatsoever. Yes we may be horrible at everything ESPN reports on and yes we all love some glitter loaded unicorns but that by no means implicates Mr. MacKenzie in this act. As for the mountain of MySQL & Javascript training books that were found at his residence after tracing an IP address to his billing address we have been informed to say “No Comment” and hope this suffices.

The hack has since been removed but Cnet caught a screenshot of it before the takedown.

The Post Family Has New Digs

Christopher — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 01:46:59 +0000

Everyone at Bad at Sports wants to congrats The Post Family on their new site and everyone should check it out.

Matt Hooks put a lot of time into it, it looks great and I wanted to say good job.

So to Alex, Chad, Davey, David, Rod, Sam & Scott keep up the good work and say hi to your mother for me, ok….

In my world of Unicorns and Wizards.

duncan — Thu, 29 May 2008 20:53:13 +0000

Those of you are brave and fond of the “dirty” words. You might as well check out “Why The Fuck Not Ppodcast?“ Think of it as a more plat-formists, music oriented and bizarre Bad At Sports from Europe.

Ppodcast has a more aggressively open ended mandate for the project and offers sound artists and experimental musicians a platform for their stuff.

Also, they introduced me to Lily Allen and I think I’m in love.

Ebay Art Scam Broken Up In Chicago

Christopher — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:53:29 +0000

Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall and Andy Warhol were among artists whose works were counterfeited by seven people indicted for two art-fraud schemes that reaped a combined $5 million.

Those charged include three Europeans and residents of New York, Florida and Illinois, Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said today in a statement. They sold thousands of fake prints in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Japan and Europe, he alleged.

“Most of us have never owned a work of art signed by Picasso,” Fitzgerald said today at a press conference. Some people who believed they did, he added, “bought fakes.”

Some of the prints in the scam were sold on EBay Inc., the world’s largest online auctioneer, Fitzgerald alleged. Others were funneled through two art dealers in Northbrook, Illinois, prosecutors claimed.

The counterfeiting included the reproduction of actual works by the artists as well as the sale of fakes executed in each one’s particular style, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Miller, one of the prosecutors assigned to the case.

Fitzgerald urged art buyers to be wary. “Proceed with caution and seek guidance,” he said.

Some of the forgeries were made in Spain and Italy, Fitzgerald said. Others were created by one of the defendants, Leon Amiel Jr. of New York.

Amiel was indicted with art dealer James Kennedy of Northbrook, Illinois. Amiel allegedly distributed 2,500 counterfeit prints of work by Chagall and Calder. Kennedy is accused of traveling the country selling fakes as genuine limited-edition prints. The duo face nine counts of fraud and a demand to forfeit $1 million.

Kennedy’s lawyer, Michael B. Mann of Maywood, Illinois, declined to comment on the allegations.

In the larger of two cases, five people face 10 counts of fraud for their roles in importing forgeries from Europe and selling them through another Northbrook art dealer, Michael Zabrin. Prosecutors seek to recover $4 million from these defendants, Fitzgerald said.

LoL Susan Sontag

Meg Onli — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 03:11:28 +0000

Slow Art News Day? Discover New Music!

Christopher — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 18:13:51 +0000

The Art news cycle is not always constant and in the down times you might want to catch up on new or undiscovered music which in today’s climate is seemingly harder then ever. There are many sites though that offer help in different ways to get you in the same virtual place as artists you might like. So for a end of the work week reward to yourself check out one of these great sies and see what you can uncover. Please add your favorite sites that we haven’t mentioned in the comments below.

Coverville

Coverville is a almost daily podcast of established music in new and often very unexpected ways.

It is hosted by Brian Ibbott and gives you focused or themed batches of new music mixed with trivia in ways you will be hard pressed to find anywhere else. Defenetly worth a look.

The Sixty One

The Sixty One is a website designed to encourage the discovery and promotion of new artists (and increasingly tech savvy established artists like NIN’s Trent Reznor) by having full length songs organized by genre and vote able in a digg like fashion to enable the group to promote the best works and the visitor to find people of similar tastes to discover new artists.

Throw in a small game mechanism for fun and you have a site you can lose hours on.

Musicovery

Musicovery is something all together different. It enables you to pick a mood and tempo then subdivide it by genre, time period and finally between new or established to give an interesting if not unexpected result of suggested music.

With links to iTunes or Amazons DRM free music store you can quickly discover and get music to go.

Duncan and Brian Speak at CAA

Brian Andrews — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 18:36:31 +0000

This Thursday, Duncan and Brian spoke about Bad At Sports at the College Art Association 2008 Annual Conference in lovely Dallas, TX. The panel was titled “artblogging == global.exibit(local)” and was a part of the New Media Caucus at the Dallas Contemporary. The intrepid BAS representatives overcame a lack of audio support (important for a podcast…) and anchored the panel with an in depth look at how BAS positions itself as a tool for artists in the contemporary art world.

A supporting blog for the panel can be found at artblogging.org.

Happy Valentines Day to our readers

Christopher — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 05:59:35 +0000

Yea we’re late and the virtual equivalent of knocking on your door late at night to remind you that we care and haven’t forgotten this special holiday.

Thats why you love us, we’re goofy that way. Well in the spirit of St. Valentines Day and the preoccupation art has with science since the 90′s here are some cards telling you how much we all care for you.

From everyone at BaS we wish you all a happy Valentines day and promise not to drunk dial you anymore.

Thank you Ironic Sans

You Fucking Sellout.

duncan — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:03:51 +0000

Lori Waxman sent me a note today saying that I had too check out this blog and post something about it. She was right. I love the Sellout Blog.

It is the perfect blend of useful information and random “experience of life in the arts, style life dissections.”

Other notable blogosphere art things…

Art Info Updated their site design and have been posting steadily and it is often worth checking out for Museum and blue chip level stuff.

Art Review magazine rebuilt their whole set up to be the most bizarrely exhaustive art site on the interweb. Part Art Magazine, part Art MySpace, and part open source art blog, it proposes itself as all thing contemporary art. It might be but it is so big it scares me and I open it an have trouble remembering what I was looking for.

I also have to mention New Art TV which is an all art, web oriented video “channel.” Because who doesn’t want to watch Alex Katz talk about his boring paintings. (It is better then the paintings themselves)

Chicago Mag names Bad at Sports one of the city’s top sites.

Christopher — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 04:15:22 +0000

In February’s edition of Chicago Magazine ( soon to be on newsstands ) they rate the top websites that are Chicago focused and/or based.

Bad at Sports was kindly named and showcased in the Art & Culture category along with other Chicago resources as Sharkforum, Chicago Artists Resource & Paul Kline’s Artletter. Not to forget the personal writings of Edward Lifson, cough, cough.

We thank every listener that has made this possible for the last 2+ years & the editorial staff of Chicago Magazine for recognizing the hard work of a handful of Chicago street punks like us.

In true form we take the recognition with one hand and flip off the establishment with the other hand (minus a few fingers). At least thats what I think the artist handbook decrees, who knows we were never good with rules.

Episode 120: Intuit and Literago.org

Christopher — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 00:55:42 +0000

Download audio file (Bad_at_Sports_Episode_120_Intuit-Literago.mp3)
download

First: Shannon and Duncan talk Robert Reinard, Program Director, Collections & Exhibitions and Amanda Curtis, Program Director, Education from Intuit.

Intuit is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1991. Our mission is to promote public awareness, understanding, and appreciation of intuitive and outsider art through a program of education and exhibition.

Toward this end, Intuit strives to discover, document, maintain, preserve, exhibit, and collect examples of intuitive and outsider art; and to operate a permanent facility in which to pursue such activities.

Intuit defines “intuitive and outsider art” as work of artists who demonstrate little influence from the mainstream art world and who seem instead motivated by their unique personal visions. This includes what is known as art brut, non-traditional folk art, self-taught art, and visionary art.

Next: Terri and Joanna talk to Gretchen Kalwinski and Eugenia Williamson from Literago.org

Literago.org is intended as a portal to news and information about literary goings-on in and around Chicago. The site features a curated calendar with a corresponding weekly newsletter, news and photos, post-event write-ups, and the occasional essay about the state of literature in Chicago.

Robert Reinard
Amanda Curtis
Robert Reinard
Amanda Curtis
Intuit
A.G. Rizzolli
Henry Darger
The Art Institute of Chicago
Roger Brown Study Collection
Lisa Stone
Aims Gallery
Bonnie Grossman
High Museum
David Philpot
Mark Michaelson
Smart Museum
Chicago Tribune
TimeOut
Dog and Pony Theater
The Mighty Vitamins
Daniel Johnston
Tony Pettulo
Kohler Art Center
Milwaukee Art Museum
Gretchen Kalwinski
Eugenia Williamson
Literago
Barbara’s Bookstore
The Chicago Reader
Jonathan Messinger
Featherproof
Book Mooch
Bookslut
Library Thing
Good Reads
Tao Lin
Reader of Depressing Books
Village Voice
Stop Smiling
Soft Skull Press
The Reconstruction Room
Poetry Magazine
Venus
Switchback Books
The Hideout
Danny’s
The Newberry Library
Arts and Letters Daily
Bookforum
Lynne Tillman
Oprah
Direct download: Bad_at_Sports_Episode_120_Intuit-Literago.mp3

Bad at Sports » Website

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