MAeX Art Blog

We Have Moved Our Blog

We have moved to a new space NEW MAeX Artblog view it there. Don't forget to update your bookmarks and backtracks!

MAP magazine

I see Omar Sommereyns around town pretty often and, Saturday night he asked me if I had the latest copy of MAP. No, I didn't. MAP is using the lot next to Snitzer Gallery to pick up copies and sample café cubano with temporary seating and a nice crowd. Omar has ventured into a number of projects and, I do support his efforts. So should you.

MAP magazine:

"Finally, a local magazine that does it right. This is the 4th (quarterly) issue of Map magazine, and the quality has been consistently great, so I’m finally letting myself get attached. Splitting the difference between local and non-local content — this issue’s cover, of the Ravonettes, is the first non-local — the magazine focuses on art, music, and culture.

Read the full article at NEW MAeX Artblog view it there. Don't forget to update your bookmarks and backtracks!

Geometry of Motion

Vernissage.TV is a classy operation that provides us with top notch videos. Must see, Vernissage.TV.

Geometry of Motion:

"VernissageTV Didier Didier posted a photo:

See the 'Geometry of Motion' video

Until June 20, 2008, the Museum of Modern Art in New York presents Geometry of Motion 1920s/1970s. On display are 14 works that trace the transformation of the art object from static image to fluid light projection.

This video was originally shared on blip.tv by henrichy0205blip with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license."

(Via Photos from VernissageTV Didier Didier.)

Winners of New Museum's Altoid Awards; Creative Capital Receives TOBY Fund Gift

NEWS: Winners of New Museum's Altoid Awards; Creative Capital Receives TOBY Fund Gift:

"03.21.08 - The winners of the $25,000 Altoids Awards for American emerging artists have been announced. Ei Arakawa of New York City; Michael Patterson-Carver of Portland, Oregon; Lauren Kelley of Houston, Texas; and Michael Stickrod of New Haven, Connecticut were selected among forty-six nominees by a jury composed of artists Paul McCarthy, Cindy Sherman, and Rirkrit Tiravanija. The prize is awarded biennially by the New Museum and Altoids to four artists nominated and selected by a panel comprised entirely of other artists. In addition to cash prizes, the 2008 award recipients will appear in a joint exhibition organized by Massimiliano Gioni, director of special exhibitions at the New Museum, on view from June 25 through October 12, offering these artists their earliest exposure to a broad, international museum audience. “For so many of these artists, this is a life-changing opportunity, and that is exactly what we are here for—to champion emerging artists and to consistently offer our audiences the chance to experience new art and new ideas from a variety of perspectives,” said Lisa Phillips, the Toby Devan Lewis director of the New Museum.

Creative Capital is the recipient of a major, three-year gift from the TOBY Fund, established by collector, philanthropist, and former curator Toby Devan Lewis. This $540,000 gift specifically supports the production costs of Creative Capital emerging fields artists, a category that encompasses artists whose work includes imaginative uses of new technologies, as well as genre-blurring applications of familiar creative practices. "From our very first grant round in 1999, Creative Capital was committed to artists whose work doesn't neatly fit the usual discipline categories," said Creative Capital¹s president Ruby Lerner. "While the sometimes indefinable nature of these projects is tremendously exciting, it also creates a handicap, as this kind of work often lacks the support infrastructure of more traditionally defined disciplines. Ms. Lewis has always had a similar passion for artists who boldly cross all sorts of boundaries‹discipline, aesthetic, thematic—and we're thrilled that the TOBY Fund for Emerging Fields at Creative Capital will draw more attention to how these artists challenge the very landscape of the contemporary arts." The TOBY Fund grant will allow Creative Capital to support more of its emerging fields grantees at the $50,000 level, the organization's maximum award. To date, Creative Capital has funded 48 emerging fields projects representing sixty-five artists, with $1.1 million in direct funding and more than $1 million in artist services. Artists previously supported through this category include Cory Arcangel, Luca Buvoli, Hasan Elahi, Marie Sester, and art collectives such as the Yes Men and SubRosa."

(Via artforum.com.)

Originally posted on NEW MAeX Artblog view it there.

Blogging Good For Your Well Being

As many people that have taken flack of some kind for their blogs, it seems to have a strong positive influence on the person doing the blogging. I guess I would have to agree since I've been doing this in one form or another since 2000.

Blogging Good For Your Well Being:

"Researchers from Melbourne's Swinburne University of Technology say that blogging makes people feel happier.

Two studies examining the psychological benefits of blogging done by psychologist James Baker and Dr. Susan Moore are being published in the journal Cyber Psychology and Behavior.

read more"

(Via Insider Reports Feed.)

Originally posted on NEW MAeX Artblog view it here.

The Facebook Biennial

During the Future of Web Apps conference the key phrase throughout was "social media" and, derivations. In reality, it is amazing the ways that web apps are allowing for social media to connect and interconnect.

The Facebook Biennial:

"How social networks have taken over this year’s Whitney festivities."

(Via nymag.com: Art.)

FOWA Day 2

Okay, I'm guilty of not having seen all of the Arsht Center's buildings and art. I did this weekend see the work of Jose Bedia and Gary Moore. What was probably the most exciting and surprising thing about the Future of Web Apps (FOWA) conference was the number of "geeks" that knew something about Miamiartexchange.com. Anyway, I've been hanging out with a new friend and major software developer that came down for the event. I'll have to give you more information about his company later this week.

FOWA Day 2:

miamiartexchange posted a photo:

"Future of Web Apps, Knight Center main stage presentation"

(Via Photos from miamiartexchange.)

And, don't forget to support our sponsor, Miami City Ballet, located at the Arsht Center.

Originally posted on NEW MAeX Artblog view it here.

FOWA

Thursday and Friday were long days that just about ran together. Really. I only got about 4 hours sleep.

Thursday was BarCampMiami, a gathering of web developers and computer geeks networking, presenting workshops, running around and having fun. While at BarCampMiami I ran into the guys from Freshbooks, a web service I use for invoicing clients. When we introduced ourselves they were excited and I was surprised because they wanted to contact me because of a blog post I made about their app. They invited me and my buddies out to dinner. Paul brought the developer of CakePHP to the conference which has turned out to be a brilliant thing. More about that later when I get time.

Friday was FOWA, Future of Web Apps conference. Not any workshops but, presentations by a number of the top level developers such as Tantek Celik, Matt Mullenweg (WordPress), Joseph Smart (Plaxo), Blaine Cook (Twitter), Leah Culver (Pownce), Carlos Garcia and Alex de Carvalho (Scrapblog), Kevin Rose (digg), Kevin Hale (Wufoo), Emily Boyd (Remembe the Milk), and Kevin Marks (Google).

Friday evening was the South Florida Artist Entrepreneurs Miami-Dade Meetup Kickoff at Carol Jazzar's, who hosted the event. We had an enthusiastic group of artists including, some new faces. Everyone is excited about the new possibilities of what we can do locally. There is no other group of this type in Miami-Dade County. At the end of the Meetup we decided to work on gathering more ideas for future topics. We have to thank Carol for hosting this event with warm hugs.

I really believe that artists, as a self-professed class of creative individuals, have to be MORE like the computer/ internet people I was networking with. We artists need to see more creative options, think more creatively about ourselves and our work, devise new models for creative sustainability and, reach for higher goals.

Originally published on NEW MAeX Artblog view it here.

Don’t copy this (and don’t copy my cease and desist letter, either)!

Don’t copy this (and don’t copy my cease and desist letter, either)!:

"Dear Rich: I have a question. I got a cease and desist letter from a law firm and I’d like to post it on my website so the world can see what a jerk this guy is. Is that legal? I’m so glad you asked. Publishing cease and desist letters on the Internet is not uncommon and there are even searchable C&D databases (in case you need help writing one). Lawyers rarely object to the practice either because they don’t want more attention, or because they’re aware that they’re on tenuous first amendment or fair use grounds. However, some lawyers throw caution to the wind and plunge ahead with attempts to stop republication of their C&D letters. (You can read this lawyer’s original cease and desist letter (.pdf) and a well-reasoned response to it by Public Citizen (.pdf).) If faced with an overly assertive law firm, keep the following in mind:

1. Getting a certificate of copyright registration for a cease and desist letter is not very hard. The hurdles for federal registration are fairly low and a cease and desist letter may meet those standards.

2. Enforcing copyright in C&D letters is difficult because of the merger doctrine. Copyright law will not protect a work if there are a limited number of ways of expressing the underlying idea. (And how many ways are there to say cease and desist?)

3. Reproduction of letters may be permitted under fair use principles. Infringing activity is often permitted for the sake of commentary and/or criticism.

Anyway, I certainly hope nobody puts a chill on republication of C&D letters. They are a great source of amusement and sometimes a matter of national security. And, for lawyers like me, it’s often the only way to get published."

(Via Nolo’s Patent, Copyright, and Trademark Blog.)

PC Magazine Editors’ Choice: FreshBooks

My business partner told me about Freshbooks. It works great. That's how I'm doing all my billing once my attorney finishes writing my contracts. It's real easy and, works with Paypal.

PC Magazine Editors’ Choice: FreshBooks:

"It looks like the Academy Awards aren’t going to happen this year, at least not in their usual form.

Well, fine by us — that just means Juno won’t be stealing our thunder anytime soon, because we just nabbed ourselves an Editors’ Choice award from the one and only PC Magazine!

Reviewer Edward Mendelson explains why we earned four-and-a-half stars plus the big trophy:

FreshBooks tends to confirm my sense that the best online service is a highly focused one, not a jack-of-all-trades that offers everything from an abacus to a zen-koan generator.

We couldn’t agree more.

We’re the solution for your day-to-day small business needs: clients, invoices and time tracking. For folks who still require accounting features, expenses are weeks away and we’re actively soliciting feedback on our upcoming QuickBooks integration; and of course, everyone’s already got a favourite Zen-kōan generator of their own.

But when you just need to get that invoice out, we’ve got your back.

Thank you to PC Magazine for the recognition! It means a lot to us, and not just because we get to crack out the beers and celebrate — it’s because FreshBooks isn’t just some product of ours, it’s our raison d’être. We want to positively impact every single one of our users.

Speaking of which, it turns out we weren’t just the editors’ choice:

If you hire me to write for you, expect to get an invoice via FreshBooks.

Thanks, Edward. That means more than any review ever could. Welcome to the fold — and thanks for choosing FreshBooks!"

(Via Fresh Thinking.)