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OK, freedom vs. (perceived) security, photography, etc. are all good things to discuss. However, Thomas Hawk is a complete asshole. By his own admission:

For years San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art has maintained a "no photographs" policy for their permanent collection, according to Hawk's popular blog -- but he's been taking photographs there anyways.

Fail.

Here... for a start, try taking a look at their official photography policy.
http://www.sfmoma.org/visit/visitinfo_hours.asp

It clearly states
Cameras
Photography is allowed for personal, noncommercial use, except where noted. Flash photography and videography are not allowed in the galleries. Tripods are not allowed.

Also... it's pretty clear he's aware of the rules changing.
http://thomashawk.com/2008/06/sf-moma-changes-photography-policy-non.html

Also, him cheerfully getting a guard fired in 2006 adds to his dossier. Someone should shove Hawk's cameras up his ass, and let him take all the pictures he wants of blood vessels being ruptured.

Would it be presumptuous for me to ask if you work as a rentacop? Mind if I ask if you have a metal badge or one of those gold colored cloth ones?

>

That's a lame excuse; they could simply have a no-flash policy.

They do.
The fuckwit who you replied to was blathering bullshit.

The museum had a policy of no photographs. This is hardly uncommon: not only do many people find it annoying to stumble over photographers and deal with flashes while they're trying to look at art, but repeated exposure to light flashes can damage art.

Fucking fail.
You posted this drivel without even bothering to do even the most basic research. Then you pretended to know exactly what the guy was thinking, when in fact, the opposite is clearly true.

Here... for a start, try taking a look at their official photography policy.
http://www.sfmoma.org/visit/visitinfo_hours.asp

It clearly states

Cameras
Photography is allowed for personal, noncommercial use, except where noted. Flash photography and videography are not allowed in the galleries. Tripods are not allowed.

Again. Fucking fail.

Actually, if you RTFA, the museum had explicitly made a big deal about how they were opening up more to photographers.

According to the SFMOMA, he was photographing staff members "in an inappropriate and harassing manner". Photography of "the permanent collection, the architecture of the building, and the museum's public spaces" is permitted; that's not a license to act in a harassing or annoying manner.

When the first slashdot article on him came out, he was selling the suit for $500,000 (US). Since it appears it didn't sell at that price, it seems as if he's throwing it on eBay to see what it will fetch. $5,000 is really not a very high starting bid. Keep in mind the thousands of hours he put into making these suits and he's making less than a buck an hour.

Practical use? There's all kinds of expensive crap on the market with no practical use. Some people call it art.

aside from the typical california perks (weather, diversity, rad food, etc) this is where you can see lots of companies that make cool shit and museums that show cool shit. there are several hostels in the area, and public transportation is decent, although renting a car for a day or two might be advisable if you're trekking out to business park country. a quick google search turns up a decent article on geeky destinations around the valley, worth checking out for the list at the end. there are some guide sites out there tha cover lots of this stuff: let the big g be your friend.

you could do the super mega geeky thing, of course, and get pictures of yourself in front of company signs around they valley - we're riddled with them from san jose to san mateo. give corporate people a holler via email far enough ahead of time and you might even score a tour or the location of a museum. email SGI and ask if tours/demos are available for the Reality Center. visit fry's electronics for a geek-mecca epiphany (i suggest the cavenous san jose location); but beware, traveler, for to ask for help of a sales associate at fry's is to ask satan to take a little piece of your soul. this is also the time of your journey where you'll be asking "i wonder how much money i have, and how much it would cost to ship some hardware home..."

san francisco is beautiful and cool and yadda yadda; check out the museums, the parks and the nightlife. the exploratorium is big and WAY FREAKIN' COOL. make sure to get a good afternoon for just that and the nice area around it. check out the SFMOMA and the whole area around there - right across the street is the geeky-cool Sony Metreon with a sony store that has pretty much everything they carry in north america, plus big expensive video games and theaters. san francisco is also the terminal for many green tortoise bus tours that take you to beautiful parks around the west coast (quickly cementing your preference for it, trust me). they also have a hostel and buses that take you to seattle, portland and los angeles.

other things to do in california... rent a car and drive the coast on hwy 1 - if you can, from san francisco to los angeles! it is quite solidly some of the most beautiful coastline in the world, from smooth white beaches in the south to how-the-hell-did-they-wrap-a-road-around-that sharp rocks in the north. skip disneyland in southern california and go to six flags or universal studios. do all the usual touristy stuff, and check out venice beach, i'm sure you'll run into some crazy aussies there, plus there's a hostel nearby. visit a national park (do this on green tortoise, probably). get clam chowder at the jenner inn in jenner, ca. avoid the central valley (the "midwest" of the united states pretty much starts 60 miles inland california).

also, you'll be sorely disappointed to find that 99% of the country thinks that fosters is what all aussies drink. some well stocked british or hipster pubs might have VB, as well as the occasional aussie pub. bring your own marmite/vegemite/donteverconfuseitfornutellamite, because you australians are just freaky. no one knows what a "cone" is, we call them "bowls." if you're a crazy eastern aussie, like all the others i've met, people will probably love you and buy you drinks and tell you about the great fosters commercials you've been missing. the chicks (guys?) will dig you. if you're from the west... i don't know.

good luck!

Well, it's only to be expected since we have the cube (purist link) and the sphere.

Yeah - not only is it the end, but a bloody one at that.

All of our tools [computers to chainsaws] and domesticated animals [from cows to cats] will attack us for the great wrongs we caused...

...no mention if we can reverse it, I'm almost certain the date is set in stone (literally and yes; we can't change it)

Supposedly this has already happened and is noted on the Mayan calenders. But there is a reason that date has been selected, I guess.

I agree. It's funny, but I don't find it to be particularly compelling art.

Related but more interesting is this One Tree mural in San Francisco.

-Bruce

I did this better in webcollage years ago. But of course I didn't call myself an Artist Collective, and I didn't put out a press release, so no article in the Times for me, darn. I guess that's why webcollage is a ``hack'' rather than an ``art project.''

I swear, one of these days I'm gonna apply for a federal grant to hack on xscreensaver . I've seen people get money for worse things . All you have to do is swallow your sanity and gag up an artist statement of some kind, and the literati will take you seriously: if you cloak it in pretentiousness, the most trivial piece of eye candy can become a Serious Work, full of Insight And Meaning!

The problem with art is artists. My goal has long been to eliminate the artist from the creative process.

You could start by having a look at the SF MOMA which has an exhibition on at the moment about art and technology. See also

• exhibition details
• web site in conjunction with exhibition

And then there are the more modern art colleges that focus on graphic design but include a fine art component. These include the Academy of Art College in San Fran and the Queensland College of Art, just to start with two.

Explore...

Ralf

______________________________________________

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.

You could start by having a look at the SF MOMA which has an exhibition on at the moment about art and technology. See also

• exhibition details
• web site in conjunction with exhibition

And then there are the more modern art colleges that focus on graphic design but include a fine art component. These include the Academy of Art College in San Fran and the Queensland College of Art, just to start with two.

Explore...

Ralf

______________________________________________

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.

You could start by having a look at the SF MOMA which has an exhibition on at the moment about art and technology. See also

• exhibition details
• web site in conjunction with exhibition

And then there are the more modern art colleges that focus on graphic design but include a fine art component. These include the Academy of Art College in San Fran and the Queensland College of Art, just to start with two.

Explore...

Ralf

______________________________________________

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.

San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art is doing an Art in Technological Times exhibit, complete with strange music and quotes by Nicolas Negroponte. You can check out the exhibition's web site, but more interesting to you if you're not in the SF area might be the online presentation, which may be more practical then getting to SF.

The exhibit, of course, is better than the on-line version; the on-line version is a bit gratuitous in its use of neat flash techniques and new interface choices, but it's worth a view.

San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art is doing an Art in Technological Times exhibit, complete with strange music and quotes by Nicolas Negroponte. You can check out the exhibition's web site, but more interesting to you if you're not in the SF area might be the online presentation, which may be more practical then getting to SF.

The exhibit, of course, is better than the on-line version; the on-line version is a bit gratuitous in its use of neat flash techniques and new interface choices, but it's worth a view.

For instance, today we have a digital art exhibition that you wouldn't enjoy too much if you didn't have Flash. In the case of this example, you can rightly say that art "doesn't serve any useful purpose", but it's probably unfair to say that its patrons are "simpletons with the IQ of jello." I, for one, like pretty, entertaining things that don't take too long to download.