Slashdot Mirror
Artwork Re-Sells Itself Weekly On eBay
Lanxon writes "How much would you pay for a piece of artwork that you could only own for a week? A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter, 2009, is a black acrylic box that places itself for sale on eBay every seven days thanks to an embedded Internet connection, which, according to the artist's conditions of sale, must be live at all times. Disconnections are only allowed during transport, says the creator, Caleb Larsen. Larsen tells Wired UK: 'Inside the black box is a micro controller and an Ethernet adapter that contacts a script running on [a] server [every] 10 minutes. The server script checks to see if the box currently has an active auction, and if it doesn't, it creates a new auction for the work.'" Another condition of sale is that the artist gets 15% each time the piece is sold. Maybe the First Sale Doctrine works differently in the UK.
So.. each person who buys this will, in theory, try to do everything they can to make sure that the sale price tops their purchase price (including shipping) by 15%, so as to recoup all their costs. Sounds like a great scam for the artist.
Only if the definition of art encompasses EVERYTHING. I like art too much to consider this an example. This is attention-mongering and marketing.
according to the article '....give Larsen 15 percent of any increase in value ...', which is slightly different to what the story summary implies. I wonder, should the value decrease, does the seller get 15% back of any decrease?...I guess not!
The purchaser also gains the right to claim the title of "The worlds most obvious sucker".... ...but only for one week.
Space game using normal deck of cards: http://BattleCards.org
Some famous artist once exhibited a metal cube about 1m on a side. He was based in New York, and one day, driving through New Jersey, he saw a sign that said "You design it, we fabricate it". So he called them and ordered a 1m cube of solid steel. It was explained to him how much this would weigh. So he settled for a cube of sheet metal on a frame. The cube was duly fabricated and drop-shipped to the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
That was in the 1970s, when it was at least an original idea. As late as the 1990s, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art was showing a Plexiglas cube held together with tape. That was embarrassing. (When SFMOMA started, all the money went into their building, and the permanent collection was awful. It's since improved, but it's still far behind NY and LA.)
As Frank Lloyd Wright pointed out, you can have very simple geometric forms, but the materials and finishes must be very well chosen.
That's exactly what it is. Foolish fun. You should try it some time, it lightens up the day.
Not everything in life is about calculating that "you need to sell it at 118% profit to break even".
Looking at the terms of the sale, I'd say that only counts as "fun" if you're a lawyer.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
Please define art.
Oh for craps sake. It does exist. From the wikipedia article you linked to:
Exhaustion of rights - A concept in EU law similar to the US "First-sale doctrine
Gee... sounds an awful lot like a first sale doctrine that works differently. Did you even notice the other wild-ass assumptions in your post?
Why do Americans, and Slashdotters in particular, assume that the world's legal systems are based on the USA's?
Errr... We do?
you'd think you'd realise that your laws are an amalgam of what's gone before - and that Common Law or other branches were around a long time before your country existed.
That's kinda obvious. I mean, the only other alternative is that the founding fathers knew no history or systems of government other than monarchies when they drafted the constitution. That's just seems silly.
The whole world doesn't want to be American you know.
OMGWTFBBQ?
Strong statements require strong proof, and the only proof you offered us for your wack-ass statements is a single unrelated quote from the /. summary.
Where do you draw the line? Simple example: Picasso. Mainstream or not? Once he was not, now he is. Rap was once extreme, now it is so mundane white people do it. Elvis Presley once shocked the world, now he is elevator music.
Movies were once extreme, daring, shocking and made in Hollywood, now Hollywood stands for everyday commercial crap.
When someone made the first shadow portrait, he or she was the first, pushing technology to new limits. Now it is old hat.
The paintings and photographs you mentioned all developed over time (get it, photographs, developed?) into different forms. The super realistic paintings that are considered "not proper art" anymore by the snobs but the rest of us buy (Rembrandt) were NEW once.
The media wants to show us new things. The first guy to break the 1 minute on the 10 mile run is news, the second isn't. The first moon-landing was news, by the time of Apollo 13, people famously didn't care anymore.
For art to be news worthy, it got to do something new. You wouldn't accept a slashdot story on a guy painting the ceiling of a church in high detail with just paint and brushes would you? Been done.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I took a look at some of his other 'art' on his website.
One of his pieces of 'art' is a dollar bill acceptor on a plain white wall. Once $10,000 dollars is reached, the money is split between Larsen and whoever owns the acceptor. Then it starts again.
Another piece of 'art' was the purchaser of the 'art' assuming Larsen's credit card bills.
Another was a 'donor plaque', in which the more you gave, the bigger your name was on the plaque.
All of his newest pieces of 'art' just seem to be money makers for himself that prey on people who want to seem like they are hip to the 'art scene.'
I don't like Linux. This doesn't make me a troll.
Whatever scam you can get away with.
--Andy Warhol
If I piss in a bucket and throw it on an artist, that is art. I am sure they wouldn't like it even so.
The concept that some people "just don't get art" is simply the way an internally elitist system creates its own boundaries and structures. It is reflected in every other type of interest as well. Programmers will say that some people "just don't get" the significance of database choice. Bankers will say some people "just don't get" the significance of synthetic bonds. Artists say some people "just don't get" the significance of art. But I would argue that the most reflected of these groups acknowledge that what is important for them really and truly IS insignificant for other people, without that making any of them any less.
I knew this story wouldn't go well on this site. Nerds typically don't get art.
Lots of people here "get art". That doesn't mean you have to think it's particularly clever or "good". This particular piece is certainly a good scam and way to make some dough for the original guy. It's about as good "art" as the thing Bernie Madhoff did though (Maybe 'ol Bernie should have just called his scam art, and he wouldn't be rotting in jail now)
Since I am a geek, I don't pretend to fully understand the artists thinking behind it and am even willing to admit that I personally think he might be blowing a bit of smoke. But the failing is mine, not his.
And you have fully bought into "the emperor has no clothes" concept that's all too common in the art world. If you're not familiar with the concept, here's the synopsis:
1. Some acclaimed, but inexplicable (i.e. crap) piece of art is laid out before you.
2. You can't quite make head or tail of it.. but not wanting to sound like an idiot you talk about how great it is (Some idiot paid 100,000 for it, so it MUST be good right? Plus.. it's in this museum! These are trained professionals, they know what they're doing! It must be I just don't "get art").
I've gone to plenty of art museums over the years. There's quite a bit of really shitty art in them. A year ago a saw what amounts to some of the worst I've ever seen. It was a Japanese artists who essentially took a lot of plastic crap and burned it. He had quite the display of burned plastic crap and resin, so somehow he hypnotized enough people into thinking this was somehow great enough to wind up in a museum.
Some might argue that you "need to keep an open mind". I agree, Just don't keep it so open that your brain falls out.
AccountKiller