Ford Motor Co. has chart-topper Kanye West promoting Lincoln in an upcoming music video, and Chrysler still is getting mileage from Snoop Dogg-Lee Iacocca commercials that ran last year. The alliances mark a departure from Detroit's often conservative advertising approach, which typically consists of cars on winding roads or trucks slogging through the mud. (DETROIT NEWS)

Call for Non-US Artists to Exhibit/Live in NYC

Wooloo Productions and White Box present AsylumNYC: an opportunity for non-US artists to exhibit and live in New York City. AsylumNYC will provide a talented artist with both a solo show at a recognized New York institution and the legal aid necessary to obtain an artists visa in the United States of America.

Location: White Box, 525 West 26th Street (between 10th and 11th Avenues), New York, New York 10001. Date: April 24, 2006, 8PM – April 29, 2006. All interested artists are encouraged to apply before April 1, 2006.

CREATIVE ASYLUM IN NEW YORK CITY: Based on the concept under exploration by Wooloo Productions in AsylumHOME.net, which addresses the difficulties faced by asylum seekers in Europe, AsylumNYC targets the challenge faced by artists interested in working in the United States.

After an online application process, White Box’s gallery space will become a creative asylum where successful applicants will be invited to develop a work/project from April 24 to April 29, 2006. Projects must actively challenge a regime(s) of exclusion in New York by including otherwise excluded individuals from cultural, economic or physical structures in the City.

Once an artist’s project is selected, AsylumNYC will provide a free lawyer to try to obtain a O- artist visa. If successful, the artist will be awarded the opportunity to stay in New York for three years.

February 8, 2006 marks the launch of the www.AsylumNYC.com where interested artists may apply until the April 1 deadline. To apply for asylum, artists must be able to be present at White Box, 525 West 26th Street (between 10th and 11th Avenues), New York, New York 10001 on April 24th, 2006 at 8 PM and STAY until 6:00pm on April 29th, 2006. While staying at White Box, the artists will be provided with lodging and food, but cannot leave the premises for the duration of the week.

ABOUT: Wooloo Productions is a provider of public and experimental spaces. Acting on the level of facilitation, every Wooloo production aims to encourage new forms of interaction and agency among members of diverse communities.

AsylumNYC is produced and organized by Wooloo Productions in close collaboration with White Box and the Franklin Furnace Archive in New York.

For more information, please email Martin Rosengaard, Media Manager: Martin[at]wooloo.org or call: +49 (0) 30 6676 3097

Please visit http://www.AsylumNYC.com for all project details.

Pattern-riffic!

Filed under: Culture, Business

Micropayments are already flowing freely on Xbox Live and are becoming increasingly popular in MMO circles. However, Opposable Thumbs points out an unfortunate problem with any micropayment-based system that stores your payment details--it's all too easy to buy things when intoxicated.

Of course, this problem extends beyond the realm of gaming, to websites and even real-world transactions. However, the nature of gaming as an entertainment activity means that perhaps enforced self-controls may help those of us whose wallets get looser with liquid.

Superblog Boing Boing is being "blocked by entire countries including the United Arab Emirates, and by many library systems, schools, US government and military sites, and corporations," Xeni says. The reason: a silly little program called Smart Filter, which classified 25,000 BB posts as "nudity."

The problem is, most of these posts don't have any boobies at all. "They're stories about Hurricane Katrina, kidnapped journalists in Iraq, book reviews, ukelele casemods, phonecam video of Bigfoot sightings (come to think of it, he doesn't wear clothes either), or pictures of astonishing Lego constructions..."

[Smart Filter maker] Secure Computing offered us a devil's bargain: if we'd change the URLs of images with "nudity" (which, they assured us, included photos of Michaelangelo's David) to something they could detect and block, they'd let the rest of the world see us again. That guy in the UAE who was worried he'd be imprisoned for trying to read BoingBoing would be OK again.

[I]nstead we've decided to help put Secure Computing out of business... We're publishing a guide to evading the SmartFilter censorware. There are hundreds of ways to defeat these censorware apps, and we're going to catalog as many of them as possible. (We'll publish this tutorial shortly, and update the post you're reading with a link to the permanent page).

Thanks Huong!

Starting today is Perry Lowe, who is finishing his fifth year at Eyebeam where he coordinates
communications. In his spare time he makes subversive needlepoint and has
work appearing this spring in the KnitPro Needlecraft Art Show, Workmanship
of Risk at the Richard F. Brush Art Gallery in Canton, NY. Go P!

I heartheart you forever. Ciao. +[.:..;]+

Look closely, I think they tagged a Dalek ad for Nike. Ha. Graffiti eating itself. [.:..:.] -> hn

Earlier this month Mr. Sun gave me a top compliment: "I read a bunch of [hello, typepad] posts and I know a lot of things he likes and not much about what he hates. That's nice." Thank you, Mr. Sun. When the giver of life (and lyric) compliments you for being positive, you run with it.

I've been reblogging quite a bit (last Tuesday was a highlight

Rogers Cadenhead stepped into a snake pit of xml pedantry and nearly a decade of failed ideas and nasty politics, in hopes of making software better. Some people in the tech community grouse about the "back channel" and then send private email messages around trying to intimidate people out of their ideas. These same people call for the end of venture capital as we know it, and then lean on friendly investors to lay out even more dire threats. Rogers' responses have been measured and reasonable. I trust him and the rest of the RSS advisory board to make software better.

In a similar vein, my friend Judith lost her camera in Hawaii. When Canadian tourists stumbled upon it, they did the right thing by alerting the park ranger, but then did the wrong thing by telling Judith they were not going to return it. Judith knows their name, phone number and address, but has refused to release that information even to the press. She could have their names dragged through the mud - honestly, she could probably have their house burned to the ground in twenty minutes - but instead she is patiently plodding through legal channels hoping the family decides to do the right thing. If you have something that's not yours you return it, right?

And finally, my friend Jason Kottke ended his year long micropatronage experiment. Jason's design and content is the gold standard of weblogs, and has been for years.

At some point last year I was sitting near Jason at Eyebeam, and he offered to show me some ideas he was working on for kottke.org. He opened up a photoshop document, and proceeded to zoom through 15-20 different styles and color schemes. The layouts were all top notch, obviously, but I was most struck by the thoroughness and level of detail in his own mockups. The layers were all logically named and grouped, so he could fly through ideas almost as fast as he could talk about them. If you know photoshop well, you know what I'm talking about.

It was really at that moment I realized how seriously Jason took his work - here was a document that less than five or ten people would even see or know existed, but it was of a higher quality than 95% of the work that professional web designers hand over to their clients. Jason took an enormous pay cut last year in hopes of making his blog better, a great gift to his readers. I think he succeeded, albeit maybe not at to the lofty levels he set for himself. I am sure kottke.org will continue to be outstanding, and I'm looking forward to reading it.

People like Rogers, Judith and Jason that make the Internet great.

"[H]igh-end appliances promise to help us overcome our weaknesses. Whether our failing is sloth, inhibition, ineptitude, or simply lack of discipline, the technologies will make it easier to master our domestic vices and cultivate our domestic virtues. Perhaps this is why high-end appliance manufacturers use epic language to describe their wares: to fortify our belief in the technology’s ability to conquer life’s crises and unleash life’s pleasures. We live in an age when appliances have histories and legends, and when we are expected to value the domestic technologies we purchase for more than their practical merit. Buying a particular stove like the Aga is buying into a particular 'lifestyle,' complete with magazines and social networks. As a result, domestic tasks such as cooking and cleaning are not merely the drudgery of daily life, they are also extensions of the self...



So what benefits do these appliances bring? Do more advanced domestic technologies save us time, make us happier, expand life’s pleasures, or liberate us from life’s drudgeries? Our domestic technologies might make us more efficient, but they also impose higher standards of domestic performance. In some ways, this is obviously correct. Even the hardest working homemaker and her fleet of servants in ages past could never match the cleanliness made possible by certain modern machines. In the war against dirt and germs, times are clearly better. But the modern kitchen, for all its progress, tells a far more ambiguous story, one that is deeply revealing about the relationship between domestic technology and domestic happiness..."

Read the article

officer: Where do you live? Where do you live? You have to tell me where you live, what your name is, or anything like that.

tester: For a complaint? I mean, like, if I have --

officer: Are you on medications?

tester: Why would you ask me something like that?

officer: Because you're not answering any of my questions.

tester: Am I on medications?

officer: I asked you. It's a free country. I can ask you that.

tester: Okay, you're right.

officer: So you're not going to tell me who you are, you're not going to tell me what the problem is.You're not going to identify yourself.

tester: All I asked you was, like, how do I contact --

officer: You said you have a complaint. You say my officers are acting in an inappropriate manner.

officer: So leave now. Leave now. Leave now.

Update: Alex sez, "The Lauderhill cop who was shown intimidating an individual looking to file a police complaint on hidden camera took the news station to court to stop the story from airing."

Update 2: Lee sez, "The Police Complaint Center exists to help citizens file complaints against officers and departments -- an important service, as police officers are supposed to be serving the public."

Can you imagine a speech given by president Bush that would convince you that he has had a change of heart and could actually be the president of your dreams?

It is all too easy (and seems to get easier and easier) to criticize our president and his administration. Life changing events (often of the extremely painful variety) force us to reevaluate our values and actions. What if this happened to our president. What if he were humbled in some way which caused a profound change in his outlook on life and his role as the leader of our country - turning the aggressive posturing of an all-attack-all-the-time leader into a gentler, wiser soul determined to demonstrate the power of honesty and vulnerability. Channel your frustration, use your wit and ingenuity to write "the speech that shocked the world." Send your 1-2 page typed speech to me by March 6th at submit@helenakeeffe.com to be considered for the award of "most convincing" speech. The winning speech will be read by a Bush impersonator and made into an audio recording, which will be available to the public at www.helenakeeffe.com. The winner will receive a $50 cash prize and a copy of the audio recording. For inspiration I suggest reading about Antanas Mockus, former Mayor of Bogotá. http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/03.11/01-mockus.html

Please forward this on to all of the brilliant speech writers in your address book.

-helena

Helena strikes again! Make sure to click through to the article about Antanas Mockus, the mayor of Bogata, who will not appear in this year's Whitney Biennial. [.:..:.] -> hn

While in Los Angeles earlier this week, Jake Dobkin spotted some sweet Banksy pieces on Melrose. You can see more here on LAist.

Gloria Anzaldúa ends her poem To live in the Borderlands means you... with the following suggestion:

To survive the Borderlands
you must live sin fronteras
be a crossroads.

Border Towns by Roberto Durán

Border towns and brown frowns
and the signs say
get back wet back
souls are searched at night by silver flashlights
gringos and greasers play cat and mouse
and I still wonder why
do apple pies lie?
the signs say live the american way
visit but don't stay
be a friendly neighbor hire good cheap labor
as rows and rows of illegal star war aliens
are aligned and maligned
as the morning shouts fill the morning chill and still
they will not
no way José go away

Make sure to click through to the Mute Mag link as well as the BBC link to Judi Werthein's Crossing Trainers project. -> hn

Another sweet use of OGLE, posted semi-anonymously to the forums. Someone named Karl out there has used it to capture a molecular model that they made using the open-source molecular modelling tool PyMol, and then texture, light, and re-render using Lightwave. Looks great if you ask me:

Hydrogen-producing algae breakthrough

Genetic engineers have made a leap in developing a strain of algae with the potential to supply fuel for a future hydrogen economy, Wired reports.…

Declassified photos from the Graffiti Research Lab. [.:..:.] -> hn

So when I first looked at these films, which all have really nice textural qualities, I thought they were somehow using Google Earth to create them, laying over wonderful skins for buildings and trees. Then I thought, what am I doing here? I should be out there making movies with Google Earth! After a little research, I calmed down and realized that they are pairing Google Earth images with films. Intriguing, but that also means that there's so much uncharted Google Earth territory to cover. Since I don't know Google Earth from my nose, you're going to have to do it. First step, Well, you should check out the Maya to Google Earth Plugin that everyone's talking about! [.:..:.] -> hn

HAHA! Another one with a great commentary, a buddy to the London Anagram map. [.:..:.] -> hn

"We're investigating as to who was actually driving," said Sgt. Philip Brooks of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department today. "His (Eriksson's) story has inconsistencies that need to be cleared up...

Officials are trying to determine whether (Eriksson) is the noted Swedish game designer whose firm, perhaps not surprisingly, was involved with car-racing themed video games....

Eriksson "had a .09 blood-alcohol level, but if he's a passenger, that's OK," Brooks said. "But he had a bloody lip, and only the air bag on the driver's side had blood on it. The passenger-side air bag did not. My Scooby-Doo detectives are looking closely into that.

"Maybe the 'driver' had a friend who picked him up. Maybe he thumbed a ride," the sergeant added. "Maybe he was a ghost."

I wouldn't give this story this much attention, but David's commentary on it is just too great. [.:..:.] -> hn

Oldie but Goodie. This is too awesome for my limited vocabulary of emo-icons and run on words to express. You just gotta try it. (!...!) -> hn

Thanks Kwong Li, kung fu teen idol.

Be there or be cuboid. [.:..:.] -> hn

Some nice additions to your reading list:

PurseLipsSquareJaw: a blog by Anne Galloway, who also writes for Space and Culture. [.:..:.] -> hn

hellocanibeyourbestfriend? [.:..:.] ->hn

Drupal still has my heart. heart. [.:..:.] -> hn

Artist: Zato One

Hey, how about host an emerging artist rather than regurg what the Whitney and Armory blah blah blah has already approved? [.:..:.] -> hn

Sky gazers certify two new satellites

Astronomers have confirmed they spied two previously unknown moons orbiting tiny ninth planet Pluto using the Hubble Space Telescope.…

Looking at this site, I was wondering, is there a Google maps for art events yet? -> hn

AP - Shortly after his mate went to hog heaven, Willy the Red River porcine spied a new mud-pen pal in what officials are calling one of the oddest pairings at the Los Angeles Zoo.

The News loves weird animal pairings. {.;...;} '[:..:.]'

Survival Research Labs are scary fun. [.:..:.] -> hn

Filed under: Culture, Microsoft Xbox 360

Although we don't necessarily associate video games with hip-hop (aside from the two being paired in small proportion of instances), Snoop has certainly been making moves to change that. The cultural icon recently formed The Hip-Hop Gaming League (HHGL), which is open to A-list musicians, athletes, producers and other entertainers personally selected by Snoop.

With the Dogfather acting as the official commissioner, the first regular season will play out over five weeks, followed by a one-week playoff. Sadly, the Joystiq staff was snubbed this go-around.

i heartheart you. [.:..:.] ->hn

I think they had these on star trek, no? [.:..:.] -> hn

The 2F Folding Chair is so named because it has a profile of less than an inch, and a different appearance on each side. Designed by Hannu Kähönen, the birch plywood chair can be stored completely flat, and generates virtually no waste wood during production.