(via)

Video directed by Sou Ootsuki.

Gabriel Cornelius von Max, Monkeys as Judges of Art (1840)

(I’m the small one watching the work, the one in the middle, whose profile can be seen behind the bent knee)

The Minimum Wage Machine (work in progress), by Blake Fall-Conroy

The minimum wage machine allows anybody to work for minimum wage. Turning the crank will yield one penny every 5.04 seconds, for $7.15 an hour (NY state minimum wage). If the participant stops turning the crank, they stop receiving money. The machine’s mechanism and electronics are powered by the hand crank, and pennies are stored in a plexiglas box.

Contrary to some other art experiments on work (I’m thinking of some of Santiago Sierra’s early projects, but had I any memory, I’m sure a dozen other works would come to my mind), this, here, is not about objectifying labor. It takes the paradox of work-as-product in a somewhat different direction. If there is a minimum wage, any job should be paid the minimum wage. So turning the handle should actually always give you this result.

You can read a technical description of how it was constructed (didn’t understand half of it) here.

I have no idea concerning the origins of the above.

From the Towers

by Heather McHugh

Insanity is not a want of reason.
It is reason’s overgrowth, a calculating kudzu.

Explaining why, in two-ton manifesti, thinkers sally forth
with testaments and pipe bombs. Heaven help us:

spare us all your meaningful designs. Shine down or
shower forth, but (for the earthling’s sake) ignore
all prayers followed by against, or for. Teach us to bear

life’s senselessness, our insignificance, and more;
let’s call that sanity. The terrifying prospect isn’t some
escapist with a novel, fond of comfort, munching sweets—

it is the busy hermeneut, so serious he’s sour, intent on making
meaning of us all, and bursting from the towers to the streets.

Paintings by Hegyusz.

Make one.
Tom Polo created the 2009 B.E.S.T. Contemporary Art Prize for Painting contest. The criteria were typical of the art contests we know. Except for one small point, which stated:
eligible entrants are artists born on the 1st February, 1985 and named as ‘Tommaso Polo’ on their birth certificates.
The exhibition of the finalists (guess who?) is taking place at the MOP gallery in Sydney.
The winning work, by – you guessed it – Tom Polo, is called Continuous One Liners (Young People Today).Possibly many of my dear readers are thinking, we’ve had similar ideas, but they were too childish to execute. Maybe the most seductive part of tricksters is that by putting to life the silliness we only imagine (or think we imagined), they at once make it more serious and much more ridiculous.
You can find an interview with the artist at The Art Life.
Why B.E.S.T.? Because Everybody Still Tries.

Make one.
Tom Polo created the 2009 B.E.S.T. Contemporary Art Prize for Painting contest. The criteria were typical of the art contests we know. Except for one small point, which stated:
eligible entrants are artists born on the 1st February, 1985 and named as ‘Tommaso Polo’ on their birth certificates.
The exhibition of the finalists (guess who?) is taking place at the MOP gallery in Sydney.
The winning work, by – you guessed it – Tom Polo, is called Continuous One Liners (Young People Today).Possibly many of my dear readers are thinking, we’ve had similar ideas, but they were too childish to execute. Maybe the most seductive part of tricksters is that by putting to life the silliness we only imagine (or think we imagined), they at once make it more serious and much more ridiculous.
You can find an interview with the artist at The Art Life.
Why B.E.S.T.? Because Everybody Still Tries.

…cry to this.

My Mother, My Son by Mary Frey

And another one, less obvious, but no less gorgeous – Bathroom Landscape:

Every once in a while the question comes back lurking: are there things that are not to be shown? Or rather: not to be worked at? Do you imagine this – a woman standing in the room with a camera, waiting for the right moment so she can take a picture of her son carrying her mother? Hold her up just a bit honey… Just a little more…
And yet, this is one of the most touching pictures I have seen in quite a while.

(via)

The duporet bujany (translating as something like “ass-rocker”) was found at poor design. Poor is the author of several clever designs, the most known being the “peg” pendrive. The design is funny, unfortunately as the owner of one such peg I am less enthusiastic about its practicality.
I prefer when he creates poor objects in all honesty – like this “uncovering lamp“.

Plexiglas object which gives no light but at least it does not shut off light either. Additionally, it can serve as a stand for a classical lamp with a clamp changing it in a traditional bedside lamp.

Or take this spike:
Perfect for hangovers.