Teaser
Does writing the theory of relativity from memory make one a math genius?
Let us distinguish between outstanding memory capabilities and phenomenon of art, as we do between crafting the rook and playing chess…

…”Stephen Wiltshire, ma main man”

Do the innate absolute criteria of fine art judge Stephen Wiltshire’s art, or is it only the jealousy of one private subjective ego?
Stephen Wiltshire became famous after appearing in some TV show where he presented his remarkable photographic memory abilities. First, I would like to honestly state, that I am truly empathic and happy for his success and have nothing in person against him. He really seems like a cute guy. What I am more concerned about is the definition of art in regards to Stepen Wiltshire’s abilities. I’ll break this down to art’s three basic components, as I perceive them.

The three aspects of fine art

Formation

Stephen Wiltshire’s art scales from basic sketching lessons to advanced architectural drawings at the most. Some of his works are no more than elementary car design sketches or urban views. No innovation of technique and no originality in the perception of reality and it’s translation to art. Just plain sketching you might see scattered abundantly around the internet.
Have you ever seen an architect or a car designer selling their sketches as works of art for prices ranging up to 13,000 pounds? I suppose not.

Content

Plain urban views or different motive transportations. No depths of issues, no message, no meaning, no purpose; just some “pretty things” to gaze at.

Awareness

Having evaluated the first two ingredients of fine art and concluded that they sum up to nothing in Stephen Wiltshire’s case, we are left with the most important one of all.
How does an artist approach a work of art? Well, I assume that there are numerous subtle nuances which define each and every artist of the past, present or future, but the basic grid is the same: you approach art with deep awareness.

What is the motive, the purpose, the essence, the meaning? What is it that which you want to say and what atmosphere will help you convey that message? How will you create that atmosphere and how will the compositional architecture, color scheme, shape formations, light, textures and perspectives influence the atmosphere you are trying to create?

The deeper the awareness the deeper the message will be and the more profound the essence is. So also, the more subtle the philosophy and the more complex the theoretical aspects behind the art work, that much more spiritual awareness and conscious self-awareness must be respectively present in order to realize that work of art.

Let’s see…

On the other hand, when all you want is to copy something from one place to another – with no emphasis on the technique and style, with no intent of purposeful content, with no awareness to the derivative criteria of creation – all you need is the hand-eye coordination awareness, hence the basic instinctual human consciousness.

So far as the context of art is concerned, there should be absolutely no meaning to whether the copying is from another picture using a translucent paper or directly from nature, or as in Stephen Wiltshire’s case using the memory as the copying source. I mean, does writing the theory of relativity from memory make you a math genius?

…”So, you…you’re the Rain Man?”

Being the artist an autistic-savant automatically boosted the value of his art, simply because there has never been in the recorded history of art another one like him. People might have said to themselves: “Well, there is nothing unique about his art, in neither venue, but hey, he’s autistic and he remembers stuff… Oh hey, and it’s just like that guy in that movie… I mean, wow!”

Well-greased marketing also helped to obscure from the art establishment and the general public the fact that actually, so far as art and artistic standards are concerned, there is nothing here to make so much fuss about. Had any other non-autistic artist presented such art to any respected gallery or museum in the world, I think that he would have gotten the cold shoulder.

Plainly saying, in this day and age art is mostly a gimmick, which without the appropriate marketing will not see the light of day, not to mention fortune and fame.

findigart.com

Created by findigart On 07/30/09 At 03:17 PM

Arthur Danto first gave the notion of the “artworld” a philosophical definition: the artworld provides the theories of art which all members of the artworld tacitly assume in order for there to be objects considered as art (see “The Artworld,” Journal of Philosophy (1964)).

For many of us, entering the artworld remains a distant dream. If only there were only a way to sneak our work into a museum. Bansky has accomplished such feats on several occasions by clandestinely hanging his paintings in the Moma and Louvre, only to have them removed by museum staff (albeit days later).

I had the idea to create a Trojan-Horse that I could ride into the artworld. What better than a picture frame, a tableau vivant through which to view the artworld and at the same time be displayed, thereby changing my role from observerto observed. I encapsulated myself within the border of a frame and attempted to create a micronation as a satellite of the artworld.

The piece was performed on the threshold of the RISD museum as a guerrilla installation, and followed these specifications:

An 8′ x 5′ frame is constructed using abandoned railroad ties. Several 1″ eyehooks line the interior perimeter of the frame. Luggage straps are attached to the eyehooks, forming a meshwork within the frame. An immobile person is suspended within this meshwork. The person is not to touch the frame, but is to remain suspended by the straps for the duration of the piece.

I hung suspended within the frame for over six hours. The temperature was below freezing. A plate of cheese and crackers was placed before the frame and museum goers frequently deviated from the typical route and exited the museum to see “ArtWorld”. Many people were hesitant about taking crackers for fear that they would be disrupting the art in some way. People took photos and constantly tried to communicate with the silent, almost catatonic man. It seemed that any confusion about the object was clarified upon witnessing the museum tag I had placed before the object.

Later, a museum administrator came out to see what the object was. She said she didn’t know what it was until that moment, then she said “Now I’m sure… it’s art.” Afterwards I asked Professor Danto if this made me art, but he replied, “You were not art, but, your humanity made it art – to the eyes of a museum administrator!”

Once declared art, the second phase of ArtWorld went into effect. I wanted to inflate the value of the object by making it change hands as much as possible. The frame was sold on eBay with the stipulation that the buyer of ArtWorld must resell the object (even for a $1 profit) within one month of purchase. Compliance entitled the buyer to a rebate from the previous owner equal to the purchase price. This allows each owner to profit while raising the price of the object and lengthening the amount of names on the bill of sale. The object currently belongs to a gentleman in Geneva and I am awaiting an update on its future home. Eventually I would like to buy the ArtWorld back and issue shares in it to all previous owners so they may share ownership and profit equally for their participation in the ArtWorld.

Bio:

Bezdomny (A.K.A. Jeffrey Andreoni) is a full time ¼ÉÕɫɉÉ-ÐV. He began his artistic career in Rome where he was designing banners and campaign flyers for both right and left wing political parties at the same time. When his tangled flag of deception came unfurled, he was left designing posters for the Arcigay (GLBT) of Rome, which is also the point at which he made his first performance art piece, “Family Gay.”

Shortly thereafter he founded the Bezdomny Collective together with other artist/activists in Rome. Around this time he also created his trademark bilingual immigrant superhero cartoon series, Exxxtraman. Jeffrey studied at Moscow State University, La Sapienza University of Rome, and The University of Rhode Island. He has exhibited his photography, film, graphics, and poetry (written in Italian or English) both in Europe and the United States. His work has been featured on CNN, and seen by the Pentagon.

Currently he is producing a series of performance pieces concerned with police states and neuropsychology. He is also in the process of founding the world’s first Nation Of Art. Jeffrey spends his time equally between the US and Europe, though his whereabouts at any given moment are largely unknown.

Created by Jeffrey Andreoni On 01/15/09 At 10:25 AM

Orphan Works: Connect the Dots     

9.30.08                                                                                     

1. Web firms quietly win copyright victory in Congress

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) Sept 29 — As the media turned its attention last weekend to battles on Capitol Hill over the fate of the proposed Wall Street bailout bill, Internet companies including Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. quietly walked away with a legislative victory that could facilitate their use of copyrighted material.

The Senate on Friday passed the Orphan Works Act of 2008, legislation that weakens copyright protection for works whose owners cannot be located. The legislation has now been referred to the House Judiciary Committee.

The legislation requires only that a company make a “reasonably diligent” search to locate a copyright owner before using their work in media including the Internet, and limits compensation required for the use of an infringed work.

Orphan Works: Connect the Dots     

9.30.08                                                                                     

1. Web firms quietly win copyright victory in Congress

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) Sept 29 — As the media turned its attention last weekend to battles on Capitol Hill over the fate of the proposed Wall Street bailout bill, Internet companies including Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. quietly walked away with a legislative victory that could facilitate their use of copyrighted material.

The Senate on Friday passed the Orphan Works Act of 2008, legislation that weakens copyright protection for works whose owners cannot be located. The legislation has now been referred to the House Judiciary Committee.

The legislation requires only that a company make a “reasonably diligent” search to locate a copyright owner before using their work in media including the Internet, and limits compensation required for the use of an infringed work.  

-By John Letzing, MarketWatch Sept. 29, 2008
www.marketwatch.com/news/story/web-firms-quietly-win-copyright/story.aspx?guid={E21206C0-98F5-459B-9506-8133CBD82859}&dist=hpts

2. Google Acknowledges Copyright Infringement Claims Could Harm Business

ILLUSTRATORS PARTNERSHIP Sept 30 — In March 2007, Google filed a mandatory 10-Q Filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In it, they acknowledged: “copyright claims filed against us [by copyright owners] alleging that features of certain of our products and services, including Google Web Search, Google News, Google Video, Google Image Search, Google Book Search and YouTube, infringe their rights.”

Google admitted that “[a]dverse results in these lawsuits may include awards of substantial monetary damages, costly royalty or licensing agreements or orders preventing us from offering certain functionalities, and may also result in a change in our business practices, which could result in a loss of revenue for us or otherwise harm our business.” (Italics added.)

–Brad Holland and Cynthia Turner, Illustrators Partnership
investor.google.com/documents/20070331_10-Q.html

3. Google Sees Value in Orphan Works

ILLUSTRATORS PARTNERSHIP March 8, 2006 — At the Copyright Office’s Orphan Works Roundtables, July 26-27, 2005, Alexander MacGilivray of Google stated:

 ”The thing that I would encourage the Copyright Office to consider is not just the very, very small scale -the one user who wants to make use of the [orphan] work – but also the very, very large scale – and talking in the millions of works. – page 21

 ”Google strongly believes that these orphan works are both worthwhile, useful, and extremely valuable.” – page 119

“We expect that our use of these orphan works will likely be in the 1 million works range…” (Italics added.) – page 166

“[W]e know that many of them  [orphan works] will be in the public domain, that most of their authors won’t care. But there are a few [authors] that really will care and they will come forward [to claim authorship] and it will be extremely inefficient for us.” (Italics added.) -page 166
(Page numbers are from Copyright Office transcripts.)

Orphan Works Roundtables were held by the US Copyright Office July 26-7, 2005 in Washington DC
www.copyright.gov/orphan/transcript/0726LOC.PDF

4. Google Donates $3 Million to U.S. Library of Congress

Australian IT Nov 23, 2005 — The U.S. Library of Congress is kicking off a campaign to work with other nation’s libraries to build a World Digital Library, starting with a $US3 million donation from Google.

-Eric Auchard in San Francisco | November 23, 2005
australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,173391455E5E15306-15322,00.html

TAKE ACTION: EMAIL CONGRESS NOW
http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/issues/alert/?alertid=11980321

Please post or forward this message immediately to any interested party.
_

For news and information:
Illustrators’ Partnership Orphan Works Blog: ipaorphanworks.blogspot.com/

Over 75 organizations oppose this bill, representing over half a million creators. Illustrators, photographers, fine artists, songwriters, musicians, and countless licensing firms all believe this bill will harm their small businesses.

U.S. Creators and the image-making public can email Congress through the Capwiz site: capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/home/ 2 minutes is all it takes to tell the U.S. Congress to uphold copyright protection for the world’s artists.

INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS please fax these 4 U.S. State Agencies and appeal to your home representatives for intervention. www.illustratorspartnership.org/01_topics/article.php?searchterm=00267

CALL CONGRESS: 1-800-828-0498.  Tell the U.S. Capitol Switchboard Operator “I would like to leave a message for Congressperson  that I oppose the Orphan Works Act.”  The switchboard operator will patch you through to the lawmaker’s office and often take a message which also gets passed on to the lawmaker. Once you’re put through tell your Representative the message again.

If you received our mail as a forwarded message, and wish to be added to our mailing list, email us at: illustratorspartnership@cnymail.com Place “Add Name” in the subject line, and provide your name and the email address you want used in the message area.

STOP THE ORPHAN WORKS ACT NOW.

Created by Walter King On 10/06/08 At 11:43 AM