Alex's blog

This essay was written after feeling a little hostile towards art historians and critics mainly because as an artist I feel I get sucked into their way of thinking ('cause its super interesting and they sound like they have figured out what is going on) but it rarely provides me with any way forward in the production of my art in the studio. I am beginning to think art history and critique is a great thing for me to unlearn, though I will continually learn and unlearn it, perhaps as a sado-masochistic cycle that I enjoy on some fucked up level:

if (problem is equal to True) { problem.make.art(); }

Note: Categories in parenthesis:

(*) a typical art subject but still a great subject

(#) a typical, cliché and bad art subject, unless you can do it well, but I can't!

(+) not typical and could be excellent for art if done well

(^) not typical and for good reason – cause it's shit

(?) not sure, but worth considering... maybe...

objects

• art(#)

• geodesic domes (+)

• racer bicycles (?)

• cutting edge computers and digital devices (^)

• old typewriters (^)

• projectors (^)

• flat screen tvs (^)

• wireframe spheres (+)

• wireframe cubes (#)

For the past year I have been developing the Artweeters project. The aim is to develop a space with great content, high reach to an international audience and a space to build community, information sharing and other opportunities. Artweeters today has approx. 3400 followers on Twitter, and approx. 400 followers on Facebook. The focus at this stage is on Twitter. Check it out here: 

www.artweeters.com

NetworkX is a python programming language that creates visualisations of networks (as well as other things). While I am not a huge fan of system theory (see All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace - Adam Curtis, BBC) I am still interested in the aesthetics of complex systems. The result of these two things is the following image of all my emails in the past 3 months:

The good people at The Australian newspaper wrote an interesting piece about Australian artists living and working in Beijing. Brendan Shanahan gave me and a bunch of artists here a visit for the article See attached for the PDF or click here: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/beijing-calling/story-e6frg8n6...

It has been too long. I have moved twice and got a new job in Beijing... excuses for not blogging are not reasons to not blog, there is no reason not to blog. That aside, life has taken a sharp turn. From artist in residence to leading a digital team in an entertainment company. I am building websites, doing social media strategy and generally making a nuisance of myself at DMG. I have hired 3 talented, amazing people and am looking for more. All is going well. I have also moved into a Traditional Chinese Courtyard house in the centre of Beijing. 

Manning is a political prisoner and his treatment is abhorrent. I consider him an inspiring character, one who acted on conscience at great personal risk and detriment for what he considered moral and just. He should be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. Meanwhile the criminals that caused the 2008 economic collapse are given government jobs (and personal tax free sales of their ill-gotten assets) with Obama's approval.

Drawing with computers has been something of an obsession of mine for nearly 7 years (http://alexgibson.com.au/image/tid/9). It's important to remember that the computer is programmed. The machine carries out the logic, the cause and effect, to the letter (and BIT). The concepts and relationships developed in the program are considered, included or discarded by the programmer, a human.

To put this data into some kind of perspective (if that is possible) I found this website and this one seems to agree that: 

"For 2003 the urban figure [of average annual income per capital] was RMB 8,472 (US$ 1,058) while the same figure for rural areas was RMB 2,622 (US$ 328)"

Therefore, the sales made at Sothebys on 16 Feb 2011 could pay for 56,952 rural Chinese peoples average annual income in 2003. This is all a bit meaningless, but it helps me think about what these figures translate into for people.