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Sunday, 26 May 2002 |
From The New York Times:
A puckish question was raised on Thursday night at New York University: “Was Athanasius Kircher the coolest guy ever, or what?” For those who have no idea who Kircher was, let’s begin with the “or what.”
I think Kircher is damned amazing. Here is a page of links to various articles about Kircher on the Web.
1:30:45 PM 
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Photographer Max Pam is having an exhibition at the Art Gallery of WA, opening Friday 31st May. I am not a fan of Max’s work, frankly, but he has made a name for himself around the world while mostly based in Perth (although he has often lived outside Australia over the years) and that is impressive in itself.
12:55:46 PM
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I visited ArtSource: The Artists Agency of WA last week after hearing good things about them. They act as a kind of employment agency for artists, especially to link up artists with corporations and government departments that want to commission artworks under the 1% public artworks scheme that exists here.
Apparently it is required under state legislation that 1% of the construction costs of new building is spent on new artworks. The builders of some such buildings spend more, up to 2%.
The people at ArtSource were very supportive and enthusiastic about my signing up, until I revealed that my medium is photography. They told me that their clients—the corporations and government departments—do not perceive photography to be real art.
Sigh, same old attitude that has always existed in Perth. Mind you, I wonder whether local photographers have not contributed to this ignorance with their own.
People like Tony Nathan and Alin Huma, my partners in this show at the new ArtRage gallery, are a breath of fresh air by comparison.
12:42:08 PM
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Henrico District was the US school district that ordered over 20,000 iBooks when the new iBooks were introduced. 7th and 8th graders were the first to get iBooks. Now the 6th graders are getting their turn.
[Source: MacCentral.]
12:23:49 PM
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Early this year, a single Wintel virus got into the school system’s computer system. The consulting company hired by the district was asked to give an estimate for cleaning everything up. Their charge: US$70,000.
[Source: MacCentral]
11:58:39 AM
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Boston consulting firm Gardner Resources Consulting is switching from various flavours of Windows to Mac OS X. Here is their slightly ambiguously worded advertisement for a Mac OS X Specialist.
Client is planning the replacement of 3,200 desktops and laptops. They are looking to establish a
standardized environment for new machines. They
currently have machines running Windows 95, 98 and XP
and looking to go entirely with XP. They’re going
entirely with OS X.
The right consultant has upgraded machines to Mac OS X and install OS X in a large scale (3000+ machines)
environment.
Making the switch might help alleviate that look of perpetual bewilderment you find on the faces of most corporate Windows drones.
11:44:52 AM
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Here is another event I am missing out on. Ah well, Sydney is an awful place to be broke in, and I had to come back to Perth for a while to get this first exhibition of my work off the ground anyway. But I kind of miss some aspects of Sydney, although I prefer Melbourne for many reasons. And Perth, well, Perth is something I have been stuck with for life.
11:27:42 AM
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I am sorry that I cannot be in Sydney for this Biennale, especially as its theme—(The World May Be) Fantastic—sounds terrific.
11:21:20 AM
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An organization based in London named Artist Network has formed. Here is their vision.
To put genuine artists at the forefront of a new social movement which changes and challenges current mass produced and meaningless product by changing and challenging the DNA of the entertainment business.
Its founders include photographer/musician Dave Stewart, BodyShop’s Anita and Gordon Roddick, St Luke’s advertising agency founder Andy Law, director Shekhar Kapur, and others.
Artist Network is apparently not just for entertainment artists. The Manifesto states that it has been “created by artists for artists from all walks of life—Music, Film, Art, TV and Literature.”
Here is another bit I like, from the Manifesto. Artist Network “will produce an unparalleled mosaic of Music and Sounds and Spaces and Imagery and Pictures and Words from artists you have heard of and those you soon will.”
I have sent them an email, asking for them to tell me more.
Here are links to further stories on Artist Network:
There definitely needs to be another way of being an artist, especially if you find the current system is against what you do, as I have in the past. I had to wait for a new generation of curators and a more visually-literate, younger, and less bigoted art audience before I could begin to think of having a viable career in this country as an artist in photography.
10:53:17 AM
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Scott Johnson of FuzzyBlog on why he will not “migrate” to Windows XP. Something to do with its maker, Microsoft.
10:45:46 AM
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© Copyright 2002 Karl-Peter Gottschalk.
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