World of GWARcraft...

Gronk here is a Level 58 Cocaine Addict.

Pray for me...

"From the little we've seen of game worlds in Neverwinter Nights 2, they're really trying to use these new tricks to create areas that are realistic and fun. An outdoor demo level created for the visit consisted of a swamp area (though not the starting point of the story) that showed off all of these new tricks. Also shown were day/night cycles which bring the sun around to cast correct shadows during the day and cast a blanket of stars over the world at night. Fog rolls in at night and burns off during the day, foliage is affected by wind, and little details like fireflies flicker in the environment. If this short level is any indication, Obsidian is spending a lot of time to hammer out detail to create completely believable fantasy environments."

Art Speak

This is a little artist statement that I included for my show attempting to explain my thought processes and how the project developed. Please, no snickering . . . comments would be apreciated.

Microbes

This is a project that began near the end of last year (2004) when I discovered a series of radiographic photos of microbes in a coffee table biology book hidden on the shelves of a used book store. I was originally drawn to the images because of the surprising similarity in form and colour that they held to previous work of mine that was completely unrelated in theme and source material. All of the present paintings and drawings are from this year and represent a conceptual shift in my work. As I went about depicting images of viruses and bacterium I spent a lot of time asking myself if it was possible to use visual illustrations of these microbes, responsible for the most dangerous diseases that exist in the modern world, as metaphors for social dysfunctions. I was also interested in the idea of portraying organisms that in reality are invisible to the naked eye. Being generally unscientific in character and interests, I began to wonder if these microbes actually even exist, and if so, are they any different than the witches and demons that supposedly made us ill before the Enlightenment of the 18^th century.
As the work developed the medical or scientific significance of the microbes themselves began to dissolve before the simply formal and technical processes of painting, alongside the menacing sensations that names such as “Ebola, HIV, and Salmonella” or most recently “SARS and Asian Bird Flu” can inspire. I began to realize that what I was really interested in from the beginning was an attempt to repeat and elaborate forms in paint that I found beautiful while at the same time exploring the cold fear that such invisible beasties can imprint on our collective imagination. How could I define the dysfunctions that the paintings supposedly allude to in contemporary urban society? That answer came to me as FEAR. More than any other emotion or phenomenon, I feel fear is the defining characteristic of the community that I was born into; particularly since the end of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War. The ever-present and most basic fears of death, disease, poverty, or loneliness. Fears exploited for political, strategic, and economic gain of such perils as espionage, invasion, bombardment, or sabotage by hidden enemies called communists and terrorists. Fear of the unknown. Fear of the world outside our national borders. Fear of our immigrant neighbours.
These are feelings that I do not share with my compatriots replaced only by an intense curiosity to explore and understand anything cultural that is of the unknown “other.” Making paintings that are like the mutterings of a hypochondriac were to me a type of alchemical experiment investigating the rationalized system of fear and terror that now seemingly dominates all forms of public debate, whether political, medical, or social.
As the year winds to a close the military occupations drag on, images of burning cars and scattered body parts are emblazoned on my memory with a monotonous regularity, and news stories or editorials about how I too could be affected by the next mega-plague or demonstration of nature’s wrath are pounded into my media consumption ceaselessly. My dreams of a better future are blurred and confused. I have to stop for a moment, step outside and look at the sky to defiantly remember that my life is going well and that I am not afraid. Only then is it time to go back into the studio and make more paintings.

JASON BENEDICT
3^rd of November, 2005

Holistic Thinking in a Can

Remember that joke you Utrecht employees had about selling '70s conceptualism to art students in the form of traditional artists materials?
This is from a Flickr set of a talk that Bruce Sterling delivered at Art Futura 2005. He's a design professor out in CA now.
Link to the beginning of the series.
Link to Mr. Sterling's web-log.

Art + Science Fiction

	1997, Vito Acconci, "City of Text" Mr. Acconci's riff, or theme, is the friction individuals create when they interact socially or with the built environment. I saw him speak a couple years ago in Philadelphia. It was great. One of his obsessions is transforming landfills into viable habitat for humans.
2003, Thomas Demand, "Space Simulator", chromogenic print of paper model This artist takes paper-craft models to large format photography in such a way that it tweaks our sense of the real. This relates to the same uneasy feeling one gets after being in virtual reality too long.
	1927, Fritz Lang, director, "Still from Metropolis" Imaginary architecture is a fascinating subject. In a Celtic epic from the dark ages, there is an account of a spire made of glass. The rest of the account runs eerily similar to that of a skyscraper. This is on the word of one of my old medieval studies professors, so it exists. But I don't know the specific text.
Robert Birmelin, "Four Views" This picture is very Bradbury.

The secret of the NECRONOMICON!!!

Finally the truth has come out, and now you too can delve into the depths of gibbering madness and horror with this paper craft project. Joy!

Found via Boing Boing

A visit to scenic Filth-adelphia

I got to show Chad and Amber my favorite restaurant and two of my favorite museums in Philadelphia last weekend. Friday night, after they flew in, I took them to a very crowded Monk's Café, which is a Belgian restaurant. The next day we went to the Barnes Foundation, which is a very large private art collection in a mansion in the suburbs. The collection was purchased by one Dr. Alfred Barnes, who became rich in the early decades of the last century off of a medication for infants he developed. He then sent agents over to Europe to buy up crate-loads of post-Impressionist and early Modern work. The museum is arranged the way Dr. Barnes left it, with the paintings hung salon style on beige canvas-covered walls. Interspersed among the paintings are pieces of iron-wrought hardware and antique furniture. The doctor then set up his own school that taught his theories about art appreciation, because he abhorred the academics downtown. After the Barnes Foundation we went to the Mütter Museum, which is a 19th century museum of medical oddities located in the College of Physicians; Mutant foetuses in jars, giant nine foot long colons, catalogues of things people have gotten lodged in their throats, that kind of thing.
The next day, we watched the Eagles squeak-out a last minute victory in a bar down by the stadium. The bar itself was one of the most jocko places I've ever witnessed, but no one was unfriendly or anything. In the evening, we went to a delicious dinner at the home of Brian and Stacy, who are friends of Chad and Amber from Chicago, and then to karaoke.
Good times!

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Oh, Chad, here's a work by Peter Blume which I believe is related to the mural next to City Hall. I need to double-check the authorship of the mural, but doesn't it look a lot like this painting?
Peter Blume, "Hadrian's Villa", 1958.
In other news... *nudge, nudge*

An Invitation

November 3rd to the 30th. Madrid, Spain. Paintings and drawings from 2005.

Sketch Up!

A friend of mine in Madrid that does a lot of 3-D computer modelling recently showed me this program that he is playing around with. I thought those of you that are architecturally minded might be interested. I was truly amazed watching him pull corners and stretch shapes all the while instantly rendered (it even has some "sketchy looking effects"). Nothing like the old days in Chicago watching Alex pound away in the computer lab until his hands were simply bloody stumps and then sitting in despair to wait for the render to not work out correctly.
The photo is a concept building design that Javier imported from another modelling program.

Ripping off Mr. Murdoch & Mr. Turner

When I first read this copy-fighting article out of Amsterdam, I approved of the sentiment, but after I digested it I realized the author was offering little in the way of analysis. Maybe this marks my transformation into a capitalist pig, but what's presented seems too flippant to be taken seriously. While the author hits upon a few salient points, both the ethical rationale and prescriptions given are weak.

Link by way of ArtsJournal

Link to Negativland's views on Intellectual Property