Banksy work Vandalism - Official

"Graffiti art by the acclaimed artist Banksy on streets in Tower Hamlets is to be painted over.

Stencilled artwork from the guerrilla artist can be seen on walls across London, but Tower Hamlets is the first council to treat them as vandalism."

Same week that his work is going to fetch serious $$$'s in auction. Ironic.

[link] via BBC

Shop Banksy!

On from that last post - seems Banksy is going full-on commercial with a shop.

Only it's a DIY 'free' shop. Sort of open source or Creative Commons, which means that if you want to 'buy into it' you have to put in a little effort. Which most people won't I'm sure :-)
The 'destroy capitalism' tee shirt is tres ironic, check out the small type...

[link] banksy
http://www.banksy.co.uk/shop/index.html


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Former Graffitti Artist Does Well

The UK's best know unknown artist - Banksy - continues to sell his work for ever higher prices. He's spent years in the wilderness just 'doing his thing' and now the art world has finally deigned to accept him (once he stopped spraying on walls and made work for galleries that can actually sell of course ;-)

BBC reports some of his old work is assumed to be going for excess of 300k for the lot...... that's almost $600k in US money.

Banksy's website has also had a facelift with a nice nod towards "Dr, Strangelove' on the splash page.

[link] to BBC slideshow
[link] to Banksy website

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PS2 On its Way Out for Good; EA to Reduce Pricing on Underperforming Sports Games?

Some speculation and future-casting from GameDaily.biz

It makes sense Sony want to see an end to the PS2, it's still outselling the PS3 !

[link] GameDaily

EA Calls for "Open Platform"

Do they mean make all games Java based? ;-)

Incompatible consoles made life harder for developers and consumers.

"We want an open, standard platform which is much easier than having five which are not compatible," said EA's head of international publishing.

Or do they mean 'reduce publishing costs - seeing as EA are in toruble financially right now.

[link] BBC

UK Turner Prize Round Up

Not the best newslink from the BBC "what the cleaner thinks" but the info is all there.
Turner prize is in Liverpool for the first time and it seems to me at least half of the short list have been up for it before. Maybe the UK is running out of new artists? Or they just keep trying until the achieve immortality? ;-)

[link] BBC

Comcast blocking P2P traffic bust

"How the AP busted Comcast for blocking BitTorrent

In the wake of yesterday's revelation that AP had discovered secret, anti-BitTorrent software running on Comcast's network, a followup story explaining the clever detective work the AP did in rooting out this little shenanigan:"

I subscribe to comcast and have noticed their 'throttling' on many occasions. If they're going to throttle back my bandwidth surely I should get a discount?

[link] via BB.net

Swanky Time Arts Gallery LIVE!

Check it out. Selected work from recent years of Time Arts undergrads.

[link]

UK Govt Reviews Videogame Content

Old story of violence, sex and young minds. I still don't see why the ratings system isn't enough. It allows movies to 'get away' with similar content. As always why would anyone let a 10 year old kid play GTA IV?

"I think the video games industry is this year's whipping boy. too often we are blamed for everything from obesity to youth violence it is just not true and it's not appropriate."

[link] via BBC

BBC Article on Machinima

A sound introduction to some of the 'best' Machinima out there right now.

[link] via BBC

Banksy Inspired Photo Banned by Russian Minister

"Artwork inspired by Banksy is among 16 banned from show by culture minister. The work by a Russian art collective has proved too much for Russia's culture minister, Alexander Sokolov. On Monday Mr Sokolov announced that he was banning the photo, entitled Kissing Policemen (An Epoch of Clemency), from an exhibition of contemporary Russian art due to be exhibited in Paris next week."

[link] Guardian UK

Aussie Artist Grafts Ear to Arm

Subject says it all really:

"An Australian performer who has had an ear grafted onto his forearm in the name of art has sparked controversy."

[link] bbc

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Students Take On P2P Legal Warnings

*notshock*

"Mr. McCune ended up paying $3,000 to settle the claim. But the experience made him interested in changing intellectual property regulations. Last spring he co-founded Brown’s chapter of Students for Free Culture,"

[link] via NYTimes

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Latest Turbine Hall Exhibit

The Tate Modern in London, UK gets its latest installation - a hole.

[link]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7033619.stm

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Yet more Art Vandalism

Must be the season for it - another work is 'vandalized' in France by a kiss. This time the 'vandal' is an artist. Much like those performers who jumped up and down on Emin's Bed.

[link]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7037833.stm

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Gallery Vandals Destroy Serrano Work

"A grainy video of four masked vandals running through an art gallery in Sweden, smashing sexually explicit photographs with crowbars and axes to the strain of thundering death-metal music, was posted on YouTube Friday night."

Serrano is infamous for some shock art pieces that have often angered religious people. He's had his work banned and panned but never, AFAIK, vandalized. It seems weird given that these works are old, pretty much in the canon of contemporary art history today.

[link] NY Times

Even weirder, or perhaps not, is the vandals video'd themselves in the act and posted it to youtube.

The link has been removed for now probably due to legal reasons and because those involved purport to be neo-nazi's and the video was NSFW.


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Single-Playa for N00b5?

This article argues that with the increase in multi-player gaming - why would you do anything else? Reaction from me would be...errr...story?

[link] via the Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/sep/27/guardianweeklytechnologysection.it

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So You Want to be a Game Programmer?

This is an older but insightful article on the highs and lows of game programming. This is the side of the industry that the art/creative people rarely look at.
[link] via gamasutra

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20060407/mencher_01.shtml

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Sony Bravia Mentalness

The budget for the very imaginative and incredibly expensive Sony Bravia 'colour' must be equal to that of a small country by now?
[link] youTube

"It took 2.5 tons of plasticine, 40 animators three weeks to choreograph the bunnies, and 100,000 images for the 60-second spot."

yikes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLUAbkRUvVQ

(and of course here's the older/last years' Bravia paint ad from Glasgow)
[link] via youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GURvHJNmGrc

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Blade Runner Final Cut

The true post-modern Sci-Fi movie (of all time/so far?) is to be re-released and finally cut. In true PoMo style it's now out in its' 4th incarnation.
[link] via wired.

http://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/magazine/15-10/ff_bladerunner