Recently I have been corresponding with Meir Kordevani, one the key figures responsible for the publication of the Israeli design/art publication Picnic.

For those of you unfamiliar with the magazine, a short introduction is in order.
Picnic is described by it’s publishers as follows: “…a bi-annual magazine from Tel Aviv, 100% text-free, communicating through imagery…Introduces a fresh collection of images taken from the fields of photography, fashion, illustration, graphic design, cake making, astronomy, video and more. Suggests a unique visual experience, linking logical thinking with fantasy and the sub-conscious….“.

During our correspondence I asked Meir whether Picnic had an online version to which he replied:
“Picnic has no online version, otherwise there would be no sense to print it.

I find this position hard to agree with. In fact I can think of quite a few newspapers and magazines, including design/art/fashion publications that view things slightly differently. I believe that there’s always logic in putting a publication online. Magazines are not only appreciated for their content and people don’t buy a high gloss magazine for it’s content alone. The feeling of paper, the smell, the resolution of print, the portability - all these are unique to the printed version and are unrelated to the content. Print magazines have collector value as well and serve as status symbols for the people that leave them lying about on their coffee tables.

In Picnic’s case having the magazine online would give it a much larger exposure than it curently enjoys (and it deserves the attention). Practically speaking it would also give people an opportunity to browse the product before deciding to buy it.

If the issue of safeguarding the content is a concern it could always be decided to put only Picnic’s archive online or that only part of the content could be accessible, etc.

If you have any experiences relating to the issue of publishing a design/art/fashion magazine either as print or online your comments are much appreciated.

My latest slide show captions have gotten me to a point where I have begun to formulate an idea regarding a new type of digital art project.

I call it “Spam Art” for now, but this may be only a temporary name.

Spam Art is based around the concept of creating art that is inspired by the digitally created texts that SEO programs and email spam bots are constantly creating and broadcasting to the web. These texts, created with the purpose of either cheating email spam filters programs or duping google’s ranking algorithms, are created by robots in order to fool other robots.

The sentences that these machines create usually makes no sense yet are grammatically sound. In essence the programs are developing a Dada-esque language that is ceaselessly evolving through the efforts of anarchic delinquent machines intent on disrupting the daily routine of hard working bourgeois machines. The most bizarre aspect of the whole evolution is that all this is being driven by the awareness that these efforts can help achieve concrete financial goals for us humans in the physical world.

Spam Art projects build on this concept by using as their inspiration texts that at a first glance appear to be gibberish, yet in fact might be perfectly logical and coherent if the reader knows the key required for deciphering the message. The whole thing kinda plays on the idea of key based encryption.

In my pilot attempts to develop this concept I am currently using as my keys slide-shows of captioned photos accompanied by HTML texts that are based on my stream of consciousness as I walk through my daily routine. Obviously there is no real limit to the types of keys that could be developed..

This concept is really in its infancy but an example of its execution are my last blog post and especially the twitter used to promote it:

“Banqing on Genzyme’s support Abraham Obama is now grating weird dogs at a SOWA art installation. Or not… http://hellotxt.com/l/I9aM - : )”

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the concept and to see your Spam Art creations so start spamming…
: )

Mike
PS
Just in case - I just bought SpamArt.org…

PPS
Thanks to the comment from Jeroen I learned about the amusing activities of the The Spam Poetry Institute, “….an organization dedicated to collecting and preserving the fine literature created by the world’s spammers….” -check them out to read some of the finest nonsensical poetry ever created by machines.

I love web 2.0 sites to distraction, and yet I must admit, that like most people, I didn’t quite the point behind Twitter until I realized how easy it was to update your status with your cell phone. Once I started using this Twitter feature, I think it is safe to say that I was hooked.

The fact that Twitter allows me to stream via RSS any comments I make on the site to anywhere I choose is invaluable. For the first time I have the ability to manifest the ongoing stream of my consciousness directly to my site.

Call me a yokel if you will, but this is magical to me…

Shabbat Shalom,
Mike

PS
I’ll be at Pacotek tonight - for those of you who are interested…
: )

After my recent experiences with the fickleness of backup, I swore that I would start using online backup solutions, instead of keeping files and materials backed up on hard drives and DVDs.

My first jab at this is uploading the PDF of my June 2008 catalog to online backup and file sharing service Fliiby.com.

I created this catalog especially in order to assist Heidi, my art representative, with her attempts to get galleries in Los Angeles, her home town, interested in my art.

It was only after the upload that I realized that this is not only a great way to avoid future backup mishaps, but also happens to be a wonderful method for getting the word out there, and sharing my art with the world. Heidi can send the link below to whomever she pleases, and can avoid the hassle of cramming people’s email boxes unnecessarily.

Because Fliiby allows you to designate files as either “public” or “private”, you can use the service to allow other people to view and rate your uploaded files. This is great for my purposes as I would love to my catalog exposed to as many people as possible.

So, courtesy of Fliiby, you can now view, rate, and download my latest catalog at: http://fliiby.com/file/45027/854wrfxy9g.html