Digital art should be available for digital mediums

I’ve decided to make some of my prints available as desktop backgrounds because I feel that since my art work is Digital, it should be available on digital platforms.

Downloads, Resolutions & Platforms

All the images in the Flickr album embedded below are optimized for usage as desktop backgrounds and I add new images to the collection regularly. The images are optimized for use with Full HD, 1680×1050 wide-screens, and 1280×960 regular aspect desktops. To download a desktop click the image, follow the link to my Flickr account, click the “All sizes” button above the image, and download the largest size image available.

I’d appreciate it you would link back to this post and share it with others so they can enjoy these desktops too.

I’m accepting requests…

This is a new thing for me and I’d love to get your feedback. I hope you browse through some of the other images on my site as well. The best ways to contact me are via my email - mikedarnell [at] gmail [dot] com or my twitter account @pop_art, alternatively you can leave your requests as a comment on this post.

: )
Mike
Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | MySpace | Picasa | Delicious

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As an artist, there’s always an interest in what other people are working on, what kind of new styles are being invented, as well as the curiosity of how your work stands up against everyone else’s. There’s also the aspect of getting your work out there for others to see and comment on. With Candor Gallery we’ve created a simple gallery in electronic form that we hope addresses these dynamics and creates an outlet for artists along with a venue for art viewers.

Candor Gallery is an OS X based Widget that displays a rotating selection of artwork each time you open your Dashboard. Anyone can submit to the project and have their work displayed on the Widget. All types of art are accepted and encouraged: Painting, Design, Drawing, Photography, Sculpture, etc.

The basis for Candor Gallery has always been to have that quick ability to see new and interesting work at a moment’s notice, whether for pure enjoyment, inspiration, or to see what other people are up to. As a result, you also have a wide audience that you can share with and show off to. So Candor really provides a two-way street for artists and viewers alike.

Many years ago there was a similar project in screensaver form that was floating around the web with much the same premise as Candor. Unfortunately, that project was very short-lived. Still, it was such a great concept and inspiration that we wanted to carry on the idea of sharing artwork in an electronic venue to which anyone could contribute to.

We’ve had an excellent response to the project with nearly 2,000 unique works on display. While we currently don’t broker any deals through the widget, we have had artists sell work to patrons who discovered the artist through the widget.

For the future of Candor Gallery we hope to expand beyond the widget and build a more web-based application where contributors can manage their own space as a type of personal portfolio or just a place to share work in a more elegant manner compared to other options on the web.

Currently Candor Gallery is available for download as an OS X Widget and a Google Gadget. Visitors can also view the entire collection on our website on the Gallery page. We’re always accepting new submissions and encourage new artists to send in their work for display.

Mike
Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | MySpace | Picasa | Delicious

: )

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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…
: )