The tweeters have spoken, and they want to read Neil Gaiman’s American Gods. At the moment, readers *should* all be on Chapters 4-6, marking our tweets #1b1t_4c (and so on for each chapter) to prevent spoilers, and wearing our official book club badge. I think membership is in the 6,000+ range now, so good governance is a must to maintain a cohesive conversation. I’m having a hard time keeping up, but like all online social groups, the best part is the offline outcomes, like the geek-out conversations I’m now having with Houston readers, Grant McManus, and Carlos Lama (a.k.a. father of my Lamas). American Gods was a good choice for comic book, fantasy or sci-fi enthusiasts, like us.

I adore projects that extend the social web beyond its known capacity, and often wonder what an artist like Andy Warhol would have done with his Twitter account? Would he have had one? Of course. Warhol tackled new technology–from the first consumer video camera to the first computer with a drawing application–the minute it was unveiled. Would he have tweeted live before an audience at Lincoln Center?

One of the 1B1T logistical problems thus far has been keeping pace with the volume of conversations on twitter. As I’ve been writing this entry, no fewer than 25 #1b1t tweets have been posted, and most are just observations or non-starters. The conversations online aren’t especially reciprocal or enduring as of now. Another issue is *some readers* clearly subscribe to the Evelyn Wood school of speed reading, and have completed the entire book. They’re already smoking a cigarette, and I’m still getting undressed.

According to R.A. Hill and R.I.M. Dunbar in the paper “Social Network Size in Humans,” the average person has capacity (in his/her neocortex) to remember 153.5 different individuals. What do I do with 6000+ instant new friends?

Even in contemporary western societies, where individuals are operating egocentric networks within a virtually infinite array of social possibilities, social network size and differentiation reflect the sociocentric networks observed in traditional societies, suggesting that the cognitive constraints on network size may apply universally to all modern humans.–R.A. Hill and R.I.M. Dunbar

john philip sousa
infernal machines
reaction to phonograph – demise of music
technology and policy
2002 – began to change!
technology gave back
revival of the community culture that sousa celebrated
remix culture – music, Beatles white album, JZ black album, DJ Danger Mouse, grey album, girl talk remix 230 trax in a single performance.
anime music videos
technique has nothing to do with remixing importance
it’s that the technique has been democratized
2006 – another change!
youtube
facilitating a call and response in the way culture gets made and consumed
youtube video inspired spin-off youtube video inspired spin-off youtube video … millions of viewers
this begins to be precisely what sousa romanticized
rather than gathering on the back lawn
they gather on this online platform
creating bits of culture
ALL DEPENDS ON PRINCIPALS OF FAIR USE & FAIR USE CODECS
rip : a remix manifesto- movie
lib(ertarian) julian sanchez summation
new kind of amateur culture, extraordinarily professional in what it produces
walt disney’s greatest works were derived from those of the past: brothers grimm, inspired by other creative works, mickey mouse based on steamboat bill
every episode of disney’s little einsteins uses classical music or works of art
sonny bono legislation extending copyright
free culture, free codecs
a business that leverages user value through reviews, recommendations, feedback that channels people to things they want to buy
every search is a gift to google – market data provided by users working for free
on the other hand
flickr twitter yelp – build value by encouraging people to contribute something back
copyright holders are a share cropping vision of future of digital creativity
no reason to regulate amateur activity; there’s no market
with sharable licenses: consumers add value back

wild card! what does the science say: not what does the industry want it to say

Unnamed Skiff Project, Zach Moser

I’ve got nautical kitsch and art all mixed up in my head. As the daughter of a boat builder and an artist, I have a Pavlovian response to anything that combines art and boats. I grew up in a house that would have suited Captain Ahab just fine– stuffed marlins, whale bones, ships’ wheels, rope art, portholes, buoys, crab pots, fish lures, oil paintings of ships in storms, all that. Enter the Grover family residence and immediately feel like an extra in Mutiny on the Bounty. This posting has been a long time coming, but boat artists, you’re about to get your due. Look for future posts on Bas Jan Ader, Marie Lorentz, Roy Fridge, Swoon, Open_Sailing, Waterpod, and others. Suggestions welcome, mateys.

Art & Boats, Part 1: An interview with Houston (boat) artist Zach Moser

Zach Moser is a co-founder of Workshop Houston, an innovative art/education/community center based in Houston’s Third Ward. Moser recently conducted a boatbuilding workshop inside the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston as part of the exhibition, No Zoning: Artists Engage Houston. The project (conceived with Benjy Mason) was titled “Yacht Shop,” and invited the public to collaboratively build a boat over six months. Yacht Shop concluded with the ceremonious hull turning and launching of the vessel (by spontaneous night parade) down Montrose Boulevard. This was all primed with sea shanties and home brewed braggot, a kind of malt and honey beer. (You can imagine what the drivers on Montrose thought of this land-locked endeavor.) Moser, a graduate of Oberlin, has a keen interest in collaboration via unlikely platforms – “civic events, low income neighborhoods, dying industries.” And this was not Moser’s first foray into maritime collectivity; his earlier nautical-theme works include “The Shrimp Boat Project” (with Eric Leshinsky), “Voyages to the Unknown,” and the “Untitled Skiff Project.” Read the interview with Zach Moser on Glasstire.com.

The Temporary Space opens Jan 15

I just received word from a former student, Keijiro Suzuki, that he and others are launching a new artist-run space in Houston called “The Temporary Space.” According to the website, every six months a new group of artists-in-residence will develop projects and exhibitions for the space. “The Temporary Space aims to create and share critically engaging experiences such as contemporary art exhibitions, experimental music performances, critical visual critiques and publicly engaging projects as basic components. In addition to this, focusing on interdisciplinary practices, the temporary space explores different topics and subjects by research and experiment, as well as by dialogues and discussions.”

Visit The Temporary Space, 1320 Nance, Houston, TX, 77002 by appointment.
Contact Keijiro Suzuki, cell: 832-867-9207, manager@thetemporaryspace.com