the alpha and omega : topic:art

Suddenly the party is over...

Mahalanobis — 2009-03-30T19:24:00Z

Gerhard Richter, "Party", 1962, seen at the Albertina, Vienna

Almost a Piece of Art...

Mahalanobis — 2009-01-13T15:21:00Z

What you don't expect when going through the list of top SSRN papers:

Fractals and Art

Mahalanobis — 2006-02-09T04:59:54Z

Nature: Fractal analysis has been used to assess the authenticity of paintings purporting to be the work of Jackson Pollock. Click here to read the whole story.

related items:
On the consistency of backward-looking expectations, Mahalanobis

Name Your Price

Mahalanobis — 2005-01-11T22:28:57Z

Guess how much items went for at auction. To take part in the Name Your Price Quiz, you will be required to answer questions about prices of various antiques and collectibles. Every time you answer a question correctly you will be awarded 1 point. Each time you answer a question incorrectly you will lose a life.

Welcome to the alternative universe.

via zeitgenossen

Computers confront the art experts

Mahalanobis — 2004-11-23T13:45:31Z

Click here to continue reading. Click here (Nature) or here (New Scientist) or here (Wired) for an executive summary.

Ahhhh! I'm stolen!

Mahalanobis — 2004-08-22T22:35:52Z

Armed men stormed into a lightly guarded Oslo museum Sunday , threatened staff at gunpoint and stole Edvard Munch's famous paintings "The Scream" and "Madonna" before stunned museum-goers. "Art experts speculated the thieves might want a ransom as the works are too well known to be sold except to a reclusive collector." (reuters). The Munch Museum had two of the "Scream" pictures; a private collector owns a third version; and the fourth is on display at Oslo's National Gallery. That version was stolen in February 1994 but recovered three months later. Police recovered the fragile work undamaged in a hotel in Asgardstrand, about 40 miles south of Oslo. Three Norwegians were arrested. At the time, investigators said the trio tried to ransom the painting, demanding $1 million from the government. It was never paid. Click here to read more.

Wikipedia: Some theorists liken the look of the screamer to that of a grey alien, claiming Munch was painting a close encounter he had experienced, while others use this theory to state simply that Munch was mentally unstable and therefore others who report encounters with similar beings were as well. A possibly more likely explanation for the image is that Munch was reproducing the face of a Peruvian mummy he had recently seen at an exhibition in Paris. The mummy had its hands alongside its face, similar to the position of the screamer in the painting.

related links:
The economics of Mexican kidnapping, Tyler Cowen

Quote of the Day

Mahalanobis — 2004-08-08T03:08:06Z

Are you talking to me?

Weekend: Art Gallery

Mahalanobis — 2004-07-25T03:35:56Z

This evening I was dragged to a little art gallery* near the place in Ottawa where I'm staying at the moment. Drinking wine in the midst of stylishly dressed women and looking at wonderful paintings... Elysian! Here is the painting ("Santa Puta", Francois Baril Pelletier) one of my companions, "the nice Greek lady from the embassy", has bought... Now we are talking! ;-D.

*Pukka Gallery (site under construction)

Mona Lisa and White Noise

Mahalanobis — 2004-06-24T11:20:55Z

For centuries, artists, historians and tourists have been fascinated by Mona Lisa's enigmatic smile. Now it seems that the power of Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece comes in part from an unlikely source: random noise in our visual systems.

Click here to read the story.

Look what my fans did for me!

Mahalanobis — 2004-03-19T00:56:31Z

via artnudes

Kewl Desktop Wallpapers

Mahalanobis — 2004-03-13T13:56:17Z

A very nice collection of desktop wallpapers (via J-Walk).

Stealing is my business... and business is good.

What does D.O.A. stand for?

1. Dead on Arrival
2. Defective on Arrival
3. Typo. Should read Doha

the influencing machine

Mahalanobis — 2004-02-17T19:52:19Z

A few years ago Zoe Beloff discovered "The Influencing Machine" an essay by Victor Tausk, a Viennese psychoanalyst and early follower of Freud written in 1919. He wrote about a patient, Miss Natalija A. a former student of philosophy who complained to him that a bizarre electrical apparatus, which she believed was operated secretly by physicians in Berlin, was manipulating her thoughts. In his text, Tausk gave a new interpretation of this common schizophrenic delusion of being persecuted by a machine. He believed that it represented the patient's own body that had become alien and strange to her. Therapy did not last long. After three sessions Natalija quit claiming that now Tausk too had fallen victim to the "diabolical apparatus," she could no longer trust him. Soon afterwards in 1920 he committed suicide.

The Influencing Machine of Miss Natalija A. An Interactive Video Installation

art nudes - Stan Trampe

Mahalanobis — 2004-02-16T02:09:20Z

mystery light freedom passion

figure balance feeling

form attitude

a poetry of nudes

via artnudes

Logo Design Contest

Mahalanobis — 2004-02-12T00:14:34Z

Some time ago I decided that having my own logo would be of utmost importance. "Ich AG" (Me Inc.) may be regarded as an "Unwort" (un-word, no-word) but that doesn't change the fact that it exists and that it is in dire need of a corporate symbol. To cut a long story short I finally googled my way to designcontest.net and started a $75 logo design contest. It was amazing. People from all over the world (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, New Zealand, Romania, United States - just to name a few) droped in and came up with really nice logos.

The winner of the designcontest was Julieta Garcia, a freelance web & graphic designer from Argentina. Not only did she come up with a logo I can't stop looking at, but also designed (for free!) the Shockwave Flash-Header for mahalanobis and economist.at. I strongly recommend visiting her Website at Creativesouls. What are you waiting for?? Prices can rise quickly in the art market!

Age maps

Mahalanobis — 2004-02-02T20:03:52Z

A series of photos by Bobby Neel Adams.

Two photographs of the same person, from different periods of time (child and adult) are spliced together. In this fusion a jump-of-time is established at the tear.

Source: Metafilter