This volume thus builds upon growing art historical, anthropological, and historical literature that argues that "art" is far from a natural category of human endeavor, but instead represents a historically specific idea and practice emerging in Europe from the Enlightenment and its aftermath [:] the radical and unprecedented bifrucation of the artist, as the genius who produces things of beauty, from the skilled artisan or crafts[person] who produces useful objects. [what's the use of art?]

"The ways in which decoration and ornament are defined and used vary in different cultures and periods. The Renaissance in Western Europe elevated to supreme status the 'fine arts', demoting handicraft and ornament, and beginning a process whereby these latter were relegated to the status of 'applied arts'... Centuries later in Britain, William Morris (1834-96) criticized the separation of art and craft from daily life and helped to promote a limited revival of medieval handicraft. More recently, a re-evaluation of ornament in art history has begun. In The Meditation of Ornament, [gbooks] the historian of Islamic art Oleg Grabar discusses ornament in the art of Islam within a broad world-view, ranging from Chinese calligraphy to contemporary art. Grabar proposes that ornament functions as an intermediary, enabling a direct encounter between the object it adorns and the viewer. He provides examples from different cultures, and suggests how terminology expresses the concept in different languages. For example, he notes that there is a Sanskrit word bhusati, which means 'to adorn'. It implies the successful completion of an act, object or state of mind. Grabar comes to the conclusion that 'in several highly literate and articulate societies, [there is agreement] on the existence of an action that completes something, that makes it perfect. That action is to decorate and the medium of its effectiveness is ornament.'" [Kazari: Internet Archive] previously: Egypt, repatriation, repair, I love how worked-over the first page of Nineteen Eighty-Four is, secret, ways of seeing, lists, equally an observer and an experimentalist, the only enslaved artist working in colonial America whose paintings are known to have survived, a Soviet nonconformist artist, exotic birds — including parrots, a recurring symbol in historical painting — and gigantic butterflies, tap, Very weird framing on this, it's a mix of science [laminar flow, Bernoulli] and woo [humidity, cloud-cover], the evolution of word balloons, care bears forever, suggesting that video games should incorporate more poetry, Art making is just one way of many through which we can transmute the unimaginable weight of loss into other forms, transformer architecture, wrappers delight, thousands of pieces of delicate glass created by a First Nations artist, Yhonnie Scarce, to tell significant stories, "poorly" animated juggling, esoteric phenomena, works "in the style of", Folly Cove, sketchbook hoboes, the child in the foreground is shown at work, erasure in portraiture, obsessions, art colonies, Tolkien, Botticelli, celebrities, serious work attempting to convey a sentiment, Charlemagne, skull trumpet, game as argument, videogames might be art but can they be literature, a testament to the power of vision, determination, and the belief that African stories could shine on the global stage, to combine colors as in a painting, juxtapositions when you put his pieces side-by-side can be as strange as the items he's composing together in the individual pieces, rainbow rice seedlings depicting sleeping cats, whiteness (which he describes as the way we organize and are organized), twined cattail leaves, web vibrations to interpret worldly signals, no viewer should be aware that any art project was happening, Software Piracy Birthed an Underground Art Scene, one foot in reality and the other in fantasy, micro-details of things, sand drawings of Vanuatu follow principles from a branch of math, leaf art, an impresario of the experimental in a city, Art + Climate, chef, vaporous worlds, this lost copywriting art, MAiZE, "influencer artist", the radical story of Palestinian embroidery, artists add invisible changes to the pixels in their art before they upload it online so that if it's scraped into an AI training set, it can cause the resulting model to break in chaotic and unpredictable ways, it's possible to believe in a happily ever after for us, most stylish older people don't follow rules, recipes knit our past with our present, hold on, a canvas for the art of living simply, craftivism, ornithological art, a time when children are living in peace, documentary, the most successful flop of all time, The "fuss" is that all of this AI art is built on the backs of people who remain uncompensated., somewhat gothic art direction, painting transmits rhythm, Ady Fidelin, the oldest known depiction of the bee in art is The man (or woman) of bicorp an (at least) 8000 year old cave painting in the Coves de l'Aranya, cozy game, stained glass sundials, Queer independent wrestling is where it is at, dematerializing, imaginary worlds and fantastical creatures, accessibility, Soteriology—that is the branch of theology that concerns itself with salvation—, lunar codex, retired playground animals, wombat — that "most beautiful of God's creatures", Clone-a Lisa, Ismail al-Jazari, the "father of robotics", done with comics but never art or the revolution, MLB players develop their autographs, say gay, not doing their art was costing them time", a world-class destination for art, but now we're so much more, an incredibly ambitious title to pursue when many video games do not try to engage with having cultures or identities outside of the white/western represented, a sound collage, Uplifting neurodivergent joy and caregiving are important acts of resistance , Chief Hacking Officer, art exists everywhere, the new searchable (and playable!) web frontend, all sorts of angles on how games and fashion converge, one player will make it to The Center, art helps, strategic use of nonviolent disruptive tactics, "moments of being," "vigorous compression", enjoying music, an archivist's dream... a while until the end of the blues (400+ pages to go) yet i feel comfortable saying: art means many things to many people

This volume thus builds upon growing art historical, anthropological, and historical literature that argues that "art" is far from a natural category of human endeavor, but instead represents a historically specific idea and practice emerging in Europe from the Enlightenment and its aftermath [:] the radical and unprecedented bifrucation of the artist, as the genius who produces things of beauty, from the skilled artisan or crafts[person] who produces useful objects [what's the use of art?]

To get a sense of the scale here, video games are worth more than the film industry. And the music industry. In fact, the video game industry is bigger than both of those industries combined. That's staggeringly big. The immense size and economic power of the industry, which is largely nonunionized, creates regulatory gaps, leading to inevitable dysfunction and exploitation. This makes life miserable for employees and consumers alike, both in the workplace and beyond. [Jacobin]

"wall drawings were already selling for thousands of dollars, so he wanted to have some artwork that everybody could buy" [Radius: not to be sold for more than $100]

"minimal art went nowhere" [artstory, the] previously

Leibniz's monadology [pdf, Early Modern Texts], his last attempt to codify his philosophical system, can certainly rival Wolfram's Ruliad for all encompassing majesty, despite its extreme brevity. Each monad is an individual that reflects the rest of the universe from its own unique point of view. The parts shape the whole and in turn, the whole back-reacts on the parts. Likewise, the Ruliad has similarity to Indra's Net from The Flower Garland Sutra - a kind of representation of a totality in terms of bejeweled vertices which encode the whole. Each is a vista of the whole. Every possible view is present in the whole. It is interesting to see how this basic idea, in which a totality is decomposed into an interdependent parts, repeats. [arxiv]

nearly 200 emoji-like symbols found within the PI-4000, sized 12x12 pixels, were directly insertable within text and had many conceptual overlaps with the earliest [emojipedia]

the humanities do not teach information. they teach how to change desires. and the teacher has to assume the responsibility of learning that difficult task...it is not possible to unlearn one's privilege; and unlearn and unlearn and unlearn. i should use my privilege against the grain...: fair learning...this task is persistent ... these women vote...the largest sector of the electorate in Africa and Asia...there is no specific space with the name "art" or "culture," even when the European words are avoided, yet all of them vote [Gayatri Spivak, Vienna Festival ~2h] (second hour's Q&A; synopsis at the split ~1h, if time's a question)

previously, Don't judge a book by its cover, the difficulty of reading "Of Grammatology" [gbooks] also has to do with the politics surrounding the production of the translation, why do empires care so much about women's clothes?, occupy/canon, critical intimacy shoutout: James & Grace Lee Boggs Center [.org] Grace: "what time is it on the clock of the world?"; "the only way to survive is by taking care of one another" Aesthetic Education in the Era of Globalization [hup] "perhaps the literary can still do something" [pdf] αἴσθησις [wiki]

"We must accept the complexity of positionality—and with it the privilege of "centered" and "peripheral"—or dominant and subjugated—positions and the partiality of all knowledge. Situated knowledge needs to take into account the historical context in particular locations. It can only be reached in connections, in webs, in networks, in practices of solidarity and sharing. And it must be a critical vision, power-sensitive, brought forward in the best feminist practices." [on curating]

No scrim now, just the fields, the lake, the peaks. When a double rainbow suddenly appeared, it was almost too much—a Disney overdose of glory. But then a rainbow pillar rose straight into the southern sky, and east of that a vaporous twin appeared, and then a kind of rainbow cloud to the north. Soon seven rainbows at once. Then the sun reached just the right angle so that the mist whipping up the face of the peak flashed into clouds of color as it washed over me: a rose cloud, a cloud of green. And always behind it the same line of lake, the same jag of mountain. All at once it struck me, struck me hard, that this was one of those few scenes I would replay in my mind when I someday lay dying. [Bill McKibben; gBooks: lake link]

forever previously For those who aren't familiar, NYS DEC Rangers that work in the high peaks of the Adirondacks are some of the baddest assed public servants in the country, in New York's Adirondacks - there's even a painting at Camp Topridge depicting Crow and Thomas sitting on the patio smoking cigars along with three other guests - among them, Federalist Society leader Leonard Leo, long suspected of being behind the attempt to shift the Supreme Court Society towards the right, "a room without a roof" = happy, One of these days, a program will see New York as more than New York City, was just going to post something about this but I was checking with cortex about whether it's a double, ...Clear air pooling south from Canada opened views to the distant Adirondacks as well as deep into Quebec and all our surrounding states...

This gown, from one of Kahlo's long hospital stays, is stained with both paint and [content note:] blood. It is a garment that portrays a very different image than the technicolor Tehuantepec dresses that were the artist's signature style in public. [getty.edu]

Frida & Trotsky ascend (2002), TikTok (Sotheby's), Museo Frida Kahlo previously: a ribbon around a bomb, LINEAGE BEGINS WITH THE AZTECS "La Catrina has been iterated over time," [San Francisco's Mexican Museum curator David de la Torre] said. "It's not just [José Guadalupe] Posada and his work in 1910. There are layers of history." ...an amazing time in history, features "La Catrina in [Diego Rivera']s iconic mural, Sueño de una Tarde Dominical en la Alameda Central {Bronx Museum, via Google Arts & Culture} (Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Central), where she links arms with a likeness of her creator, José Guadalupe Posada, opposite Rivera himself as a child and Frida Kahlo, among many others...", Kahlo was a Marxist and member of the Mexican Communist Party - I suspect she'd find "brand builder" a repugnant label, eyebrows that would make Frida Kahlo jealous, "send me " might return Yasumasa Morimura's An Inner Dialogue with Frida Kahlo (Collar of Thorns) "i think we broke it", Dalí/nsfw (links to an exhibit that may mirror the above; link's broken), beyond 5 women artists, expressions in the 1930s photos- I can't help but think of what was about to happen to the world, "They thought I was a surrealist, but I wasn't. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality." (link out), [Tina] Modotti had an affair with Diego Rivera and later introduced him to Frida Kahlo in 1927, - the same year she joined the Partido Comunista. The following year Rivera painted The Arsenal where he portrayed the love, the activist known as Frida Kahlo, painting is not only a work of art, it is also an historical document, 300 dresses -- compete with paint stains and lingering cigarette smells, that earned her a photo shoot with Vogue magazine in 1937, La Llorona her tribute to Frida Kahlo, self-reflecting, Could you maybe add a "losangeles" tag?, the portable shrine concept (with LED candles!), Not Dali But An Incredible Simulation, together they have developed (and continue to perform) the long-running Difficult Women, a cabaret theater show, Leonora Carrington "the last surrealist", dollhouse, take back halloween, Somehow, this post won't feel complete without A Room Of One's Own, this is not your grandmother's crafting web site, Maria de los Remedios Varo Uranga: Her paintings combine the surrealist love of the mystical and unconscious with a delicate sense of the mechanical, la real Frida, "I have had two accidents in my life - the streetcar crash and Diego Rivera", Blake Leyh Sound designer for such films as The Abyss; Frida; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Y Tu Mama Tambien, and many others has a music blog, Pain and suffering are common themes in her work keyword in html: At least punk's not dead, right?

They were Black veterans of World War II and Korea who had fought for freedoms abroad that they were denied at home. They were champions for LGBTQ rights at a time when each of those initials stood for moral corruption and political subversion. They were feminist activists in the left wing, some in the U.S. Communist Party, who confronted sexism, racism, and class prejudice as inseparable wrongs and barriers to solidarity, which prepared the way for a feminism beyond the Second Wave. And there were scientists prepared to denounce their colleagues' ingenious new biological, chemical, and military technologies as potential threats to the natural world, including humanity itself. [James R. Gaines, The Fifties]

an underground history

Alchemy, specifically the Paracelsian brand of alchemy-medicine, was prominent in the sixteenth and early years of the seventeenth century, not only in esoteric collections, but also in the "news" of the day. In 1600, the London College of Physicians examined a certain Frances Anthony who was suspected of prescribing and selling aurum portable (elixir). He was forbidden to continue his practice, a prohibition he repeatedly ignored in spite of fines and imprisonment. Three years later, in 1603, the controversy erupted between the Paracelsists and the medical faculty of Paris. Paul Kocher, historian, suggests that the theories of Paracelsus stirred up such a storm of controversy that, between 1590 and 1600, every educated person in England must have been aware of his works.[escholarshare, pdf]

alchemy, previously: time crystals, "this level of engagement represents a new kind of alchemy", Baking Bad, the special alchemy of African-American history and historical romance, meth, The exciting world of condensed-matter physics!, coding, afro-solarpunk, "I've been playing these games since before you were born!", despise not the truthful word of those who possessed the Stone before us, McCardell, turns out cheese is pretty useful, delightful music, flavor-ness, (pro babysitting tip: every house has markers and paper towels or coffee filters and it blows kids' minds every time), productivity, signs & symbols, sunny day, essential mixes, deliberately sent to this planet by an advanced extra-terrestrial civilization, Dada and Surrealist artist Max Ernst's alter ego, a good novella, Almond milk was a traditional drink in Medieval europe, player is thrust into the role of a lowly Ensign on the alchemical starship, game within the game, oldhammer, my father's head [pdf], hops wars, nsfw, acsii, novels you should have read, timelapse, I MADE A FUCKING UNICORN, fresh aire, "These chemicals were invented during the '80s and '90s in the labs of legitimate scientists at universities and pharmaceutical companies who had been looking for ways to harness the therapeutic capacity of THC without any of the stoned side effects.", memory, cognates, Unlike your parents, however, you have hopes and dreams!, whales, turns out that there is a much deeper connective bond between alchemy and modern finance, muppet labs, 25 Semi-Obscure Traditional Christmas Songs as Performed by Famous and Non-Famous People, phlogiston, pixels (aka voxels), an elastic term, What Makes a Great Teacher?, not bureaucrats, for those who wonder about the above capitalization of The Great Work, in alchemy and hermetism, The Great Work (or, in Latin, Magnum Opus), is the term, ∀R , dark materials, Lame-in-osity is a scientific word., Suzanne Treister, a rose is a rose; is a rose?, out of the ballpark, living machines, try this at home, esoterica, interesting bypass of the "one link per day" rule, heresy, fascinating collection, timehunt this thread is open to new comments

Once upon a time, Google would have encouraged users to verify its AI's claims with a quick Google search. Ironically, this now only works if users click through results to check information against primary sources—the exact practice Google is trying to shift users away from. [extremetech]

it is, at best, very good at only one third of the game [lesswrong]

has bridge finally been conquered? This post will show this is not yet the case. I hope also to give a flavour of the type of probabilistic problems that routinely need to be solved at the bridge table, by AI or human, where Nook may score over a human and why, and where its performance may be somewhat inflated due to some features specific to the training and test set-up.

There's no reason or evidence for a modern structure to have been built underwater at this site, says team member Marcel Bradtmöller, an archaeologist at the University of Rostock, Germany. Nor can the team think of any natural process that could create such a structure. [doi]

reminded of Carnac & regional neolithic sites [previously]