Painting Video Games in the Surreal Hyperreality

Oil Paintings Inspired by Internet Memes - Cory Doctorow @ BoingBoing

This doesn't fall into the category of supermodern but I think it does fit in with the hyperreal crowd. This is a painting inspired by the prairie dog viral video giving the viral video a longevity that has already surpassed the original. The artist, Jeremiah Palecek, has taken the original and transformed it into a pop zen painting of stunning simplicity. It's fitting for the hyperreal I think due to its twisting of something already simulated into a real, physical object. There's plenty more at his web site Nerdkore.com.

False Media, We Don't Need It

Both Sullivan and Yglesias mention the contradictions in the Clinton campaign's tactic of pointing to Sen. Obama's war record and aye votes on war spending. I think this is the kind of narrative the Clinton's want to keep up and bury Sen. Clinton's voting record as much as possible. Of course, by taking this tack, Sen. Clinton is easily opening herself up to a rebuttal by the Obama campaign or by the major news networks. This kind of tactic can only work for so long before someone in the MSM wises up and does the comparison. This tactic isn't a long term one, it just has to hold up long enough through the major primaries.

The Meme of the Link

The Web's Link-Driven Attention Economy - Scott Karp @ Publishing 2.0

The small controversy over Lane Hartwell's removal of all her photography from Flickr is based on the issue of attention and citation. It's easy enough for college and graduate students to understand; whenever you use the work of another author you always cite it. In fact, one of the mantras I remember from graduate school was, "when in doubt, cite it." With the rise of the blog and the online video and picture services the need for a meme that reinforces this idea of citation through link or comment is critical. Yet, I don't think there's much to worry about. Tag-clouds and the tagging culture growing within the Web 2.0 culture contains this meme in a way. A tag is used to help others search for particular items and the usage of tagging and tagging services should help mitigate the effects of those less informed who fail to add a link or credit. Eventually a link should pop up and lead someone to the proper site. Messy it is, but we can't force every person online to link or credit appropriately. All we can do is call them on it and attempt to reinforce the meme that a link or credit is always necessary when you use someone else's work.