Headlines: Sound Art, Ai Weiwei and Instagram
1) Historic Computers get Rebooted as Sound Art
If you haven’t already come across it, sound artist Matt Parker has created an ambient electronic album entirely from recordings of the functional sounds of very old computers. The computers are housed in the National Museum of Computing in Bletchley Park. The album, titled The Imitation Archive, is available for download by donation on Bandcamp.
2) Ai Weiwei Flies the Coop
A controversy involving Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has been resolved for the time being after the British home secretary agreed to grant the artist the six-month working Visa that he originally requested, so that he could be in the country for an upcoming exhibition at London’s Royal Academy of the Arts. The artist was earlier denied the Visa after stating on his application that he had never been convicted of a crime. Weiwei has had a number of run-ins with Chinese authorities but has never been personally convicted.
3) Instagram: Your Ticket to Artistic Success?
Get your social media marketing jumpstart with …Instagram, apparently! The New York Times and Artnet report that more and more artists, gallerists and curators are jumping on the bandwagon and using the photo-based social media platform as a way to market artwork and artists – and this might even be translating into record auction sales.
4) Boy, 7, Rescued from Public Sculpture
And to end this week's round-up, a seven-year-old boy expressed perhaps too much enthusiasm toward the public art initiative in Hilton's Head, South Carolina, when he became trapped in a large suclptural work by John Clement. After a quick rescue mission by the local fire department the boy is uninjured and will have quite a story to tell his class on the first day of school.