Scientists at MIT report that East Asians with strong cultural affinities naturally pay more attention to visual context than Westerners, who focus more closely on individual objects within a visual context. This study is the latest in a number of studies (this one, for example) that attempt to chart how cultural backgrounds affect vision. […]
Fred Ritchin is one of those photographic writers I have mixed feelings about. On the one hand, he’s a solid stylist with good motivations—he’s one of the guys trying to enlarge the conversation about visual culture and bring everyone into the fold. On the other hand, his ideological stance often puts me at […]
Three variations on the theme:
1.) Stumbled across an interesting site a few weeks back: Strictly No Photography. In its current state, the idea may be more interesting than the execution–users register and upload their photographs of people, places, and things that are not supposed to be photographed. The site advertises itself as featuring […]
291 has featured unusual portrait commissions before—namely, MoMA’s offer to sell you your genetic portrait for $550. Now the ever-entertaining (and rather brilliant) Vik Muniz is offering something different: your portrait with a loved one in chocolate for $110,000.
Sound like a lot of money? Well, work by Muniz generally sells for quite a […]
The Globe and Mail reported today that the Sanders portrait of William Shakespeare has passed the most recent analysis in the battery of tests being undertaken to prove the unprovable–that it represents the only portrait of William Shakespeare painted while he was still alive. It set me off on a search of portraits of […]
Even among the numerous jumbo-sized boats that dot Chelsea Piers on any given day, it was impossible to miss the SeaFair this past week. The shiny white megayacht, complete with its name in (neon blue) lights on either side, has garnered a lot of media attention recently with its novel approach to the game […]
An article on NewScientist.com describes new software being developed to help bridge the gap between verbal and visual searches. Pretty cool. Until now, most engines like Google have relied on tags attached to pictures, or the page in which photographs and other art are embedded, to produce image results. This new prototype […]
Christine Finn at the Guardian recently wrote a post about the genetic portraits offered by MoMA to anyone willing to shoulder the $550 fee and a quick cheek swab. It’s a cool concept–selling people portraits of themselves that can only be obtained through a lab.
While MoMA is the first place I know of where […]
291 was pleased to see this story hiding among the dull glut of media attention surrounding the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks. It’s a nice example of how the the predominance of cameras can make a complete amateur who witnesses an important event relatively famous. My favorite part of this story, […]
Over the weekend, the Times reported on the surprising importance of “stuff”–material goods, especially luxury goods that confer social status on their owners–in Second Life, the massively multiplayer virtual world.
I’m not convinced this is so surprising. What makes a place like Second Life unique is its visual aspect. AIM, Gmail, and other messaging […]
