The cool real time online collaborative tool for artists: Google Wave

What is Google Wave ?

In short, Lars Rasmussen explains it here: "A "wave" is equal parts conversation and document, where people can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

Here's how it works: In Google Wave you create a wave and add people to it. Everyone on your wave can use richly formatted text, photos, gadgets, and even feeds from other sources on the web. They can insert a reply or edit the wave directly. It's concurrent rich-text editing, where you see on your screen nearly instantly what your fellow collaborators are typing in your wave. That means Google Wave is just as well suited for quick messages as for persistent content — it allows for both collaboration and communication. You can also use "playback" to rewind the wave and see how it evolved. "

As we are looking for such a tool, to think, to work, to display, to present together, together via state borders and oceans and systems for a long time, it is cool to think before the public launch, about what kind of future possibilities there are with Google Wave for Artists.

Read more here and here and enjoy the demonstration:

http://wave.google.com/

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/05/google-wave.html

http://mashable.com/2009/05/28/google-wave-guide/

Will Google Wave change Art, Politics, Economy, Business, Journalism ? What do you think ?

Please comment ! ;-))

Franklin's comment on criticism

and on the big general problem of art today:

"Given the track record of the last forty years, it's not impossible to imagine that art will never significantly influence the culture at large again. The primary driver of visual culture (not just art, but design, illustration, and any man-made thing with a visual element) right now isn't a style, it's a tool—the computer." more of this note at artblog.net here

The Ordos 100 project in the Steppe of Mongolia/China

100 Architects from 100 Countries building 100 Villas in the Steppe of Chinese Mongolia

http://www.ordos100.com/index.htm

and more details here

http://bit.ly/nEmqL

and more images here

An absolutely amazing art project with a bright future. Art where it should be. In the Steppe. Difficult too reach. A place to Pilgrimage to Art.

For German Readers an article with images on Spiegel Online here

http://tinyurl.com/dd5qbt

How the Art Club Caucasus could provide ideas for it ?

Czech Artist David Cerny with a great piece for the European Union

yesterday was this interesting article in the German Spiegel (in English)

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,601209,00.html

about the Czech Artist David Cerny, who invented a fake group of
artists and applied for a project of the European Union and realized
the project, making a pop critic to the Countries of the EU...

The EU rented the art work but now the mass media tries to
pull it down and label it as fraud...

Interesting and smart concept anyway, the artists also developed for each
European (fake) artist a personal website...

See the photo series as well.

http://www.zeit.de/online/2009/04/bg-bruessel-skulptur?1

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-38808.html

and here is a video about the work on

I think "Entropa" is a great piece and the EU can be happy to have it.

Short questions-short answers on art, part 1

Why is it good, that the Art Market crashes ?

Because its good that our values get some adjustments !

Explanation by Hans:

How can it be responsible to sell/buy some shit painting for lets say 200.000 EUR ?

An artist doing that without any regrets, is no artist for me, because he states that he probably thinks, that his painted shit could be worth that big money !?

How megalomaniac can an pseudo artist be, accepting any such sum for his poop ?

Prices for average art works should not exeed more than lets say 20.000 EUR, every cent above this should go for charity, to hungry people, to kids, schools, to teachers, it should be invested in our society.

Imagine, that my wife is educating and raising 25 little young Georgian boys and Girls at the first form, thus beginners in the age of 5-6 years old. It's one of the most responsible jobs in our society, to raise these kids with a true and good new education (we see today how many states failed to do that the right way)

Formally she teaches 4 hours a day by 5 days a week by 4 weeks a month. That makes 80 hours of the hardest work you can imagine. (try it for one day in front of 25 little personalities)

You know, how much she gets paid for this job ?

200 Lari per month, thats approximately 70 EUR, per month ! Not per day, like you earn probably our dear average reader.

We do not count here, that she needs a minimum of 2 hours per day at home to prepare her lessons carefully (can you imagine what happens, if you come without  a good plan in front of 25 kids ?)what amounts to another 40 hours per month (I know she spends more time on that)

So, there is a huge gap. Not only a gap, its  a crying injustice ! Here a crap shit work, that costs 200.000, there a teacher, who does the most important work for our future, who needs to work 1000 months at school for that sum, if he earns 200. Thats 83 years of work at school, can you imagine ? She studied 6 years at University for this work !

So let happen the crash of this kind of stupid art market and never recover again, but lets send more artists in our schools to teach !

For that the artists learn, what real work is...

Any comment ?

What kind of work will be bought in 2018 ?

Happy Christmas, dear Art Club Members and Art Club Caucasus Readers ! I wish you some nice days with your family and friends, enjoy your time, relax from the "quite difficult" but still very good 2008.

Here is a question to you to think about, if you are in the mood for that:

What kind of art will be bought in 10 years from now ? Will it still be paintings, prints and drawings, or something else ?

Will it be digital media, video ? Will it be just an USB Stick with a work ?

Think, that the future collectors generation now growing up, look often to painting as some kitschy old fashioned thing, almost ridiculous and stoffy.

Will there be huge flat screens in houses, (on the places where now the huge paintings are), where are our works digitally displayed ?

Will it even be so, that collectors buy a whole blog like this, lets say for 250.000 USD ? But who should get the money then ? We share it proportional to the amounts of posts each of us did ;-))

But how to buy a blog ??

It's very easy, 1st we take the money, 2nd with 2 clicks we make the buyer the Admin of this blog ;-)

Will it be, that collectors rent artists for a certain contract/project ?

Will big media companies like Google pay groups of artists, just to play arround and develop new visual concepts ?

We must invent the future by thinking it. We must prepare to the changing world around us and influence the changes itself.

Best regards, Hans

From Drop Box

Through me myself and I ... and a few of "you" IIIIl

Through me myself and I ... and a few of "you" IIIIl, originally uploaded by { kali_lab }.

I liked this work a lot, made by Annakarin Quinto, who has three flickr accounts:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/annakarinquinto/

and her labs at { kali_lab }

and a show case at [kali_pro]

check out her wide range of works !

A very short guide to success for Artists

1. Install a Feed Reader or use an Online Feed Reader to aggregate information about what is going on in the world. Thus read your favorite sources in an easy way.

2. Create your blog. Post better more content than few. Post regulary.

3. Create a Flickr Account to display your works.

4. Connect to networks of like-minded people. (Your blog, your Flickr, join interesting groups, Twitter etcetera) Activate chats with your favorite exchangers.

5. Create interesting work, concepts, styles.

6. Attract more and more visitors, gain recognition, discuss, be critical.

7. Make some sales, stay cool blooded.

How can we attract more visitors ? The Art Club Caucasus ?

a question to Lado, Nino, Ralph our Art Club Caucasus members, friends, supporters and other frequent visitors of this blog:

How can our art and this blog get more attention ?

I resume:

- this blog runs almost 1 year now

- it is focused on art experience, mainly via images of art related to the Caucasus Region

- the focus changed recently slightly to Contemporary Art worldwide

- the main contributers are Lado and myself

- Comment activity is very low

Here are some questions, we could think about and discuss:

What are we doing wrong, when we are only received by approximately 30 readers a day ?

How could there be more quality in this blog ? 

How could we improve the relevance of this blog to Artists, Art Critics, Intelligentsia, interested open accidentally crossing visitors ?

Are our posts relevant, interesting, mind provoking ?

What do we want from this blog and Art blogs in General ?

Who are and where are our potential readers ? How we can attract them ?

How can this blog contribute to make our art better known ? 
How can this blog contribute to todays main art issues ?

How can this blog contribute to improve art sales ?

Some of my loose ideas for a possible solution:

a) I assume, that only a minority  of artists (but growing)  worldwide is reading art blogs yet.

b) We could make more works fitted for Youtube, and link back to this blog, like Art in SlideShows, short or longer art videos. Thus try to put our works in the mainspots of the internet, like we try already to do in Flickr. 

c) For sure, there should be more written texts on Contemporary Art questions, but could we do this ourselves, or should we ask friends and folks to write a guest comment on these topics.

Who could be asked ?

d) Should this blog become a little bit more provocative and crazy in a good sense ? And how ?

e) Could adhoc Mini-Net-Work-Projects improve the quality, like f.e. drawing a mother with child in Budapest, in Tbilisi, in New York in Tel Aviv and have the works in 24 or 48 hours online ?

f) What kind of tasks and subjects these Net-Work-Projects could have ?

g) Should we update the Art Club Members more frequently by Email or would this be annoying ?

h) What would YOU like to have and read and see in this blog ?

Best regards, Hans

Easter by Brock Neilson

Easter, originally uploaded by Brock Neilson.

I do not know the direct "meaning" of this work called "Easter" by Brock, but for me it works as a cool allegory on wicked "media-politics-world-games" and some input somewhere creates an unexpected outcome somewhere else...

Two Updates

As you see I added the logo to the left. If I receive other submissions of you, we can change from time to time our logo (why not, we are flexible ;-))

Many thanks to Levan, who became a contributor to this blog, that means he can now publish autonomous to this blog, make it richer and give you more art, ideas, perspective and fun.

You too can, if you want, just contact me to become a contributor and I send you an invitation.

Hans

Do we want a Logo ?

It should not be that difficult to get of 29 cool artists a couple of drafts or ideas for a nice logo, if we want it. But there is hell of space on the right side of this blog to put it. The crazier the better ? or the classic noble style ?

Any sketches, drafts or ideas please send to kaukasus@gmail.com
or put into the comments. Hans

Ok,

here is my suggestion

Somebody working with Sound here ??

I would really like to find some people in the group to make digital sound files with, who can record talking or sounds, I would like to e-mail back and fourth mp3 sound files that we could change and develope. I want to collaborate to make some sounds that I can use in some art works that I am planning, possibly an installation. Do you think there is anyone in the group who would like to do that?

Brock Neilson

http://thewroom.blogspot.com/

Artclub Caucasus International

Art Club Caucasus, originally uploaded by grijsz.

Where do we go we don't know

We want to create a loose network of artists, collectors, publishers, gallery owners connected with the Caucasus Region. All the possible members we want to invite, around 40 so far, are very good professionals in their fields. We think about to have a Manifesto too, but that should commonly discussed on our first Art Club Caucasus gathering somewhere End of August, Beginning of September 2008 in the Caucasus. We will journey together, party, create art and have fun ! The Caucasus is one of the best places on earth for adventure, life, friendship and art.

I am aware, that maybe not every member can join us on our annual meetings, but I will try hard to get a good bunch of artists together !

Best regards, Hans Heiner Buhr