Webcam Venus
Are Botticelli and Hugh Hefner really that different?
A project by Addie Wagenknecht and Pablo Garcia where they asked online sexcam performers to replicate iconic works of art. This piece is an experimental homage to both fine art and the lowbrow internet phenomenon of cams.
Webcam Venus project is developed for FAT lab by Addie Wagenknecht and Pablo Garcia. Webcam Venus is a work in two parts and will be shown in its entirety at FAT GOLD April 1-13 2013 at Eyebeam NYC.
This post is made possible thanks to Remco van Bladel
This entry was written by , posted on April 16, 2013 at 12:25 pm, filed under Art, Craftsmanship, Dematerialization, Digitalization, Internet, Selfies, Various, Video. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
A conspiracy theory
Are we the only one who had to think of Gloria, the artwork Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla presented at Venice Biennale, after hearing the terrorist attack at the Boston marathon? Art inspiring reality is a given, but this time we cannot not speculate that it inspired evil.
All our prays are with the marathon attack victims and their families.
This entry was written by , posted on at 9:14 am, filed under Art, Dematerialization. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Gangster disciples, their Jewish swag and Rick Ross
For the April issue of our column at Dazed & Confused, we put the emerging Jewish symbolism in hip hop and the Rick Ross issue under scope. The question still remains: Did the star of David get rap’s biggest rapper shot?
In the recent months, we have all been entertained with shivers down our spines by the worst kept secret in the rap world, the dispute between Rick Ross and the Chicago-based gang the Gangster Disciples. On October 29th, GD released a YouTube threat for Rick Ross, concerning the Star of David on his mixtape. After that, on 28th January 2013, Mr. Ross crashed his Rolls Royce after another vehicle fired shots at him as he drove home from his birthday party at the famed Miami nightclub LIV. As expected, this shooting alluded to Hebrew-fanatic gang Gangster Disciples, flaunting their sense of humour by shooting him on his birthday. On the other hand, according to reports allegedly “dozens” of rounds were fired at Ross’s car in the drive-by which made 50 Cent speculate that Rick Ross staged his own shooting. Meanwhile, we were bewildered by this Jewish swag which has been the centre of this gangster gossip.
Hip hop and occult visual imagery is like caviar and vodka: a classic. Especially the speculative masonic Illuminati looks of our favourite Givenchy boys, Jay-Z & Mr. West. Writing an opinion about a subject which is a combination of Jewish symbolism, street gangs, African-Americans and hip hop, while not having a background in any of them and getting away with it is not easy, but the question remains… Why on earth would a street gang associate itself with Judaism? And why is the Star of David the go-to rap symbol of choice?
Folk Nation is an alliance of street gangs based in Chicago and Gangster Disciples is its strongest sub-gang – also one of the most violent gangs in the USA. It is estimated to have over 600,000 members worldwide. The gang uses the Star of David, a pitchfork, 360, GD (their initials) and number 74 (the places of their initials G and D in the alphabet) as their symbol and they are known for carrying a black flag (bandana). Allegedly, the Star of David in the GD pays respect to David ‘King David’ Barksdale who was the original leader of multiple Folk Nation gangs among Gangster Disciples. The letters on the points of the star stand for Love, Life, Loyalty, Understanding, Knowledge and Wisdom.
The video that Gangster Disciples uploaded on Youtube showing their feelings towards Rick Ross about the Star of David on the cover of his mixtape, The Black Bar Mitzvah, has a history. It has been said that Rick Ross disrespected GD for dropping the name of their leader Larry Hoover in the song “B.M.F.” as a street swag booster which made him millions, as well as for using the Star of David (which is the gang’s major symbol) on the cover of his mixtape, The Black Bar Mitzvah.
The gangster gossip surrounding Rick Ross’ marketing strategies stretches to world-renowned cocaine king-pin Freeway Ricky Ross. First named ‘Teflon’, the Miami MC Rick Ross is currently being sued by Freeway Ricky Ross for using his name.
After the shooting in January, the ex-correction officer Rick Ross is currently being protected by actual police force. It can’t be fun to be Rick Ross right now.
This entry was written by , posted on April 13, 2013 at 9:33 pm, filed under Dematerialization, Fashion, Ghetto gold, Glam Chaos, Lifestyle, Music, P&V for Dazed Digital, Trending. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Happy iPets
This entry was written by , posted on April 8, 2013 at 11:22 am, filed under Creatures, Dematerialization, Digitalization. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Deep fried gadgets
Image courtesy of Tumblr, Henry Hargreaves
This entry was written by , posted on April 1, 2013 at 8:45 am, filed under Dematerialization, Digitalization, Folk, Lifestyle, Things 'n Flings. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Optical Illusion Selfies
Optical Illusion Selfies is a work we did in collaboration with OKFocus. We made a special edition set of webcam filters as part of Overlayer.
Our Overlays are inspired by trompe-l’oeil, a classical painting technique that creates optical illusions. Trompe-l’oeils were popular among Baroque artists. The paintings deceived the viewer’s senses while the artists playfully explored the boundaries between image and reality on their canvas. As Pinar&Viola, our canvas is the internet and the web shows that, today the boundaries of image and reality, the actual and the virtual, are blurred away.
A special section of internet’s images are results of everyday digital gestures like a self-portrait, in netspeak labeled as a ‘selfie’. These self-aware selfies are our daily optical illusions that deceive the senses of our Facebook friends. Our profile pictures reveal, as much as they hide, our persona. Our tromple-l’oeil webcam Overlays are digitally crafted devotions of these carefully constructed acts of self-design. These illusionary sceneries are heavily inspired by digital folklore imagery like desktop wallpapers, GIF animations and fantasy web art.
Go to Overlayer.com and turn into a bright blue waterfall, a swamp oracle, a sadomasochistic fire spitting demon and more. The transformative pixels are only one click away, please share your selfies with us!!!
This entry was written by , posted on January 23, 2013 at 12:15 pm, filed under Dematerialization, Digitalization, Ecstatic Surface Design, Friends, Internet, Pinar&Viola, Selfies. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
MRRY XMAS, meet my desktop stripper
Merry Christmas everyone!
We have a solution for those who feel lonely in the holiday season, desktop strippers. We met them during our research for The Importance of being Sexy, the XXX website we designed, like a year ago. They were popping up in the right cover of your screen while browsing in adult sites. Yet, recently we ran into their larger-than-life versions that we could download and have them parade in between our photoshop layers.
This entry was written by , posted on December 24, 2012 at 10:57 am, filed under Dematerialization, Digitalization, Folk, Internet, Research, Things 'n Flings, Various. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
WWWINTER
This entry was written by , posted on December 18, 2012 at 10:35 am, filed under Dematerialization, Digitalization, Internet. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Collective unconscious of the decomposing empire
These images are taken from ROSOSSISIA, a chapter within the blog looo.ch. The excessive research shows images referring to a certain post-soviet cultural phenomenon and trans-regional style which expresses the collective unconscious of the decomposing empire.
Golden domes and leather jackets. Carpets on the walls. Pranks of the drunk children. Concrete toys. Hysteria, tragicomedy, absurd. Serial policemen. iPhonized Tzar. Gestapo of the Russian Orthodox Church. Post-Jail-Chanson-Techno. Romance of Beer. Lo-Fi Baroque. Cat pissed slippers. Winter. Kielbasa. Socks. White on a gray. Gray in black.Teremok-supermall. Electro-balalaika.
This entry was written by , posted on December 11, 2012 at 3:51 pm, filed under Dematerialization, Folk, Glam Chaos, Information Wars, Internet, Various. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Candy Art
This entry was written by , posted on November 27, 2012 at 6:18 pm, filed under Craftsmanship, Dematerialization, Folk, Other ecstatics, Things 'n Flings, Various. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
P&V 4 Adidas
We recently made a Adididas post, under the category, Research where we gathered bootleg version of the trefoil logo. The research was meant for a project we were hand crafting for Adidas. When they asked us to make a pattern, we took the chance to make a Ghetto-glam-didas version of the brand. Please look closer to the ecstatic pattern.
This entry was written by , posted on at 10:10 am, filed under Craftsmanship, Decadence, Dematerialization, Digitalization, Ecstatic Surface Design, Ghetto gold, Pinar&Viola, Published, Visual ecstasy. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
We have a new monthly Dazed Digital column
Our dear friends in Dazed invited us to be a guest contributors to their blog. From November on, we’ll have a monthly post about digital folk. As our first, we present you Turkey’s anti-evolutionist showgirls. An Islamist fringes wraps its hard anti-Darwin message in skin-tight Versace, drag-queen make-up and po-mo posing.
For November, we briefly present a female creationist ensemble from Turkey. These girls have proven that Islam, sexual objectification, passion, belief, tabloidization, manipulation, anti-Darwin and Versace can come together. Five Turkish bombshells, they are often referred as the girls, angels or kitten of Adnan Oktar, a self-taught Islamic preacher who gained respect for his fervent Creationist teachings. He presents his beliefs as a reformed and urbanized versions of Islam, where he clearly states Muslims, Christians and Jews should unite against the corrupting influence of Darwinism. He is also the author of the books Atlas of Creation Quadriology, an anti-evolution, Islamic-saga bouillabaisse. It displays a stunning ignorance of basic biology, and 6 legged humans skeleton visualizations are among the arguments that are employed to contradict Darwin.
This fabulous five consists of Gülşah Güçyetmez, Ceylan Özbudak, Ebru Altan, Damla Pamir and Aylin Kocaman. They are the bewildering accessories of the TV Show Adnan Oktar Chat Time at the religious channel A9. Every night these blazing women come together with the Islamic Creation packmaster Mr. Oktar. They hold discussions about Islam, pseudo-insta-fossils discrediting evolution and their favorite topic: Mr. Oktar.
This surreal set-up might be hard to grasp for a non-Turkish person. (One half of Pinar&Viola is Turkish). These woman contradict the terrorized image of Muslims used in the global press, while going completely against all the hardwork feminist activists have been battling over the years. While the restrictive state of Turkish journalism grows into a national shame, scandal and sensation still makes up a huge part of the Turkish media. Five voluptuous ladies with a combination of Zentai-tight, now-in-style Versace garments and make-up capable of making drag queens jealous, rubbing shoulders with religious sisterhood, and many references to history’s matriarchs.
These five women state they behave following the ethics of Kur’an, where it’s written the ones Allah guides look alike, as a reaction to questions regarding their similar looks. All of these girls have their own individual social media stardoms where they make loud manifestations adding to their media attention.
It’s not the first time that sensationalism, lies and cheap entertainment have been used to boost the ratings of a TV program, especially not in Turkey. That’s why the educated, intellectual, secular part of the Turkish population became completely immune to this first-degree propaganda. Their solution is simple, and troublesome – make fun of it.
This entry was written by , posted on November 21, 2012 at 11:05 am, filed under Decadence, Dematerialization, Fashion, Folk, Friends, Ghetto gold, Glam Chaos, Other ecstatics, P&V for Dazed Digital, Persona, Pinar&Viola, Published, Various, Visual ecstasy. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.