On Mastodon people are disagreeing, simply because the article in question doesn't tell about the target, there's only one single source and the researcher is not named. One of the responses to that post is pretty valid, namely the toothbrushes' brands are not mentioned and it seems rather impossible that toothbrushes have wifi, most of them have bluetooth (pun not intended) and are only connected to a phone. In order to use that phone, you have to hack that phone also. It's not that easy as presented. The article that was linked as source of the news was behind a paywall, so I have tried to undo it. Here's the link. To me it's more fearmongering than reality.

That being said, I think it's always smart to check the safety of your equipment, whether it's a toothbrush or a system critical computer. Like with operating systems, people tend to just use it, consume it, without questioning the safety of all that stuff. Putting your trust in companies is never a wise idea, since they have just one main goal: a profitable bottomline.

Edit: the botnet with toothbrushes story was merely an illustration and not a fact, see this Mastodon-post. Also on YouTube someone has some really well argumented comments on this story.

I'm not into "social media" all too much, because it takes up a lot of time and energy, but never returns anything. There's just one social media account that I cultivate, which is my Mastodon. Not that it brings in any bread or butter, but at least it's less addictive and I can post on servers that fit my needs. For instance, I have just moved my account to a complete new server (specialized in art) from a common one (for beginners). Easy-peasy, no hassles. Never had any annoying ads and the users that post questionable content are easily blocked (and/or reported). And all that is without any subscriptions or ad-streams. I'm free to donate to the maintainers of the servers where I reside, which I will, eventually, when the servers bring me the joy I'm expecting from all of this.

TL;DR: Twitter and its' ilks can shove it. Long live the Fediverse!! :-)

Art "expert".

I do not think that AI will be a threat to art or artists, but more of a new toolset that a lot of artists do not know and that way it looks like a threat. The guy who won that "art prize" (300 dollars, seriously?) was right that he didn't break any rules, but I bet he can't paint (exactly) what his AI generated/rendered. He printed it, which makes it cheap and lazy IMHO. It doesn't come close to any skillset or mastery of materials, let alone the dozens of other skills that are needed to create something that rises above any hobbyist's level.

I understand that, but a lot of what those tech-ceo's predict ends up in the vertical archive. And even if there will be a metaverse of some sorts, I really do not feel like joining that hype. Not because I wouldn't like it, it'll be entertaining in a way or at least some nice new things to learn about technology, but because I value real life. Be it interaction with other humans or making art, non-digital reality is where the real fun is. And yes, maybe I will miss the boat with some sort of business or moneymaking, but I do not care. Same with NFT's: I didn't join that movement and it saved me a lot of time and trouble, since that market crashed pretty significantly, just because of the amount of bullshit that people are "creating" and trying to sell. Compare it to a pond with a few fish in it: if you're the first with a fishing rod, chances are high you catch something. When a kazillion others join the fishing party, chances are zero catching something.

I should've gone for conceptual art instead of painting.

#shameless_selfpromotion

My gonads,but the art work is disgusting looking for the pig series. They are too cheap to do quality work like Warner Brothers. I feel sorry for the artists forced to do this in that "style".

Bluey drawing style and animation is also pathetic. Other than that,I approve of kids having these accents. I wish I had a different accent.

The sound of this formidable documentary is coming mainly from the left. But... No worries! Go to your extensions page, add the one that says "Audio Channel", refresh the page with the documentary, open the extension and on the right top it says "mono". Check that and there you go! Both ears are now pampered with the wittiness of Mr Crumb.

One of the best art documentaries ever IMHO. :-)

Art lovers rejoice. A remarkable city with an amazing museum!

As a painter I know the importance of provenance in valuing my work, especially when it gets re-sold. Also a Certificate of Authenticity is important to hand out to a client when the painting comes of the easel. That certificate can indeed, as the article states, be printed really easy and without any precautions be falsified. I have the impression that an NFT only goes for digital art and here's my question: how can I make a digital token of my real world painting as a certificate? Is there anybody outthere who wants to enlighten me (and even help me with that)?

"Art" is the new money laundering vehicle.

Sir Ken Robinson had some very good talks about this subject, for instance this one from 2007 or this one from 2013. And looking at the date the article was published, 2017, it can't be ignored nothing has changed since that publication let alone Sir Ken's talks.

I have done several guest-teachings at primary schools, including really awesome workshops, mostly about and with art and also about healthy food (which even made it to tv). What I encountered a lot on all those schools were the straightjackets of regulation and an overkill of administrative work the teachers had to endure. Not to mention very strict teaching rules the teachers had to obey. No room or freedom there. No real ways or experiments to inspire kids there. Just the standard tests, just discipline, well, nothing really sparkling or even close to fun.
My workshops and teachings were somehow distractions from all the indoctrinary those schools had to offer. It is even so bad, that kids still remember me after all those years. So, I agree with the article and more so with Sir Ken. And probably a lot of teachers will agree with me that our two hundred year old school system and ways of government ordered teaching are pretty much out of touch with our current knowledge of psychology, sociology and pediatrics (just to name a few). Not to mention the world.

Nice they got it. Weird the guy could not be bothered to donate it to an art museum.

While working on several pieces at the moment, these beautiful photo's bring a lot of joy and inspiration here. I think the NASA photo-archive is one of the greatest resources for inspiration, awe and wonder. So much colors and beautiful atmospheric pieces of art, yes, some of those photos easily beat the best (abstract) paintings in the world, as far as artists ever really could create works that tell tales about light years, other worlds and physics that goes beyond our current knowledge, all in one image quite some times. Anyways, back to the easel. (Actually it's to bed, because it's way later than I expected, but please keep that idea of the easel, okay? :-P )

moral panic hysteria

people who play LPs backward and find Satanism in Chris De Burgh's "Lady in Red" or Harry Potter clearly have too much time on their hands to be outraged by what is clearly, in this case, nothing more than fiction inspired by contemporary culture

Cuties is clearly a film about widespread cultural nymphomania driving little girls into being sexualized from a young age in the same way it pressurizes women into being oversexualized past the age of consent. which is to say that film is every bit about pedophilia by way of societal norms as it is about gender biased chauvinism by way of societal norms; societal norms laid bare and discovered by young people who merely mimic behavior in order to seek attention and find acceptance in a continuing and self-perpetuated cycle

and the movie is hardly subtle on this topic. it really hammers the audience over the head with the theme. to the point where it becomes utterly unenjoyable as a drama about a character. i struggled to finish it; i only didn't assume presentation morality lesson déjà vu because of controversy surrounding it so i watched till the bitter fucking Hollywood end - where the protagonist inexplicably abandons all behavioral momentum, and, for reasons yet to be determined, mid Act III climax, does a complete 180 reversal and gives the audience the proverbial "happy ending"

the movie is more akin to an after-school TV special; a moral lesson with clear-cut, black/white message. there's virtually no theatrical nuance, no sub-themes, no character development, no suspense or drama to speak of all reflected in the film's cinematographic style, ham-fistedly made to look to be documentary-like; observational, not dramatic

it is a single-perspective film, with all other characters made to look as either 2-dimensional cardboard cutouts or, in the case of father figure, absent altogether (the protagonist's father, a major plot device is spoken of frequently but is only ever spoken of and makes an appearance as a phone voice for a sum total of 10 seconds of "screen-time")

on a personal note - compromising the material in order to have moral alibi on the publicity tour is not an approach i particularly value artistically. im more inclined to applaud thematic subtlety and direct, confrontational publicity rather than the other way around (it is in my view, if nothing else, braver to chose to defend oneself from accusations of sensationalizing a topic over offending the religiously extreme but that's just me)

in spite the production team's effort to make their case that this movie should and could never be interpreted pornographically even more obvious than it could possibly be by hit-you-over-the-head plot constructs, those who are most guilty of sexualizing minors with actual sex abuse, deliberately chose to ignore these material compromises (presumably made in order to avoid the very politicizing of media to fabricate public concern by feigning it) and the filmmakers now appear to be in the midst of discovering that, as the saying goes, those who trade liberty in exchange for a little bit of security receive, in kind, ample amounts of neither of those; a most unfortunate and foreseeable set of circumstances

be that as it may, to set aside the interpretation of Cuties as something other than a critique of the very hypocrites whose scrutiny it was inevitably to fall under and to interpret the backlash against it by deliberately ignoring the painstaking effort ...

Well, I think the profession of songwriting will be gone pretty soon. While listening to AI-generated classical music (from 2017), I was discovering that even popular music can easily be generated with AI (2019) and become a hit along the way. Maybe it is a good idea for aspiring composers and musicians to get themselves the software needed to be on the front line of creating/generating music and songs this way. ;-)

Even I have to think through how to run my art-workshop in the future.

Nothing is holy for AI.

Edit: AI/DC. For lolz, of course.

I am using Linux for quite some years already and am very happy with it. About eleven years ago I had the chance to follow two courses, not from the Linux foundation, but organized by the "evening schools" of university here in town. Linux System administration and Linux Network administration and Safety. Very basic down to earth courses, which taught me a lot about using my computer just from the terminal, without relying on any GUI, scripted installers and, god forbid, a graphical installer. Sweaty months and I passed the exams, which were pretty damn hard to do. My intention to do that was not from a professional perspective, because I have different career choices in life than being a sys admin or other IT job. I thought it was good, because it helped/helps me with easy problem solving, even when everything else has failed. It helps me feeling secure while tinkering to optimize my system. I will never regret that decision, because I could somehow validate the help I gave to others with their computers. Quite a lot of people have running Linux systems thanks to me and thus saved a shitload of money in the process. It gave them, just like me, the idea of choice and freedom of use of bought and paid for equipment. It works.

My little art-studio runs exclusively on open source and Linux, as far as computers are needed. It started being fed up with incompetence caused by using Windows and a plethora of proprietary software, the usual frustration every convert seems to encounter. It ended up with not really thinking about all those nights full of cursing ever again and the courses made me able to take on a problem and solve it. Most of the time in the terminal, without a sweat. The teacher I had with those courses was a hardcore Linux admin, nearly a fundamentalist, but I am very grateful for the liters of sweat he extracted from me. I am as technical as every next man/woman, as in none, and I do not consider Linux a hard thing to learn. All it takes is being open minded and having the will to learn something (new). Before the course I thought and boasted about "knowing" Linux, after that (now) I do not boast one little bit. I mostly giggle when people come to my place asking for help. And am happy when they walk out, knowing their fresh install will give them a little sweat, but with the foresight they will solve their problems themselves from now on. Some gave up when they bought their new computer after years of Linux and went back to frustrations, because "everyone uses this", but most of them installed the new machine with their favorite distribution and went on with their lives.

Totally recommend a decent course in the OS and not just for tech savvy people or for job prospects. :-)

Totally agree. I am using Linux for over fifteen years and had one machinecrash in all that time. It was many years ago, when I still was drinking alcohol and had a temper once in a while. And when the cdrom didn't go into the tray like it should do (because it was stuck in, but only halfway) and I didn't see why because of the beers, I was a bit rude and then my screen went black. So, there. And not even Linux's fault.

Ah, and I also fucked up my entire music and photo (of all my art, or as much as possible since digital photography) harddrive, because I was so sure the dd-command was putting an ISO on a thumbdrive that was named SDB, while it actually was SDC and SDB was my external backup-drive with said treasures and archives. Yeah. And that was sober, but still my own fault. Linux did its' work thoroughly. 500 GB gone in a jiffie. Zzzzzzzzzppp. Done. I still hold ceremonies to remember that foolish moment, my personal digital Hiroshima. Absolutely unnecessary overkill to arrogantly prove a point to imagined enemies. In this case the alphabet and not the Soviets.

As an artist, I think that having your art stolen in a heist is a bigger compliment than hanging it in the museum they stole it from.

Wish I could use Bitcoin more often in the regular economy, since selling my art and cryptocurrency go hand in hand great (it helps with the provenance of the paintings). :-)

This is a fusion of metaphysics, the current crypto currency blockchain mania and art by a person (me) who obviously has too much time on my hands... or do I / we ?

Such a great article! The in depth reporting and the multiple in-person interviews made this a compelling and authoritative article. Well worth a read.

Personally if I ever were to collect art (admittedly unlikely) I would prefer a copy that is clearly marketed as a copy (different size canvas from the original). That way I could enjoy the look of the art without anyone ever having to wonder if its real or fake, since its obviously a copy. A copy that is clearly labelled as a copy would let me enjoy the art without costing crazy amounts of money. Of course museums have to display the real original item, but I'm still puzzled why private collectors would want an original, given the high cost outlay and the worry about whether it's truly the original.

Thank you. And yes, I am happy with it all. Not satisfied, but happy. My goal is still far away and I wonder if I will ever reach it, because with every painting I put the bar a little higher for myself. It's a school, a process of learning, developing and growing. Sometimes it is a tough school, since I have no riches whatsoever and find it hard to work on. But the economy of making is somewhat of a obstruction for me, as in: I feel that it holds me back from within whenever money's involved. With commissions there's hardly any room for experiment, I always work within the means of gained skills, insight and self-esteem.

What you are following is a transition from graffitiwriter to canvasartist. From big kahuna's painted in no time to small objects that come into existence over long periods of time. It's hard to go through that, but nothing good has come easy in my life, so it is not unfamiliar and feels like home to me. I like it like that, without any masochist intentions. In my surroundings people still do not understand why I am doing that and keep on bugging me with graffiti, but I ignore it and go on with my path.

Last year was completely dedicated to upgrading my little workshop which is also my studio-apartment. I live among the paintings, materials, books, everything breathes art here. There's no escape, which is in itself an escape from the outside world. Besides painting I have a part time job as bike-repairman for two days a week, that is where I go socialize, where the interactions are. Anyway, the upgrades consisted of better materials, like a professional easel, better paint and canvasses, insulation for my windows, everything to keep painting growing in a direction I want it to grow. Bonsai. Yeah.

This year there will be the start of a last transition, which has to do with the paint itself: from acrylics to oils, which is a huge step, both work wise and with the quality of the images produced. When that is established, which will take a few years, I can say that I have done learning the basics. Then I want to go level up producing museum-scale paintings. As in: 2 by 3 meters or so. The bang-effect with fine art is what attracts me. Coming from a really humble background, that is pretty much science fiction for the moment. But it is science fiction that can be reached and accomplished.

The fun thing is: more and more I am finding out that this way of life is really worth living, no matter how poor I am or how slow it goes. I find consolidation in who I am and with what I create. That is actually the biggest transition you are witnessing: one of self-acceptance and of a growing strive to make a very young Martinus's dreams come true. :-)

Maybe they'd be more forgettable if they were just countless, imaginative, hard-working dissident Dadaesque street theater samizdat guerrilla art wee folk, but you've gotta admire the way they didn't let winning their freedom go to their head. Thanks for them!

So he caved? And got nothing. And kept the govt closed for over a month. Art of the Deal folks!