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larry fink

hillary barack keystone the democrats


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Documents of the Paris Commune - Ephemera from the collection in the Bibliotheque nationale de france, translated from the French by Mitchell Abidor.


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Observation and conceptualization are not two separable aspects of one process: As Burn wrote in 1968 in »Altered Photographs«, through conceptualization, perception can be differentiated into several levels of observation with different stages of abstraction - or, perception never occurred in any way except through the formation of patterns of perception (see Section III.3) and of a »grid« comprising different »levels or stratifications«: »...it's the grid which structures our perceiving.«10 In his »Introduction« to the first issue of »Art-Language« in 1969, Terry Atkinson presented the model case of a text that is presented in the same way that a drawing on paper would be in a glass frame.11 With the text work »Print (2 sections A & B)« (1966)12, the text presented in such a manner posed its own questions regarding its status at its place of presentation: Does its two-dimensional form of presentation - the white sheet of paper - make it a work of art or does the work as text draw consequences from Marcel Duchamp's Ready-Mades? Not only are the medium differentiae of painting, sculpture, drawing problematic for the determination of the status of art, but so are other general morphological criteria.13 Questions concerning the determination of art based on uniqueness, and above all on skill or craftsmanship and visual appeal, have been replaced in object art by questions concerning the condition under which objects are chosen: These objects need not be unique, the conditions under which they are chosen need not be art-specific. In object art, semantic criteria of selection (for example, the selection of unique objects or of reproduced objects because they are relics or consumer goods), as well as the method and place of presentation, play at least as great a role as visual appearance does. Since questions concerning the definition of art and the selection of exhibitable objects according to morphological criteria became problematic, artistic work can no longer be limited to an object area that is only comprehensible in phenomenal terms. If an artist no longer takes the established »framework«14 - one that ties the function of art to the presentation of objects at exhibitions - for granted, then he can see his work as consisting in the search for an alternative »framework« for art to function in or as art. This search can begin with an analysis of the basic social and economic conditions of the »institution of art«15 , including art criticism, the art trade, and the organization of museums.

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diderot

André Le Breton, a bookseller and printer, applied to Diderot with a project for the publication of a translation of Ephraim Chambers' Cyclopaedia, or Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences into French; first undertaken by the Englishman John Mills, and followed by the German, Gottfried Sellius. Diderot accepted the proposal, during this translation his creative mind and astute vision the work became transformed. Instead of a mere reproduction of the Cyclopaedia, he persuaded Le Breton to enter upon a new work, which would collect all the active writers, ideas, and knowledge that were moving the cultivated class of the Republic of Letters to its depths; however they were comparatively ineffective by due to their lack of dispersion. His enthusiasm for the project was transmitted to the publishers; they collected a sufficient capital for a more vast enterprise than they had first planned. Jean le Rond d'Alembert was persuaded to become Diderot's colleague; the requisite permission was procured from the government. In 1750 an elaborate prospectus announced the project to a delighted public; and in 1751 the first volume was published. This work was very unorthodox and had many forward thinking ideas for the time. Diderot stated within this work, "An encyclopedia ought to make good the failure to execute such a project hitherto, and should encompass not only the fields already covered by the academies, but each and every branch of human knowledge." Upon encompassing every branch of knowledge this will give, "the power to change men's common way of thinking." This idea was profound and intriguing, as it was one of the first works during the Enlightenment. Diderot wanted to give all people the ability to further their knowledge and, in a sense, allow every person to have any knowledge they sought of the world. The work sought to bring together all knowledge of the time and condense this information for all to use. Using not only the expertise of scholars and Academies in their respective fields but that of the common man in their proficiencies in their trades. These people would amalgamate and work under a society to perform such a project. They would work alone in order to shed societal conformities, and build a multitude of information on a desired subject with varying view points, methods, or philosophies. He emphasized the vast abundance of knowledge held within each subject with intricacies and details to provide the greatest amount of knowledge to be gained from the subject. All people would benefit from these insights into different subjects as a means of betterment; bettering society as a whole and individuals alike. This message under the Ancien Régime would severely dilute their ability to control the people. Knowledge and power, two key items the upper-class held over the lower-class were in jeopardy as knowledge would be more accessible giving way to more power amongst the lower-class. An encyclopedia would give the layman an ability to reason and use knowledge to better themselves; allowing for upward mobility and increased intellectual abundance amongst the lower class. A growth of knowledge amongst this segment of society would provide power to this group and a yearning to question the government. The numerated subjects in the folios were not just for the good of the people and society, but were for the promotion of the state as well. The state did not see any benefit in the works, instead viewing them as a contempt to contrive power and authority from the state.
a 17 vol diderot encyc can be viewed by clicking the above illustration
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...for one, when people say ironic, they often mean that something is being used rhetorically--like the presence of the expressive brushstroke in the show---rather than its simplest terms, the opposite of literal---though that statement is itself ironic...Irony has also been too easily cornered into insipid, unremitting cynicism, a willful displacing of affect in return for absolute neutrality---afforded by class---and arrogant negativity---afforded by over-education----breeding a kind of shared cultural code: I know, that you know, that I know..etc...What are missing are engaged forms of productive irony, like Flaubert or Bernhard, or Polke, or the function of irony in Johns...this irony directed at barbarism or at the vulgarities that really threaten to derail liberal values. We are perhaps a bit to comfortable with the fruits of negative liberty, just as we are with the demand that we disclose or express ourselves...

[...]

In the last decade, commercial spaces have arguably done more to support what can even loosely be called 'difficult' work than non-profit spaces...that dichotomy, qualitatively, probably doesn't even really exist anymore...that being said, the proper contextualization of work only takes place in non-profit spaces I think...but both of these notions belie a profound historical shift...you know, Kahnweiler, Picasso's dealer, tried to argue that museums should neither show nor collect contemporary art, that the market should sort it out and let history determine things...is it old-Left nostalgia to hold on to this romantic, pre-lapsarian notion of the alternative space?

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Costa Mesa architect John Linnert has especially enjoyed taking his daughter to the orthodontist over the years because he’s admired the Mariners Medical Arts Center, designed by Richard Neutra in 1963. But at the beginning of July, Linnert took his daughter to an appointment and learned that the three-building Newport Beach complex, designed to allay patients' fears with calming courtyards, water elements, and landscaping visible from treatment rooms, was slated for demolition.

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Francis McConnell is a field supervisor for the Philadelphia Water Department, but lately he is acting more like an undercover police officer.

Several hours a day, five days a week, he stakes out junkyards. Pretending to read a newspaper, Mr. McConnell sits near the entrances and writes down descriptions of passing pickup trucks and shirtless men pushing shopping carts.

His mission is to figure out who is stealing the city’s manhole covers and its storm drain and street grates, increasingly valuable commodities on the scrap market. More than 2,500 covers and grates have disappeared in the past year, up from an annual average of about 100.

Thieves have so thoroughly stripped some neighborhoods on the city’s north and southwest sides that some blocks look like slalom courses, dotted with orange cones to warn drivers and pedestrians of gaping holes, some nearly 30 feet deep.

Two adolescents were injured in recent months after falling into uncovered holes, motorists and cyclists are increasingly anxious about damaging tires, and the city is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars — $300,000 at last count — to replace the missing covers.

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8x8


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5" random orbital sander hero of floor refinishing story


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In case you haven't noticed, retro is hot right now. And Triumph's new Scrambler, the latest entry in the rapidly expanding retro-bike class, is a throwback to the days of Steve McQueen--when cool was more than a memory, attitude wasn't for sale, and high-mounted side pipes offered all the good vibrations the Beach Boys could evoke.

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1960 triumph tr3


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SPIEGEL: In doing so, are you taking up a concept, in a modern way, that American architect Louis Sullivan defined with the phrase "form follows function?"

Koolhaas: Some of our buildings fulfill this basic concept completely. Ironically, this functionalist idea is so forgotten, so unknown today that it seems completely new once again. Modernity is ultimately shaped by the idea of enlightenment, of progress. As unsteady as these concepts may seem to us today, it would be absurd to abandon them, because it hasn't been until today that we, as Europeans, are in a position to share them with the world. This, in turn, is what makes up the credibility of European architecture in an age of globalization: That we are able to execute our formulas in a less formulaic way than others, and that we can pay closer attention to the circumstances under which other people live.

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mulberry st c1900

via zoller
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All of these aspects of Noguchi's career will be explored in an exhibition opening Friday at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, near Wakefield in England. The stars of the show are a hundred or so of the paper and bamboo Akari light sculptures that he began making in the early 1950s, and that became his best-known work. Lovely to look at and surprisingly robust, the Akari lights not only fuse Noguchi's Japanese and American influences, but art and design, craftsmanship and industry. They were also the catalyst for economic regeneration of a declining Japanese industry and, last but not least, their dramatically shaped mulberry-bark paper shades emit a very beautiful light.

The Akari project came about by chance, after Noguchi went back to Japan in 1950. By then his father was dead, and the Japanese welcomed him as a famous American artist. He visited the city of Gifu, where the traditional candlelit paper lantern industry was declining dramatically as more and more Japanese homes introduced electricity. The mayor asked Noguchi how to revive it.

Noguchi's solution was to modernize the old paper lanterns. Settling in an ancient teahouse with his then-wife, the Japanese movie star Yoshiko Yamaguchi, he designed a series of lamps powered by electricity, rather than candles. For the shades, he used the silky Mino paper that had been made in a nearby village from locally grown mulberry bark since the eighth century, but replaced the recently adopted wire frames with traditional bamboo. The design process was traditional, too. Noguchi began by making a wooden mold in the shape of the finished shade and wound fine strands of bamboo around it. Strips of Mino paper were glued to the bamboo, and the mold removed once the glue had dried. A slender metal structure was designed to hold the bulb and support the shade, both at the top and the bottom, where it seemed to float above the floor on spindly legs.

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VANDENBERG


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Mayor Bloomberg wants to give more New Yorkers a chance to dance.

City Hall is looking to eliminate - or at least loosen - the cumbersome cabaret license so more bars and businesses can allow patrons to let loose, the Daily News has learned.

"We either want to eliminate the license or establish a different license so that it would be less onerous for people to engage in dancing," said a source close to the mayor.

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time is tight (live)


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soulful strut


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the gfos jb's stuff


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totally tubular hand rails


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rip bruce conner break away


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LG LRB-P1031 counter depth fridge

Dimensions
Overall Width 23.4 in.
Overall Height 67.3 in.
Overall Depth 24.6 in.
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art wars: geometry as conceptual art


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etro paisley fabric


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