Selected by troyviss

• 
  Measurement Matters

• "Scorcher" at the AMEC Awards

  19 Nov 2009 | 1:51 am

  The great and the good of the PR measurement industry gathered last night for the annual AMEC Awards, and it was a "scorcher" of an evening, as a tabloid-inspired Nick Grant put it. With winners from as far afield as Australia, Germany, Dubai and right here at Metrica towers, our industry seems in rude health.  Trevor Morris, Visiting Professor of Public Relations at the University of Westminster and chair of AMEC's judging panel, noted the high quality of entries put before the judging panel. His opening remarks served as a great reminder of the attributes that make good…

• PRSA 2009 off to a great start

  8 Nov 2009 | 10:22 am

  I'm in San Diego over the weekend for the 2009 PRSA International Conference - the largest international PR gathering in the world. Many of the thought leaders of our industry our here to share their thoughts on the future of communications, to teach, to learn and of course to network.The networking began in earnest last night with a tweetup named in honour of surely one of the world of PR's leading networked communicators Shonali Burke. Shonali used to run the PR for the ASPCA, the USA's equivalent of Britain's RSPCA where her leadership and forward…

• Insight 1 (part 2) – The beginning – a very good place to start...

  4 Nov 2009 | 5:26 am

  After Metrica's exciting news last week regarding our acquisition by Durrants, it’s back to business as usual on the blog.  So, on with our introductory post from Metrica Insights...   With solid PR objectives sorted, the next thing to think about is how they will be measured.  Do you need to do pre and post research?  Do you need to feed into a marketing mix model that the advertisers are running?  Do you need to measure your media output? A wise man once said, “not everything that counts can be counted, and not…

• Best of breed media monitoring, PR measurement and social media analysis unites

  27 Oct 2009 | 10:24 am

  According to a survey in the Daily Telegraph yesterday, Monday October 26th is the most unproductive day of the year as workers struggle with morale owing to the darker evenings that the clock change brings about.Nothing could have been further from the truth for all of us at Metrica however as we announced to our clients, the press and the industry at large the exciting news that Durrants, the pre-eminent media monitoring agency, has purchased the share capital of our business.   Bringing the strength of Durrants'…

• Metrica Insights (Week 1, part 1) – The beginning... a very good place to start

  22 Oct 2009 | 10:03 am

  Hello and welcome to the Metrica Insights series.  The data fuelling these posts is a long running study of the UK PR industry’s measurement practices.  Since 1998, Metrica has been interviewing a large group of PR professionals every two years* to gauge their thoughts and actions around all things measurement.  Using the latest results as a springboard for thought and discussion, these posts will focus on the main issues facing PR practitioners in an increasingly ROI-centric world. This week we’re looking at the basics.  As someone once said, the…

• 
  trendsspotting blog

• The “unfriend” Social Cycle: Social Networks Beahvior Patterns

  Apurba Sen

  18 Nov 2009 | 6:19 am

  The New Oxford American Dictionary has chosen ‘unfriend’ as its word of the year. To ‘unfriend’ means to remove someone from your friend list on a social network like Facebook or MySpace (and we extend that to a similar pattern of “unfollow”  in Twitter). “Defriend” came in as a  close rival, but unfriend takes it one step further by employing a more active and abnormal “verb sense” of the word ‘friend.’ Earlier we had stated some of the facts on Social networks: An average Facebook user has 120 friend. In general he/she general…

• Twitter users share early adopters symptoms

  Dhivya Subramanian

  12 Nov 2009 | 10:16 am

  Recent findings of a Pew Internet study revealed, Twitter is being extensively used as a status update service to keep in touch. Youth (age 18 -44), social network users and users with access to mobile internet show early Twitter adoption symptoms. The study – Twitter and status update, was conducted in September 2009, amongst a sample of 2,253 adults, 18 and older. The key Highlights of the research indicates: 1. One in every Five Internet user Now on Twitter 19% of internet users say they use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves, or to see updates about others (up…

• For a Better (Digital) World

  Taly Weiss

  3 Nov 2009 | 7:00 am

  In a beautiful thought-provoking project of Jonathan Harris (creator of We Feel Fine – one of the first social web emotion visualization projects), Harris shares some touching  personal insights with artistic inspirations relevant to a digital world. In this “World Building in a Crazy World” – Harris suggests 1-2-3 principals for a world building idea – “a universal idea executed simply, with an element of play, nostalgia or beauty”. Enjoy. Tweet This Post Plurk This Post Buzz This Post Delicious Digg This Post Ping This Post Reddit Stumble This Post

• Halloween through Location Based Applications

  Taly Weiss

  1 Nov 2009 | 7:11 am

  Google Latitude or other location based applications working through mobile phones can let you track your kids whereabouts during Halloween.   Aside from tracking, many of those applications can be used (note privacy concerns) for sharing the Halloween experience. Locations of retailers selling costumes and decorations can also be found by using applications as Poynt. To improve the Halloween experience, Zillow.com, have created a Trick or Treat Housing Index, which presents the top-five neighborhoods to maximize candy harvesting. The index uses four equally weighted data variables: Zillow…

• Google Wave: Invite Led Viral Campaign

  Dhivya Subramanian

  22 Oct 2009 | 2:24 pm

  Search Engine giant Google, has shown the world how it is reshaping the way communication happens over the internet with the soft launch of Google Wave. And it has done so in a way it knows best – through invite based viral marketing. The internet witnessed tremors of excitement when 100,000 exclusive invites to Wave were sought after by surfers who were curious, passionate, and addicted to Google. A sense of Déjà vu is hard to avoid. Google sent out similar invites when it launched Gmail in 2007, to build hype. Privileged invites led marketing has been a potent weapon that Google has…

• 
  Mashable!

• GrandCentral Website Shuts Down Next Month: Download Your Data and Contacts

  Pete Cashmore

  21 Nov 2009 | 9:26 am

  Google has already transitioned GrandCentral users over to Google Voice, and now comes the final step in that move: Google is shuttering the GrandCentral website and telling users to download any old messages and contacts they have on that site. The GrandCentral site will be closed on the last day of the year – December 31st – and a further reminder will be sent before that date. In a mail to users today, the company advised: The GrandCentral website is shutting down – GrandCentral is now Google Voice. Dear GrandCentral User: We’re writing to let you know that we will…

• Tila Tequila Continues Her Ustream Video Meltdown [LIVE VIDEO]

  Ben Parr

  21 Nov 2009 | 1:19 am

  Social media is a double-edged sword. Due to its unfiltered nature, it can be a powerful promotional tool. However, it can also publicly expose our problems. Former reality TV star Tila Tequila is an unfortunate but prime example. Some backstory: Tila Tequila is one of the most popular artists on MySpace, was the subject of an MTV reality show, and most recently filed assault charges against San Diego Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman, which were subsequently dropped. Fastforward to Wednesday, November 18th. That night, Tila had a very public meltdown on her Ustream page. She waved around a…

• UNDERDOG: Google Android Smashes Apple iPhone in Reader Vote

  Barb Dybwad

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:20 pm

  We’ve been matching up popular web services, applications and mobile apps against each other in heated one-on-one battles here in our weekly Faceoff Series. Last week Microsoft Office bested Google Docs in a head to head race for the title of office suite champion. This week we turned our attention to a rather timely battle being waged on the mobile front, between Apple’s still wildly-selling iPhone platform and Google’s slower to boil Android mobile operating system. Apparently the latter has been gaining some ground, resulting in our first unexpected upset victory in the…

• Fido Factor Finds Dog-Friendly Places in Your City

  Ben Parr

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:31 pm

  This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. Name: Fido Factor Quick Pitch: Fido Factor is a dog-specific local search and review site and iPhone app built for dog owners. It’s a “Yelp for dogs.” Genius Idea: We dog owners love our canines: it’s really that simple. We raise them, feed them, play with them, sleep with them, and fall in love with them. We want to…

• Droid Does: A Price Drop

  Adam Ostrow

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:04 pm

  When it was released earlier this month, the retail price for the Motorola Droid was $200 for new activations on Verizon. Although Verizon is staying firm with that price point for now, it appears that some of its retailers are not. Specifically, Amazon and Dell have both cut prices on the smartphone to $150 and $120, respectively. The news comes just one day after news broke of price cuts by online retailers on other devices not named iPhone: the Palm Pre and Pixi. Of course, the device cost shouldn’t really play a huge role in consumer’s decision given the total costs of ownership for…

• 
  ReadWriteWeb

• Weekly Wrapup: Google Chrome OS, Obama's Twitter, Blogging Statistics, And More...

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am

  In this edition of the Weekly Wrapup - our newsletter summarizing the top stories of the week - we report on President Obama's (non)-use of Twitter, take a look at the past decade in the media industry, review the latest statistics about blogging, question if Oxford Dictionary should've chosen "unfriend" as its word of the year, and more. We also check in on our two main channels: ReadWriteEnterprise (devoted to 'enterprise 2.0' trends and products) and ReadWriteStart (dedicated to profiling startups and entrepreneurs). Sponsor Subscribe to Weekly Wrapup You can subscribe to the…

• 3 Great Light Blogging Tools Compared

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:35 pm

  Once the service for those serious enough to pay for the privilege to post, TypePad recently released a free "Micro" service. The company made the decision to offer a free product realizing the demand for a platform more formal than Twitter and less formal than Wordpress or Typepad's original product. ReadWriteWeb compared TypePad's Micro against 2 other leading light blogging tools. Below are our thoughts: Sponsor TypePad Micro: In addition to being able to blog via email, iPhone app, "Blog It" bookmarklet and the general WYSIWYG dashboard, this tool also allows users to cross post to…

• An iPhone Visualization App That Syncs with the Cloud

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:50 pm

  Roambi announced a pro version of its iPhone application this week that syncs with Salesforce.com and other cloud-based services or on-premsie sales environments. It's a visualization application, providing mobile workers with a pretty cool way to see sales information. Integration is by far one of the most significant trends we are seeing in the enterprise space. It's a wave, really, marked this week by Salesforce.com and its move to turn the Force.com development platform into a service that makes all of its applications social. Sponsor A good example of this trend are small companies like…

• 8tracks to Launch Playback API and Developer Program

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm

  It appears that the time for freemium music services in the US has passed. Earlier this week streaming music site Imeem sold to MySpace for under $10 million dollars while laying off a large number of staff. For a company with all four major record labels signed, more than 15 million uniques a month and well over 5 million tracks in its catalogue, it came as a sobering blow to the industry. While many companies move to a subscription model, 8tracks continues to forge along in what some describe as a convenient loophole. As of this weekend the company is publicly launching its API for Boston's…

• Memento: Protocol-Based Time Travel for the Web

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:45 am

  The Web constantly changes and evolves. That, of course, is what makes the Internet so exciting, but it also means that finding older versions of a website is hard. The current push towards the real-time web is making this problem even more apparent. Memento, a project based at Old Dominion University, wants to make it easier to access older versions of a web page without having to go to the Internet Archive. To do this, the project is using a relatively obscure feature of the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP). Sponsor The Memento project wants to give browsers a 'time-travel' mode.

• 
  TREND HUNTER - The Latest Trends

• Re-Naturalized Eco Furnishings - The Second Skin Chair by Lotte Van Laatum is a Return to Nature (GALLERY)

  21 Nov 2009 | 10:30 am

  (TrendHunter.com) Furniture rarely bares any resemblance to the raw material it came from. The Second Skin chair seeks to change that. Design studio Lotte Van Laatum first gathered second hand furniture for the oak required…

• Bottle Cap Tripods - Clever Camera Mount Ensures You Can Take a Photo Anywhere (GALLERY)

  21 Nov 2009 | 10:20 am

  (TrendHunter.com) There are a bunch of handy portable tripods out there these days, like the Gorillapod, now that everyone and their brother carries a digital camera with them on the go. But perhaps no tripod is more portable,…

• Water-Spitting Editorials - Chadwick Tyler Shoots 'Mathilde is Mad' for Russh Magazine Nov/Dec '09 (GALLERY)

  21 Nov 2009 | 10:10 am

  (TrendHunter.com) I love it when models look like they're having fun at an editorial shoot, and 'Mathilde is Mad' in Russh Magazine's November/December 2009 issue is a great example. Chadwick Tyler shoots Mathilde Frachon…

• Ski Resort Editorials - Arnaud Pyvka Captures Heather Marks as a 'Chalet Girl' in Marie Claire Italy (GALLERY)

  21 Nov 2009 | 10:00 am

  (TrendHunter.com) 'Chalet Girl' in Marie Claire Italy captures model Heather Marks as the matriarch of a ski resort. She's captured by photographer Arnaud Pyvka in red, white and blue as she goes about her daily duties,…

• 50 Curious Calendars - New and Unusual Ways to Mark the Passing of Time (CLUSTER)

  21 Nov 2009 | 9:50 am

  (TrendHunter.com) Outlook, iCal, and Google Calendar have had a devastating effect on the paper calendar industry. These curious calendars try to get around that fact, however, by offering innovative and interesting ways…

• 
  Jeffrey Zeldman Presents The Daily Report

• A Design Apart Q&A

  Jeffrey Zeldman

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:11 pm

  “Content informs design; design without content is decoration. Content has the same relationship to design that product has to advertising. Good ads are based on the product; good designs come from and facilitate the content. This is one reason we bring content strategy to every design assignment, and one reason we insist on working with real content, not lorem ipsum (placeholder) content. Nothing is sadder than a beautiful design that works great with lorem ipsum but doesn’t actually support the real content.” A Design Apart: Q&A with Jeffrey Zeldman | Sparksheet

• As we were

  Jeffrey Zeldman

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:11 pm

  Title images from the early years of A List Apart “for people who make websites” are now available for your viewing pleasure. Were we really ever that young? NAME THAT FONT! Here’s a nice rainy-day activity for ya. Visit the ALA historical header images collection on Flickr and name the fonts used in individual images. Short URL: zeldman.com/?p=3035

• FontShop Fonts on the Web

  Jeffrey Zeldman

  18 Nov 2009 | 1:08 pm

  FontShop announces that they are ready to deliver their font library as web type: [S]tarting today, Typekit users can pick from dozens of FontFonts, including FF Meta, FF Dax, and FF Netto. Plus, the Typekit service lets you test any of those FontFonts on your page before you publish. And tomorrow? Typekit is just one piece of a holistic strategy for FontFonts on the web. The library should be licensable in a more traditional way too. That’s where WOFF fits in. … Soon anyone will be able to license and download for their website the same professional quality FontFont they use in desktop…

• More Web Fonts

  Jeffrey Zeldman

  18 Nov 2009 | 4:46 am

  Ellen Lupton and Jeffrey Zeldman talk about web fonts, part 2. That is all. This has been a belated part of Web Type Day.

• Web Type: Lupton on Zeldman

  Jeffrey Zeldman

  17 Nov 2009 | 8:01 am

  Today in Print, Ellen Lupton interviews Jeffrey Zeldman (that’s me) on web typography, web standards, and more. Part one of a two-part interview. Ellen Lupton is curator of contemporary design at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City and director of the Graphic Design MFA program at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore. She is the author of numerous books and articles on design, a frequent lecturer, and an AIGA Gold Medalist. This has been a nutritious part of Web Type Day. Short URL: zeldman.com/?p=2932

• 
  information aesthetics

• Google Image Swirl: Visually Clustering Similar Images Together

  19 Nov 2009 | 3:37 am

  Google Image Swirl [googlelabs.com] is an experimental feature in Google Labs which is based on new computer vision research to cluster similar images into representative groups in a visual, exploratory interface. For example, for an "apple" query, images of the fruit appears next to many products or logos of Macintosh. Users can then click on any thumbnail and a cluster of images will "swirl" into view. Other examples include keywords like car or Eiffel tower. Via The Official Google Blog and Thnkx Andrew! See also Google Wonder Wheel, Google Similar Images, Google Fusion, Google Timeline…

• Marshall IDX: Comparing the Popularity of Words in the Media

  19 Nov 2009 | 3:12 am

  The web portal Marshall IDX [marshallindex.com] tracks the historical popularity of words used by several thousand media sources, from months to just down to seconds ago. It aims to go beyond counting search queries to bring more transparency and understanding of the impact of news, advertisement, trends, and terms to its users. The so-called "Marshall Index" is expressed by a number: 1 point represents 1 million individuals that got in touch with a particular term in a 24 hours time window. For example, if one searches for the word 'Olympics', the service will calculate an index based on how…

• Request for Help: Acquisition Security Related Policies & Issuances Chart

  17 Nov 2009 | 5:00 pm

  The graph Acquisition Security Related Policies & Issuances Chart (acq.osd.mil, PDF version) by the Office of the Director, Defence Research and Engineering is meant to increase the awareness of existing policies, in order to improve compliance, and to get policymakers to reflect about writing "one more policy" now that they are able to observe the huge existing "heap" they actually contribute to. The chart's designers are interested in your constructive feedback to make it better (and maybe help your country at the same time?). The chart organizes acquisition security policies and guidance…

• Tokyo versus Cairo: Comparing Obama's Foreign Policy Speeches

  17 Nov 2009 | 12:51 am

  Tokio | Cairo [blprnt.com] is a novel visual text comparison tool, which enables the discovery the similarities and differences between Obama's famous open address to the Muslim world, given in July at the University of Cairo, and his recent speech delivered at the Suntory Hall in Tokyo. Several keywords were shared, such as 'America', 'world', 'common', 'human', 'responsibility'. At the far extremes, the speech in Cairo was about 'Islam', about 'Palestinians', about 'peace', 'faith', and 'communities'. The Tokyo address was about 'China', 'North Korea', 'security', 'agreement' and 'growth'.

• Visualizar'09: Second Day of Seminars

  16 Nov 2009 | 7:12 pm

  Friday, November 14, was the 2nd day of seminar at Visualizar'09. See our previous post about its Kick-Off. Xavier Alonso presented data404, a collection of sources of public information. In the following talk, Jan-Christoph Zoels discussed on how data visualization can influence public behavior towards more sustainable attitudes. Jan presented several visualizations developed by Experientia within the context of the c_life project, which was the winner of the low2no design competition. He explained the importance of visualization in the process and in the final interface design of the…

• 
  Boxes and Arrows

• IDEA 2009 - Day 2

  19 Nov 2009 | 2:12 am

  IDEA2009 had the world’s foremost thinkers and practitioners converge on Toronto’s MaRS Convention Center to share the big ideas that inspire, along with practical solutions for the ways people’s lives and systems are converging to affect society. Listen and learn from experts in a variety of fields as we all continue the exploration of Social Experience Design. Subscribe to the Boxes and Arrows Podcast in iTunes or add this page to your Del.icio.us account: iTunes     Del.icio.us     IDEA Conference theme music generously provided by Bumper…

• Four Key Principles of Mobile User Experience Design

  19 Nov 2009 | 2:11 am

  Prior to becoming a senior UX designer at Popular Front Interactive, I spent two years as a mobile UX researcher within the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Mobile Technologies Group – a lab tasked with both future-casting and then rapidly prototyping innovative mobile experiences.As I transitioned from academia to industry, I discovered that while mobile UX was discussed, it wasn’t discussed from the same broad frame of reference that I was used to within the confines of a research-based institution. Although more recent mobile UX conversations I have found myself in have…

• IDEA 2009 - Day 1

  12 Nov 2009 | 11:59 pm

  IDEA2009 had the world’s foremost thinkers and practitioners converge on Toronto’s MaRS Convention Center to share the big ideas that inspire, along with practical solutions for the ways people’s lives and systems are converging to affect society. Listen and learn from experts in a variety of fields as we all continue the exploration of Social Experience Design. Subscribe to the Boxes and Arrows Podcast in iTunes or add this page to your Del.icio.us account: iTunes     Del.icio.us     IDEA Conference theme music generously provided by Bumper…

• What design researchers can learn from hostage negotiators

  12 Nov 2009 | 11:59 pm

  It’s 2 a.m., and a call comes across the radio that a young man with a gun has barricaded himself and his mother in his home. No shots have been fired, and little communication has been established between the man and police officers outside. The officers on the scene report that the young man has been struggling with the loss of his job and feels like there’s no reason to live. The crisis response team has been called, and hostage negotiators are en route. It’s the negotiator’s job to ensure that the young man does not harm himself or others during this crisis. What…

• Experience Themes

  6 Oct 2009 | 1:25 am

  There’s an old adage among screenwriters that when a writer can sum up a story in a sentence or less, he has discovered what’s important about the story. He’ll know what the story is about and therefore have a strong sense of theme. And in knowing the theme, he’ll have a compass to use in the process of “designing” the damn thing (i.e. what to keep, what to lose, what actually happens at the end). The story will be all the better for it because it all hangs together with a central idea that will give it greater impact and meaning. Now wouldn’t it be…

• 
  Cool Hunting

• Yatzer's Top Luxury Gifts

  Karen Day

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

  For many, gifts with a three-figure price tag make a generous offering, but this year Yatzer upped the ante with their guide of gifts for the ultimate in luxury and the pinnacle in price points. CH picked a few of the gifts that may just be worth saving up for—providing you have a very large piggie bank. Hasselblad's H4D medium format DSLR features a 60 Mpixel MF sensor and a new True Focus technology, an attribute built to provide outstanding focus throughout the entire image. The camera will be available January 2010 for €19,995 (pictured above left). Maison Takuya's wild…

• Tokyo Fixed Store

  CH Contributor

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:27 pm

  by Richard Prime Now beyond a trend, the track and fixed cycling community thrives through the hard work of those involved in its passionate and dedicated scene. The latest proof of its staying power and those working for it, two-year-old e-commerce site Tokyo Fixed Gear's shop opens 25 November 2009. The physical manifestation from the group who have long fulfilled the demand in the U.K. for rare imports from Japan including hard to source frames and components, as well as local designers like Cyclodelic drops the "gear" from their name and makes their expertise that much more accessible. A…

• Cool Hunting Survey 2009

  Josh Rubin

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:19 pm

  Keep Cool Hunting content top-notch and free by completing our short survey. It takes less time than watching the latest viral video and when we learn more about you, our readers, it helps better tailor advertising and improves our independently-published site. To thank you for your support, when you complete the survey you will also have the option to be one of the three winners of a Phaidon book of your choice.

• The Recently Deflowered Girl

  Maggie York-Worth

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:20 pm

  Edward Gorey's strange and twisted illustrations, often coupled with his similarly odd prose, illustrates this inimitable book of manners "The Recently Deflowered Girl." Written by Mel Juffe under the nom de plume Miss Hyacinthe Phypps, advice for the society girl offers "the right thing to say on every dubious occasion." Juffe, narrating with a humor so dry it resembles sandpaper, tells what to do when the marimba player, the spirit of Valentino or the Chinese detective deflower (and in other ways) act positively rakish. What happens when your affianced cannot make the wedding? "Deflowered…

• The Visual Miscellaneum Book

  Brian Fichtner

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:19 am

  For those drowning in the digital age's information glut, "Visual Miscellaneum," the new eye-popping book of infographics by London-based visual and data journalist David McCandless, makes the perfect antidote. Forget about pie charts, bar graphs, line graphs and histograms; the book showcases McCandless' dexterity when it comes to the infinite number of ways to represent data through engaging graphics these days. (Click all images below for an expanded view.) While some books open with a dedication to a loved one, an esteemed colleague or a revered legend, the author dedicates Visual…

• 
  Presentation Zen

• Using Kuler to create color themes

  Garr

  1 Nov 2009 | 5:21 am

  Although scores of good books on color theory have been written — many even for non-designers — most working professionals just do not have the time to delve deeply into a study of the complexities of using color. The good news is that there are online resources that can help you create harmonious color themes without requiring advance knowledge in color theory. There are a few really good online resources such as ColorSchemer and Colourlovers, but my personal favorite is Kuler. Kuler is a web-based color tool from Adobe that has thousands of community-generated color themes from which…

• Presentación Zen: Por fin! La versión en español ya está disponible

  Garr

  28 Oct 2009 | 10:04 pm

  I'm happy to announce that the Presentation Zen book is finally available in Spanish. The book follows the same design and layout as the original English version. Spanish was the most requested translation so we're delighted that it is finally on sale. I'm not sure exactly where you can get the book in your area, but here is info on the Pearson Educación website. Above: A photo of the front and back covers.The Presentation Zen DVD on Amazon and elsewhere also includes Spanish (and Japanese and English) subtitles. Thanks to everyone at Pearson for their hard work and to everyone across the…

• The art of control without controlling, doing without doing

  Garr

  26 Oct 2009 | 3:01 am

  As a leader — in business, education, or design — how much control do you need? How much can you give up? Is control even the right word? Is it possible to lead without leading? Here is a great TED talk that will get you thinking that has applications for leaders of all types. Former conductor Itay Talgam today runs workshops to help people develop a musician's sense of collaboration, and a conductor's sense of leadership. In this excellent talk at TED Oxford, Itay touches on the art of creating perfect harmony without saying a word by showing the unique styles of six great 20th-century…

• Tokonoma and the art of the focal point

  Garr

  20 Oct 2009 | 7:14 am

  Every good design needs a focal point. This goes for the design of interior living spaces as well. In many Western homes, the mantel place in the living room is often a focal point from which other interior design elements are added in a more or less symmetrical fashion. In traditional Japanese homes or modern homes containing a washitsu (Japanese-style room) it is the Tokonoma (床の間) that serves as the subtle focal point for the interior. The tokonoma (lit: floor/bed + space) is a raised alcove in which Japanese art such as a hanging scroll (Kakemono) or a flower arrangement is…

• Sumi-e, color, and the art of less

  Garr

  5 Oct 2009 | 11:00 pm

  A fundamental design and life lesson from the Zen arts is to never use more when less will do. This goes for the use of color as well. The problem with most slide presentations is not that visuals contain too few colors, it's that they contain too many. A common practice is to use several different vivid hues (colors) in presentation slides when even a single hue in various shades or tints would have been more effective. The ancient art of Japanese brush painting called Sumi-e (墨絵) provides a powerful lesson concerning the use of color, communication, and restraints. Sumi-e was brought to…

• 
  information aesthetics

• Google Image Swirl: Visually Clustering Similar Images Together

  19 Nov 2009 | 3:37 am

  Google Image Swirl [googlelabs.com] is an experimental feature in Google Labs which is based on new computer vision research to cluster similar images into representative groups in a visual, exploratory interface. For example, for an "apple" query, images of the fruit appears next to many products or logos of Macintosh. Users can then click on any thumbnail and a cluster of images will "swirl" into view. Other examples include keywords like car or Eiffel tower. Via The Official Google Blog and Thnkx Andrew! See also Google Wonder Wheel, Google Similar Images, Google Fusion, Google Timeline…

• Marshall IDX: Comparing the Popularity of Words in the Media

  19 Nov 2009 | 3:12 am

  The web portal Marshall IDX [marshallindex.com] tracks the historical popularity of words used by several thousand media sources, from months to just down to seconds ago. It aims to go beyond counting search queries to bring more transparency and understanding of the impact of news, advertisement, trends, and terms to its users. The so-called "Marshall Index" is expressed by a number: 1 point represents 1 million individuals that got in touch with a particular term in a 24 hours time window. For example, if one searches for the word 'Olympics', the service will calculate an index based on how…

• Request for Help: Acquisition Security Related Policies & Issuances Chart

  17 Nov 2009 | 5:00 pm

  The graph Acquisition Security Related Policies & Issuances Chart (acq.osd.mil, PDF version) by the Office of the Director, Defence Research and Engineering is meant to increase the awareness of existing policies, in order to improve compliance, and to get policymakers to reflect about writing "one more policy" now that they are able to observe the huge existing "heap" they actually contribute to. The chart's designers are interested in your constructive feedback to make it better (and maybe help your country at the same time?). The chart organizes acquisition security policies and guidance…

• Tokyo versus Cairo: Comparing Obama's Foreign Policy Speeches

  17 Nov 2009 | 12:51 am

  Tokio | Cairo [blprnt.com] is a novel visual text comparison tool, which enables the discovery the similarities and differences between Obama's famous open address to the Muslim world, given in July at the University of Cairo, and his recent speech delivered at the Suntory Hall in Tokyo. Several keywords were shared, such as 'America', 'world', 'common', 'human', 'responsibility'. At the far extremes, the speech in Cairo was about 'Islam', about 'Palestinians', about 'peace', 'faith', and 'communities'. The Tokyo address was about 'China', 'North Korea', 'security', 'agreement' and 'growth'.

• Visualizar'09: Second Day of Seminars

  16 Nov 2009 | 7:12 pm

  Friday, November 14, was the 2nd day of seminar at Visualizar'09. See our previous post about its Kick-Off. Xavier Alonso presented data404, a collection of sources of public information. In the following talk, Jan-Christoph Zoels discussed on how data visualization can influence public behavior towards more sustainable attitudes. Jan presented several visualizations developed by Experientia within the context of the c_life project, which was the winner of the low2no design competition. He explained the importance of visualization in the process and in the final interface design of the…

• 
  visualcomplexity.com

• SourceMap

  SourceMap is a outstanding venture sponsored by different groups within the MIT. As they state on the site: "When you invite people to an event, buy the ingredients for a recipe, or design the parts of a product, your choices have a significant impact. Some things have vast supply chains that stretch across the world while others are completely regional. Understanding the reach of our sourcing is fundamental to improving economic, social and environmental conditions."Sourcemap is a tool for producers, business owners and consumers to understand the impact of supply chains. The site is a…

• Mo Money Mo Problems

  The images shown here were generated by evaluating and interpreting the 1997 music video "Mo Money Mo Problems" from the first disc of the Notorious B.I.G. album, Life After Death. The algorithm detects edges in the image and attempts to trace motion from frame to frame, using the initial frame as their starting point. The output is rendered as a vector image, the curves represent the motion. The points represent the pixels detected in the edge, their size determined by the distance from their previous location, the further, the larger the circle. The color and location of the points are…

• del.icio.us visualization

  In a paper entitled "Visualizing Social Bookmarks", Joris Klerkx and Erik Duval describe how it's often hard in most social bookmarking tools to discover implicit structures between tags, users and bookmarks. This is mostly due to the flat nature of tags, and an intrinsic trait of folksonomy in opposition to traditional hierarchical structures.In an effort to solve this problem, the authors designed a system that "attempts to visualize these structures, so that end users can explore the social bookmarks in a playful, efficient and flexible way." In this work, a cluster map visualization…

• Visualization of Vessel Movements

  On September 18th, 2009, New Scientist posted some striking images from the Eurographics Symposium, held in Berlin, which brought together researchers across the globe with new ideas on mapping a diversity of phenomena, from the dive profile of penguins to signature recognition systems.The one that caught my attention was the visualization of vessel movements, by Niels Willems, Huub van de Wetering, and Jarke J. van Wijk. "The sea seems an open playground, but regulations hold, and furthermore, safety (collision prevention) and security (thread prevention) need to be ensured. Operators…

• OneDotZero Identity

  OneDotZero is an international moving image festival, showcasing a variety of work from innovators across the globe. For this year's festival in London, September 9-13, Wieden+Kennedy UK, together with generative artist Karsten Schmidt, were responsible for all the identity and branding efforts. For this purpose, Schmidt authored a generative engine for producing a series of randomized visual systems, which were recorded for use in the trailer and festival posters. The results were astounding.From the OneDotZero website: "The heart of onedotzero's festival ethos of 'convergence and…

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  FlowingData

• Buzzwords in Academic Papers (Comic)

  Nathan

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:45 am

  This comic was really amusing, although it might be because I'm a big nerd entertained by all things from PHD Comics... It's my blog, and I can laugh if I want to. Have a nice weekend, everyone. [Thanks, Stephen]

• Thank You, FlowingData Sponsors

  Nathan

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:20 am

  Thank you to the FlowingData sponsors for keeping the servers alive. Without them, this blog would not be possible, and I wouldn't be able to do what I do. Check out what they have to offer. They make your data useful: Xcelsius Present — Transform spreadsheets into professional, interactive presentations. NetCharts — Build business dashboards that turn data into actionable information with dynamic charts and graphs. InstantAtlas — Enables information analysts to create interactive maps to improve data visualization and enhance communication. Tableau Software — Data exploration and…

• Choose Your Own Adventure – Watch the Stories Unfold (UPDATED)

  Nathan

  18 Nov 2009 | 11:10 pm

  Interaction designer Christian Swinehart takes a careful look at the popular Choose Your Own Adventure books from the 1980s. We saw something like this before, but Swinehart takes it a step further. For those unfamiliar, these CYOA books let you make the protagonists' main decisions, and your choices would have an impact on the outcome of the adventure. Some endings were bad and some were good. With this in mind, Swineheart begins by color-coding pages. Either it's a decision page or one of five possible types of endings: great (you win), favorable, mediocre, disappointing, and catastrophic.

• The Future: Embedding Data in the Everyday

  Nathan

  17 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm

  Imagine a world where data becomes the everyday, simply embedded in what you normally do. It's really not far off if you think about it. We use charts, graphs, and viz to make important decisions with investments, businesses, and to stay informed on the news, so why not use it in our own lives? This infographic video, The Ambient Life, is a vision of that future by Freeband Communication and IIPIC. Watch for the dramatic twist in the middle. Just when you thought it was safe to go for a jog... We've seen this type of projected future before (see here, here, and here). Still though, I never…

• Visualize This: Class Size and Quality of Education. Your Turn

  Nathan

  16 Nov 2009 | 11:48 pm

  Photo by Night Owl City Last week I posted some parallel coordinate plots that related SAT scores and class size. Now it's your turn to take a crack. You can find the data that I used (and more) from the National Center of Education Statistics. There's a link to download the data as an Excel file. You can find pupil/teacher ratios here. The two best entries each win a copy of David McCandless' The Visual Miscellaneum: A Colorful Guide to the World's Most Consequential Trivia as well as eternal glory on FlowingData. Yes. Eternal. Different Views and Other Factors There were a lot of great…

• 
  Subtraction.com

• Font Hunt

  desk@subtraction.com

  18 Nov 2009 | 3:26 pm

  Giving back to Twitter department: earlier in the month I asked people who follow me on Twitter for recommendations for new typefaces. What I was looking for was an alternative to the typeface Klavika, which I quite like; it’s among the very best fonts that have been released in the recent past, in my opinion. Inconveniently for me, I somewhat subjectively regard Klavika as having been ‘claimed’ by a friend of mine who uses it more consistently and more effectively than I do. So I wanted something of my own, something similarly contemporary and similarly strong in…

• The Pencil Factory Has ”Fifteen Uses for Newsprint”

  desk@subtraction.com

  18 Nov 2009 | 2:07 pm

  Fifteen Brooklyn illustrators reminds us of various other useful applications for newsprint. On sale for US$10.

• Introducing Basic Maths, a Theme for WordPress

  desk@subtraction.com

  14 Nov 2009 | 7:58 am

  Things that have been keeping me from blogging: raising a brand new baby, having grown-up time with my girlfriend, walking my dog, holding down a day job and, now finally revealed: working on Basic Maths, a brand new theme for WordPress that I designed with my friend Allan Cole. After months of plugging away at in during whatever free time we’ve been able to find, we’re finally releasing it into the wild today, to coincide with WordCampNYC 2009. (In fact, I’m heading over to that conference later today, and Allan will be speaking there early this afternoon, so if…

• Watching Yankees Spending

  desk@subtraction.com

  8 Nov 2009 | 8:21 pm

  Last Wednesday The New York Yankees beat the Philadelphia Phillies to win their twenty-seventh World Series. After a nine year title drought, the victory predictably thrilled Yankees fans like myself while also re-igniting the old complaint that the franchise is a bully in the baseball market, that the team uses an obscenely resourceful payroll to effectively and unfairly buy championships. Actually, the pilot light for that particular criticism never goes out, whether the team has won or lost its most recent bid for the World Series (or even when they make no post-season appearance at…

• Hey Oscar Wilde, It’s Clobberin’ Time!

  desk@subtraction.com

  6 Nov 2009 | 1:44 pm

  Various comics artists interpret their favorite literary figure/author/character. Pretty entertaining.

• 
  A List Apart

• On Web Typography

  17 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am

  Until now, chances are that if we dropped text onto a web page in a system font at a reasonable size, it was legible. But with many typefaces about to be freed for use on websites, choosing the right ones to complement a site's design will be far more challenging. Many faces to which we’ll soon have access were never meant for screen use, either because they’re aesthetically unsuitable or because they’re just plain illegible. Jason Santa Maria, a force behind improved type on the web, presents qualities and methods to keep in mind as we venture into the widening world of web type.

• Real Web Type in Real Web Context

  17 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am

  Web fonts are here. Now that browsers support real fonts in web pages and we can license complete typefaces for such use, it's time to think pragmatically about how to use real fonts in our web projects. Above all, we need to know how our type renders in screens, in web browsers. To that end, Tim Brown has created Web Font Specimen, a handy, free resource web designers and type designers can use to see how typefaces will look on the web.

• Can You Say That in English? Explaining UX Research to Clients

  3 Nov 2009 | 1:00 am

  It's hard for clients to understand the true value of user experience research. As much as you'd like to tell your clients to go read The Elements of User Experience and call you back when they’re done, that won’t cut it in a professional services environment. David Sherwin creates a cheat sheet to help you pitch UX research using plain, client-friendly language that focuses on the business value of each exercise.

• You Can Get There From Here: Websites for Learners

  3 Nov 2009 | 1:00 am

  "Content-rich" is not enough. Most websites are not learner-friendly. As an industry, we haven’t done our best to make our content-rich websites suitable for learning and exploration. Learners require more from us than keywords and killer headlines. They need an environment that is narrative, interactive, and discoverable. Amber Simmons tells how to begin creating rich content sites that invite and repay exploration and discovery.

• Getting to No

  20 Oct 2009 | 3:00 am

  A bad client relationship is like a bad marriage without the benefits. To avoid such relationships, or to fix the one you’re in, learn the five classic signs of trouble. Recognizing the never-ending contract revisionist, the giant project team, the vanishing boss and other warning signs can help you run successful, angst-free projects.

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  UXmatters

• First, Do No Harm

  pabini@uxmatters.com

  15 Nov 2009 | 11:51 pm

  By Pabini Gabriel-Petit Published: November 16, 2009 In my column, On Good Behavior, I’ll explore the essentials of good interaction design. This first column provides a brief introduction to interaction design—defining the scope this column will cover—then explores some key design principles. What is interaction design? Here’s the definition I wrote for the UXmatters Glossary: “Good interaction design facilitates people’s tasks and ensures that digital products are both learnable and usable by reducing complexity as much as possible….” “Interaction design defines workflows…

• Your Participation in the 2009 UXmatters Reader Survey

  pabini@uxmatters.com

  15 Nov 2009 | 11:50 pm

  By Pabini Gabriel-Petit, Publisher & Editor in Chief Published: November 16, 2009 To take the survey, please click this link now: 2009 UXmatters Reader Survey To all UXmatters readers who have already participated in our fourth annual UXmatters Reader Survey, thank you! We really appreciate your sharing your thoughts with us. So far, 79 people have participated in the survey. We’d really like to hear from more of you, so our editorial staff can better understand and serve your needs. Please take this opportunity to participate in the 2009 UXmatters Reader Survey while you still have…

• I Have an Idea! Forums for Design Conversations and Negotiations

  pabini@uxmatters.com

  15 Nov 2009 | 11:49 pm

  By Traci Lepore Published: November 16, 2009 “Working together in a group to produce a creative outcome is difficult—don’t let anyone tell you it’s not.” Working together in a group to produce a creative outcome is difficult—don’t let anyone tell you it’s not. Let me share a memory with you—from my Performance Theatre and Community class. There I was with one other person, trying to get our group improvisational piece started—a performance that would serve as our final for the class. It was not going well. We were standing there, looking at each other a little…

• Visual Methods of Communicating Structure, Relationship, and Flow

  pabini@uxmatters.com

  15 Nov 2009 | 11:49 pm

  By Mike Hughes Published: November 16, 2009 “Many of us are more comfortable communicating in words than in pictures.” Many of us are more comfortable communicating in words than in pictures. For example, user assistance writers are by nature and training writers, so they understand words and are adept at using word processing and publishing tools. Writers use lexicentric tools not only for creating and delivering content, but also as cognitive tools—that is, tools that help them think more clearly and efficiently. Thus, a user assistance writer might create a user-task matrix or take…

• Usability Testing on a Budget

  pabini@uxmatters.com

  15 Nov 2009 | 11:49 pm

  By Janet M. Six Published: November 16, 2009 Send your questions to Ask UXmatters and get answers from some of the top professionals in UX. In this Ask UXmatters column—which is the second in a three-part series of columns focusing on usability—our experts discuss how to conduct usability testing with limited funding. To read Part I of this series, see “Usability Testing Versus Expert Reviews.” Next month’s column will cover what usability techniques you should use when time is tight and how to best conduct remote usability testing. For answers to your questions about user…

• 
  we make money not art

• Shelter of the day

  Sascha Pohflepp

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:42 am

  Part of Thomas Demand's show Nationalgalerie, Haltestelle is a large-scale photograph of a paper model resembling a nondescript rural German bus shelter, which happens to be the place just outside of Magdeburg where a teen pop band were waiting for their school bus every morning. continue

• Feedforward. The Angel of History. Part 1: Wreckage and countermeasures

  Regine

  17 Nov 2009 | 6:48 am

  The exhibition addresses the current moment in history where the wreckage of political conflict and economic inequality is piling up, while globalized forces--largely enabled by the "progress" of digital information technologies--inexorably feed us forward continue

• Book Review - Art and Electronic Media

  Regine

  15 Nov 2009 | 1:10 am

  A comprehensive, timely international survey that addresses the relationship between art and electronic technology, this volume explores the presence and meanings of mechanics, light, graphics, robots, virtual reality and the Web in the art and visual culture of the last hundred years. It also considers the reaction, development and future of artistic practice in the face of new technology continue

• Mark Amerika retrospective at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens

  Regine

  13 Nov 2009 | 4:43 am

  Developing projects on the net, filming with mobile phones, remixing common moments and figures of today`s culture in an VJ-like audiovisual rhythm, Amerika redifines the characteristics of today's culture and opens up the possibilities for new interpretations and thoughts from the audience itself continue

• Venice Biennale: Juan Burgos at the pavilion of Uruguay

  Regine

  10 Nov 2009 | 11:22 pm

  Burgos expands urban apocalyptic visions which proliferate in daily life. His starting point is a children's storybook, from which he constructs a delirious collage. Anything is possible in his productions. With amazing dexterity he cuts, pastes, digitally photocopies and photocopies again, the result of which he fits into a fascinating stage design. Within these metaphors, there are, mingled with a large cast of characters, iconic elements of national images continue

• 
  Newsgrist

• "L'Affaire Joannou": Art Critics Get Down!

  joy garnett

  17 Nov 2009 | 8:50 am

  Sharon Butler reports, while offering a thorough linky roundup of what Artnet has branded "L'Affaire Joannou". via Two Coats of Paint, Tuesday, November 17, 2009: Critic on critic: Jerry Saltz tells DC blogger to get a grip In a Vulture post about the New Museum's questionable curatorial practices, Saltz assesses the quality of the vociferous debate and courageously suggests that prickly blogger Tyler Green's criticism has crossed the line. "One of the main things that suggested all this indignation had gone too far was the witch-hunt tone of an editorial in the November issue of  Art…

• Upping the Socially Networked Museum: Whitney.org Redesign

  joy garnett

  17 Nov 2009 | 7:43 am

  "To the museum’s credit, the sensibility of openness that leads to the collection concept works on both sides of the site database – content is added and edited using a distributed, wiki-style content management system (CMS) unique to Linked by Air, the design firm responsible for the new Whitney site. [...That ] part of the goal of the new site [... is to allow] a broad range of museum employees to contribute directly to it assures currency, accuracy – and staff ownership."Philip Bump offers some insight and analysis.via MEDIAite:The Whitney’s Re-Design: Web Done (Nearly) Rightby…

• Closings (Soho) 169

  joy garnett

  15 Nov 2009 | 11:04 am

  Closings (Soho) 169, originally uploaded by Joy Garnett (archive).

• Found Art (Chelsea): Unmonumental 206

  joy garnett

  15 Nov 2009 | 6:25 am

  Found Art (Chelsea): Unmonumental 206, originally uploaded by Joy Garnett (archive).

• Found Art (Chelsea): Unmonumental 205

  joy garnett

  15 Nov 2009 | 6:24 am

  Found Art (Chelsea): Unmonumental 205, originally uploaded by Joy Garnett (archive).

• 
  FFFFOUND! / EVERYONE

• red and valentine by *kidchan on deviantART

  21 Nov 2009 | 10:33 am

  via http://kidchan.deviantart.com/art/red-and-valentine-77098022

• Audrey Hepburn by ~zhuzhu on deviantART

  21 Nov 2009 | 10:32 am

  via http://zhuzhu.deviantart.com/art/Audrey-Hepburn-51260209

• 36131_1.jpg (JPEG Image, 468×655 pixels)

  21 Nov 2009 | 10:07 am

  via http://www.blackbirdballard.com/Valobra_Balsamo_Soap_11584.html

• birds of pray

  21 Nov 2009 | 9:58 am

  via http://birdsofpray.tumblr.com/page/2

• malibu_motel_pool_&_cabana_club_atlantic_city_NJ on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

  21 Nov 2009 | 8:59 am

  via http://www.flickr.com/photos/actionlog/4091576599/in/pool-19732789@N00

• 
  Powered by Glasstire

• Art Crawl Houston

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:34 am

  The17th annual Houston Warehouse Art Crawl (http://www.artcrawlhouston.com) may have been compressed into one day, but what a day! On...

• Jingle Bash shopping event Dallas

  18 Nov 2009 | 8:45 pm

  Who knwew? Shopping for locally hand-made items and supporting an indie, eco-friendly lifestyle is a thriving business! Etsy/Dallas' second...

• Philip Van Keuren

  16 Nov 2009 | 2:30 am

  Philip Van Keuren has mounted a fantastic show of his work on paper from the past forty years (at the...

• Stuff I love about EAST

  13 Nov 2009 | 6:39 am

  Yes, folks, welcome to the sixth iteration of the East Austin Studio Tour (http://www.eastaustinstudiotour.com), the uniquely Austin annual democratic...

• The Joanna

  12 Nov 2009 | 11:31 am

  The Joanna Resort Hotel and Gallery DISCLAIIMER: I have not nor will I ever accept any gifts from the staff...

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  FECAL FACE

• Free Fridayz: Fashion Victims

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:42 am

  You've seen them. You've been them. Can't avoid them. Smell them. Be them.

• Video: Jeremy Fish Studio Visit

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:37 am

  A quick little video interview filmed before his show opened Nov 8th at the Laguna Art Museum.

• Hiro Kurata Interview

  12 Nov 2009 | 3:17 am

  29 yr. old Brooklyn based artist preparing for a February show at Joshua Liner in NYC.

• Christian Herr - Mini Interview

  11 Nov 2009 | 6:13 am

  Flat bike tires in far away places, quarters that don't work in vending machines

• Jeff Soto: Melbourne Part II

  5 Nov 2009 | 6:50 am

  Jeff blogs the 2nd half of his trip to Melbourne to speak at this year's Semi-Permanent.

• 
  Sprayblog

• 404 Beach Video

  404 Beach from carsonting on Vimeo. 404 Beach is a collaborative stop-motion animation piece of a wall mural done by Mike Nowland of Company Policy, Carson Ting of Chairman Ting Industries and Tom Pettapiece. The entire music track was composed and recorded specifically for 404 Beach by Tom Pettapiece.

• Weisberg and Kirkpatrick at Hatch Gallery

  Derek Weisberg and James Kirkpatrick are have a show together called Mine Us One at the Hatch Gallery this month. It is a combination of paintings, wall sculptures and large scale architectural sculptures and installation. There is just over a week left in the show so check it out... Spraygraphic ...

• Virtual Wall Crosswalk

  The Virtual Wall conceived by Hanyoung Lee is designed to heighten driver and pedestrian awareness and to encourage both to follow crosswalk rules. The virtual wall which is made of plasma laser beams, shows virtual pedestrians jaywalking and ignoring traffic rules of pedestrian safety. via cube me

• Star Trek Paintings by Luke Butler

  Luke Butler’s series of Star Trek Enterprise paintings at the Silverman Gallery via boooooom

• Boey Cups

  Time lapse coffee cup sketch by boey. More cups, here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/13895571

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  Modern Art Obsession

• MAO Art Buy of the Month.. by Catherine Opie only $650 !!

  MAO - Modern Art Obsession

  1 Nov 2009 | 11:19 pm

  OK.. this one if going to sellout very quickly. So act now.. or it will be gone. This is a photograph by a MAO favorite artist... Catherine Opie. You probably saw Catherine Opie's huge blockbuster solo show at the Guggenheim Museum last year, or bought her amazing photobook.. Catherine Opie American Photographer. Anyway.. Catherine Opie is possibly one of the most important American photographers of her generation, MAO frequently thinks of her as the Walker Evans of the 21st Century. No matter if you love her work or not.. every viewer MAO knows will certainly have something to say once…

• Diane Arbus Photo Up for Auction at the Aperture Benefit!!

  MAO - Modern Art Obsession

  29 Oct 2009 | 10:50 am

  Diane Arbus Photo Up for Auction at the Aperture Benefit!! Check it out here... Yes.. so far this rare Diane Arbus photo has a current bid of only $1,750. Welcome to the Art Recession...That's too low to be believed!! So..one of the most important photographers in history has a photo for sale at Monday's Aperture Benefit auction. Can you ask for a better opportunity to add something amazing to your art collection? This is one of her very standard 14.25 in x 14.25 in, Gelatin Silver Prints made by photographer Neil Selkirk for the Arbus Estate. We've seen similar…

• The Aperture Foundation Benefit and Art Auction is Coming!

  MAO - Modern Art Obsession

  26 Oct 2009 | 9:11 pm

  The Aperture Foundation Benefit and Auction is Coming! YES my little MAO-ettes.. one of the best art charities around is having their annual fund raising party. As every devoted MAO reader knows.. we can't do enough to support this charity. Tickets are still available..for both the Auction, and the Dinner.Here are the details... Aperture Foundation Benefit & Auction - Honoring Joel Meyerowitz, Howard Greenberg, and Susana Torruella LevalAuction Featuring works by Diane Arbus, Bruce Davidson, Atta Kim, Malick Sidibé, and moreMONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2009The Lighthouse, Chelsea…

• Edward Burtynsky Photos.. Defied Recession Gravity

  MAO - Modern Art Obsession

  23 Oct 2009 | 7:45 am

  Edward Burtynsky Photos.. Defied Recession Gravity. For those long time MAO readers.. it will come to no surprise that MAO is an avid fan of Canadian Photographer Edward Burtynsky. Yes.. we know.. Edward's work is big, colorful, over-hyped, straightforward, expensive, often pretty, very "corporate", safe, etc.. just about everything most fine art photography scholars and contemporary art snobs love to poke fun of.. but yes.. MAO loves his images. But.. here's a little secret.. The auction world LOVES Burtynsky Too!! So while photo auction results have been…

• For Those Interested in Emerging Photographers... Here's the show for You!

  MAO - Modern Art Obsession

  19 Oct 2009 | 11:17 am

  Emerging Photographer Show at the Randall Scott Gallery opens on Thursday. This is one not to miss. The show is curated by Art Blogger, Photolucida Juror, and totally crazed obsessed avid photo collector.. Ruben Natal-San Miguel... aka ArtMostFierce. Ruben has scoured the earth to share with us, his newest, hot, amazing photo art discoveries. So for those art collectors interested in the bleeding edge, inexpensive cutting edge of Art Photography and to find out  who's going to be hot in 3 to 5 years.. you have to see this show. We're sure…

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  Uncrate

• Victorinox Recycled Ripstop Down Vest

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:15 pm

  Keep yourself warm and your conscience clear with the Victorinox Recycled Ripstop Down Vest ($200). Made with a shiny recycled polyester outer, down fill, and nylon lining, this close-fitting quilted...Visit Uncrate for the full post.

• Pop-Up Flea

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:09 pm

  Get handsome with new and used goods at this weekend's Pop-Up Flea in NYC. On hand will be specials from the likes of Billykirk, Alexander West, Gitman Brothers, Rogues Gallery,...Visit Uncrate for the full post.

• Nespresso CitiZ

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:24 am

  Grown tired of the lines at your local Starbucks, or simply tired of paying for it? Check out the Nespresso CitiZ ($350). For the cost of around 100 coffee shop...Visit Uncrate for the full post.

• Star Trek

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:11 am

  Leave it to LOST and Alias mastermind J.J. Abrams to reboot one of sci-fi's most beloved franchises without too much bitching from the diehard Trekkies. Star Trek ($13-$20) was easily...Visit Uncrate for the full post.

• Under Armour Key Pocket ColdGear Gloves

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:48 am

  Made from nylon, polyester, and spandex, the wind- and waterproof Under Armour Key Pocket ColdGear Gloves ($35) are ready to keep your hands warm and your small valuables secure. They...Visit Uncrate for the full post.