PicoCool

We Make Money Not Art has a good interview with Riitta Ikonen, a new graduate from the Royal College of Art in London. ”My work is concerned with the performance of images, through photography and costume design. Certain items, usually small and insignificant, excite me to the point where I have to wear them and then document that process. The super- garments I make open up new experiences. In my costumes tremendous things happen - to me and to the people I work with.”

Network: blogs

Burning Man, “an annual art event and temporary community based on radical self expression and self-reliance,” is about to take place again this year in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. In the meantime, John Curley is already out in the desert capturing the moments, people and atmosphere before it all begins.

Network: flickr

Damien Weighill, an illustrator from London, would like to draw your face. From the site: “Real people don’t read your blog. A fact that I wasn’t made aware of when I signed up for these things; It now seems so obvious. If you are reading this and you do happen to be a real person then why not send me a photo (one which includes your real face) and I will draw a picture of you and post it here to serve as everlasting proof that sometimes facts are wrong.” I’m looking for a photo to send him now!

Network: blogs

”hopeREVO began one evening when I decided to hide encouraging notes around New York City. This simple act inspired other people who heard about it to do the same in their cities. Days later, my inbox was flooded with messages from people spreading hope in their communities, after reading about it on my blog, and as it propagated through the Internet on other blogs. So, I decided to develop this website to start a hope revolution.”

Network: twitter

Photo of a woman aircraft worker by David Bransby, June 1942

Today Flickr launches The Commons, starting with a pilot program with The Library of Congress. According to The Library of Congress blog, “out of some 14 million prints, photographs and other visual materials at the Library of Congress, more than 3,000 photos from two of our most popular collections are being made available on our new Flickr page, to include only images for which no copyright restrictions are known to exist. The real magic comes when the power of the Flickr community takes over. We want people to tag, comment and make notes on the images, just like any other Flickr photo, which will benefit not only the community but also the collections themselves.” The hope is that this “is a model that other cultural institutions would pick up, to share and redistribute the myriad collections held by cultural heritage institutions all over the world.” Read Flickr’s blog post.

Network: flickr

Photo series are always compelling, but this one by graphic designer, Ahn Sang-Soo, really caught my attention.  Simply titled ”one.eye” and posted to a blog category, the series has over 2,000 photos taken by Ahn Sang-Soo of designers, poets, professors, colleagues, students, artists, families, government officials, friends, kids and many more. In every photo, the subject(s) cover one eye, either with a hand or an object.  I love the ones of people in their work environments, or those in pairs, where both people are clearly from the same industry or grooving on the same aesthetic.  Visit the site to see all 2,000+ the photos.

Network: blogs