rtnt:

BAD ART

Writing for ARTnews, Richard B. Woodward looks at the popularity of “bad” art and the complicated, contradictory notion of taste.

Cattelan, like Hirst, has hit on a formula that forecloses on the possibility of an audience’s feeling insulted. Only a tiny number of Catholics took umbrage at La Nona Ora, Cattelan’s 1999 sculpture of Pope John Paul II struck by a meteor, and even they weren’t sure why they should be offended. When the piece sold at auction in 2004 for $3 million, Cattelan’s act of smirking impiety was confirmed as a high-priced collectible. As Peter Schjeldahl wrote in the New Yorker, Cattelan’s career “reveals, or even fortifies, the fact that self-parody has become the life-support system of international art infrastructures. Make people feel smart, and they will put up with anything. The mindset cannot be outflanked or overturned, because it routinely performs those operations on itself.

Bad taste often passes for avant-garde taste these days—so long as the artist signals “transgressive” intent. And whereas kitsch in art was once to be assiduously disdained, art that traffics in sentimentality and bathos behind a dancing veil of ironic laughter has become highly prized. Jeff Koons, John Currin, Lisa Yuskavage, Richard Prince, and Takashi Murakami are just a few of those who have learned that coy subversion can be popular and lucrative. As long as everyone is in on the joke that the art is satirizing its own historical codes of representation, there is nothing to be upset about.

Read the full article here.

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wratshit:

Wild Things of Horai

itsokayeverythingsalright:

Hello!

These are 1/8” laser cut acrylic , hand-dyed digicrest :)
So after months of people asking and messaging me, YUP I’M FINALLY SELLING THESE BABIES.
But I’m also going to do a free giveaway of all 9 crests! (Courage, Friendship, Love, Intelligence, Reliability, Serenity, Hope, Light and Kindness)

• Reblog for your chance to win
• On May 10th I’m going to use a random number generator to pick the winner.
• Make sure your ask box is open that day so I can message you
• If it isn’t I’m just gonna pick another winner.
• Don’t need to be following me, reblogging multiple times will only really annoy your follows, but I guess it’s valid…

I asked around a while ago if people were interested in these and I had pretty enthusiastic responses. But this giveaway is mainly for the people who can’t afford them, I felt so bad when people kept messaging me and asking for them for free or saying how they would definitely buy them if they had money. So here’s my solution, A FREE GIVE AWAY :)
So if you can afford them please let other people who can’t, have a chance at winning these. If you want to buy them:

• Set of 9 crests = $40
• Individual crests= $6
• Free shipping to Canada/US, $3 international
• First come first serve, paypal required
• If you want to order a full set, I suggest you do it asap because I can only make 3 full sets

I won’t be able to make another batch of these until September, and that’s if I decide to make more. We’ll see.
So if you’re interested in purchasing, email me your order at digicrestsbylily@gmail.com. FIRST COME FIRST SERVE. I will email you back to confirm your order or telling you I don’t have what you want.
Or if anyone knows where I can do cheap laser cuts in Toronto, let me know via email
Inbox/email me if you have any questions.
Good luck guys : )

My current stock is

• Crest of Courage = 3
• Crest of Friendship = 6
• Crest of Love = 5
• Crest of Reliability = 5
• Crest of Intelligence = 3
• Crest of Serenity = 5
• Crest of Hope = 4
• Crest of Light = 5
• Crest of Kindness = 4

^THIS COULD BE YOU WITH FAT PALMON.

GIVE AWAY ENDS MAY 10TH.
May the odds be ever in your favour

(via mightier)

jlpicard1701e:

Awesome Zelda art!

(via rockstarninja)

cheesepopsicle:

cheesepopsicle:

Nintendo | by Tiffany Liao

Tumblr | deviantART

(via rockstarninja)

(Source: topit.me, via itsushi)

(via wakeupboo)

(via wakeupboo)

rtnt:

The Ethics of Genetics

Writing for Walrus Magazine, Mike Czarnecki explores the advancing field of human genetics and the difficult ethical questions that we must confront in a world where we will be able to manipulate individual traits:

Still, reproductive technologies such as PGD have revived the possibility of “good” eugenics: Julian Savulescu, a neuroethicist at the University of Oxford, evangelizes for it at every opportunity, most recently in an iPad app. In his view, once a technology like PGD becomes available to all, parents and health care providers will have a moral obligation to create children with the best genes possible.

The enhancement debate highlights the fact that genomic research has vastly expanded the range and impact of long-standing ethical conundrums. One can understand rejecting an embryo identified by early testing as carrying the mutation for a fatal genetic disorder such as Tay–Sachs disease; from there, the ethical choices get thornier. For decades, prenatal tests have given parents the option of aborting a fetus with Down’s syndrome. But many people with Down’s enjoy satisfying lives with support from the health care system. As PGD and other prenatal technologies become more prevalent, should limits be placed on which conditions and diseases are screened for? And how should parents decide whether they can manage to raise a child with a disability?

Read the full article here.

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Good read, and good comments too.