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Art City Links: Post-internet art, Amanda Palmer, Detroit and year-end reviews

SHAFAQNA – You know what, we get the internet culture we deserve. Art City Links is a weekly round-up of great reads from around the web and a direct assault against those who put clicking above thinking in our digital universe. We hope it will keep you in the know about the doings of the art world, raise intriguing questions and encourage, deep, pleasurable reading, looking and pondering.

Art City contributors Shelleen Greene, Della Wells and Michael Davidson, all great defenders of a thinking digital world, helped gather the links for this week’s edition.

What happens when an artist, pilot, aerial photographer and trained architect examines Detroit from the skies for The New York Times? You get an insightful look at the haves and have nots of a once great American city and some reason to hope, too.

And while we’re on the subject of Detroit, Malik Yakini writes forcefully about the narrative of the creative class and its relationship to race and racism in that city. “This is what happens when white supremacy defines the narrative,” he writes (Michigan Citizen).

Here is an effort to gather ideas for understanding architecture and urban planning in relationship to African American experiences of violence in America. Essays being sought (Aggregate). Hat tip to architecture writer Alexandra Lange for this one.

OK, how about some tough love for artists from Amanda Palmer. What’s the first rule of Art Club? Is art a business? Hat tip to my boss Jim Higgins for this one. (The Guardian).

Is the art world like social media? A snarky and seemingly gossipy piece about the art world’s machinations at Art Basel Miami Beach that asks serious questions about doom, a lack of proper nouns and the actual value of art (New York Observer).

Speaking of doom and disposable art, an installation at P.S.1 invites artists to end their careers and collectors to quite literally toss out their art in a dumptser-cum-art installation (New York Times).

And on the subject of an art world bust, here’s a look at the real value of a photograph that sold for $6.5 million (Money).

In one of the more intriguing reads of the week, the question is asked: Did post-internet art hit the mainstream in 2014? Not to worry, if you don’t know what post-internet art is, described here as work that “reflects on the context, conditions, and possibilities produced by our über-connected, online society.” This piece explains and links around nicely (artnet).

New York Times art critic Roberta Smith gives us her take on the best art shows of 2014, and Times art critic Holland Cotter recounts the best art events of 2014. The lesser-known Creative Time project Cotter extols caught my eye especially.

So Emory College is shuttering its art school. The news has taken off like wild fire online because of the questions it raises: What function do art schools fulfill? Do we really need them? Caution: predictable attacks on art ensue (e-flux).

The Huffington Post’s chatty round-up of “artists to watch in 2015” is right on the bubble in terms of too-cute, click-me-now journalism, but there’s some heavy lifting here, too, so we share with you in good conscience.

Like Milwaukee’s pedal tavern, you just have to wonder how this design marvel didn’t exist in the world until now. The Netherlands-based Frank de Bruyn has created a hot tub boat. It looks like a little steamer. Please note: Sharing of this should not be viewed as an endorsement of steamy beer parties on the Milwaukee River (Roadtripper).

I also discovered the animated YouTube series “arch” recently, sure to please architects. Here is a scale model pulling a Mishima move.

Finally, we wrap this week’s list of links with Debra Brehmer’s excellent essay on the fate of the Mary L. Nohl environment in Fox Point, a story that has finally hit a national audience and that’s been connected, smartly in my view, to more recent controversies about Michelle Grabner.

Also, happy birthday to Alexandre Gustave Eiffel and Ray Eames.

Source : http://www.jsonline.com/

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