Tag: art

tech

A New M.A.A.P. of NYC

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M.A.A.P. is short for Massively Authored Artistic Project and is a succinct way of describing what Yellow Arrow is all about. Maybe you have seen one of the dictinctive yellow arrow stickers around the city and didn’t know what it was. Here is a quick rundown from the site itself:

“Participants place arrows to draw attention to different locations and objects — a favorite view of the city, an odd fire hydrant, the local bar.

By sending a text-message (SMS) from your mobile phone to 1.646.270.5537 beginning with your arrow’s unique code you associate it with a short text — messages can range from literary quotations to personal commentaries to game-like prompts to action.

When another person encounters the arrow, he or she sends the code to 1.646.270.5537 and immediately receives your message on their mobile phone.

Through this location-based exchange of text-messages, the Yellow Arrow becomes a symbol for the unique characteristics, personal histories, and hidden secrets that live within our everyday spaces.”

Michael Shanks posted about this “global public art project, urban game, and tool for collaborative experimental travel” in August, 2004 and Wired picked up the story around that time as well. Since then, it has only gained momentum and today when I got an email from Yellow Arrow, I thought I would share this project with those that read this little blog. So, sign up, get some arrows and tag the city your way!

art

Art by George DeStefano

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I am lucky to currently have not one but two pieces of art by George DeStefano hanging in my apartment. This up-and-coming painter/illustrator’s style cannot neatly fit into a specific category – I would call it “chunky abstract realism” – and his work really needs to be seen in person to do these pieces justice. Some pieces are created using found materials, such as old doors and other large objects, upon which he applies layer upon layer of paint to create images that stop one dead in his or her tracks. While your eyes may linger over a piece for a few seconds on the web, in person you’ll be standing in front of that same piece for a few minutes.

In the next decade, I expect big things from the New York based artist. If you are interested in seeing in person or obtaining one of George’s pieces, feel free to contact either me or George directly. His contact info can be found on his site.

ramblings

Note On a Scrap

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Originally from 6/24/01:

“The universal themes addressed in his works – life, love, war and religious faith – speak directly to the twenty-first sentry mind” – last sentence of the intro to the Met’s William Blake exhibitions. What strikes me the most is the sense of immediacy that the statement represents – and how everything these days is clamoring to be “super relevant” because of the date change. So we are in the new millennium and now everything is starting a new – therefore everything is relevant to the individual looking to refocus, refine, rediscover or reinvent himself.