Artwork selling itself on eBay
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- cannonball19780
why is everyone so into this? its a box that sells itself on ebay.
- Corvo20
I hope it changes the world.
- Horp0
Its the shiny black perspex box that intrigues you all so. It taps into your subconscious, pulling out vague memories of watching 2001: A Space Odyssey, early Star Trek movies, The first Superman movie etc.
Take away the entirely decorative 'Ominous black box' appendage and this is from the same school of thought as all those viral emails that threaten death if you don't pass them on. The kind of thing that we all roll our eyes in contempt at when it isn't accompanied by a mysterious cubic objet de mystery that we feel might look uniquely cool in our identikit homes.
Lets be honest, its merely a cheap laptop. Probably a Dell.
- ThePublics0
" why is everyone so into this? its a box that sells itself on ebay. "
it's the nature of the internet. No matter how banal something is, it will get hyped if it has anything behind it.
- lukus_W0
It reminds me of this:
- markeebee0
I just thought it was a clever concept. It's not like I'm going to actually buy it or anything though...
- Horp0
Is the reference to trashy, low-brow internet culture a reason to dislike it?
No, its the fact that its a twee internet reliant viral masquerading as art by the camouflaging of a cheap laptop inside a perspex box.
Its true that you could dismantle any piece of art into its constituent parts and devalue it as 'just a square of canvas, just some coloured paints', but its equally important to identify a good painting and a bad painting regardless of the presentation or the materials employed.
In this case, if you remove the presentation (a cheap laptop in a perspex box) you are left with a hackneyed old email novelty that would be considered an irritant if you weren't distracted and deceived by the bold claims that this is a piece of art.
I don't dislike it anyway. I think its very funny.
- flashbender0
wait, Horp, are you saying that if I don;t buy that cube I'm gonna die?
emails are easy enought to ignore... but a shiny black cube? Ignoring something like that whe it is threatening your ife seems perilous
- detritus0
I went to an art fair and bemoaned to a colleague that "I could have done that piece.." in relation to a large visual matrix, made of a series of burned pieces of toast, creating the overall impression of a brain.
I wasn't bemoaning it in the sense my father might - "That's shit, a five year old boy could've done that", rather "fuck, people will pay how many thousands of pounds for this? I could do this!"
So, when I came home I tried something that had been nagging at me for a while - I made a pseudo-political (as in teenager) image and burned it in to a series of matzos, arrayed in a matrix.
Trouble is, hours later I found myself hungry and so ate all 9 dry, recently be-arted matzos in one sitting, heartily washed down with In-Bru.
So, to my point - the reason this kind of art fails for me? I'm a consumer - kinda like Horp, I'd want to oik the Dell out and try and get it to run Linux, and utterly shit on the mystery.
I couldn't do that with something painted, in a frame.
Actually, I lied, I have no point - I'm only recently up and rambling to fuck.
ho hum.
- Horp0
"How do you know there is a laptop inside?"
What is a laptop? An arrangement of compact electrical utilities that provide various services to the user either through manual use or as automatic actions.
Nothing this box does falls outside the remit of today's domestic hardware. I would frankly be amazed if anybody had spent years devising an entirely new system of electronic/magic components that can talk to the internet, negotiate with online buyers, sell itself.
If this box contains PC components purchased (and widely available) online I would still classify it as a laptop. Its artistic value would not be increased in this case, though I would admire the maker for his electrical engineering skills.
If this mysterious black box contains some mysterious black-ops alchemy that was like nothing available in Comet or Dixons, I would be suitably amazed.
But you know, and I know, that that's not the case. You want it to be true though, and that's because you want to believe in the mysterious black box.
The mysterious black box has been made by gluing squares of Black perspex together, and it is a necessary component, because without it you would know with all of your mind that you were bidding to take ownership of a Dell computer.
Its the magician's black hat, and it needs you to believe.
- lukus_W0
I've been experimenting with electronics for a while now - and I've been interested in ways that art and electronics can converge, so this project is something that appeals to me.
Horp - it's interesting that you're assuming a laptop is inside.
Because I've spent a bit of time looking into ways of building custom electronics, I instinctively looked at this from the point of view of a custom electronics project and assumed that it had been hand built. It wouldn't be so difficult to achieve this.
I think you're right - the way the project is implemented does make a difference; however the end result is the same in both cases. Possibly, the only reason the implementation makes a difference, is because if the easier route was chosen, fresh fodder's provided to the 'I could have done that' brigade.
I don't think the way it looks is so important - and imo, this is possibly where it falls down. I think perspex / obelisk / blackbox etc - while it captures our imagination - is also quite clichéd, and a bit too obvious.
The main thing I like about this piece is the fact it's a simple, clever concept; which, economically, brings a lot of ideas into the mix. It's also accessible to people who don't spend their time reading Guy Debord etc.. It exists within a functioning network of modern society, and functions autonomously. It can be seen as part experiment / part satire. It's very much a commentary and it's very relevant to the times we're living in.
- flashbender0
maybe there are cats in the box.
or dicks.