March 13th, 2007 by Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento in
Art Law
According to the New York Times, Virginia public health officials are turning to fotonovelas, or comic books, to combat statutory rape. The comic book warns that sex between teenage girls and older men risks pregnancy or arrest.
The effort grew out of a 2004 rape-prevention campaign that emblazoned the question ”Isn’t she a little young?” on everything from billboards to napkins. To adapt that message for Hispanics, officials created a fotonovela, a type of Latino comic book featuring themes of love and betrayal.
March 8th, 2007 by Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento in
Art Law
According to its website, “Wikileaks is an uncensorable version of Wikipedia for untraceable mass document leaking and analysis. It combines the protection and anonymity of cutting-edge cryptographic technologies with the transparency and simplicity of a wiki interface.”
Although the exact source of origin is unknown (it’s only point of reference is a 202 Washington, D.C. area code), theories now exist that Wikileaks is a CIA project.
The site adds: “Wikileaks is developing an uncensorable Wikipedia for untraceable mass document leaking and analysis. Our primary interests are oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we also expect to be of assistance to those in the west who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their own governments and corporations. We aim for maximum political impact; this means our interface is identical to Wikipedia and usable by non-technical people. We have received over 1.2 million documents so far from dissident communities and anonymous sources.”
February 15th, 2007 by Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento in
Art Law
Reuters and The Register report that a bloody war between rival Mexican drug gangs has spilled onto YouTube where two competing cartels “taunt each other with blood-soaked slideshows and films of their murder victims.”
Reuters notes that on YouTube “one popular video shows a man being shot in the head” while a “stomach-churning series of photos shows another execution victim, his missing face a mangled mess of flesh”.
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January 29th, 2007 by Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento in
Editorials
This is a conceptual text piece “written” by an artist and was penned as a response to Irving Sandler’s “Railing Opinion: A Call to Art Critics” published by the Brooklyn Rail (December 2006/January 2007).
“THANK GOD, SOMEONE CARES, I THOUGHT THAT CURATOR, MEANT ‘TO CARE’ BUT MAYBE THE CRITIC WILL SAVE THE ART WORLD FROM TOTAL ANNIHILATION. ARTISTS AND CRITICS UNITE! A KINSHIP THROUGH CRITICALITY. WE NEED MORE VOICES SCREAMING THE SAME THINGS, NOT LESS SAYING THE SAME OLD SHIT! UNITE TO WRITE AND TAKE BACK ART. FUCK THE MACHINE. DON”T LET OTHERS DICTATE YOUR VOICE AND/OR CAREER. USE YOUR PRIVILEDGE AND POWER TO SPEAK YOUR OWN MIND. CREATE CHANGE>>>NOW! FUCK ANONYMITY. TAKE CLAIM TO YOUR NAME.” >>>TYLER ROWLAND (2006) ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
This was submitted to the Brooklyn Rail and to the Clandestine Construction Company International (CLANCCO) website (http://www.clancco.com/) in January 2007.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>< <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
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This interview took place the glorious sunny afternoon of October 7, 2006, at the Spain Restaurant in Los Angeles, California, hours before the New York Mets swept the Los Angeles Dodgers to win the National League Division Series. The interview covers a wide range of questions: from Lawson’s artistic career, deanship at CalArts, and writing publications, to Lawson’s current thoughts on contemporary art, art pedagogy and the impact of market forces on artistic production.
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January 21st, 2007 by Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento in
Editorials
“Cubans are not going to fight over the last few crumbling homes,” said Nicolas J. Gutiérrez Jr., a 42-year-old Cuban-American lawyer in Miami who represents many business claimants and for himself seeks the return of two sugar mills, 15 cattle ranches, a food distribution center and more. “Out of the hundreds of people I represent and the thousands I talk to I’ve never met anyone who says he’s going to go back there and kick people out. On a base level, that would be immoral.” Immoral, perhaps, but illegal?
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January 12th, 2007 by Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento in
Editorials
An interesting week for visual culture, law, and community formation as elucidated by digital and real-property mediums. The New York Times reported on December 18, 2006, on Charles Saatchi’s ever-popular “Stuart,” his online website analogous to the now edificed, MySpace.com. The day before the New York Times also reported on Houston, Texas’ Project Row Houses, a project initiated and run by Rick Lowe.
While Saatchi’s project raises more legal questions than interesting propositions, Project Row Houses manage to invoke and critique both.
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