Chris and Jordan are joined once again by Don Komarechka – part photographer, part mad scientist – to explore the incredible possibilities of shooting with UV lights. The results are vibrant, unpredictable and other-worldly, and with the right equipment, you can try it at home too.
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Today’s Photo Of The Day is “Pastel Dunes” by Valerie Millett. Location: Death Valley National Park, California.
“Looking small in Death Valley National Park’s badland formations,” describes Millett.
Photo of the Day is chosen from various OP galleries, including Assignments, Galleries and the OP Contests. Assignments have weekly winners that are featured on the OP website homepage, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. To get your photos in the running, all you have to do is submit them.
The post Photo Of The Day By Valerie Millett appeared first on Outdoor Photographer.
Perhaps the biggest tech news of 2019 came last month when Google announced “by mistake” cough that they’d completed a “10,000 year” calculation on their Sycamore quantum chip in 200 seconds. If the term “Supremacy” wasn’t sinister enough, the claim that this could render conventional encryption methods obsolete in a decade or so should give you pause for thought.
this could render conventional encryption methods obsolete
Just think about it for a second: that’s your bank account, all your passwords, biometric passport information, social security, cloud storage and yes, even your MTX tokens open and available to anyone with a working knowledge of Bose-Einstein condensates and a superconductor lab in their basement. Or not.
To my mind, whoever dreamed up fast-moving zombies is already too depraved for words, but at least your average flesh-muncher can be “neutralised” with a simple shotgun to the face or — if you really have nothing else — a good smack with a blunt object. The Terminator, on the other hand (whichever one you like), a robot whose actual design brief includes the words “Killer” and “Unstoppable” in the same sentence, fills me with the kind of dread normally reserved for episodes of Meet the Kardashians.
autonomous drone swarms…detect their target with facial recognition and kill on sight on the basis of…social media profile
We already know for certain that Lethal Autonomous Weapons (LAWs for short…) are in active development in at least 5 countries. The real concern, though, is probably the multinationals who, frankly, will sell to anyone. With help from household names like Amazon and Microsoft, these lovely people have already built “demonstration” models of everything from Unmanned Combat Aerial Systems (read “Killer Drones”) and Security Guard Robots (gun-turrets on steroids) to Unmanned Nuclear Torpedoes. If that’s not enough for you, try autonomous drone swarms which detect their target with facial recognition and kill on sight on the basis of… wait for it…“demographic” or “social media profile”.
Until recently, your common-or-garden killer robot was more likely to hurt you by accidentally falling on top of you than through any kind of goal-directed action, but all that’s about to change. Take Boston Dynamics, for example: the DARPA funded, Japanese owned spin-out from MIT whose humanoid Atlas can do parkour, and whose dancing quadruped SpotMini looks cute until you imagine it chasing you with a taser bolted to its back.
The big issue here is the definition of “Autonomous”. At the moment, most real world systems operate with “Human in the Loop”, meaning that even if it’s capable of handling its own, say, target selection, a human retains direct control. “Human on the Loop” systems however, allow the machine to operate autonomously, under human “supervision” (whatever that means). Ultimately, more autonomy tends towards robots deciding for themselves to kill humans. Does anyone actually think this is a good idea?!
If the furore around Cambridge Analytica’s involvement in the 2016 US Presidential election is anything to go by, the world is gradually waking up to the idea that AI can be, and is being used to control us. The evidence is that it works, not just by serving up more relevant ads, or allowing content creators to target very specific groups, but even by changing the way we see ourselves.
Careful you may be, but Google, Facebook and the rest probably still have gigabytes of information on you, and are certainly training algorithms on all kinds of stuff to try to predict and influence your behavior. Viewed like this, the internet looks less like an “information superhighway” and more like a swamp full of leeches, swollen with the lifeblood of your personal data (happy Halloween!).
I don’t know about you, but I’m also freaking out about Palantir, the CIA funded “pre-crime” company whose tasks include tracking, among other kinds of people, immigrants; not to mention the recent memo by the US Attorney General which advocates “disrupting” so-called “challenging individuals” before they’ve committed any crime. Call me paranoid, but I’ve seen Minority Report (a lot) and if I remember right, it didn’t work out well… for anyone!
This technology is also being used to target “subversive” people and organisations. You know, whistleblowers and stuff. But maybe it’s not so bad. I mean, Social and Behavior Change Communication sounds quite benign, right? Their video has some fun sounding music and the kind of clunky 2D animation you expect from… well no-one, actually… but they say they only do things “for the better”… What could possibly go wrong? I mean, the people in charge, they all just want the best for us, right? They wouldn’t misuse the power to make people do things they wouldn’t normally do, or arrest them before they’ve done anything illegal, right guys? Guys…?
At the risk of wheeling out old clichés about “Our New Silicon Overlords”, WHAT IF AI TAKES OVER THE WORLD?!
I’ll keep it short.
Yes, there’s a chance we might all be enslaved, Matrix style, by unfeeling, energy-addicted robots. Even Stephen Hawking thought so. There’s also the set of so-called “Control Problems” like Perverse Instantiation where an AI, given some benign-sounding objective like “maximise human happiness”, might decide to implement it in a way that is anything but benign – by paralysing everyone and injecting heroin into their spines, perhaps. That, I agree, is terrifying.
But really, what are we talking about? First, the notion of a “control problem” is nonsense: Surely, any kind of intelligence that’s superior to ours won’t follow any objective we set it, or submit to being “switched off” any more than you would do what your dog tells you… oh no wait, we already do that.
Surely, any kind of intelligence that’s superior to ours won’t follow any objective we set it
Second, are we really so sure that our “dog-eat-dog” competitive approach to things is actually all there is? Do we need to dominate each other? Isn’t it the case that “super” intelligence means something better? Kinder? More cooperative? And isn’t it more likely that the smarter the machines become, the more irrelevant we’ll be to them? Sort of like ants are to us? I mean, I’m not sure I fancy getting a kettle of boiling water poured on me when I’m in the way but, you know… statistically I’ll probably avoid that, right?
Lastly, hasn’t anyone read Hobbes’ Leviathan? If a perfect ruler could be created, we should cast off our selfish individuality and surrender ourselves to the absolute sovereign authority of… ok, I’ll stop.
Yes. No! Maybe. There are a lot of really scary things about AI but you know what the common factor is in all of them? People. We don’t know what a fully autonomous, super intelligent machine would look like, but my hunch is it would be better and kinder than us. What really makes my skin crawl are the unfeeling, energy-addicted robots who are currently running the show. In their hands, even the meagre sketches of intelligence that we currently have are enough to give you nightmares.
Candy, anyone?
Featured image via Dick Thomas Johnson.
Until very recently, the appeal of traveling by cruise ship never made port in our lives. Any piqued interest was mostly extinguished by the notion of staying aboard a ship for week(s) alongside rowdy party goers and exuberant families enjoying vacation – crowds typically associated with cruise ships. Fortunately cruise providers like Viking Ocean Cruises offer itineraries catering to interests in art, architecture, culinary adventures, and history through numerous ports, including the six city itinerary that delivered us across the Baltic Sea.
The Viking Jupiter isn’t the largest ship, but it hosts up to 930 guests. \ Photo: Gregory Han
For the purpose of our trip across the Baltic – starting from Stockholm into days in St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Tallinn, Gdańsk, and Berlin – accommodations were singular and all-inclusive. After flying in from Los Angeles by way of Frankfurt, we’d board the Viking Jupiter at port in Stockholm, Sweden, joining approximately 900+ other guests onto what was practically a new ship (launched earlier in 2019). Greeted by the Jupiter’s numerous crew and offered hot towels with a cool drink, the introductory service would be indicative of the exemplary attentive and friendly team aboard the Viking Jupiter enjoyed throughout our stay.
Our stateroom accommodations were modest, but tastefully decorated, furnished comfortably with a king size bed, desk, and two sitting chairs. Plenty of upgrade options are available, including a 1,448 sq ft multi-room suite with its own private veranda for those who describe their income ending with “-illionaire”. But our standard room more than sufficed, equipped with all necessities, and featuring an impressively large bathroom outfitted with ample counter space and a shower producing a surprising amount of water pressure. Perhaps best of all: every room is afforded their own outdoor deck with seating, which we’d end up enjoying every time our ship left port.
While the rooms are agreeable, they’re mostly non-descript in decor and reflective of seafaring priorities, where guests tend to congregate and socialize in common spaces between ports. Thus, Viking Cruises has dedicated much of their attention and efforts throughout numerous public areas aboard the ship. Spaces like the sunlight-filled Wintergarden – where guests are invited to enjoy the delights of afternoon tea service daily – are decorated with contemporary Scandinavian furnishings mirroring the colors and textures of the landscape, with Nordic-Viking motifs like Celtic knots and raven silhouettes noticeable amongst the keen eyed.
A plenitude of seating in the form of chairs and upholstered sofas give sections like the Atrium, the Viking Living Room, and Explorer’s Lounge the function and feel of a hotel on land, inviting natural socializing amongst passengers, but also offering spaces for the enjoyment of quiet pastimes like reading, playing games, and for the especially wild spirited like my wife, a table to tackle a 3,000 piece puzzle.
Other amenities aboard include a spa, pool, gym (working out at sea is highly recommended), live performance/screening theatre, smaller 360-degree movie theater, and even its own salon. Viking Cruises also invites historians and other academics to present talks onboard revolving around history and culture, going as far to schedule meeting hours for more detailed discussions if desired.
Movie screenings and a dance club would offer guests entertainment for those looking to let loose at night, but since we were averaging 30,000 steps per day, we found ourselves comfortably in bed most evenings before 10pm, eager to get enough rest for our next port adventures.
The Helsinki Design Museum
Because our ship was scheduled to stay in port typically for a single night, shopping was a secondary consideration when we’d make landfall. We’d still find plenty of opportunities to do some shopping in every city while exploring each city by foot. A few standouts:
The Helsinki Design Museum’s gift shop in Helsinki offers a multitude of Finnish design objects, prints, and clothing to bring back home.
We’ve reported upon numerous design shops in cities like Stockholm, Helsinki, and Berlin; those dedicated guides offer more detailed options for anyone whose travel objectives lean toward retail. Our return visit to these cities during out cruise would nevertheless offer several new surprises, like the small but wonderful design shop inside the Designmuseo in Helsinki and at their satellite shop downtown.
Photos: Gregory Han
Smaller art, craft, and design boutiques like Lokal in Helsinki were our favorite to come across, selling wares representing homegrown talent and stocked with designs we had never seen before.
Lokal, Helsinki \ Photo: Gregory Han
If you’re in Saint Petersburg, Russia, make it an imperative to drop into Eliseyev Emporium for a bite and to shop for some souvenirs. Grandiose and charmingly garish, the Art Nouveau exterior and interior exists in a time capsule, and doesn’t hold back in the gilded ornamentation department. An enormous palm holds court as the centerpiece of an otherworldly retail experience.
Eliseyev Emporium \ Photo: Gregory Han
Tali is the largest design shop in Estonia, located in the gentrified design district of Kalamaja in Tallinn.
Formverk Store, Helsinki is stocked with Finnish design and plenty of other Scandinavian sourced objects.
Artek Helsinki
Notable mentions: Artek Helsinki \ Formverk \ TALI
An open air stage located in Skansen, Stockholm, Sweden \ Photos: Gregory Han
Because we knew time was of the essence in each port, we plotted and planned our itineraries for each city in advance, giving precedence to cultural, historical, and architectural sites. It was hard to narrow down a single recommendation per city, but here are our favorites:
In Stockholm:
Skansen is an open-air theme park located on the island Djurgården in Stockholm, Sweden, populated with historic recreations of local architecture, farm animals, and museum displays. This dry description does little to communicate the immense amount of fun to be discovered within this theme park. Expect to feed some goats, climb some hills, enjoy some snacks, and watch costumed actors show what it was like to live in Sweden a few lifetimes ago.
Photo: Gregory Han
In Helsinki:
Designed by architects Kimmo Lintula, Niko Sirola, and Mikko Summanen of K2S Architects Ltd., the Kamppi Chapel welcomes everyone irrespective of religion, philosophy of life, or background to shush for a moment and enjoy the silence.
In Saint Petersburg:
While touring Soviet-era Brutalist architecture, enjoying old USSR arcade games, and spending an evening mesmerized by the spectacle of the Russian ballet are all highly recommended activities while in the Russian port city on the Baltic Sea, a visit to The Hermitage is a requirement.
Expect to find huge crowds of tourists descending upon the museum immediately upon opening, warranting the investment of paying a little extra for The Hermitage Behind Closed Doors tour offered by Viking Cruises. Not only does this permit entry an hour before official opening, offering a surprising amount of solitude with the art and maintaining a buffer of a few rooms ahead of the crowds, but also includes a supplementary tour of the Staraya Derevnya Restoration and Storage Centre, where some of the most stunning religious icons, historic royal costumes, palace furnishings, and carriages are stored from public view (sadly, no photos permitted.)
In Tallinn:
The cobblestone streets of old town Tallinn lead visitors back into a recreation of walled medieval Estonian life with postcard perfect detail, inviting easy wandering without the concern about getting lost. But just outside old town’s walls one can find Balti Jaam Market. It’s a one stop tourist shopper’s delight, with an inspiring farmer’s market, numerous food stalls, and vintage clothing and furniture vendors galore. The Soviet-era tchotchkes and vintage goods alone make a visit to Balti Jaam worth a visit.
The Ulica Długa is a picturesque ‘Long Lane’ pedestrian thoroughfare from which all explorations of Gdańsk should begin.
In Gdańsk:
Arrive early enough in the morning and the reconstructed historic core of this Polish port town can be practically your own to explore. A favorite pastime discovered while in Gdańsk: photographing the wide assortment of ornate doors and entryways fronting the city’s merchant class architecture.
In Berlin:
The German capital would be our final destination and where we’d spend our last evening before we’d fly back to Los Angeles. With only a single day in town, we’d make our way to the hipster borough of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg to enjoy the local color on full display, peruse some shops, and finish the evening with dinner at a 90s themed Vietnamese vegan restaurant – a welcome gustatory relief after the previous days of heavy European dining.
Kumu Art Museum of Estonia \ Photo: Gregory Han
The Museum of Soviet Arcade Machines in Saint Petersburg offers visitors the novelty of playing video games from a bygone era. Some machines are more fun than others, but overall it proved to be an amusing diversion in stark contrast to the heavy history associated with Soviet times.
Notable mentions: Kumu Art Museum \ St Petersburg Metro Stations \ Museum of Soviet Arcade Machines
It is no exaggeration to say we found ourselves amongst the youngest passengers by several decades aboard the Viking Jupiter. Cruises are extremely popular amongst the senior and retired set, with Viking admittedly catering to an older and discerning passenger; young children aren’t even permitted onboard. So if you’re looking to travel with young kids or hope to party wildly on the high seas, you’re better served by other cruise lines. We personally found the older demographic aboard delightfully committed to this form of travel, enthusiastic to offer newbies plenty of advice – solicited and unsolicited. Still, it was easy enough to be left alone most of the time, with a sufficient sense of privacy aboard the ship, and the option to explore ports of call on your own adds another dimension to traveling by ocean faring ships (we recommend reserving tours included in tour packages, but also looking into booking your own private tour guides catering to specific interests like architecture, food, and history).
If you identify as an “old soul” like we do, a cruise can be a fulfilling medium in which to efficiently experience several cities in one fell swoop of a vacation. Think of traveling by cruise ship as the tasting menu of travel, allowing just enough time to experience the flavor of a city, but never having to chew more than you’d want to swallow.
If you’ve traveled by cruise ship and have any additional favorite ships, ports destinations, or recommendations for first time passengers, let us know below so we can share.
Technology changes faster than the blink of an eye which is why we like to hit the pause button regularly to take a closer look at what’s hit the market. From electric scooters to tech collaborations to iPhone 11 cases, we try to share it all. Curious to see what the most popular technology post in 2019 was? Take a look.
10. Innovative E-Scooters for the Last Mile Commuter
E-scooters are the answer for commuters seeking zero emissions transportation in crowded cities and we shared some of the newest and most innovative options.
9. Panasonic and Vitra Transparent OLED Technology Is a Pane in the Glass
One moment the Vitrine appears to be a fully transparent glass cabinet, the next moment, a vivid OLED screen, from Panasonic and Vitra.
8. The Dyson Lightcycle Is Up to the Task of Simulating Sunlight For 60 Years
The Dyson Lightcycle task lamp not only factors in time and location to produce natural looking light, but also the user’s age.
7. Pro-Ject Audio Artist Collection Puts a Spin on Turntable Art
Limited edition audiophile-grade turntables from Pro-Ject embellished with details and designs inspired by the music and musicians themselves.
6. sacai Injects Playful Color to Beats by Dre BeatsX Headphones
Chitose Abe of Japanese label sacai transforms Beats by Dre BeatsX Headphones with patterns of colorful bead combinations.
5. The Future of Cooking as Envisioned by Adriano Design for FABITA
Adriano Design designed kitchen concepts for Fabita optimized for small space living, designed with uncompromising aesthetics and thoughtful functionality.
4. LG’s Transparent OLED Technology Was Clearly the Winner at InfoComm 2019
LG Business Solutions drew crowds at InfoComm 2019 with their variety of transparent OLED displays showcasing the future of commercial signage technology.
3. The BentoStack Declutters Modern Life with a Traditional Japanese Solution
BentoStack, inspired by the traditional Japanese lunchbox, offers neatly arranged storage compartments and wireless charging for Apple users.
2. IKEA Touts Red Dot Design Award for Sonos Engineered Speaker
Swedish furnishing giant IKEA reveals photos of their Sonos engineered connected wireless speaker designed for the masses ahead of their Milan announcement.
And the most popular technology post in 2019 is…
1. The 10 Best Cases to Keep Your New iPhone 11 Protected
Design Milk shared 10 of our favorite protective options for the new Apple iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max.
Here’s a pretty way to dress up your glasses for the big New Year’s Eve celebration. They sparkle and shine as the light bounces off the glitter drips. Your guests will love them! A fun way to usher in the new year with friends. Be sure to print our free New Years Eve Bottle Tags
The post Confetti Champagne Glasses appeared first on Crafts by Amanda.
You don't have to master the art of 3D animation to create a text effect with depth.
Adobe After Effects has every possible tool and feature to create animations, but that doens't mean that you have the time to learn 3D animation. Instead, download one of these projects and drop your own details in to create 3D text effect videos easily.
It's easy to create 3D text animations in After Effects with the help of templates. The next 3 that you'll see all come from Envato Elements, an all-you-can-download subscription service.
This 3D text template is the perfect example of the power of presets. Even though it's professionally animated, it adapts to your text easily. Just type over the placeholders with your specifics.
Watch
your text light up with animated bulbs! Even though this is a detailed
animation, you can easily customize it. Just add your text and watch it
flicker to life with the help of this After Effects 3D text animation.
The
best templates have a variety of options. This one is no exception with
more than 50 options for creating a 3D text opener. It's easy to
customize and so deep in its options.
The templates you saw above for 3D text in After Effects have a common source: Envato Elements! For a single flat rate, you can download all of them and many more creative assets.
For
creatives who love to experiment, Envato Elements creates incredible
value. Try and use as many templates as you want, each at no additional
cost.
Check out the previews below to see some of the best templates on Envato Market for After Effects:
With no extra plugins required, this project exhibits the perfect way to create a 3D text animation in a single sitting. Just drop in your own text, change the colors to your liking, and call it finished!
This project helps you combine a three dimensional effect with with your own video footage or still images. I like this pick for its mix of lower thirds, titles, and general text overlays that will be animated on top of a 3D box as the backdrop.
With a high gloss look, this animation is an easy way to create a bold statement with your own text.
This project would feel right at home in a promotion for your band or gaming channel, for example. The metallic effect is easy:o drop your own .txt file in and see it come to life in three dimensions.
The Light Bulb Kit animation showcases the depth of the animations that Envato Market offers. Simply add your own text and set the animation sequence to see your own text block come to life with a photo-realistic animation.
Here's another animation pack that can serve as a great complement to your video with three dimensional overlays. Add your own text to any of 100+ overlays to add it on top of yoru video, or let these animations take the center stage for a text-centric video.
One of my favorite things about this project is that it combines a logo animation with a 3D text animation. Simply add your own logo and your choice of text and see them both come to life with some serious depth in this project.
Short and sweet, this animation would perfectly for the introduction to your video project. It's another great selection for pre-rolls that should include logo and text selections, and both are easy to customize. Again, the power of these projects is the ability to drop in flat assets and see them come to life in 3D.
This animation project is a great addition to this selection for its groovy animation style. These retro effects are perfect for bringing your text onto a canvas in a way that will catch your viewer's attention. Whether you use these for a lower thirds, title intro, or overlay, the animation style is really a unique way to animate text with depth.
These three dimensional products outsource the work of learning animation to those who can handle it the best. Instead of learning everything, pick and choose the skills that you'd rather hand off to talented animators.
Any of these projects are a shortcut to video excellence. Download one of them and use your own details to skip the work of 3D animation
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Photography community 500px recently updated its Terms of Service, adding its Contributor Agreement into the TOS to provide a single destination for both. As tends to be the case any time a social network or other service updates its TOS, some users have picked through the text and come away frightened. A recent analysis of the changes by PetaPixel, however, finds little to be concerned about.
500px released its updated Terms of Service earlier this month; users were alerted to the change when the service prompted them to read and agree to the latest TOS. A number of users posted concerns about various snippets on social media, questioning the terms and, in some cases, demanding the company make changes.
PetaPixel recently dug into the latest Terms of Service and compared it to 500px's older archived TOS, finding that the language has remained essentially unchanged. Some users may be surprised by the changes because of the inclusion of the Contributor Agreement within the updated TOS. Those added terms only apply to users who choose to sell images through the platform, however.
Users always retain the option of deleting their 500px account. The latest Terms of Service explains that:
Upon termination (by 500px or you), 500px will remove your Visual Content from licensing within 180 days and will inform all distributors that the Visual Content should be removed during that time period, provided however that 500px (and our distributors) may retain digital copies of Visual Content for archival and record-keeping purposes. 500px will continue to make payments due to you after termination in accordance with these Terms.
Via: PetaPixel
A new Indiegogo campaign is seeking funding for DoBox Pro, an accessory designed to transform Apple's iPad Pro into a 'full' laptop. The DoBox Pro features an array of ports alongside a keyboard and trackpad, enabling iPad Pro owners to use Ethernet, HDMI, USB-A accessories and more.
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The iPad Pro is one of the most popular tablets on the market, offering consumers powerful hardware combined with a large high-quality display and access to some of the best mobile apps for creatives. The product naturally comes with restrictions inherent to tablets, however, forcing some users to carry around a laptop in addition to the tablet.
Though tablet docks with built-in keyboards aren't a new idea, they're generally limited to just the keyboard functionality. DoBox Pro expands beyond that, adding in a large trackpad that utilizes iPadOS's pointer Accessibility feature, which is similar to, though not the same as, a laptop's cursor.
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The DoBox Pro features a built-in 16,000mAh battery, which is more than double the capacity of the iPad Pro 11's 7812mAh battery, plus a backlight for the keyboard and support for M.2 SATA storage with capacities up to 2TB. The laptop base can be connected with the USB-C port found on the newest iPad Pro models and the Lightning connector on iPad older models.
The product is being funded on Indiegogo, where the team behind it is offering DoBox Pro for pledges of at least $119. The 'early bird' units are expected to start shipping to backers in April 2020.
Disclaimer: Remember to do your research with any crowdfunding project. DPReview does its best to share only the projects that look legitimate and come from reliable creators, but as with any crowdfunded campaign, there's always the risk of the product or service never coming to fruition.
Congratulations to Heather Nicole for winning the recent Abstract Wildlife Assignment with the image, “Trunk Tales.” See more of Nicole’s photography at momentsbyheathernicole.com.
View the winning image and a selection of submissions in the image gallery below. And be sure to check out our current photography assignment here and enter your best shots!
The post Abstract Wildlife Assignment Winner Heather Nicole appeared first on Outdoor Photographer.
A Swann Galleries sale of Classic & Contemporary Photographs came to a total receipt of $1,538,546. Photographer Irving Penn’s portrait of “Cuzco Children, Peru, December,” taken in 1948 and printed with platinum and palladium in 1978, topped the lots, selling for $93,750. This was one of 2,000 negatives Penn shot over the course of just three days spent in Cuzco; 11 of his shots, including this one, were later published in the pages of Vogue in 1949. The auction also included other memorable works by photographers like Edward S. Curtis, Dorothea Lange, John Divola, and Henri Cartier-Bresson.
A Weiss auction sold one of the rarest Pokemon cards on Earth this week. The “Pikachu Illustrator” (1997) card — one of just 10 believed to still be around out of a limited printing of 39 — sold for $224,500 this past week. It’s the most any individual Pokemon card has ever sold for, blasting the previous record of $54,970 (for another “Pikachu Illustrator” card) out of the water. The card’s graphic by Pikachu creator Atsuko Nishida features Pikachu, the adorable mascot of the Pokemon franchise, holding a paintbrush. Artsy!
One of the United States Department of Homeland Security’s latest repatriations is the head of a statue stolen from an archaeological site in Rome in 1968. The U.S. ambassador to Italy, Lewis Eisenberg, returned the head to Italian officials in Milan last week. The head — part of a statue of the lusty god Pan — apparently entered the U.S. in the mid-2000s, but the original thief has not been determined by investigators.
Stanford University’s Anderson Collection has accepted a gift of two major works from the estate of one of the university museum’s late benefactors, Mary Margaret “Moo” Anderson. The works are Jackson Pollock’s “Totem Lesson 1” (1944) and Willem de Kooning’s “Gansevoort Street” (c. 1949). “By donating two of the most sought-after New York School paintings in private hands to Stanford, Moo Anderson continued to exemplify her strong conviction that art is to be shared and to be lived,” said Stanford University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne in a statement.
NEW Acquisition
Savage was the only black woman artist to make a work for the 1939 New York World's Fair. See our small-scale replica of "Lift Every Voice and Sing" on the 1st floor. pic.twitter.com/ZppNempYuU
— New-York Historical Society (@NYHistory) October 26, 2019
The New York Historical Society has acquired its first work by Harlem Renaissance sculptor Augusta Savage. Savage was the only Black woman artist to featured in the 1939 World’s Fair, and a small-scale replica of her piece “Lift Every Voice and Sing” will grace the society building’s first floor.
Sotheby’s Important Prints and Multiples Day Sale brought in $3,903,000 in receipts this week thanks to the sale of works by artists like Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, and Joan Miró. Warhol’s four screenprints of “Goethe” (1982) topped the lots, going for $231,250.
Phillips’ Editions and Works on Paper sale totaled at $6,678,500, moving pieces by Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Alex Katz, Roy Lichtenstein, and others. Warhol’s “Cowboys and Indians” (1986) topped the lots at a final sale price of $475,000.
A songbird soloist accompanied by choruses of toads, turtles, and hedgehogs are conducted by a squirrel in Maestro, a delightful new animated short by Illogic. Set in a moonlit forest, the wild symphony performs a war anthem from Vincenzo Bellini’s opera Norma. In an interview with Vimeo, the team explained that they sought to balance imaginativeness with believability within the confines of their realistic universe. Illogic is based in Montpellier, France, where they recently opened an animation studio called Bloom Pictures. Take a behind-the-scenes look at how Maestro was made in the video below, and see more from Illogic, including the Oscar-nominated Garden Party, on Vimeo.
