Blake Fall-Conroy
Minimum Wage Machine, 2010

This machine allows anyone to work for minimum wage for as long as they like. Turning the crank on the side releases one penny every 4.97 seconds, for a total of $7.25 per hour. This corresponds to minimum wage for a person in New York.

This piece is brilliant on multiple levels, particularly as social commentary. Without a doubt, most people who started operating the machine for fun would quickly grow disheartened and stop when realizing just how little they’re earning by turning this mindless crank. A person would then conceivably realize that this is what nearly two million people in the United States do every day…at much harder jobs than turning a crank. This turns the piece into a simple, yet effective argument for raising the minimum wage.

(Source: bencrowther)

rhizomedotorg:

Internet Real Estate: Art, Money, and Politics

The forthcoming introduction of generic top-level domains (gTLDs)…poses new speculative opportunities as dizzying as those of Zola’s 19th-century Paris.

Read the full story here

Queen Rania of Jordan writes an open letter to girls of the world as part of CNN’s “Girl Rising” project.

nickkahler:

Dennis Oppenheim, Two Stage Transfer Drawing, c. 1980

“As I run a marker along Eric’s s back he attempts to duplicate the movement on the wall. My activity stimulates a kinetic response from his sensory system. I am, therefore, Drawing Through Him.”

— Roman Krznaric in “How to Find Fulfilling Work”

visualandcritical:

News report from 1981 about the Internet.

A delightful discussion of the digitizing of news, prior to the internet becoming what it is today. Pretty amazing.

(Source: frenchtwist)

amyjunesmells:

[excessively sentimental post about post-graduate life and how much I love my best friends]

I am so supremely lucky to have had these two by my side through a great deal of shit over the last four years. I am indebted to them forever for dealing with my persistent negativity, stubbornness, bad haircuts, constant whining about people I was/wanted to/am dating, burnt grilled cheeses, impromptu road trips, driving an hour and a half for the best tater tots in the world, and so on. 
Art school has been a wild, bittersweet ride for me and I can’t say that I’m sad to be leaving it. The Corcoran afforded me a select few pleasures over the years, and among them are certainly the friendships I’ve formed.
If I hadn’t stuck it out, I wouldn’t have Ella & Joan in my life to the degree I do now, and they mean the world to me. Thank you both for keeping me in check, keeping my attitude in perspective, telling me when I’m wrong, celebrating with me the moments I’m happy, writing me postcards while y’all were overseas and I was being a bum on the couch at home, reminding me that I am a good artist, reminding me that I’m not as cool as I sometimes convince myself I am, staying up until three in the morning trading stories and waxing poetic about the meaning of relationships. Dealing with me crying in the backseat because I have too many feelings to function, helping me figure out who I am and how I got here. Having me hold your hair back while you lose your lunch in the New River while you slur something about loving me. Sleeping in the sand on the riverbed under a clear, full sky of stars. Making hangover breakfasts at the old apartment after all of our accidental parties, letting me handle the cops every time the neighbors called in noise complaints, or only telling me how much I really mean to you in drunk texts in the middle of the night. 
Come September I’ll be leaving D.C., my home in every sense of the word. I have no concrete plans, but I’m certain that it’s time to go. Geographically breaking up with the only things you truly know is going to be rough, and I’m going to miss a handful of people in the way that’s probably going to keep me up at night. But I am looking forward to our futures, separately, and excited to see how we manage to come back together (because I know we will). 

GPGC forever, y’all. <3

And here is my two sentimental cents:

If Amy and Ella weren’t free to hang out, I just went to sleep.
If Amy, Ella and I did hang out, I just went to sleep. 

<3

Ceramic tea steepers tied to 1/2” nuts

Memory Weights
Shu Chun Hsiao

“The cemented usb drive tells the digital capacity by its weight. A concrete volume may clearly express the concept of digital data.”