WELCOME TO THE·BY·PRODUCT. A WEEKLY RECAP OF WHAT IS GOING DOWN & WHAT IS COMING UP ON THE INTERNET. THIS WEEK’S NEWSLETTER DIVES INTO AN ATM AS A GAME, SOCIALLY DISTANCING YOURSELF FROM INSTAGRAM, AND HOW THE JPG CHANGED THE INTERNET FOREVER.
THIS WEEK’S HOT TAKE
DOES MIAMI EVEN ART ANYMORE.
CATEGORY: ART BASEL
If you’re familiar with Brooklyn art-stunt collective MSCHF, then you know of their penchant cultural pranks and subversions. Take last month’s “derelict strip mall” show containing a life-size marble sculpture of Jennifer Lopez based on paparazzi photos and 24kGoldn’s fist-bump wall. You may also remember Lil Nas X’s infamous custom Satan sneakers. Anyhow, during Art Basel in Miami Beach this week, MSCHF outdid themselves with an “ATM Leaderboard” that challenged attendees to reveal their bank balances, which the machine then, ranked. / Via Stereogum
CATEGORY: UN-SOCIAL MEDIA
Even just a couple of years ago, it would have been unheard-of for these 20-something New Yorkers to shrug off Instagram—a sanctimonious lifestyle choice people would have regretted starting a conversation about at that party they were headed to. But now it’s not so surprising at all. To scroll through Instagram today is to parse a series of sponsored posts from brands, recommended Reels from people you don’t follow, and the occasional picture from a friend that’s finally surfaced after being posted several days ago. It’s not what it used to be. / Via The Atlantic
CATEGORY: CREATIVE INTELLIGENCE
In 2013, researchers at Oxford published an analysis of the jobs most likely to be threatened by automation and artificial intelligence. At the top of the list were occupations such as telemarketing, hand sewing, and brokerage clerking.
These and other at-risk jobs involved doing repetitive and unimaginative work, which seemed to make them easy pickings for AI. In contrast, the jobs deemed most resilient to disruption included many artistic professions, such as illustrating and writing. / Via The Atlantic
CATEGORY: CREATIVE CULTURE
I have been a long-time fan of the brand Palace. I remember when they we starting to actually formalize the brand, and I saw it in some ways as the next version of Supreme. It was a low-key skate brand at heart, but it had very specific points of view, and an aesthetic that was never compromised.
At the center of this brand was Lev Tanju. Over the years the brand has grown through word of mouth and a few high profile collaborations. The even release a book solely using their cleverly written, almost nonsensical product descriptions from their web shop. Click here to lear a bit more about Lev and his love of cars, the brand, and their latest move into video games. / Via Hypebeast
CATEGORY: IMAGE MAKING
Every two minutes, people upload more images to the internet than existed in total just 150 years ago. The most common image file format, the JPEG, was introduced in 1992 – though, like many other technologies, there was a 2000 version, which never took off. A compression method for digital images, it trades quality in favor of storage size. Digital photography predates the JPEG by almost 20 years but the JPEG changed everything: it created a culture in which a photograph is an object realized by a camera and thus defined by its production, whereas an image is something that is inseparable from its home on the network – that is, defined by its dissemination / Via Frieze
CATEGORY: ART MAKING
Your humble editor has not public “exhibited” “art” in quite some time. Not for a lack of interest in my work, but rather how over the years I have gotten more pleasure out of gifting work, or trading pieces with other artists. I do currently have a show running in Vancouver with my creative cohorts at *airegan, but thats another story about machine learning in my opinion. What I did find interesting was this story by Paddy, “I don’t make artwork to sell, and I’m starting to feel invisible. The media only covers art market stars, which is gross, but I can’t help feeling alienated. I don’t have a place at the Miami fairs, and I’m feeling down about my prospects in this industry. What can I do?” — An outsider in an insider’s world. / Via Hyperallergic