Human QR Code
Think about it for a sec. Maybe a close up would help?
Art Archives, page 3
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Catching up with Eric Rewitzer
Besides interviewing for jobs and looking for apartments, one of the first things Stephanie and I did when we landed back in San Francisco was meet up with Eric Rewitzer of 3 Fish Studios. Earlier this year he used some of the photos I took during our transpacific container ship voyage as inspiration for a series of large-scale paintings (see my post, The making of PANAMAX, for the back story). When he exhibited the finished works last March we were still in Thailand (so obviously couldn’t make it), but we heard from friends who went that it was a great show.
I was super-excited to finally check out the paintings in person—at least those that haven’t been sold yet (there are a few left for anyone who’s interested). They’re pretty amazing up close. Stephanie was so impressed she wanted to take them all home with her. Except that we don’t have a home to take them to (yet).
Then just this morning I discovered that SFGate is using a photo of one of Eric’s linocuts to highlight ArtSpan’s 36th annual SF Open Studios, happening every weekend this month.
Of course you can stop by 3 Fish Studios anytime (just email or call in advance), but as part of the Open Studios event, they and hundreds of other art studios in SOMA, Tenderloin, Potrero Hill, Dogpatch, and Bayview will be throwing open their doors next weekend from 11am-6pm. Check ’em out!
Update, November 16, 2011: I happened to be flipping through a magazine while I was waiting for my lunch today, and wouldn’t you know it, a painting caught my eye. Sound familiar?
My photo tattooed on someone’s body
A few weeks ago I discovered a tweet from someone who was planning on using a photo of mine as the inspiration for a new tattoo. I was floored—what an honor. I reached out to the woman and asked if she wouldn’t mind sending me a photo of the finished work so I could post it to my blog. The appointment got delayed several times, and I forgot about the whole thing, that is until yesterday, when I got an email with a twitpic of the tattoo (inked by Ellen at Chameleon Tattoo & Body Piercing).
Beef worthy of a Texas grill
Texas pride can be a little over the top sometimes, so when I saw a steak in the shape of Texas on the side of an H-E-B semi-trailer the other day, I had to get a photo of it. I was driving at the time, so I asked Stephanie to snap these out the window for me (with her original iPhone). It was only after passing the truck that we realized the entire ad was a barbecue-rific recreation of the Texas Flag, complete with “lone star” tongs. Absolutely brilliant!
A QR Code for my wunderkammer
This time not mine, but I bought one partly to make sure!
The photo above shows a commemorative, silver-plated €5 coin issued by the Royal Dutch Mint in honor of their 100th anniversary. As a concession to modern technology, the reverse features a QR Code that encodes a URL—apparently the first of its kind. This is a bold move, as coins presumably last longer than URLs (not to mention QR Codes!), a reality that doesn’t seem to faze the designer, Juan José Sánchez Castaño:
Some people are worried about the fact that QR Codes will disappear in the future, or the coin will not be connected or linked any more to this webpage. [The] internet can also change or disappear in [a] few decades, and so [can] the coins, who knows? The Roman Empire disappeared centuries ago, but nowadays we still enjoy their coins and we know their meaning. As Marshall McLuhan said: “the medium is the message”. The QR Code is the message. The representation of the time we are living is the message, no matter what is encoded on it. The QR Code is a part of the design, part of the message and a beautiful way to close the circle of the one hundred years.