Go2Web2.0 featured @ TechCrunch.

Coup to be featured at TC, but be ready.  This site came crashing down under the flood of traffic from TC. 

One blogger asks about the relationship between blogger and featured companies at MichaelArrington Sucks.  (Obviously a blog with an opinion, whether impartial or not, you can decide.)  You will see that TC is the only featured advertiser on the site.  MAS also alleges they (blogger and site owner) are in a relationship and trade “favors.”  The owner of the site is also a powerful “digger.”  Should that all be disclosed as well?

TC states that they will expressly state and disclose when there is an apparent conflict of interest; and I take them at their word on this point. 

But, of course, the world of blogging has gone corporate.  Posts are valuable real estate.  And, perhaps inevitably, there are now businesses that even enable bloggers to sell posts to review advertiser products (with varying degrees of disclsoure).

I can’t help but be a little cynical about big bloggers.  This is after all big business.

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From the Scion Installation 3 Website (via Cool Hunting):

 

INSTALLATION 3

features talented artists painting on 3′ long polyurethane sculptures of the Scion tC designed by Wheaty Wheat Studios. Once again Scion will give national exposure to emerging and established urban artists - this time from around the globe.

ARTISTS

Blaine Fontana  •  Books IIII  •  Coro  •   Crash  •  Daim  •  David Choe
Dez Einswell  •  Joshua Mays  •  Kenton Parker
Kofie  •  Mad  •  Mike Giant  •  Ricky Powell  •  Ramm:ell:zee
Dr. Revolt  •    •  Rostarr  •  Matthew Rodriguez  •  Seak  •  Sever
Iosefatu Sua  •  WeAreSupervision  •  Sage Vaugh

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I am a big fan of some of the works sold at yesterday’s auction, but I am amazed at the prices.  Time to find some bargains.  That is the great thing about art, you can find work just as good as the multi-million dollar pieces out there.  The astronomical prices are the result of gallerists and auction houses creating niche markets, selling to those who value name and cache.  So they create name and cache.  The art is just the vehicle for them.

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With all the buzz created from the Prada Death Camp, Prada saw fit to give contemporary artist Tom Sachs an unlimited supply of Prada boxes for his latest creation, the Prada Toilet (above), according to WMMNA.

Interestingly enough, Sachs is currently showing at the Prada Foundation in Milan.

Do you think if I told them I was creating a replica of the Roman Colosseum in loafers they would send me a container shipment?

It was a little funny to see the intersection of commercial institution and critical artist.  I ultimately drew the conclusion that they were both interested in the same things: attention, acceptance, and reward (and of course, $ doesn’t hurt). 

I thought it a bit ironic to include a Prada hat box as the centerpiece of a work entitled “Prada Death Camp” in a show not so subtley named “Mirroring Evil” at the Jewish Museum, then to basically ride the Prada wave with the ultimate product placement and a big time showing at the Prada Foundation.  What are we to make of the original use of the Prada hat box?  Was it specific to Prada, was Prada a symbol of industry and commerce at the time of the Holocaust, is it just a hat box and simply there for effect?  Did he forget to cover the obvious couture label in his hurry to get the piece ready?

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