Denis Dutton: A Darwinian theory of beauty

 
  From the author of: The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution

TED collaborates with animator Andrew Park to illustrate Denis Dutton's provocative theory on beauty -- that art, music and other beautiful things, far from being simply "in the eye of the beholder," are a core part of human nature with deep evolutionary origins.

Keystone Shapes

One from the new series of sculpture.

Keystone Shapes: Tilted Half Dome
Lexan, Ink, Steel pins 
16"x 18"x 12"

Minutemen- Corona Acoustic

I had heard the acoustic version of "History Lesson", but I didn't realize they also did a version of Corona.

Something New

This blog started as an outlet for me to focus on things outside my own artwork, and usually things outside the topic of visual art in general... I guess it stems from the idea of the shoeless cobbler or even the landscaper who has a crappy lawn. We all get tired of looking at what we do all day...
 
But I think I might start including personal images.  A kind of sketchbook. Some images might be finished pieces, but most won't, other things might be reference photos or detail images of larger works... I think seeing these pieces I've been looking at for dozens (if not hundreds) of hours in a context outside my studio might be interesting and refreshing. We will see how it goes.

Balloon Form
Watercolor and Ink on Paper
22"x30"

Keith Rowe - Prepared Guitar

Keith Rowe of the free-improvisational group AMM since 1966, has done with the guitar what John Cage did with the piano. That is, a complete re-working and re-envisioning of what the traditional instrument is capable of.

Hey Ed, I think this may be Volume 4 of your "Worst Selling Guitar Hero Titles"

Lawrence Lessig: The Future of Copyright Law and Creativity

These are two great lectures by Lawrence Lessig, author of Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down and Control Creativity (Penguin 2004).

Lawrence Lessig: Laws That Choke Creativity     filmed March 2007

Lawrence Lessig: Re-examining the Remix     filmed April 2010

The Troxler Effect

Stare at the black cross in the middle of the image.

Notice that the rotating vacant spot will begin to turn green and then the pink dots will begin to fade from view. The green happens because of an effect similar to that of the afterimage seen from a camera flash. When we look at a color for a period of time and then the color is suddenly taken away, our eyes tend to see an afterimage of that color perceived as the color's opposite. In this case, the opposite for pink would be pale green.


But the fading of the pink dots in our peripheral vision is an effect known as the Troxler Effect.
From Wikipedia:

Troxler's fading or Troxler's effect is a phenomenon of visual perception. When one fixates a particular point, after about 20 seconds or so, a stimulus away from the fixation point, in peripheral vision, will fade away and disappear. The effect is enhanced if the stimulus is small, is of low contrast or equiluminant, or is blurred. The effect is enhanced the further the stimulus is away from the fixation point.