Opinion

Everything is a Remix: How Creativity Begins With Copying

17th February 2012
Kirby Ferguson

I came across this documentary on PetaPixel yesterday and thought I would share it. Everything is a Remix is a short film by Kirby Ferguson that puts forward the idea that most things we celebrate as original and creative are based on previous work by others. Kirby presents a fascinating argument backed up by some [...]

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Xerox’s quest to strip all originality from Photography

23rd January 2012
Screenshot of Xerox Aesthetic Search

A couple of months ago I came across an article on how Xerox have developed a new algorithm to sort photos based on their aesthetic qualities, you can try the free online demo here. At the time I thought “That’s cool!”. Then I gave it some more thoughts and realised that this is a cool technology, but not how [...]

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Why we should give Photoshop a little more respect.

9th January 2012

Photography is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art. – Ansel Adams Photoshop seems to be getting a lot of flak lately, so I wanted to post something in support of such an amazing tool.

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Why I hope Neutrinos can travel faster than the speed of light

27th October 2011
First neutrino observation in a hydrogen bubble chamber

The BBC had a great programme on last week regarding the recent discovery by the OPERA experiment in Italy, done in collaboration with CERN. To cut a long story short Einstein’s theory of relativity states that the speed of light is an absolute universal speed limit and nothing made with any mass cannot travel faster [...]

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Why we can’t rely on algorithms to make cultural discoveries

7th October 2011
like

I recently tweeted an article on the Guardian by Jonathan Jones justifying why we need art critics. Looking at the buzz around this article there seems to be mixed feeling about his views, but I think he touches on a key point about the wider aspects of our society.

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Artists that have the Midas touch and strippers underwear

2nd June 2011
Fountain by Marcel Duchamp, 1917

I just read an interesting article on Carrie Brummer’s blog about how art is defined by a few elite gatekeepers. Carrie argues that we are all to blame, as we allow this elite to dictate what is art. Instead, we should engage in that arts and make these decision ourselves. Carrie makes a good point [...]

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Why I am releasing my images under Creative Commons

5th May 2011

creative commons is the way to go. It’s the reason I get 175,000 photo views per day. – Trey Ratcliff There seems to be more arguments against releasing your images with a creative commons licence than arguments for, and I want to put forward my case for releasing my images under that licence.

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To be creative, be prepared to screw up and take it on the chin

28th March 2011

It’s important that nobody gets mad at you for screwing up. We know screwups are an essential part of making something good. That’s why our goal is to screw up as fast as possible.Lee Unkrich, director of Toy Story 3, Wired magazine Following on from my post about when is it the right time to [...]

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Pinning the tail on Picasso’s donkey. Is it still your art, if someone adapts it?

15th March 2011

“It’s like adding a tail onto an animal painted by Picasso. It’s ridiculous”- Sir Anthony Caro Last week ARTINFO reported that Sir Anthony Caro was caught up in an arguement with auction house bonhams over a sculpture of his, that had been modified by the purchaser but was being sold as his work. Disowning the [...]

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From small Acorn’s … great Apple trees grow?

22nd April 2010

From small Acorn’s … great Apple trees grow?: Apple are rumoured to be interested in acquiring Cambridge based ARM Holdings which licence the majority of mobile chips. Makes sense as they are apparently one of ARM’s biggest clients.

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The path to advertising nirvana

13th April 2010

The path to advertising nirvana: Following my views on Monday regarding using Advertising as a business model for your internet business, Smashing Magazine has a very insightful article on how to decide whether advertising is right for your site, analysing your readership and how to approach and build relationships with advertisers.

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