#contemporary art prize

[artvinyl]

Uncovered: Sub Focus - Evolve

As we continue to explore the artworks for some of this year’s shortlisted albums for the Best Art Vinyl 2023 Award, next up is English DJ, record producer and musician Nicolaas Douwma aka Sub Focus and his fourth album 'Evolve' which was created by Mat Maitland from the award winning creative consultancy Big Active.

We caught up with Mat who gave us an insight into the creative concepts and processes for the artwork. He told us, "With any new project we like to discuss things thoroughly before starting to present ideas and for this album it was very collaborative in establishing the creative route."

Big Active had a good starting point for the project and a rich history with Sub Focus having worked on three previous albums with him - ‘Portals’, ‘Reworks I’ and ‘Torus’ and Mat explains, "Often with music campaigns, we are honing in on two things primarily - the central concept and the visual aesthetic.”

Sub Focus & Wilkinson - ‘Portals’ EMI (2020) artwork by Big Active

Sub Focus ‘Reworks I’ RAM records (2021) artwork by Big Active

Sub Focus - ’Torus’ RAM Records, Virgin EMI Records (2013) artwork by Big Active

We asked Mat about the inspirations for the current album artwork for 'Evolve', he says, "Conceptually there was something early on that came out of our discussions with Nicolaas, the idea of Nudibranchs - a group of tiny soft-bodied molluscs that live under water, noted for their extraordinary colours and striking forms. Nicolaas is a keen diver and had come across these on his travels. Straight away we felt that this was a really interesting thing to base the campaign on. Firstly, it was an unusual subject matter and secondly it talked to the title ‘Evolve’ perfectly -  having a synergy with human evolution as well as sonic mutations symbolised in the music itself."

Mat explains, "Aesthetically we didn’t want to just use straight documentary images of Nudibranchs, so we had some decisions to make in how to present the concept. I had been working on a personal project the previous year with digital artist Claudia Rafael and felt that she would be a great collaborator in elevating how the forms were depicted. After collating a huge bank of imagery we decided to remove any sense of environment, instead having them live in a void of darkness to elevate their impact but also remove any concept of scale. Working with Claudia, we processed all of this source material through GAN machine learning. This is a process whereby the computer is learning to mimic and re-render the imagery and while doing so, creates less accurate versions of it. It also starts mixing up and combining elements from all the separate images to create new versions."

This re-rendered concept and technique was continued for the accompanying single release artworks and, taking the creative concept to a fully immersive offering, Mat and the team also produced a set of animations for each of the releases for an installation at the album launch where the work was projected on huge immersive LED screens.

Calling For a Sign - Sub Focus 2023

Fine Day - Sub Focus (single cover)

I Found You - Sub Focus (single cover)

Vibrations - Sub Focus (single cover)

Mat continues, "So, this ‘evolutionary’ theme was also inherent in the creation of the final album cover imagery itself which we then took to its full conclusion by producing a ‘lenticular’ LP format where the images animate and evolve in front of your eyes. As GAN renders out thousands of images it was a process of curation with Nicolaas in deciding which frames were chosen for the artwork. Once we had decided on the isolated frames (for the main cover art) we then used the frames either side of this for the lenticular LP…which uses five separate images to create the ‘morph’."

The 'Evolve' lenticular album cover fills Art Vinyl’s album-artwork-archivist hearts with joy. It really is something to be seen in the flesh, morphing before your very eyes and epitomising the joy of owning the physical vinyl release. Another masterpiece of album artwork added to the Best Art Vinyl annals.

Lenticular LP of Sub Focus - Evolve by Big Active Design

Evolve by Sub Focus on EMI Records is shortlisted for the Best Art Vinyl 2023 Award. Art Direction by Mat Maitland - Big Active Design & Nicolaas Douwma. Artificial Intelligence by Claudia Rafael. Design by Mat Maitland - Big Active Design.

[longlistshort]

Above is Cara Despain's installation for the 2023 Florida Prize in Contemporary art at the Orlando Museum of Art. Her work feels especially timely with the recent release of Oppenheimer, a film about the scientist who led the effort to create the first atomic bomb. Her installation for this show is captivating- eerie glowing green glassware  surrounds the entrance to a mesmerizing video installation, Test of Faith, where atomic explosions fill three walls as a Mormon hymn plays.

The museum's information on the artist and her work-

Miami-based artist Cara Despain was born and raised in Salt Lake City, and the experience of growing up in the West informs much of her work. Through video, sculpture, photography, and installation she critiques a range of issues pertinent to the region that are also internationally relevant. These issues stem in part from the nineteenth-century concept of Manifest Destiny, the belief that Providence intended for American civilization to extend across the continent and benefit from all its yet untapped resources. That philosophy gave rise to such virtues associated with the character of the American West as optimism, independence, and self-reliance. It also engendered an unchecked hubris which has sometimes had tragic consequences. Among these unintended consequences are the human and environmental costs of atmospheric nuclear weapons testing from 1945-1962 which polluted vast areas of the West and inflicted disease and death on many of the region's residents. Being from this region and having family that lived there during those tests, Despain has long had a deep concern about lingering effects of this exposure for the people downwind.

Despain's two-part installation begins with six cabinets of glowing green glassware. This inexpensive Depression-era glass was popular for its vibrant green color. As a bonus, the glass is fluorescent and glows hauntingly in the dark under ultraviolet light. This seductive coloration is ominous, though, being produced by adding small amounts of uranium oxide to the glass mixture. While now we would not consider using radioactive dinnerware, Despain is demonstrating our once innocent relationship with this toxic element that made the atomic age possible.

The domestic, fragile uranium glass flanks the entrance to Test of Faith, an immersive video installation that is menacing and enthralling. The room is filled with a series of atomic explosions edited from vintage nuclear test footage from the Nevada Test Site, which was less than 150 miles from where her family in southern Utah originates. Projected simultaneously on three walls, billowing clouds in swirling tones of blue, green, and yellow build to a crescendo then fade before the next explosion. To heighten the darkly supernatural sensation, Despain shows each mushroom cloud divided in mirror form like Rorschach inkblots and we are left to see within these abstract patterns our own fears and trepidations. Accompanying this vision of cosmic destruction is the sound of the Mormon hymn "Love One Another" rising and falling in step with each detonation. The digitally altered synthetic timbre of the song completes the experience of facing the apocalypse and is reference to the insidious appeal to the assumed patriotism and obedient nature of the largely Mormon and ranching populations in the fallout region to support the testing.

Today, nuclear weapons testing may seem like a remote episode in American history associated with the Cold War and the once alarming spread of global Communism. Despain's work is intended to remind us that the nuclear threat is still present, with more nations than ever expanding their arsenals or developing and testing new weapons.

[jdpink]

[brianrope]

Mullins Conceptual Photography Prize (MCPP) 2024

Photography Review | Brian Rope Mullins Conceptual Photography Prize (MCPP) 2024 | Various artists Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre (MRAC) | 17 August – 12 October 2024 It is always difficult to review an exhibition such as this where the artworks are from numerous artists and the only connection is that they have been selected as finalists in a competition. In 2022, a piece in the…

[johnstreetdaydreams]

[artcentron]

Turner Prize Winner Jesse Darling Claims the Spotlight

Turner Prize Winner Jesse Darling takes the spotlight as he receives the coveted GBP 25,000 prize that honors his outstanding talent.

Jesse Darling, Turner Prize Winner with Delirious at Towner Easbourne. Photo: Victor Frankowski Turner Prize Winner Jesse Darling takes the spotlight as he receives the coveted GBP 25,000 prize that honors his outstanding talent. ARTCENTRON NEWS LONDON, UK-In a momentous ceremony at Eastbourne’s Winter Garden, adjacent to Towner Eastbourne, Jesse Darling was crowned the winner of the…

[mailmiocuoredipietratremaancora]

My reading logic: so, I should continue reading The Goldfinch, right? But maybe, just maybe, I could start Wallace's novel since it's shorter and I should read it anyway

*gets all excited*

I LOVE HIM SO MUCH WHY SHOULD I READ SOMETHING ELSE PLEEEEEASE

[mindfulstudyquest]

❥﹒♡﹒☕﹒ 𝗯𝗲 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿 ( 𝗮𝗰𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 !! )

𝟭. improve your writing skills ( ✒️ )

i feel that not everyone has the perception of how important it is to know how to write. you don't have to be a poet, nor the new emily brontë, but fluid, conscious, rich writing makes the difference. really. you could write a page without saying anything at all, but if that damn page is written good and smoothly, then you can be sure that you will get extra points. take the time to improve your writing skills, the best advice i have for doing so is reading. read as much as you can. read novels (non-fiction in this case doesn't help because the content is preferred rather than the form), read contemporary authors – you don't necessarily have to read sophocles' tragedies, but read quality stuff. expand your vocabulary, your knowledge of syntax, learn to use punctuation! and then write, tell stories, write love letters, write reviews of films, books, cultural festivals, open a blog on tumblr and write to practice, reread what you write ad nauseam, until it is perfect, until the form of your essay is pulitzer prize worthy.

bonus some of my favourite authors (tell me in the comments about yours!): ian mcewan, banana yoshimoto, haruki murakami, george orwell, josé saramago, albert camus, khaled hosseini, hanya yanagihara

𝟮. develop critical thinking ( 💭 )

if you have always studied passively by absorbing information and vomiting it onto a test sheet then you have wasted your time. taking on information is not enough, you need to know how to rework it and develop your own idea about it. especially in the arts and literature one may disagree with certain information provided by a textbook. developing critical thinking is not easy, especially due to the school system that teaches us to standardize thinking. always consult all available sources on a given topic, compare them, analyze contradictions. it might be difficult and tiring – our brain spends more energy processing two conflicting pieces of information than processing two pieces of information that agree – but it will be worth it. by practicing critical thinking and improving your argumentation skills, you will not only be able to improve in your studies, becoming able to present complex topics and make interdisciplinary connections, but also in daily life, you will become much less influenced and manipulated by external information.

𝟯. find yourself an interest ( 🌷 )

it could be anything, but find an interest that excites you and you enjoy and do research about it. watch videos, documentaries, read articles. it doesn't have to be school-related, it must be an external topic that you are passionate about and that allows you to rediscover the joy of studying and learning every time school seems to suffocate it. sometimes i'm not in the mood to study for exams, so i dedicate myself to my personal research and finally find my spark, my seek for knowledge. for example, my interest is true crime, it has always fascinated me since i was little, but yours could be wild animals, makeup, comics, ships, planes, ocean flora, literally anything. there is no constraint.

𝟰. analyze your mistakes and recognize your wrongs ( 🫒 )

there is no shame in making mistakes. everyone makes mistakes, we are human, but the real sin is getting bogged down in mistakes, refusing to acknowledge them, and continuing to make them again and again. we should be continually growing, continually discovering ourselves, both intellectually and emotionally. how many of you were the "gifted kid" when you were little and then grew up into burned out high school / uni students desperately seeking academic validation? there comes a time when talent isn't enough, you have to put in the effort, and this doesn't make you less intelligent or gifted, in fact, quite the opposite. dedicating time and attention to your personal and intellectual growth also means having to ruminate on your mistakes. it's scary, but it's the most effective way if you really want to improve. take a notebook and at the end of the day reflect on the highlights and the wrongs, what you could have done better, where you would like to push forward tomorrow, what you achieved today. did you make a mistake? first ask yourself why and then look for a way to solve the problem, make every bad moment a lesson, a brick on which to build the version of you you wanto to become tomorrow.

𝟱. don't be afraid of doing researches ( 🧃 )

the amount of fake news and misinformation online is appalling. opening any app like tiktok or instagram we are inundated with information that is often (not always, but not so rarely) inaccurate. don't be afraid to conduct your own research, if you have time to mindlessly scroll through tiktok you will also have five minutes to read an article regarding that information provided. don't know the meaning of a word? look it up before using it. not sure about a piece of information? check it before using it in your argumentation. in the age of immediate access to data we have no excuse to be superficial.

𝟲. master communication ( ♟️ )

mastering communication is essential in both personal and professional realms. it's the cornerstone of building meaningful relationships, whether it's conveying ideas effectively in academia or fostering connections in the workplace. developing strong communication skills not only enhances your ability to articulate thoughts but also empowers you to listen actively, empathize with others, and resolve conflicts constructively. ultimately, honing these skills cultivates confidence, credibility, and success in all aspects of life.

𝟳. push yourself out of your comfort zone ( 🧸 )

build your confidence. confidence is uncomfortable. don't be afraid of it. you are young, this is the right time to experiment, take risks, discover who you really are. this is the best time for you to do those things that you would otherwise never do, you don't want to regret later in life that you didn't accept that scholarship, that trip abroad, that job opportunity, because you didn't feel comfortable enough. do things that take you out of your comfort zone until everything becomes your comfort zone. go on solo dates, be a social butterfly, tell the girl at the bookstore you love her t-shirt, go to the theater alone, eat at a restaurant alone, take that trip. if it goes badly, you'll only have one funny story to tell.

𝟴. stay informed about the news (but not too much!) ( 🌍 )

this might be controversial, but: stay informed about the news, just don't overdo it. personally, i am an easily influenced person and i realized that being constantly exposed to the bad things happening in the world had drained me and made me terribly depressed. don't get me wrong, you need to be informed about what's happening in the world and in your country, just being constantly surrounded by horrible news repeated ad nauseam on TV programs is of no use. be aware.

[makingqueerhistory]

How to Read Now: Essays

Elaine Castillo

How to Read Now explores the politics and ethics of reading, and insists that we are capable of something better: a more engaged relationship not just with our fiction and our art, but with our buried and entangled histories. Smart, funny, galvanizing, and sometimes profane, Castillo attacks the stale questions and less-than-critical proclamations that masquerade as vital discussion: reimagining the cartography of the classics, building a moral case against the settler colonialism of lauded writers like Joan Didion, taking aim at Nobel Prize winners and toppling indie filmmakers, and celebrating glorious moments in everything from popular TV like The Watchmen to the films of Wong Kar-wai and the work of contemporary poets like Tommy Pico.

At once a deeply personal and searching history of one woman's reading life, and a wide-ranging and urgent intervention into our globalized conversations about why reading matters today, How to Read Now empowers us to embrace a more complicated, embodied form of reading, inviting us to acknowledge complicated truths, ignite surprising connections, imagine a more daring solidarity, and create space for a riskier intimacy--within ourselves, and with each other.

(Affiliate link above)

[siancore]

I’m a finalist in this year’s National Contemporary Art Prize. Go vote for my piece Purli Wilpinya if you’d like 🧡

[longlistshort]

“Neon Forest”, 2023

“Neon Forest”, 2023, another view

“Red Falls”, 2021

Above are sculptures by Akiko Kotani for the 2023 Florida Prize in Contemporary Art at Orlando Museum of Art.

Kotani’s Red Falls was part of Skyway 20/21 at USF Contemporary Museum, but it was a joy to see it again along with the 2023 sculptures White Falls and Neon Forest.

The museum’s information on the artist and her work-

As a young aspiring artist living in New York, Akiko Kotani discovered the expressive power of textile art while taking a weaving class at the YMCA Manhattan Weaving Workshop. The experience was life changing, leading her to continue her studies in Guatemala, a country with an exceptional textile art tradition. After two years in Guatemala, she returned to the United States to complete her MA in textiles at the Tyler School of Art in 1977.

In 1977 textiles were only beginning to achieve the status as an art form that they currently have in the contemporary art world. At the time the medium was widely associated with traditional and domestic crafts or as part of the fashion and décor industries. That view was starting to change, as demonstrated by the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s acquisition of one of Kotani’s works shortly after her graduation from Tyler. Since then, she has had a distinguished career as an artist exploring a variety of textile practices.

Kotani had been searching for ways to expand the scale of her work when in 2011 she received a grant from the Heinz Endowments and Pittsburgh Foundation which enabled her to pursue that ambition. The result was her first monumentally scaled sculpture, Soft Walls, a precursor of the works seen in the Florida Prize exhibition. Kotani has always used simple and direct methods of weaving and stitching to create her works. For Soft Walls she adopted a loosely woven crochet technique to produce long bands of material cut from white plastic garbage bags. Those bands were then combined to cover large free-standing walls. Kotani’s massive blocks of woven plastic have the elegant simplicity of minimalist sculpture, while the irregular knotting and soft, slumping fabric undermine the austere formalism of the work’s rectilinear shape.

Kotani’s process of crocheting plastic bags and other materials into long bands is an innovative development that has allowed her to create a variety of large-scale sculptural forms. White Falls and Neon Forest use these crocheted bands, draped in different ways to make sophisticated minimalist statements. Both sets of works are made livelier by how they respond to light. The thin plastic of White Falls shimmers like cascading water. The three fifteen-foot-high conical hangings of Neon Forest are a vibrant satin fabric with a sheen that sparkles in light.

Red Falls is a more ominous work. It is designed to come out of a corner, perhaps suggesting a crevice in a cliff or even an open wound. Made with red plastic bags used by hospitals for biological waste, Red Falls expresses Kotani’s concern for the plight of physically abused women. In fact, all Kotani’s work is in some way an expression of her concerns for women. Her use of textiles and the repetitive practice of weaving pays homage to the extraordinary achievements of women throughout history which have typically been undervalued by society.

[life-imitates-art-far-more]

Romaine Brooks (1874-1970) "Una, Lady Troubridge" (1924) Oil on canvas Located in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC, United States Una Troubridge was a British aristocrat, literary translator, and the lover of Radclyffe Hall, author of the 1928 groundbreaking lesbian novel, "The Well of Loneliness." Troubridge appears with a sense of formality and importance typical of upper-class portraiture, but with the sitter's prized dachshunds in place of the traditional hunting dog. Troubridge's impeccably tailored clothing, cravat, and bobbed hair convey the fashionable and daring androgyny associated with the so-called new woman. Her monocle suggested multiple symbolic associations to contemporary British audiences: it alluded to Troubridge's upper-class status, her Englishness, her sense of rebellion, and possibly her lesbian identity.

[brianrope]

Canberra Contemporary Photographic Prize 2024

Photography Exhibition Review Canberra Contemporary Photographic Prize 2024 | Various Artists Photo Access, Canberra | 13 – 29 June 2024 The 2024 Canberra Contemporary Photographic Prize is a competition and exhibition open to all photo-artists worldwide, aiming to highlight fresh viewpoints in Contemporary photography. The inaugural 2023 Prize exhibited all 72 submitted works, some of which…

[the-fiction-witch]

The Event

Media The Artful Dodger

Character Jack Dawkins

Couple Jack X Reader

Rating Smut

I stood as I frequently did, in the corner of the impressive room doing my best to be a lady observing my etiquette rules while remaining a wallflower not desiring anyone's attention. I avoided people as if they harboured an epidemic, I dodged everyone's gazes in the hope they would reciprocate such a gesture and avoid my own in turn. But people scrutinised me, my hair, my dress, my nails, all of which would be deemed unbecoming of a lady such as myself but I despised everything about how I dressed tonight, and wanted nothing more than to be back in my grungy overalls. I noticed often glares and gossip among themselves at my expense, I loathed being any type of subject and a subject of hypothesis was the worst thing to me. With a look, a smile, and a wrong-placed word everyone commences to make assumptions about you. 

They all knew I was getting too old to be unmarried, but I had little intention to do so, I disliked marriage even as a concept, but I knew the talk my dislike would stir in the general people of Port Victory, 

I disregarded such whispers and sipped my drink, my one prize for attending this mess, but I heard a voice which caused me to roll my eyes and my very soul hurt, if it had been socially acceptable and not caused a scene chitchatted over the bridge tables for the next year, I would have tossed my crystal glass and its contents into the face that homed that voice maybe the glass makes its way into his skin, I’d like to see him smirk and sweet talk himself out of that one, 

"Good evening Miss Y/l/n" He flirtatiously smiled as he joined my wall, 

"Good evening Dr Dawkins" I Glared darting for a path to try to escape this exchange,

"Another drink?"

"No thank you,"

“Aww, why not?”

“I don’t trust you.” I snapped,

“You trust anyone here?”

“...No,”

“Then I’m the most trustworthy here,” he winked, 

“By a thin grace Doctor,” I answered, 

“Fair enough” He chuckled, "Anyway, do exonerate myself for that of my so bolt words miss Y/l/n, despite that It has reached my engagement of yourselves contemporary negligence to chaperone, accompany let alone arrive to particular occurrences well documented on the social calendar.”

I grimaced at him, “You proud of yourself?”

“I admit a little.” He expressed with a cocky smile, “Took me bloody hours to remember that lot.” 

“Well, Pray tell, myself potentially desire yourself to maintain determined memorised vocabulary and phrasing, of aforesaid salutations and deteriorations, succeeding pleasantries of the day, as it rightly is the appropriate, reasonable and accurate manner in which we as guests and courtesies conveyed to articulate the manner of our specialities,” I smirked back, 

He looked at me like I’d just spoken Aramaic to him, “I ain’t that good.” He laughed as he sipped his drink. “There a translation of all that?”

“You best get good. It’s how we're meant to talk to each other.”

“Meant to doesn’t mean we have to.” 

“You wish to supply chatter to the masses?”

“I couldn’t give a toss,” he said, 

"Silence is the prevention of all talk, Dr Dawkins" I told him, 

"Indeed it is, seldom seen in this day" he laughed, “However, whether we talk or not even just me being stood here is enough to draw talk.”

“You’re correct. So you should go.”

“I think I’ll stay.”

“Why?”

“Give their boring arse’s something to talk about tonight after dinner.”

“I suppose,”

“Accept that we are talked about you and I both, we are both watched like hawks don’t you think bells toll when they see us together.” 

“It’s the sort of bells that worry me.”

“As do they worry me.” he said softly he took my hand and kissed it, “But I don’t want that to stop me from talking to a pretty girl like you y/n.”

“That’s sweet Jack, but I do not want to fuel talk,” 

"I understand, unmarried girl in conversation with an unmarried man. Unchaperoned, unwatched, alone in a quiet corner, Humm… they’d be rife with theories about us," he smirked,

"Precisely," I nodded, “And such theories are unwanted.”

“But not preventable Y/n.”

“Shouldn’t you be busy Jack?” I asked changing the subject, 

“Busy?”

“An Unmarried man such as yourself, attending such an event full of eligible ladies.”

“Eligible ladies? Oh, leave of it y/n.”

“I won’t, you know how they speak of you.”

“Humm Call me a siron, mutton monger…”

“The Bachelor confirmed a thousand times over.”

“Say’s the spinster,” he smirked, 

“So? Should one not be at least attempting to be seen as changing it? To be at least faking that you are talking to pretty young things?”

"I am,"

"You need a new wife Jack. They’ll talk forever if you don’t" I told him, “You don’t want them to call you a Bachelor forever do you?”

“I don’t know, I rather like it.” He said, “Then shouldn’t you be doing the rounds? Trying to trap yourself in a husband to make them stop calling you a spinster?”

“I rather like it, a certain pride in… remaining free and uncaptured so long.”

He chuckled, “Yeah, I feel that way too.” He nodded, 

“But… don’t you long for some pretty girl to warm your bed?”

“I have no issues in that regard, and we both know it.” He smirked his hand slipping behind my dress to move close and pinch my ass,

“Jack!” I whispered, 

“And I know you don’t have any… longing need for some pretty boy to warm your bed.”

“I do not know what you are referring to.” I answered playfully, 

“No?” he smirked moving closer to whisper, “Then I beseech you to articulate, whomsoever’s a faultless, flawless, adorable, precious, titillating, salacious, alluring, seductive, salacious, curved ass” He whispered spanking my ass with each adjective that left his lips, “That ensured did myself observe so elegantly, gracefully and exquisitely clambering herself to escape my bed at daylight?” 

“Perhaps one of our pretty girls,” I smirked back trying not to give myself away,

“So you're telling me I lift this dress? I won’t see the red sore cheeks, the bruising nail marks, the tender bite I left on… that girl, last night?” 

“Well, a man could never lift a lady's dress in such a public social event,” I said, 

“Yeah? Try me beautiful,” he smirked, his hand as sneakily as possible finding its way under my dress and he immediately stroked my ass, “Humm, right where I left you.” He smirked running his fingers across his bite mark from last night, even if I had to hide my excitement and my pain as his hand back on my red raw skin. “You wanna be prim and proper you go ahead Y/n, I have something to entertain me.” He smirked his hand giving my ass a firm spank before moving down between my legs, he stroked his fingers across my labia gathering wetness on his fingers, I shot him a glare but he merely smirked back at me, as his index and a middle finger found there way inside me, I gasped but did my best to hide my blushing face, looking across this high social event knowing the sort of trouble we’d be in if anyone saw us like this. The etiquette rules don’t even allow hand-holding and kissing in public let alone him shoving his fingers inside me. And I know him well enough to know this would not be the end of it, and he’d have me bent over the bar table if he could just to make a point. But he was merciless with me not helped by the smirk on his face only growing the longer this went on amused by my flustered reaction and attempts to keep up appearances. 

“Uhhh Jack-” I gasped, unable to hold back,

“Humm… think how it would fuel talk Y/n. I can hear it now, young ladies talking over bridge tables of the latest social event, discussing us. Asking one another if they too saw the devilish sight in a dark consorted corner of the party.” He growled in my ear close enough I could feel his breath, “How the charming captivating, ravishing, exquisite, Spinster Miss Y/l/n was attended panting and lamenting in the epicentre of the event, how all those in attendance at the event bore witness to her gagging the name of the bachelor doctor Dawkins, as his appendages where caught inside her most intimate place, pleasuring her, and satisfying her, so considerably that she commenced to trickle down her legs form a puddle on the newly waxed floor.” 

“I do hope you mean your fingers Jack.”

“We both know I don’t.” He growled kissing my jaw, “Now, either stand in front of me, bend over and be a good quiet little girl or let’s get out of here and I’ll raw dog you in the carriage instead?”

I forced his hand away quickly before I made more noise, “Carriage. Five minutes.” I demanded, going to fetch my coat. 

[brucesterling]

The Sharing Association is pleased to announce the 16th edition of the Share Prize, the competition dedicated to contemporary art focusing on technology and science.

The artworks nominated for the prize must follow the theme:

'ALL-NATURAL'

curated by Share Festival artistic director Bruce Sterling and curator Jasmina Tešanović

The platform invites artists from all over the world to submit their works.

Call for entries open from 12 April 2024 to 9 June 2024

The six prize nominees will be announced in July 2024. The announcement will be published on our website: www.toshareproject.it

The winner will be announced during the Share Festival Opening,in Turin from 28 October to 3 November 2024 during the Turin Contemporary Art Week.

Link website:

Link Call:

Link form:

Prize Summary: Winner gets 2500 euro prize Event date: April 12, 2024 to June 9, 2024 Location: Torino Deadline: 09/June/2024

"ALL-NATURAL"

Per la XVIII edizione di Share Festival vogliamo avanzare una proposta che sappiamo essere impossibile.

Qui nell'elegante Torino - città famosa per il suo caloroso sostegno verso ogni forma d'arte - non riusciamo a fare un respiro che non sia contaminato. Non è solo l'intera atmosfera del nostro pianeta a essere inquinata dai gas serra: a causa della sua eredità industriale e della sua peculiare situazione geografica, Torino si trova in una situazione particolarmente preoccupante per via dell'onnipresente foschia dovuta alle polveri sottili che includono metalli, prodotti della combustione e persino polveri agricole. Mentre voi leggete, noi stiamo respirando tutto questo.

Eppure, allo stesso tempo, la provincia piemontese è rinomata nel mondo per la sua dedizione all'artigianalità dello Slow Food, il cibo che nasce grazie alle varietà uniche di piante e animali presenti sul fertile suolo italiano.

Nel prossimo Festival vogliamo prendere di petto questa contraddizione e affrontarla attraverso il nostro mezzo d'elezione, l'arte tecnologica. Possiamo farla diventare un momento dialettico, invece che farla restare una mera contraddizione? Riusciremo a vedere della net-art plasmata sugli uccelli, gli insetti, le api e il paesaggio naturale e locale? Potremo interagire con robot fatti di legno, sculture digitali ricavate dal marmo e opere interattive composte da corni, canne, conchiglie, bambù, paglia, ossa, fossili o - ancor meglio - materiali naturali che rischiano di scomparire e interamente appartenenti alla regione da cui proviene l'artista?

"Difendere l'ambiente" non è sufficiente: questi materiali naturali saranno in grado di infiltrarsi nella sostanza innaturale del domani e prendersi la loro infestante, tremenda vendetta?

Fate del vostro meglio, per favore. Abbiamo bisogno di una boccata d'aria fresca!

Bruce Sterling, Direttore Artistico di Share Festival Jasmina Tesanovic, Curatrice di Share Prize

For the XVIII edition of Share Festival, we make this demand because we know it's impossible.

Here in glamorous Torino -- a city known for its cordial support of "every form of art" -- we can't take one natural, untainted breath. Not only is the planet's whole atmosphere polluted with Greenhouse gases -- here in Torino, thanks to our industrial heritage and our specific geographic climate, we're particularly badly off from an all-pervasive haze of PM2.5 micrometer pollution particles, including metals, combustion products and even agricultural dust. As you read this, we breathe that.

And yet, at the very same time, our Italian province of Piedmont is world-famous for its devotion to hand-crafted, artisanal "Slow Foods" grown from the unique plant and animal varieties of the fruitful Italian soil.

In our forthcoming Festival, we plan to tackle this contradiction headlong -- through our favorite medium of technology art. Can this become a dialectic instead of a contradiction? Can we witness net.art that is all about birds, bugs, bees and natural local landscapes? Can we interact with robots made of natural woods, sculptures digitally carved from marble, and interactive artworks composed of horn, reeds, seashells, bamboo, straw, bones, fossils, or better yet, severely imperiled natural materials entirely unique to the artist's own region in the world?

It's not enough to "defend the environment" -- how can natural materials infiltrate tomorrow's unnatural substance and take some terrible, weedy revenge? Please do your best for us. We need a breath of fresh air!

Bruce Sterling, Direttore Artistico di Share Festival Jasmina Tesanovic, Curatrice di Share Prize