Value of art

Art is an object with no utility, as the economists would say. The utility of a painting is zero. It has spiritual value, but no utility, like an orange, for instance, which gives you calories. So when you buy a painting, you are saying: "I am going to trade my hard work and sweat of my brow for something that is completely ephemeral and has no physical utility at all." Now when we trade with each other, we're assuming that we, as a group can determine the value of something that has no value - it is purely an agreement between conscious entities. That has to be highest expression of human economics, in a sense, and therefore it makes sense that art is the most expensive thing in the world.

Marc Glimcher

Gerhard Richter

1025 Farben

A train

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Junebug

Cynthia Freeland - BV

Emotions in life do not occur without cause; the idea of a 'pure
emotion' ripped from all context is self-contradictory. Abstracted,
emotions become curiosities, lacking the power to move us, symptoms
perhaps of madness.

Spaced Out

Malthus Redux: Is Doomsday Upon Us, Again?

Theoretically, there is enough acreage already planted to keep the planet fed forever, because 10 billion humans is roughly where the United Nations predicts that the world population will plateau in 2060. But success depends on portion control; in the late 1980s,Brown University's World Hunger Program calculated that the world then could sustain 5.5 billion vegetarians, 3.7 billion South Americans or 2.8 billion North Americans, who ate more animal protein than South Americans.

Others vigorously disagree. In their view, the world is almost endlessly bountiful. If food became as pricey as oil, we would plow Africa, fish-farm the oceans and build hydroponic skyscraper vegetable gardens. But they see the underlying problem in terms more Marxian than Malthusian: the rich grab too much of everything, including biomass.

NYT

Chaos breathes images for me

Francis Bacon

pon 25

Even when the sky is heavily overcast, the sun hasn't disappeared.
It's still there in the other side of the clouds.

Going Live

Let’s Not Get to Know Each Other Better

For my generation, casual is sexy, caring is creepy.

We’ve grown up in an age of rampant divorce and the accompanying tumult. The idea that two people can be happy together, maturing alongside each other, seems as false as a fairy tale. So when a relationship ends, it isn’t seen as bad. It’s held as evidence that the relationship was never any good to begin with.

NYT

Vanarra, Aboss, Savannah

Mechanical Art Production Platform

Nick Sears

Crosby

Mira Aldridge