Astroturfing? Fauxtography?

Origin:
The term "astroturf" is a play on "grassroots". "Grassroot movements" arise organically through the people. "Astroturfing", then, is artificial grassroots,  fake grassroots.
Verb: astroturf: 1 to join an online discussion pretending to be an independent member of the community but is in fact a surrogate for some stakeholder - company, political faction, individual - who has something to gain or lose.
Astroturfing: Wikipedia:

Astroturfing is a form of advocacy often in support of a political or corporate agenda designed to give the appearance of a "grassroots" movement. The goal of such campaigns is to disguise the efforts of a political and/or commercial entity as an independent public reaction to some political entity—a politician, political group, product, service or event. The term is a derivation of AstroTurf, a brand of synthetic carpeting designed to look like natural grass.

Astroturfers attempt to orchestrate the actions of apparently diverse and geographically distributed individuals, by both overt ("outreach", "awareness", etc.) and covert (disinformation) means. Astroturfing may be undertaken by an individual promoting a personal agenda, or highly organized professional groups with money from large corporations, unions, non-profits, oractivist organizations. Very often, the efforts are conducted by political consultants who also specialize in opposition research. Beneficiaries are not "grass root" campaigners but distant organizations that orchestrate such campaigns.

Bottom line: another way to tell lies, indoctrinate, and manipulate people.
Fauxtography click here.

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Post for dog-people

An unusual silence is the reception you get one day when you enter home. You call his/her name and no reply. You get worried fearing something might have happened and you search the house when you enter the bedroom you come across with the scene of the picture.

"What on earth... grr... how can you... Bad dog! Bad dog!"

You are angry, very angry and think that pets are horrible, horrible. "I hate..."

You'll go to the kitchen and get something to drink cause you're thirsty and "well... that coach needed to be repaired and maybe a new one would be better. S/he is an animal and have some instincts that are... oh! I love this creature so dearly!"

"I should not have overreacted but I'll wait half an hour to talk to him/her or I'll lose my credibility."

"arf... arf... what's taking him so long? arf... arf... arf..."

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English characters changed?

Maybe it is not a good idea to have more interesting characters or... I don't know.

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Knitting and embroidering famous painting masterpieces

The group "The Materialistics" based in UK have recreated 50 masterpieces that enchanted the world. Works of famous artists like Kandinsky, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Andy Warhol, Vermeer, Piet Mondrian, Rossetti, Klimt, Picasso, Munch were redone through knitting, embroidery and crochet and started being exhibited last November at The Customs House in South Shields, has been presented in other cities and is gaining international recognition.

They name the creations based on the original title so "The Scream" by Munch is turned into "The Seam"; "Girl with Pearl earring by Vermeer" recreated becomes " Girl with the Purled Earring" and so on.

Some of the recreations are done in weeks but others can take months.

Executive director Ray Spencer said: “Our work with The Materialistics stems from our belief art should be inclusive, not elitist."

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The Kiss by Gustav Klimt

(right picture: detail)

I thought that I had to publish "The Kiss", 1908, by Klimt even thou it is very famous but since Munch's painting is at the post below it is easier to compare them.

I could swear that the couple is the same in another place shrouded in gold on a bed made of flowers.

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Munch's The Kiss: "I try to dissect souls"

Right: The Kiss, 1895. etching

Left: The Kiss, 1897. painting

These are two versions of Munch's "The kiss" that inspired Gustav Klimt's famous painting with the same title.

Some of Munch's quotations explain not only his intentions, and the expressionist attitude, but also distance him from impressionism:

"No longer shall I paint interiors, and people reading, and women knitting. I shall paint living people who breathe and feel and suffer and love."

"Certainly a chair can be just as interesting as a human being. But first the chair must be perceived by a human being... You should not paint the chair, but only what someone has felt about it."

"Just as Leonardo da Vinci studied human anatomy and dissected corpses, so I try to dissect souls."

"I do not paint what I see, but what I saw."

Edward Munch

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Auguste Renoir: "your favorite painting is at a private collection"

Right: Self-portrait, 1910

Left: Woman with a necklace, 1910

I was searching for Renoir's paintings that I do not know and I noticed that many of his paintings are at private collections including the two above and some that I have published.

At this site there is a list of Renoir's paintings with the indication of their whereabouts and 47 are at private collections at the hands of people who might not even admire the artist and have them as a way to show how wealthy and powerful they are. The real number of Renoir's paintings at private collection I did not find yet and what these 47 have in common is that they were all done in 1910.

This is really sad thinking that these paintings are in the possession of people who seldom look at them and are maybe storing them in an ambient that might not be appropriate for conservation.

But this is the market of art and there is nothing to be done about it but it is amazing that the name of those who possess what is world's heritage is not known facilitating the black marketing of famous works of arts that are stolen.

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Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings are historical events

I do not know why some historical events are more remembered than others.

These are photos of Hiroshima today and this is what matters.

This is the history:

"August, 6 1945 -About 140,0000 of Hiroshima's 300,000 residents died from the bombing, including those who died from radiation-linked illnesses.

Everybody and everything within 500 yards of where the bomb fell was vaporised.

Another atomic bomb dropped three days later over the Japanese city of Nagasaki killed at least 74,000 people by the end of year.

The bombings brought about an abrupt end to the war in Asia - but critics said Japan had already been on the brink of surrender.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki were rebuilt soon after the war and have become important industrial centres."

It is history.

That is it. Have a great Saturday!

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The insanely astonishing universe of Karin Taylor

This is magical, fantastic, incredible, incredibly beautiful, so cute, these colors!, childhood, elephant in my garden!, amazing, and so many words pop in your head while you are browsing Karin Taylor's portfolio.

She is an Australian artist that masters many techniques that she uses to make her pieces of incredible magical universes.

She also has a blog where she wrote:

"Drawing is what gives me peace of mind, and i think that's the gift I share with the world. I am so fortunate to be able to share my heart and my thoughts through my art.

The other day, i had this little revelation, that when a pencil is available to me, it's like having a microphone in my hand. I get to say, feel, express and outwardly share what i feel in my innermost parts and dreams, I'm so enjoying this process. I'd forgotten how good it felt."

Not only a great artist, what a great woman! Go, go... Take a look at her portfolio!

Pictures Copyright

© all rights Karin Taylor

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Art and reality dialog

Right: Your blind passanger, 2010, by Olafur Eliasson

Left: Tai-Chi in a fog day in China

I just found out the installation, right picture, of the artist Olafur Eliasson. The "installation is a 90-meter-long densely fogged tunnel in which museumgoers are forced to use senses other than sight to navigate and orient themselves within the space."

I instantly remember the left picture I have saved some months ago, unfortunately I do not remember the site, of Chinese people doing Tai-Chi in a fog day.

According to Olafur Eliasson:

“For me Utopia is tied to our ‘now’, to the moment between one second and the next. It constitutes a potential that is actualized and transformed into reality; an opening where concepts such as subject and object, inside and outside, proximity and distance are thrown up in the air only to be defined anew. Our sense of orientation is challenged, and the coordinates of our spaces, collective and personal, have to be renegotiated. Mutability and motion lie at the core of Utopia.” Olafur Eliasson

Would you prefer to do Tai-Chi. go to the museum and cross the 90 meters installation or do both?

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