(Roughly) Daily

In the grand tradition of Boggs (i.e., J.S.G. Boggs, whom pre-blog readers will recall), artist Caleb Larsen has created “A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter– Perpetual online auction, internet connection, custom programming and hardware, acrylic cube.”

Combining Robert Morris’ “Box With the Sound of Its Own Making” with Baudrillard’s writing on the art auction this sculpture exists in eternal transactional flux. It is a physical sculpture that is perpetually attempting to auction itself on eBay.

Every ten minutes the black box pings a server on the internet via the ethernet connection to check if it is for sale on the eBay. If its auction has ended or it has sold, it automatically creates a new auction of itself.

If a person buys it on eBay, the current owner is required to send it to the new owner. The new owner must then plug it into ethernet, and the cycle repeats itself.

This work is discussed in the catalogue for The Value of Nothing, a 2009 exhibition.
Buy or download it.

Follow the current auction here.

TotH to GMSV.

As we wistfully imagine being able to recycle our Hirsts or our Koons, we might turn to our neighbors and and urge them to “Sock it to me!”, as it was on this date in 1968 that Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In premiered on NBC.  The series had been spawned by a successful special– in effect, R&M’s homage to Olsen and Johnson (especially Hellzapoppin)– that had aired nine months earlier; in a bittersweet irony, it replaced The Man from U.N.C.L.E. on Monday’s at 8:00p in the Peacock’s schedule.

source: rowanandmartinslaughin.com