Jarrar is participating in this year’s 7th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art (on view until July 1, 2012, free entrance) with a further aspect of the project that uses another official sign: postage stamps. In utilizing the Deutsche Post AG service called “individual stamp”, the artist produced stamps for the State of Palestine to be used in the regular mail. More than 20,000 stamps have been sold so far. Used on letters and postcards, they have circulated worldwide. Central element of the design is the Palestine Sunbird. It embodies the wish to create an open, independent country guaranteeing freedom to everyone to carry one’s life in one’s hand.

Jarrar’s passport and postage stamps tell the story of a state-to-be. But reality goes against him and other Palestinians. Instead of continuing again and again the discussion about a one- or two-state solution, using these stamps is a simple gesture that helps to create normality.

Read an interview with the artist by David Miller here.

You can buy the stamps at the counter of the 7th Berlin Biennale. To order stamps please contact fz@berlinbiennale.de. Against a small surcharge, the standard stamps of 0,55 Euro were produced with the “individual stamp” service of Deutsche Post AG and are valid for regular mailing. One sheet of 20 stamps costs 16 Euro (plus additional shipping fee for mail order of 1,45 Euro). Stamps are sold by sheet only.

To make it worthwhile your time, you get the chance to win a year’s subscription of mono.kultur (4 issues). As always, thank you for your support.

The owners of Type bookstore in Toronto (call: + 416 366-8973) put their shelves to life. Is this a video response to Spike Jonze’s Mourir Auprès de Toi? Or an appendix to Anthony’s Bookshelf Porn?

Anyway, nice ad!

Trikoton, created in Berlin, is more than just a fashion label: as an interdisciplinary team, trikoton explores new ways of generative design and interactive production processes. Trikoton transfers voices into clothes, giving them a poetic touch.

Trikoton’s limited editions are available in selected shops in Berlin (other stores here):
Trikoton Showroom, Manteuffelstrasse 48, 10999 Berlin
Temporary Showroom, Kastanienallee 36a, 10435 Berlin
Zehnle von Langsdorff, Oderbergerstrasse 51, 10435 Berlin

Company Background

“Frank Adorno III founded Adorno Construction in 1988, one of the structural concrete construction leaders. In addition to doing structural concrete construction, Adorno Construction, Inc. also creates decorative concrete surfaces.”

Call today and find out more about Adorno : +1 408 369-8675

mono.archiv #01 – containing issues mono.kultur #1 to 15, a whopping 14 of which are out of print:

Carsten Nicolai
Frank Leder
Nine Inch Nails
Zeruya Shalev
M. Cattelan, M. Gioni, A. Subotnick
François Ozon
Matias Faldbakken
Wolfgang Voigt
David Shrigley
Bahman Ghobadi
David LaChapelle
Richard Powers
GZA / Wu-Tang Clan
David Adjaye
Taryn Simon

When Disney Productions released TRON in 1982, it was way ahead of its time for a major audience. It became a big success among geeks and young males who like video games. When Disney decided to make a sequel with TRON – Legacy they wanted to prepare to not let this happen again. Promotion and marketing for this film started as early as three years ago, on the 2008 Comic-Con convention, creating an early hype in the internet and publicity through “leaked” information and trailers. TRON – Legacy will be released in 3D in December 2010.

Check out here.

A while back I posted a video showing a vision of ‘augmented reality’, in which ordinary people can earn money by allowing themselves to be immersed in advertising material.

But as compelling as dystopian fantasies can be, it is wonderful to see technology put to anti-commercial uses once in a while. The Artvertiser is an augmented reality project that allows you to look through a set of binoculars that replace advertisements with artworks. Once the software is trained to recognise a certain advertising image, the binoculars replace it with a chosen artwork regardless of whether the image appears on a billboard, in a magazine, or any other place.

The developers of the software are working on a version that is compatible with mobile phone technology. But they shouldn’t stop there. They should team up with the team of engineers at the University of Washington, who have used microscopic scale manufacturing techniques to combine a flexible contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights. It won’t be long before we are able to superimpose a high-resolution display over our field of vision.

You could see art everywhere instead of seeing advertising everywhere. Yes.