Adam Gilfix, Brian de Luna, and Luke Heine, with the help of Dealroom.co, have created a very interesting data visualization tool for Venture Capital (VC) flows.
I know for a fact and from experience that VC activity in places like Silicon Valley, NY, Boston, or London is big. But even when I go back home (Valencia – Spain) for the holidays, there are all kinds of “VC” events, news, meetings, spaces… which, given the conservative and provincial nature of the “Valencian Investors” I have met, surprises me.
I have often criticized artists who hide behind “my work speaks for itself” or “it’s up to the viewer to interpret my work”. Nice try, but that’s bullshit.
Of course, anyone can interpret anything when exposed to an artwork! But the artist should at least make an attempt to explain the meaning behind a piece. No matter how self-explanatory (or obscure) it might be. It’s not “restricting the viewer”, it’s guiding; suggesting is not imposing.
INTERVIEW with JORGE CORTELL, curator
By Airida Rekštytė – November 4, 2016
According to your profound theoretical education (sic) it will not be difficult to present us in short your intentions for organizing this event.
When did the idea of making this exhibition occur and what inspired it?
I have spent years as activist defending free software and online privacy, and opposing censorship.
During a dinner with the director of an event that focuses on those themes (the Internet Freedom Festival, also known as Circumvention Festival), I told him how it would be a nice challenge to try to convey the main messages of the Festivals themes into an art exhibition.
The other day I received a letter from Buckingham Palace, inviting me to have dinner with the Duke of York (Prince Andrew) on Thursday at Windsor Castle.
I was curious to see the castle from the inside: it is a medieval style fortress, filled with military memorabilia (guns, swords, lances, armors…), banners and crests. It was more Game of Thrones than Harry Potter.
The reception was held at the Grand Reception Room.
The last few days have been quite hectic. So much so that I`m going to “bundle” them into one or two very heterogeneous posts.
By the end of September I had to attend a few events, like being invited to a member of Microsoft`s Partner Advisory Council (we held the first meeting at the InterContinental London Park Lane Hotel), or an E2E networking dinner at Charlotte Street Hotel:
Tuesday October 4 I travelled to Paris to meet a South American Vice-minister of Health in IBM France:
Saturday, September 17, was my last day in San Francisco, and the only one I had with some spare time.
After breakfast, I went to but some gifts from Japan Town and then headed to Union Square, for the Korean Day (Chuseok) culture festival.
Then I went to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts to check out Tom Sachs _Space Program: Europa_. As I feared, after the failure of _Sony Outsider,_ Tom Sachs obsession with demonstrating his hand-made “bricolage style” continues.
Wednesday, September 14 I spent the whole day at K&L Gates, one of the largest law firms in the world, which has customers like Microsoft (the “Gates” in K&L Gates is for Bill Gates’ father), Amazon, etc.
It was a typical upscale law firm setup: expensive video conference equipment and giant screens (I liked their “rear projector and mirror” trick) in a high-rise building with impressive views, and some art, like the “flying dildos” in reception.
