Category Archives: New Utopia

If you wonder what the future will look like, you have the chance to explore a special exhibition that presents a view of our world 50 years from now.

Dystopia/Utopia:2070 at the Caloundra Regional Gallery is on show until March 20.

Curated byartisan, a Queensland craft and design organisation, and toured with the assistance of the Australian Governments Visions of Australian program,Dystopia/Utopia: 2070is artists responses to future scenarios as posed by speculative fiction.

Curator Kevin Wilson said the exhibition looked far into an uncertain future and featured the works of seven artists, chosen for their willingness to push their practice into unknown realms.

Charlotte Haywood, in her work VIRIDITAS, createsanassemblage of a host and many other species living in or around it.

The diverse body of work combines sculpture, jewellery, small objects, installation and text, and offers an experience where visitors can explore what a future world may have in store for us, Mr Wilson said.

There is an extensive augmented reality component to the physical works, providing a deeper insight into each piece.

Through augmented reality we can also talk directly to visitors about the work, something that normally only occurs in a one-off curator tour.

The exhibition also comes with an education kit, which covers the school curriculum from upper primary through secondary and is a great resource for teachers.

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Sunshine Coast Council Division 2 Councillor Terry Landsberg said that when planning for the future, Council always had to consider future scenarios from all angles.

Christine Atkinss workCtrl+S showcases adystopian future where extreme global warming has occurred.

Dystopia/Utopia:2070 will give us an insight through a different lens and Im sure will provide a fascinating perspective of 2070, he said.

Im particularly delighted to see the educational component on offer with this exhibition.

The gallery does a wonderful job providing exhibition-related activities for children of all ages and this curriculum-based digital experience adds a fresh new element to engage youth in art.

Caloundra Regional Gallery Manager and Curator Jo Duke said the gallery had a diverse and engaging public program and events line-up for 2022.

As well as our nine engaging exhibitions featuring leading artists, we present aligned events including artist workshops, exhibition tours, online artist talks and up-late events, she said.

Our programs are developed for a diverse audience and community and school group tour bookings are welcomed.

The Swing, by Susan Lincoln, is a nature inspired meditative space created from transparent and light reflecting materials.

Caloundra Regional Gallery is open Tuesday to Friday 10am4pm and Saturday and Sunday 10am2pm and can be found at 22 Omrah Avenue, Caloundra. Entry to the gallery is free and the space is accessible to wheelchairs and strollers.

For more information on COVID Safe practices at the Gallery visit Sunshine Coast Council Caloundra Art Gallery Covid Update. Visitors and artists can find information at Sunshine Coast Council Caloundra Art Gallery.

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What will 2070 look like? Scenarios go on show - Sunshine Coast News

A new compilation album with all the theme songs from the Date A Live franchise will appear on April 13, 2022. Nippon Columbia will gather songs from prior series titles in this album. It will include tracks from the first three anime seasons, theMayuri Judgement movie, theDate A Bullet OVA, and the visual novel games.

As a refresher, Compile Heart has made four Date A Live visual novels to date. The third game Rio Reincarnation is immediately available worldwide on PC and PlayStation 4. It also includes the first two titles Rinne Utopia andArusu Install. The fourth game, Ren Dystopia, is currently only available on PlayStation 4 in Japan.

Heres the full tracklist for the upcoming Date A Live compilation album:

Date A Live originated from a series of light novels that ran in Japan from 2011 to 2020. Yen Press began releasing official English versions of the books in February 2021. As of this writing, it has released four volumes. The fifth and sixth English volumes will appear on March 22, 2022, and June 21, 2022, respectively.

The Date A Live theme song compilation album will release in Japan on April 13, 2022. It will have a price tag of 2,750 yen (~$23.85). Nippon Columbia will release the album to mark the launch of the newest anime season, Date A Live IV. It will start airing on Japanese television in April 2022.

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Date A Live Compilation Album Will Appear in April 2022 - Siliconera

Have you ever wondered about the internet in 2035 and how different it could be? A report from Pew Research Center shares what experts believe.

A total of 434 technology innovators, developers, business and policy leaders, researchers and activists provided open-ended responses to this question:

We invite you to imagine a better world online: What is one example of an aspect of digital life that you think could be different in 2035 than it is today? We invite you to create a vignette of something you would like to see taking place in a new and improved digital realm in 2035. Your example might involve politics or social activities or jobs or physical and mental health or community life or education. Feel free to think expansively and specifically.

Here are some of the ideas:

Its a 100-page report and the above is only a sampling. The full report goes into more detail about each theme. Of course, its not visions of utopia. Joseph Turow, professor of media systems and industries at the University of Pennsylvania, believes that true contextual advertising will become the norm:

The best kind of paid internet messaging in 2035 would be a sophisticated version of contextual advertising. That would involve using machine learning and deep neural network programs to examine what a person is reading, hearing or viewing on a site or app, and then to serve an ad for a product or service that seems to complement, supplement, or in some other way relate to the persons interests based on that content.

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These Experts Have a Vision for the Internet in 2035 - The Mac Observer

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Lana Z Caplan remembers 2018 very well, in every frustrating and confusing detail.

Everything was just a barrage of negativity all the time so everyone has this constant necessity to kind of self-regulate and find a balance amongst the enormous kind of chaos of our life, Caplan said.

This state of constant self-regulation and searching for balance led to the creation of Caplans 2019 film Autopoiesis, one of five films that will be a part of Light Works Urban Video Project No Emoji for Ennui. The exhibition delves into themes like the ones Caplan explores: frustration at a world oversaturated with technology and the apathy that comes from attempting to show emotion from behind a screen.

Along with Caplans work, films from Matt Whitman, Ross Meckfessel and Alison Nguyen will make up No Emoji for Ennui. From Jan. 27 until March 26, the films will be projected onto the Everson, starting with Caplans work. On Feb. 24, a screening of all the films will take place in the Shaffer Art Buildings Shemin Auditorium.

In 2009, Light Work assumed programming responsibility for the Urban Video Project, which collaborates with the Everson Museum of Art to bring films and artists to Syracuse. UVP works are projected onto the north facade of the Everson designed by I.M. Pei since it has a 16:9 aspect ratio, the same as HD video.

The goal of the UVP is to support underrepresented artists that work in fields like experimental film, video art and other electronic mediums, said Anneka Herre, the director of UVP and an instructor in the department of film and media arts at Syracuse University. Herre said she hopes the different mediums within No Emoji for Ennui can help project a widely held concern in an unexpected way.

(The exhibit is) at that kind of cutting edge where people, when they encounter it, arent going to know quite what to do with it, Herre said. That will always be important, that pushing of the envelope, formally or in terms of the content. (It) will always be an aspect of experimental film.

In Autopoiesis, Caplan questions the cost of a utopia, a concept that she said can never be achieved, by synthesizing a variety of content, including screen recordings of a hypnotism video, video games and clips of athletes. Much of the film came from screen recordings Caplan made, including of skiers in the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics. Caplan an assistant professor at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo uses the film to comb through a number of themes, including utopia, hashtag activism and nationalism.

Whitman is also be one of the artists to have work featured in No Emoji for Ennui, with two of their Super 8 films, HOW MUCH LONGER (ON BALLOONS) and CANT ANSWER YOU ANYMORE (ON FACES) being a part of the exhibition.

Whitman said they became inspired to create these works after the 2010s left him emotionally exhausted due to dealing with the loss of many close friends and family members. They became fascinated with how humans had replaced complex and nuanced emotions like grief or anger with emojis that could not possibly relate to the complexity of those emotions.

The perverseness of that like, Im just gonna click and Okay, now Im like Im sad. Im grieving with you click and just how weird that felt. But normalized, too, Whitman said.

Whitmans work aligns with the title of No Emoji for Ennui as he takes a critical look at the use of emojis and function in our society through their work.

Behind each of those emojis is like a human, you know, a human face, a human emotion and a complexity that isnt addressed in the symbol itself, Whitman said. But in considering how we can find languages and syntax that maybe is even more equitable than text-based writing in some instances.

Published on January 31, 2022 at 11:25 pm

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'No Emoji for Ennui' questions the cost of utopia in new Light Work exhibit - The Daily Orange

Earlier this week, Grimes dropped her new single "Shinigami Eyes" - a club stomper which serves as a prelude to her upcoming space opera album 'Book 1.' In this FRONTPAGE interview, she spins us her vision of the future.

The first time I saw Grimes was, incidentally, the last time she was able to wear high heels.

It was the summer of 2014, and the artist otherwise known as Claire Boucher was cresting the wave of alternative music stardom that began in earnest with the release of her 2012 album Visions. Like pretty much everyone I knew at the time, I adored this record, but I held a special obsession for its lead single Genesis. I would have paid to see her live show for that song alone, so you can imagine my chagrin when she ended her otherwise perfect set at Governors Ball without playing it. I stared at the vacant stage in disbelief attempting to console myself when she suddenly darts back to the microphone and sheepishly blurts Oh my God you guys, Im so sorry. I completely forgot to play Genesis, at which point I burst into tears as she tore into the encore of my dreams.

I regale her with this story and she affirms that she remembers that moment deeply: It was a life-changing event, that moment. I was wearing platform shoes, and on the way running back out I tripped on a light and twisted my ankle so badly that I have never been able to wear high heels again.

Learning that my moment of transcendent joy ruined her future in stilettos is devastating, but she seems to have (quite literally) taken it in stride: Tall shoes are overrated. Its been a process of accepting my height. Whatever everything happens for a reason.

In the few short years since that fateful performance, Grimes has gone from an indie darling little known outside Pitchforks readership to a pop culture juggernaut; a household name who cant even post a TikTok without launching a thousand think pieces. She released two more albums 2015s Art Angels and 2020s Miss Anthropocene to international acclaim and has dropped untold musical goodies in scores of DJ sets and mixes. She entered the NFT game with a multimedia project titled War Nymph Collection Vol 1 and served as a judge on the virtual avatar competition show Alter Ego. She brought a sword to the Met Gala, and she continues to hold the world in thrall with her unparalleled social media presence. And perhaps most important of all, she became a mother, giving birth to X A-12 in 2020.

Which is all to say, its unsurprising to hear that the inspirations behind the next Grimes opus are as varied, ambitious, and cosmically huge as everything else she has going on. Basically, I'm writing this space opera that's a metaphor of my life and also an exploration of an extreme 10,000 years in the future, a sort of optimistic technocratic utopianism, she rattles out effortlessly.

The space opera in question is her upcoming sixth studio album titled Book 1, which will feature the recently released song Player of Games. But weve come together to chat specifically about Shinigami Eyes, an absolute banger which officially dropped this week. Its title is derived from the anime Death Note, wherein the titular eyes grant you the power to see someones lifespan upon looking at them, but its merely a jumping off point in the universe of Grimes album. Without going [too] into the story, she begins, There's a computer that is essentially running a simulation of Earth in something closer to our era, and there's a superintelligence that decides to send a virus into this simulation, for fun. Shinigami's kind of like this AI, because in Death Note, the Shinigami are outside, looking in at the Earth and the people, and being like, We're just going to go into the human world and troll around a bit.

[Its] a metaphor for superintelligence, essentially, she continues. There is no difference between an AI and a god, like what gods or demons are in mythology - its kind of the same thing. One of the really interesting things that is occurring in reality is that the mythology we once imagined can potentially come to fruition by our own hands.

Though Shinigami Eyes is no longer going to be featured on Book 1 (appearing instead on a forthcoming EP titled Fairies Cum First as a prelude to the album), it exemplifies one of the more unique elements of Bouchers current era: working with other people. Somewhat infamously, her early projects were created on Garageband in manic bursts of activity alone in her bedroom. For an artist whose work thus far has been entirely self-produced and released, it was a massive cognitive explosion to open her compositional process up this go-round. Traditionally, I've always just made my own music, she explains. I never worked with anybody else. I was being an egomaniac thinking that I should produce everything. I don't know what the fuck I was thinking.

That's your 20s, she continues. You just need to be a control freak. I was so insane back then, but I wanted to create something that no one could take away from me. I didn't want to have to rely on anybody to have Grimes exist. That's ultimately a good thing.

Boucher readily admits that relinquishing control became something of a godsend during the recording process. She signed to Columbia Records in 2021, and she had the full force of their support during production. It was inevitably thanks to them that we even have Shinigami Eyes. I probably would not have picked this as my single, she laughs. But it's like I tried to remove Oblivion and Genesis from Visions. I'm incapable of understanding what people enjoy. I am at odds with human beings in terms of taste, so I have no capacity to choose a single whatsoever.

I am respectfully inclined to agree that her calculus in measuring a singles appeal may not be the most keen, but on a conceptual level, Boucher has rarely reached such heights of complexity in the messages attached to this era of music. Nor has she ever felt so assured of her purpose. [In terms of] my goal as an artist I used to be confused about what I was trying to do, she says. I was like, Well, I always want to try to do things that someone else hasn't done. But I feel now that my goal is to open the window as much as possible to push things into being conceptualized in the public eye that aren't currently there.

I would like to create science fiction that is more accessible, she continues forcefully. There's a lot of information that needs more accessible funneling into society so that more people can engage with some of the things that are happening in technology. There simply isn't enough utopianism in our culture right now. And I think we have a moral imperative as human beings to start imagining better futures. [Particularly those] with superintelligences, because its going to happen whether we like it or not.

Considering her last album Miss Anthropocene was told from the perspective of a goddess of climate change gleefully heralding our mass extinction, the thematic tone of Book 1 is a complete about-face. Yet its surely no coincidence that her focus gazes on a more livable future a little over a year after becoming a mother. Little X, as she refers to her son, has led to a totemic shift in priorities: It changes everything. Like, a massive, undeniable, absolutely 200 percent change. Holy shit. [Its been] a complete and utter life realignment in every conceivable way the cynicism or darkness I used to have is just gone.

X has also been getting involved in the studio: He comes and hangs out when I make music, she laughs. He has preferences, its kind of crazy. It's like you'll be working on something, and if he likes it, he might try to dance. He's got slightly different taste in music than me, which is literally insane. He really likes funk music, and I'm like, Dude, I do not listen to funk music! He's an interesting guy

(So if not funk music, what has Grimes been listening to lately? The answer may surprise you: I'm so into elevator music. I swear to God. If you just put on elevator music in any scenario, you feel fucking great. Corporate America destroyed elevator music's reputation, and now it's time to reclaim it.)

Theres a clear through line in the wonder of creation in the current worlds of both Grimes and Claire Boucher she discusses her son and the birth of superintelligence as sharing the qualities of coming into the world with a set of personalities that we cant anticipate.

But I imagine I am not alone in finding the dawn of the age of AI beings as hard to conceive in anything but apocalyptic terms. It was what made me so disarmed and extremely comforted by her analysis:

We're at the very beginning of what consciousness can be, of what a thinking machine or a thinking organism can be. We are currently sort of like the only one. We are on a precipice where there might be other beings that can think, that don't think in exactly the same biologically structured way that we do. We're starting to choose our own evolution; that is literally intelligent design. I think that's the most beautiful thing I can possibly imagine.

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Tales of the Future: Grimes Takes Us Into Her Technocratic Utopia - Highsnobiety

Ahead of Chinese New Year, China released a new video that shows Tianwen-1 Mars Orbiter flying around the Martian lands.

The country's National Space Administration unveiled this selfie clip as part of the celebration for the Year of the Tiger.

(Photo : WANG ZHAO/AFP via Getty Images)Ahead of Chinese New Year, China released a new video that shows Tianwen-1 Mars Orbiter flying around the Martian lands.

According to a report by Ars Technica,the visual highlights of the video involved the space probe's fuel tanks, solar panels, and main engine. The fact that it was roaming on a foreign planet was not a new task for this machine.

China first sent it to space in July 2020. In February 2021, it successfully entered Mars orbit. The space program recognized the said spacecraft in a special feat. It was the first vehicle that reached the planet's orbit for the first time.

The accomplishment of China put it on the prestigious list of countries that managed to touch down on the red planet using a space robot. To add, Tianwen-1 was not an ordinary invention, to begin with. It came with a rover-lander bundle thattouched the Martian soil last May 2021.

In the next five years, China will integrate space science, technology, and applications while pursuing the new development philosophy, building a new development model, and meeting the requirements for high-quality development," the white paper of the Chinese space program reads.

Related Article: China's Tianwen-1 Mars Rover Snaps First Photo of the Eerie Red Planet Amid Challenging Entry

The Verge reported in another story that China was known for being "fairly opaque" about its space missions. The country only publicized minor information about its flights in space.

The recent selfie video that showed Tianwen-1's activity was not the first clip to be released for the public. Last month, the team captured images of the Martian terrain through the vehicle.

Furthermore, the Mars Orbiter also snapped photos of itself in the same region through a camera attached to another vehicle. The said vehicle was protected by a shell-like feature.

In another report by Tech Times, the Tianwen-1 spacecraft landed on Utopia Planitiaof the Red planet. Upon unloading the Zhurong rover, it faced the dreaded "seven minutes of terror" which the NASA Perseverance managed to survive.

However, it turned out that the Chinese vehicle did not only endure the seven minutes of its battle. Instead, it was recorded to be nine minutes in duration.

The said term was used by NASA to describe a specific point in time wherein a space robot could have difficulties in receiving the radio signals.

Interestingly, several pictures involve other Martian robots. Aside from China, NASA has been taking pictures of the Red Planet using the Perseverance and Curiosity rovers.

The international space agency discovered the ever-changing landscape in Earth's neighboring planet. When NASA sent its Insight lander to survey the "iron" region, it also deployed two satellites. One of them was used to take a selfie of the huge Martian background.

Read Also:Hubble Space Telescope Discovers Three Unusual Galaxies Inspired by 'Star Trek'

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Joseph Henry

2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

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Tianwen-1 Mars Orbiter Seen Journeying the Red Planet on the Latest Footage Ahead of Chinese Lunar New Year [VIDEO] - Tech Times

Utah is at the forefront of innovation in developing clean energy generation, and its happening at a breakneck pace. From our clean energy utopia in central Utah to educating Utahs future energy workforce, our state is leading the way to a cleaner and more renewable energy future.

For all these advancements, Utah is still largely reliant on coal. More than 70% of our electricity comes from coal-fired power plants located in rural Utah, and it will be at similar numbers for years to come. While coal-generated power fuels our modern life and helps make Utah an attractive place to live and do business, it does come with costs to our climate, air quality and environment.

Completely abandoning the use of fossil fuels is not an option if we want to maintain our modern life, so its imperative we tackle the issue of their pollutants as soon as possible.

So is there a way to use fossil fuels without emitting irresponsible amounts of CO2 into the air? The answer isnt a yes or no its carbon capture. Carbon capture works by doing exactly what it sounds like it captures the CO2 emitted from the combustion of fossil fuels, like coal, where it can then be safely stored thousands of feet underground or used in other capacities.

And the great thing about this technology is it can be retrofitted to existing facilities. Post-combustion carbon capture has the ability to capture over 90% of the CO2 emitted from power plants and industrial facilities, which would otherwise go straight into the air.

As with all energy generation and technologies, carbon capture does have its challenges. The technology isnt new, but it is expensive. According to the Department of Energy, todays carbon capture technologies are so energy-intensive they may decrease the efficiency of a coal power plant by up to 30%, resulting in an 80% price increase in electricity. Additionally, advanced carbon capture technologies, which can help reduce cost, have never been demonstrated at scales large enough for power plants, so there are still some unknowns about the feasibility of such projects.

But these challenges arent insurmountable and can be overcome by businesses researching and investing in better and more affordable ways to capture carbon. Just like solar panels reaching levels of affordability with improvements in technology and manufacturing, carbon capture is expected to be more efficient and less costly as technologies improve. Its also important to remember that we as a state are not interested in exclusively adopting carbon capture to solve our emissions-related problems. Other opportunities are also within reach that we should continue developing including wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, biomass, nuclear and hydrogen.

Utah is not interested in just one of these technologies, were interested in all of them. Were an all-of-the-above energy state, and it takes a combination of these technologies to meet our future energy needs.

We must have a balanced, diverse approach to clean energy and that includes the use of fossil fuels, coupled with carbon capture. Carbon capture could be the breath of fresh air Utah is looking for as we transition our portfolios to include more clean and renewable energies. That diversity will bring security to our grid, and with Utahs commitment to innovation unencumbered by government regulations, we are well-positioned to build a clean and reliable energy future.

Thom Carter is energy adviser to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and executive director of the Utah Office of Energy.

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John Kerry wants to get rid of coal. There is a better way to save the planet/Opinion - Deseret News

The number of peoplein Northern Territory hospitals withCOVID-19 has reached a new peak of 111, as the NT government introduces a seven-day outdoor mask mandate to combat rising coronavirus case numbers.

Of the 111 people now in Territory hospitals,10 patients are receiving oxygen and five are in intensive care,Health Minister Natasha Fyles said on Saturday.

She also said the NT had recorded 828 new cases of coronavirus in the 24 hours up to 8pm on Friday.

Of those, 648 were recorded from rapid antigen tests while the remainder came from PCR tests.

There are now 4,650 active cases of COVID-19 in the NT.

"We're seeing case numbers right across the Northern Territory. COVID is in every region," Ms Fyles said.

"We're seeinglarge numbers of people that are asymptomatic, they're feeling mildly unwell and they're able to be cared for at home."

Ms Fylessaid case numbers seemed to be rising as people returned to the Territory from interstate in the lead-up to schools going back this week.

She also announced thatFriday's daily case tally had been revised up from 940 to 1,006, after the addition of more positive RAT test results.

Last week, the NT government began revising up daily COVID case totals for the previous day's cases, adding hundreds of cases to both Wednesday and Thursday's figures.

Ms Fyles said from 6pm on Saturday, a seven-day outdoor mask mandate would come into effect across the Territory.

The new mandate will apply to people aged 12 and over outdoorswhenever they cannot maintain a 1.5 distance from others,but will not apply while exercising.

The NT-wideindoor mask mandate remains in place.

Ms Fyles said the outdoor mask mandatehad been introducedin response to growing COVID-19 case numbers in the NT.

"This is just considering we've seen a large increase in those new cases, which we largely attribute to the end of the school holidaysand that higher number of interstate arrivals," she said.

"We really want to get our case numbers back down to that average what we were seeing,[that] around 450 [cases] seven-day average."

Deputy Chief Health Officer Jacqui Murdoch said the outdoor mask mandate was aimed at slowing thespread of COVID-19 in the community.

"What we have seen and what we know from the international evidenceis that masks are really effective at stopping the spread of Omicron, and so that's why we've recommended the introduction of an outdoor mask mandate, to try and stop those increased numbers translating into more community transmission," she said.

Ms Fyles also said lockdowns in Gunyangara (Ski Beach), Wurrumiyanga on the Tiwi Islands and Utopia in Central Australia ended at 2pm on Saturdayas scheduled.

Ampilatwatja,Milikapiti and Elcho Island (including Galiwin'ku) remain in lockdown, while lockouts are still in place in Alice Springs,Amoonguna,Yuendumu and Yuelamu.

Ms Fyles said authorities would decide in the morning whether lockdown or lockout restrictions in some other communities could be lifted.

"We certainly haven't ruled out further measures, or further changes going forward," she said.

Ms Fyles said case numbers at the Alice Springs prison had jumped in the latest reporting period, with 154 new cases recorded there on Friday.

"That's a significant increase," she said.

There are now a total of 274 cases at the facility.

The rise in cases came after atesting team was sent intothe prison to test everyone for COVID-19, Ms Fyles said.

She said she understood all of the 154 people who tested positive yesterday were asymptomatic, though she couldn't say if any had been taken to hospital.

The full vaccination rate at the prisonstands at 86 per cent.

Ms Fyles also said there had been 22 new cases recorded in Milingimbi in Arnhem Land.

"Our officials are just working through what assistance they will need in this situation, so we can provide them withsupport and resources," she said.

She said health authorities were also working withWadeye after thecommunity recorded its first COVID-19 case yesterday.

Communities under lockdown or lockout restrictions

Cases in communities that are not under lockdown or lockout restrictions:

Top End:

East Arnhem:

Big Rivers:

Central Australia:

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NT brings in outdoor mask mandate, as Territory COVID-19 hospital admissions rise to new peak of 111 - ABC News

Steve Martin was astonished the first time he walked into a room full of Australian Aboriginal art. It was something I had never seen before, says the actor and writer. And Ive been collecting art for 50 years.

The line-based works, by Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri, a painter from Australias desert interior, were rendered in rich yellows and ochres. The canvases seemed to undulate. Enchanted, Martin left the Lower East Side gallery with a painting. He took it back to the apartment on Central Park West that he shares with his wife, Anne Stringfield, and set about finding a place for it among their Morandis and Hockneys. Ive been hooked ever since, he says six years later.

Martins self-described nave appreciation of the earthy tones, intricate dotting and flowing lines of Aboriginal desert painting soon became something more:I started ordering books, and I realised how complex thework was. He read about Country, an ancient philosophy in which the ecosystem, human inhabitants and past, present and future of a place are inextricable; and he learned that Country has helped inspire many contemporary Australian Aboriginal artists to create. These painters, he realised, were drafting nothing less than blueprints for existence. The results were beautiful.

These pictures could hang next to any works of the same period and hold their own, Martin says now. I daydream about seeing themmixedin with paintings by Agnes MartinandJackson Pollock.

Martin may not need to daydream for much longer. The contemporary art world is catching up fast to Aboriginal art, and some of its biggest names are deepening their engagement with it in 2022. Earlier thismonth, Gagosian opened a solo exhibition of works by the late Emily Kame Kngwarreye at one of its Paris galleries Emily: Desert Painter of Australia runs until 12March. InMay, Sothebys New York will host a dedicated Aboriginal art auction following its Evening Sales for contemporary and modern art.

Major museum shows have begun to proliferate, starting with the Tate Moderns A Year in Art: Australia 1992, which has proven so popular since it opened last June that its run has been extended for another six months. Ever Present: First Peoples Art of Australia will open at the National Gallery Singapore in May, showcasing 150 works from the collections of the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) and Wesfarmers Arts. And, back in New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is finalising plans for new galleries with a space dedicated to contemporary Australian Aboriginal work.

Its a hugely exciting moment, says Hetti Perkins, curator of another big show, the NGAs fourth National Indigenous Art Triennial, which opens on 26 March in Canberra. And its timely. This is art from the oldest surviving culture in the world, made by a population that has lived sustainably for millennia. These artists can show us the way forward.

Painting was ameans of preserving their understanding ofCountry

There have been flurries of excitement about Australian Aboriginal art before, but this is the first time that commercial and institutional heavy hitters have moved in tandem. Chief among them is gallerist Larry Gagosian, an old friend of Martins. In 2019, Martin staged a private exhibition of Aboriginal art from his collection for his friends in New York. The next day, over lunch, Gagosian suggested they do a proper show together. That exhibition, Desert Painters, was met with such enthusiasm that the gallery quickly mounted a second one in Los Angeles and a third in Hong Kong.

Then, in December 2019, Sothebys held its first dedicated Australian Aboriginal art auction in New York, netting $2.8m from 29 lots, including $596,000 for a painting by market leader Kngwarreye. A few months later, just before the pandemic took hold, Australian fine art dealer DLan Davidson arrived in New York and mounted a sale of work by her and other desert painters that achieved more than $3m. New York eclipsed our expectations, not only in sales results, but also in terms ofthe sophisticated way the audience engaged with thework, says Davidson, who has become Martins primary Aboriginal art adviser.

At all three events, the artist who achieved the strongest results was Kngwarreye (Ung-wah-ray). Her story is enthralling: she lived in a remote desert area known as Utopia; began painting on canvas in 1988, when she was about 80 years old; and produced more than 3,000 works in a dizzying array of styles before her death in 1996.

Kngwarreye electrified the Australian art scene during the 1990s and her paintings, known as Emilys, soon became hot commodities. It was certainly on the strength of her work that she became such a high-profile artist, butit was also the fact that she was so outside of that contemporary art world, says Perkins. I think people were intrigued by the fact that this very elderly woman, living in a very remote community, was responsible for this extraordinary vision. It was almost mythic.

Kngwarreyes exuberant dot paintings, kinetic line-based work and mastery of colour fundamentally changed the way contemporary art lovers in Australia and beyondengaged with Aboriginal art. Comparisons with abstract expressionists abounded. But Kngwarreye had not studied 20th-century movements. Rather, her alternately sensuous and muscular mark-making sprang from her deep knowledge of Country and from the ceremonial body painting of Utopia.

The $596,000 Sothebys result was far from a high-water mark for Kngwarreye: two years earlier, in Sydney, her painting Earths Creation I fetched $1.6m at auction. Davidson describes her as a force of nature in the market. Emily is head and shoulders above any of her peers, hesays. Shes going to break into the mainstream contemporary art world, and thats a matter of time.

Its an exciting moment. These artists can show us the way forward

Kngwarreye is not the only Aboriginal artist to have begun practising in old age: many others, past and present,wait untiltheir understanding of Country is fully formed before attempting to create work. But lively younger artists are also increasingly commanding the spotlight. The majority of young Australian Aboriginal people now live in cities, away from their ancestral homes, and these urban artists are creating work thatcontends with feelings of dislocation and with Australias violent colonial past. And younger practitioners from remote communities are gaining prominence, too. Beyonc caused a stir last year when sheInstagrammed a photo of herself in front of a work bydesert artist Yukultji Napangati (the artwork in question was a gift from Jay-Z).

Then theres Daniel Walbidi (Wal-biddi), a thirtysomething who lives by the ocean in Australias tropical north-west and paints intensely saturated visionsof Country in yellow, red and metallic tones. Heworks slowly, and demand for his paintings far outstrips supply.Some of Australias top curators grumbleprivately about not being able to acquire Walbidis for their institutions. Hes a visionary, says Nick Mitzevich, director of the NGA.

Walbidis homeland is actually a desert region hundreds of miles from the coast, but a widespread drought in the 1950s forced his clan group to relocate. He began painting in high school and soon decided that he wanted to depict his peoples place of origin. He sat down with community elders and asked to hear their stories. WhenI did that, a new world was revealed to me, Walbidi says. I had a revelation of knowledge, and my connection to Country was manifested.

In the years that followed, Walbidi encouraged the elders around him to begin painting as a means of preserving their understanding of Country. Several, such as Weaver Jack and Jan Billycan, have become successful artists in their own right. People of that age see the world differently, and Country differently, Walbidi says. Old people keep the knowledge and maintain authority. Without elders, you dont know anything, really.

Walbidi is building a profile in America: he featured inthe Sothebys 2019 auction and his Australian representatives at Short Street Gallery have booked himaUSshow later this year after fielding numerous enquiries.He doesnt seem to mind the attention, but sayshe has no plans to leave north-west Australia. His practice is fed by daily life with his people. Im living andbreathing it, he says.

If Kngwarreye is the A-lister and Walbidi is the rising star, then Angelina Pwerle (Pull-uh) is the cult favourite one on whom a growing number of institutions and collectors are quietly placing bets. Thought to be about 75 years old (there is no paper record of her birth), she has been developing her assured and remarkably detailed style of dot-work since the 1990s. Her paintings, which conjure images of distant galaxies, cloud formations and geological phenomena, practically hum with energy.

The way her practice has developed is extraordinary, says Mitzevich. She has refined the Central Desert dotting technique and used it to create abstract visions that are quite distinct from those made by her contemporaries.

Those visions are inspired by Utopia, where Pwerle hasspent her entire life, and by the native bushplum, a spiritually significant fruit that grows inabundance there. San Francisco gallerist Todd Hosfeltvividly recalls visiting the office of billionaire Kerry Stokes in Perth and seeing the Bush Plum works forthefirst time. They made the hair on the back of myneckstand up, he says.

Pwerles work was featured last month in Salon 94s group show at Art Basel Miami; it will be part of the Mets touring exhibition The Shape of Time: Art and Ancestors of Oceania, which will travel to two international venues in 2023. For now, she is something of an insiders secret whose work is tightly held. Although her paintings are part of major private collections, the significant works have rarely shown in the secondary market to date, notesDavidson. But that could easily soon change. From a [broader] marketperspective, were at the very beginning stages, and I could not feel more excited, he adds. Ithasnt even started yet.

Steve Martin agrees. So much contemporary art is for billionaires, he admits. For Anne and I, its almost unmanageable: you buy one picture and youve spent your 10-year budget. But here is this fantastic trove of beautiful work that we really love. Its not just standard gallery fare. And its still relatively attainable. Its also another welcome example of the market rectifying past omissions, he says. A lot of black artists in America who were overlooked have become very collectable. And this should too. This deserves to be.

Pwerle herself remains happily apart from the growing buzz. She speaks only her native Anmatyerre and rarely leaves the Utopia region. Like Kngwarreye and Walbidi, she paints to articulate the profundity of the life system that she is part of, and to ensure its survival. This is a constant engagement, she says, through a translator. This is a spiritual connection to place. Asked to explain her work, she says, simply: My Bush Plum paintings represent the whole thing: all of Country.

See more here:

In praise of Australian Aboriginal art the oldest surviving culture in the world - Financial Times

New listings in a high potential area of east-end Toronto fuel an even bigger vision.

When real estate investor Albert Shoihet recently approached the team at Realosophy Realty about selling off a lucrative portfolio of east downtown Toronto homes, his motivation for selling was very surprising - even to a group of seasoned brokers and agents.

Shoihet had acquired two properties around Queen Street East/Coxwell Avenue and one east of the Beach on Kingston Road after being struck by the area's yet-to-be-fully-realized potential.

But Shoihet now has his sights on an even bigger real estate opportunity in the Metaverse.

The Metaverse, according to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, is a concept that blends the physical and digital world via virtual and augmented reality. Even more technically, according to XR Today, it is [a] simulated digital environment that uses augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and blockchain, along with concepts from social media, to create spaces for rich user interaction mimicking the real world.

Think The Sims, only we are the characters and the money is actually real no signs of there being cheat codes in the Metaverse yet. But in any case, you can already get mortgages there.

The vision may sound outlandish, but then Shoihet is no stranger to great adventures.

After graduating from Western University in 2014 with a degree in sociology, he embarked on a combined career as an entrepreneur and a professional squash player, winning an Ontario championship and qualifying for Team Canada for the World championships in 2017 before eventually retiring.

Alongside, Shoihet experienced the usual ups and downs of an entrepreneurial life, experimenting with several different projects. Prior to the pandemic, he invested in rental properties in Owen Sound, Ontario before selling to a larger investor and moving on to invest in east end Toronto.

Struck by the location of the up to now out of sight, out of mind Queen and Coxwell area where the popular neighbourhoods of The Beaches and Leslieville meet, Shoihet saw potential in the notable condo and hospitality projects, including Drake's music venue, History, going up in the area.

For Sale: 14 Coxwell Avenue (Centre), Toronto, Ontario

Shoihet soon focussed on acquiring properties with a view to building boutique condo and townhouse projects in the area, including a future laneway townhouse project off of Rhodes Ave, he has dubbed OFFRHODES.

Coming Soon: 3 Rhodes Avenue (Existing Dwelling Plus Land), Toronto, Ontario

When an opportunity to sell his nearby property in the city-designated densification area of Kingston Rd arose, Shoihet found himself thinking about diversifying his investments, growing more curious about new digital opportunities in cryptocurrency and other areas.

Wary of trying to enter the digital space without proper guidance and mentorship, and encouraged by his brother, a fellow entrepreneur-investor, Shoihet applied to and was accepted into the Toronto-hub of the highly competitive incubator program Antler.

After some intensive research, he committed to transitioning from real estate development to digital real estate development: The Metaverse is a new buzzword but the future of gaming/entertainment/play, work/creativity, health/wellness and more will all be greatly affected by this space, he explains.

As his real estate company 'Nohwer' (a more dot.com amenable play on 'Nowhere') continues to evolve, he hopes that he may someday, among other projects, be able to bring to fruition his dream of opening a hotel/residence health club in the Metaverse, and establish a corresponding physical space to bring together fellow supporters.

Reflecting on his journey so far and to be, Shoihet recalls: I initially studied sociology at university because I was inspired by my amazing grandfather [Irving Zeitlin, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Toronto]. And he continues to inspire me on what I would like to build in the future. Hes the one that once pointed out to me that Utopia actually means 'no place' or no where!

Holding to the adage that we can only serve one master or one higher purpose or calling at a time, Shoihet is looking for the right buyer or buyers to take over his vision for Torontos east end, in which he continues to believe in strongly, so that he can focus on his next venture this time, in another world entirely.

Property Details

Listed by Gus Papaioannou and Ada Bragado of Realosophy Realty:

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Sydney Wilson is a social coordinator atRealosophy Realty,an innovative Toronto real estate brokerage which uses data analysis to advise residential real estate buyers, sellers, owners and renters, and educates consumers at theMove Smartly website.

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Why This Man is Selling Off His Toronto Homes to Build in the Metaverse - Move Smartly