In this painting I explore the darker side of the internet, one which has been in the news lately, PleaseRobMe.com.  PleaseRobMe.com works off an application FourSquare.com, (or any geotagging software such as Google Buzz or Bright Kite etc.) which allows people to track their friends via twitter.com to presumably to make it easier to connect in the big blue box.  PleaseRobMe.com basically notes when people using this application tweet things like “I am going away for the weekend,” or “Going to the gym now, be back in a few hours” or “I am at the mall now.” etc.  The folks at PleaseRobMe.com say they are basically re-listing these tweets to make people more aware of the dangers of telling people where you are and where you are not.  Essentially their service is a dressed up Twitter search. It generally does not take too many tries to find a person, who is listed on PleaseRobMe.com, and whose home address is also listed on the internet.  The owners of PleaseRobMe.com do say it is not their intention to have anyone’s house burgled, but clearly show this is one possible nefarious use of this public information.

"2nd Story Job" by Jake Beckman. A crow with burglary on its mind listens to geotagged tweets looking for an empty home to rob.

In this painting the binary code on the wires all read,

• “I’m leaving” (the color binary),
• “FourSquare.com” (up (b or d) and down (p or q) binary),
• “RobMyHouse.com” (right (b/p) or left (d/q) facing binary).

I chose a crow as they are one species of bird known for thievery.  Besides I like crows, ravens, and the other clever members of the family corvidae.  The symbol on the nose of the crow is a distorted version of the FourSquare.com logo – I think the round thing in the logo is supposed to be a dodge ball, or is it a trackball? I dunno. But I have translated it into the eye of the crow that is listening to the buzz of the wires.  Also I have chosen a different color pallet of red,  greenish black with shadings of green and purple.  I hope you like this latest in the Social Media Birds series (I really need a better name – help?)

I am noticing my high resolution photos are really not doing justice to the color gamut of my backgrounds-I don’t think there is much I can do about that, except maybe get a new camera, which I can’t afford right now.

Any comments? Do you like it, hate it, think its too dark, think its funny…”

Update: Someone suggest I put the size of the painting in the blog; details about 2nd Story Job are available on its art page at AKAJake.com

Jake

Artist, AKAJake.com Come Experience the Art!

The art work in this blog is federally copyrighted. All reproduction and publishing copyrights are retained by the artist. Images are not to be copied, re-distributed, imitated, derived OR otherwise used in any form without the explicit written permission of the artist.

"RSS Feed" by Jake Beckman, an orange canary flares for a landing carrying a ribbon of binary; it appears to be singing as it lands.

The ASCII binary reads “RSS Feed” from Lower Left to Upper Right, and Top to Bottom. In this version I explicitly included a spiral in the background as a line of confluence for other things in the painting. What do you think? Which one do you like best so far?

Update: Details about RSS Feed, size etc., can be found on its art page at AKAJake.com

Jake

Artist, AKAJake.com Come Experience the Art!

The art work in this blog is federally copyrighted. All reproduction and publishing copyrights are retained by the artist. Images are not to be copied, re-distributed, imitated, derived OR otherwise used in any form without the explicit written permission of the artist.

I am still looking for FaceBook fan page tips.  My RSS feed is double posting and since they redid the layout I can’t find where the RSS Feed link is at on the fan page anymore.

Anyway, when I posted TweetDeck, one of my commentators said that Retweet came to mind.  Of course I was already working on it as it was such an obvious follow-on.  And now it is done-enjoy.

Retweet by Jake Beckman. An orange canary sings to four other yellow ones who seem to be listening. The binary in the background reads "Retweet."

Its a little abstract in concept, but also kind of literal too.  The ASCII binary reads “Retweet” from Left to Right, and Top to bottom.  In this version I explicitly included a spiral as a place for my canaries to perch.  I opted to fill the entire background with binary so the upper most bird would have something to stand on, otherwise it would have been hanging upside down like an orangutan.   What do you think?

Update: Details about Retweet, size etc., can be found on its art page at AKAJake.com

Jake

Artist, AKAJake.com Come Experience the Art!

The art work in this blog is federally copyrighted. All reproduction and publishing copyrights are retained by the artist. Images are not to be copied, re-distributed, imitated, derived OR otherwise used in any form without the explicit written permission of the artist.

I have no idea what to do with this fan page yet.  Tomorrow evening I am supposed to have an “Intro to FaceBook” class – I am hoping to walk out of there a bit more clued in.

For example I really would like to have a snippet of my blogs appear in other places with a link, but I have no idea how to set that up.  I did find my RSS feed address so at least I can link that.

Of course I have my “real job” to do and I am finding it had to make a balance and still move forward with intention.  Still I must endeavor.  2010 will be the “Year of Marketing” for me because I have put it off too long and really need to figure it all out. Art is a real job too.

Anyway, I have about a million projects.  OK it is actually less than that, but I stoop to hyperbole because sometimes it feels like that.  Definitely got a few gators nibbling on my butt and the bosses just called down that the swamp draining project is on hold.    One of those alligators is “the establish a distinctive style and / or thematic reference to make myself recognizable as an artist”-gator. Once I have this consistent style I will build a body of work based on that… and market it of course.

That is the battle plan.What is it they say about battle plans? Oh yeah, the don’t tend to survive first contact with the enemy.

Toward that end I painted something last Friday; I already have a bunch of variations on the theme in my head.  I like it of course, but then again I tend to like all of my art more or less, but somebody else liked it too.  It has already flown away to live in Wisconsin.

Bird on a Wire, representational abstract by Jake

The ASCII Binary reads Twitter.com tweet. You can tell where my head is at. What do you think?

Alternatively, got any FaceBook Fan page or other social media tips? Love to hear from you.

Jake

Artist, AKAJake.com Come Experience the Art!

The art work in this blog is federally copyrighted. All reproduction and publishing copyrights are retained by the artist. Images are not to be copied, re-distributed, imitated, derived OR otherwise used in any form without the explicit written permission of the artist.

It’s the Happy New Year now and I am back. At the moment I am considering how to use Social Networks as a marketing tool.  Quite frankly I know very little about it.

Sure I have a MySpace account, a Linked-In account, a FaceBook account, a Twitter account, a Manta account, my websites ArtandBusinessConsulting.com & AKAJake.com and blogs ArtandBusinessConsulting.com/blog/ & AKAJake.com/blog/ but how does one use them to market your business?

So this will likely be the topic of several of my next blogs as I see how these accounts can be used to market one’s business.

In the meantime if you have any insights to offer please feel free to post them.  I would love to hear from you.

Today, I updated my Linked-In account, attempted to update Manta which hung up for some unknown reason, posted my first Tweet in a long time, and posted a new blog entry on MySpace and now here.  It seems that Linked-In  will follow my Tweets and my blog on ArtandBusinessConsulting.com and Manta will also follow my Tweets so I guess I should use Twitter more often.

Yours in art,

Jake

Artist, AKAJake.com Come Experience the Art!

PS. I am still looking for Sponsors & Contributing Patrons to help me pay the $7651.31 I charged to attend this event; this amount is the sum all the receipts I can find relating to the trip-about $4,000 is the Biennale artist’s share, then hotel & airfare, plus packaging for my art, taxis, meals in Italy, postage and other incidental expenses. I have raised about $2079 in donations-many thanks to those who have contributed to this event.  But I need more assistance and every little bit helps.

The art work in this blog is federally copyrighted. All reproduction and publishing copyrights are retained by the artist. Images are not to be copied, re-distributed, imitated, derived OR otherwise used in any form without the explicit written permission of the artist.