Jay-Z’s “Occupy All Streets” T-Shirts Spark Outrage, Artist Exhibits More than a Million Flickr Images
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Hip-hop artist and clothing designer Jay-Z is being scrutinized for allegedly profiting off of the Occupy Wall Street Movement. Last week, friend and fellow business mogul,
Russell Simmons tweeted a backstage photograph of himself standing next to Jay-Z, who was wearing a T-shirt that read, "Occupy All Streets." Simmons's tweet and the tee, from the Jay-Z owned company Rocawear, quickly became an online sensation as people scoured the Net trying to get their hands on the shirt. However, the excitement quickly turned to contempt when Rocawear issued a statement saying that the company has not made a commitment to monetarily support the Occupy Wall Street Movement. In response, an Occupy Wall Street leader called profiting off the shirt "an insult to the fight for economic civil rights." The "Occupy All Streets" T-shirts were selling for $22 on the Rocawear website, but only for a brief time. Because of the public backlash, the shirts were pulled off the site. Russell Simmons is defending Jay-Z on Twitter, saying the rapper "did a good fun thing to promote awareness." Simmons also retweeted an article that says the shirts would not be pulled. But as of now, the shirts can not be found on the site.
An artist attempts to illustrate the effect technology has on photography, and the result is mind-blowing. Erik Kessels created an art installation featuring every photograph uploaded in a 24-hour period on Flickr. Kessels printed each picture, (more than 1 million photos in all), creating an exhibit that closely resembles a landfill. The printed photos fill multiple rooms and are piled atop one another in mounds at the Foam Art Gallery in Amsterdam as a part of the "What's Next?" photography exhibit. Kessels said that the millions of photos uploaded arond the Web each day represents, "drowning in representations of other peoples' experiences." The artist's project also poses questions about the future of photography, and asks viewers if there can be too many images in the world. In comparison to Facebook, Kessels exhibit is a mere teardrop compared with the pool of photos available on Facebook. Every day, 25 times more pictures are uploaded to Facebook than Flickr.