This humanoid robot holds a pen in its hand and can draw an image of any person who stands in front of it.

Artist Robot by Sylvain Calinon

Created by robotic researcher Sylvain Calinon, the robot recognizes when there’s a face in its field of view, then snaps a digital photo and extracts the major characteristics of their visage. Once that’s done, the robot turns itself into an X/Y plotter, picking up an old-fashioned quill pen and gradually filling in the details of a portrait.

I think it would be really cool to set up a bunch of these in a row, creating different styles of art using ink, pastel, oils and acrylics. Sylvain, are you listening?

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Nice statement.

> From: "A. Andreas" <ajaco@xs4all.nl>
> Reply-To: "A. Andreas" <ajaco@xs4all.nl>
> Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 21:22:00 +0100
> To: rhizome raw <list@rhizome.org>
> Subject: RHIZOME_RAW: Drowning man with cell-phone
>
> Creative insurgency opposes established cultural domination
>
> Contrary to creative resistance, creative insurgency, aims to
> overthrown and re-establish a new kind of creative order, in which
> the might and prowess of the mainstream art world is definitively
> pushed aside to make place for a more profound and human based
> faculty of sharing and re-distributing objects of art and devotion.
>
> Creative insurgency re-claims art

Sorry for the politics right before the Christmas holiday.
Something worthy of getting behind.

------ Forwarded Message
From: Robert Wexler <contact@wexlerforcongress.com>
Reply-To: <contact@wexlerforcongress.com>
Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 16:24:33 -0500
To: <lee@leewells.org>
Subject: Rep. Wexler's Quarter Million Person Challenge / Blog Radio
Announcement

Dear Lee,

We have already reached 100,000 supporters. Thank You.

Now We Need Each of You To Send an Email to Ten More People to Get 250,000
Signed Up at WexlerWantsHearings.com by the End of the Year.

I can guarantee that your 100,000 voices calling for impeachment hearings
will now be heard in Congress. Together, through our new Quarter Million
Person Challenge, let's now set a new goal of 250,000 Americans signing up
to demand action.

It has been just 5 days since I called for impeachment hearings for
Vice-President Dick Cheney and already over 100,000 people - including you -
have answered that call by adding your name as an impeachment supporter at
www.WexlerWantsHearings.com
<http://images.myngp.com/LinkTracker.aspx?crypt=IVi0ax2%2b6UBSinc%2fCPYaKUEF
sqOTrJU9vFj23ziqy03KVZ5Y0Na8gN%2b5%2f0utWoD99mSVvOgTtpssTfwNr387EV3%2fM%2bPC
mZRVMQkK8Lmztkn3GF4%2fpJ2xRg%3d%3d> . This is a truly remarkable response
that demonstrates the power that average, everyday Americans can have when
we come together to pursue justice and accountability.

Never mind that the national media ignored my call and rejected an op-ed
that I wrote along with my Judiciary Colleagues Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL)
and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI). The Netroots and citizen activists like yourself
are spreading our message and demanding action.

Quarter Million Person Challenge

Our movement continues to grow by the hour and the day. But, with the media
blackout, I need your help to grow our effort. With 100,000 supporters
already signed-up, if each of you e-mail ten of your friends (a "Chain-ey
letter") about www.WexlerWantsHearings.com
<http://images.myngp.com/LinkTracker.aspx?crypt=IVi0ax2%2b6UBSinc%2fCPYaKUEF
sqOTrJU9vFj23ziqy03KVZ5Y0Na8gN%2b5%2f0utWoD99mSVvOgTtpssTfwNr387EV3%2fM%2bPC
mZRVMQkK8Lmztkn3GF4%2fpJ2xRg%3d%3d> and the need for Cheney impeachment
hearings we will reach over a million Americans and perhaps we can reach a
new goal of 250,000 signers by the end of the year!!

Join Me Thursday Night on Blog Radio to Discuss Our Next Steps

On this Thursday at 9:00 p.m. (EST) and 6:00 (PST), please join me as I
appear on live on the Internet to discuss my efforts to convince Congress to
hold impeachment hearing.

Congressman Wexler Live on Blog Radio:

WHEN: Thursday, December 18, 9:00 pm (EST)/6:00 pm (PST)

WHERE: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/fpc
<http://images.myngp.com/LinkTracker.aspx?crypt=IVi0ax2%2b6UBSinc%2fCPYaKW8l
fC7QOopHJ6wgoO6HXHk%2fyi%2fVebyY9kzItvFE2KUr3mo3EBBYIbs%2bRJrcPxxfy03d%2bcGE
wuk8AbZx%2bxeRBVW18nEqzj9J0A%3d%3d> (a link will be posted at
www.wexlerwantshearings.com
<http://images.myngp.com/LinkTracker.aspx?crypt=IVi0ax2%2b6UBSinc%2fCPYaKUEF
sqOTrJU9vFj23ziqy03KVZ5Y0Na8gN%2b5%2f0utWoD99mSVvOgTtpssTfwNr387EV3%2fM%2bPC
mZRVMQkK8Lmztkn3GF4%2fpJ2xRg%3d%3d> and www.wexlerforcongress.com
<http://images.myngp.com/LinkTracker.aspx?crypt=IVi0ax2%2b6UBSinc%2fCPYaKUEF
sqOTrJU9bSaorYKVc5zkasAeJSuSbFs4xiEu0WAP6pMcH2Z11nmS13Mekpd2RzQAGscevbDMa%2f
6Z9sFa85PLS3V5qUQ7DQ%3d%3d> )

WHO: Rep. Wexler will appear live on Florida Progressive Radio with host
Kenneth Quinnell of the Florida Netroots Caucus, Bob Fertick of
Democrats.com, as well as Dave Lindorf, author of "The Case for
Impeachment," and David Swanson with AfterDowningStreet.org.

More on the Media Blackout

The New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, USA Today, and Boston Globe
have all rejected our op ed (though the Miami Herald just put an edited
version in its "Letters to the Editor" section). We have heard from the
editors of some of these publications and they are telling us that they are
getting overwhelmed with phone calls and letters of complaint. (Well done
everybody!)

In short - we need to keep the pressure on if this news will spread far
beyond the Netroots community.

With warm regards,

Congressman Robert Wexler

www.WexlerWantsHearings.com
<http://images.myngp.com/LinkTracker.aspx?crypt=IVi0ax2%2b6UBSinc%2fCPYaKUEF
sqOTrJU9vFj23ziqy03KVZ5Y0Na8gN%2b5%2f0utWoD99mSVvOgTtpssTfwNr387EV3%2fM%2bPC
mZRVMQkK8Lmztkn3GF4%2fpJ2xRg%3d%3d>

Paid for by "Wexler for Congress"

PO Box 810669
Boca Raton, FL 33481

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------ End of Forwarded Message

Check it out.

------ Forwarded Message
From: NEWSgrist - where spin is art <underbelly@newsgrist.net>
Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2007 17:06:40 -0800 (PST)
To: <lee@leewells.org>
Subject: NEWSgrist: Semiotic Disobedience

<http://newsgrist.typepad.com/>
=20
=20
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////=
/
//////////////////////////
Vol.8, no.32
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////=
/
///////////////////////////
read it on the blog:
http://newsgrist.typepad.com <http://newsgrist.typepad.com>
Archives:
http://newsgrist.net <http://newsgrist.net>
=20
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////=
/
///////////////////////////
Semiotic Disobedience
<http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/2007/11/semiotic-disobe.html>
<http://www.sinsign.com/weblog/archives/semiotic_disobedience/>

A few days ago, Sonia Katyal, a lawyer at Fordham, emailed me the abstract
and link to her paper "Semiotic Disobedience" asking me to feel free to
distribute at will... so here it is [link and abstract below]. I started
reading it this morning. Sonia's assertion that " propertization offers a
subsidy to particular types of expression over others" is particularly
interesting to me, due to my scandalous activity of appropriating images
from mass media and screwing them around to make paintings.
>=20
> Semiotic Disobedience
> SONIA KATYAL <http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=3D11=
5375>
> Fordham University School of Law
> Washington University Law Review, Vol. 84, No. 2, 2006 <javascript:void(0=
);>
> Fordham Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 1015500 <javascript:void(0);=
>
>=20
> Abstract: [download paper
> <http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3D1015500>
> <http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3D1015500> ]
> Nearly twenty years ago, a prominent media studies professor, John Fiske
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Fiske_%28media_studies%29> , coined th=
e
> term "semiotic democracy" to describe a world where audiences freely and
> widely engage in the use of cultural symbols in response to the forces of
> media. Although Fiske originally referenced the audience's power in viewi=
ng
> and interpreting television narratives, today, his vision of semiotic
> democracy has become perhaps the single most important ideal cited by sch=
olars
> who imagine a utopian relationship between law, technology, and democrati=
c
> culture.=20
>=20
> In this Article, I seek to introduce another framework to supplement Fisk=
e's
> important metaphor: the phenomenon of "semiotic disobedience." Three
> contemporary cultural moments in the world - one corporate, one academic,=
and
> one artistic - call for a new understanding of the limitations and
> possibilities of semiotic democracy and underline the need for a suppleme=
ntary
> framework.=20
>=20
> As public spaces have become converted into vehicles for corporate advert=
ising
> - ads painted onto sidewalks and into buildings, schools, and other publi=
c
> spaces - product placement has soared to new heights of power and subtlet=
y.
> And throughout, the law has generously offered near-sovereign protection =
to
> such symbolism through the ever-expanding vehicle of intellectual propert=
y
> protection. Equations between real property and intellectual property are
> ubiquitous. Underlying these themes is a powerful linkage between intelle=
ctual
> and tangible property: as one expands, so does the other.
>=20
> Yet at the same time, there is another facet that is often left out of th=
e
> picture, involving the increasing response of artists who have chosen to
> expand their activities past the boundaries of cultural dissent and into =
the
> boundaries of asserted illegality. For every movement toward enclosure th=
at
> the law facilitates, there is an opposite, underappreciated movement towa=
rd
> liberation from control - a moment where social activism exposes the need=
for
> alternative political economies of information. And yet the difference be=
tween
> these marketplaces of speech - one protected, one prohibited - both captu=
res
> and transcends the foundational differences between democracy and disobed=
ience
> itself.=20
>=20
> Just as previous discussions of civil disobedience focused on the need to
> challenge existing laws by using certain types of public and private prop=
erty
> for expressive freedoms, today's generation seeks to alter existing
> intellectual property by interrupting, appropriating, and then replacing =
the
> passage of information from creator to consumer. This Article suggests th=
at
> the phenomenon of semiotic disobedience offers a radically different vant=
age
> point than Fiske's original vision, one that underlines the importance of
> distributive justice in intellectual property. Thus, instead of interroga=
ting
> the limits of First Amendment freedoms, as many scholars have already don=
e, I
> argue that a study of semiotic disobedience reveals an even greater need =
to
> study both the core boundaries between types of properties - intellectual=
,
> real, personal - and how propertization offers a subsidy to particular ty=
pes
> of expression over others.
>=20
> This paper won an honorable mention in the annual AALS Scholarly Papers
> competition, and was profiled in the New York Times Magazine.

more on this paper via sinSign[dot]com, lowbrow semiotics:
>=20
> Beheading Advertising
> <http://www.sinsign.com/weblog/archives/2006/10/beheading_advertising.htm=
l>
>=20
> In an article to be published this fall [2006] in the Washington Universi=
ty
> Law Review, Sonia Katyal
> <http://law.fordham.edu/ihtml/reg-2bioPP.ihtml?id=3D544&amp;bid=3D766> , a Fo=
rdham
> University law professor, coins the already-popular term "semiotic
> disobedience" (a Google search today yielded 400 mentions
> <http://www.google.com/search?hl=3Den&amp;q=3D%22semiotic+disobedience%22&amp=
;btnG
> =3DGoogle+Search> ), which can be considered (as stated on Katyal's paper) =
a
> modernization of John Fiske's "Semiotic Democracy."
>=20
> The central argument is not new but is presented in a way that enlightens=
and
> greatly contributes with the conversation surrounding intellectual proper=
ty in
> the public space, collective intelligence, and the role of artists as the
> quintessential "attention economists" (extensively discussed by Richard A=
.
> Lanham in The Economics of Attention
> <http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/468828.html> ). Talking about
> finding innovation at the intersection of disciplines=E2=80=A6
>=20
> In Katyal's words, "the objective of semiotic disobedience is to correct =
the
> marketplace of speech by occupying and transforming the semiotic 'codes'
> within advertising." She goes on to explain the different degrees of
> disobedience, which range from vandalism to reclaiming public space.
>=20
> In this context, I find the work of an unknown artist that operates in th=
e
> Union Sq subway station (New York City) extremely interesting [read on...
> <http://www.sinsign.com/weblog/archives/2006/10/beheading_advertising.htm=
l> ]

Add to del.icio.us=20
<http://del.icio.us/post?v=3D4&amp;partner=3Dfb&amp;url=3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fnewsgrist.=
t
ypepad.com%2Funderbelly%2F2007%2F11%2Fsemiotic-disobe.html&amp;title=3DSemiot=
i
c%20Disobedience> =E2=80=A2 Technorati Links
<http://technorati.com/search/http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/2007/=
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1/semiotic-disobe.html> =E2=80=A2 Email this
<http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/emailFlare?itemTitle=3DSemiotic%20Disobedienc=
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November 30, 2007 at 11:43 AM in iCommons
<http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/icommons/index.html> , Intellectua=
l
Property=20
<http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/intellectual_property/index.html> =
,
Law <http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/law/index.html> , Protest
<http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/protest/index.html> | Permalink
<http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/2007/11/semiotic-disobe.html> |
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Hi All.
Please check this out. The American govt is at it again.
As an American I am sickened by these criminals in office and strongly feel
they must be stopped.
Please spread far and wide and contact your representatives in government t=
o
let them know about this situation.

All the best,
Lee

-------

Via Martha Rosler:
listen also to James Petras on today's Democracy now! at democracynow.org

http://www.democracynow.org/2007/11/30/tens_of_thousands_protest_chavez_pro=
p
osals

and

4=A0http://www.counterpunch.com/petras11272007.html

Via Elin O'Hara Slavick
Please spread the word on this CIA machination going on right now in
Venezuela. =A0It may help expose and deflate it.
Post to blogs, newsgroups, and lists as widely and as quickly as possible.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/11/28/18227/641
<http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/11/28/18227/641>

A memo from CIA officer Michael Middleton Steere, addressed to CIA Director
General Michael Hayden in Washington DC, has been intercepted by Venezuelan
counter-intelligence; and it shows that the US plans to attempt another cou=
p
d'etat against the democratically elected government of Venezuela on the ev=
e
of a historic constitutional referendum that will democratize political
power to the grassroots of the majority more thoroughly than anything we
have seen in this hemisphere... ever. This outcome by a major oil producin=
g
nation that has confronted the US government is intolerable to the American
political class, not merely the Bush administration. It is part of a
continental drift of Latin America away from US domination; and it has worl=
d
historic significance.

It is very important that this CIA plot get maximum exposure immediately
across the net, because the US media, the Republican and Democratic Parties=
,
and the US dominant class, will do everything in their power to assist the
desired outcome of this illegal and immoral interference by the United
States government in the democratic self-determination of Venezuela.

Widespread, rapid distribution via alternative media has the potential to
expose and disrupt this CIA plot. You can do something right now. Get the
word out.
Stay abreast of developments. A Google News search of "Michael Middleton
Steere" will help keep you updated.

Be part of a real politics of resistance. Help expose this international
malfeasance now. Be an ally to the Venezuelan people, whose government was
democratically elected (unlike our own).