by This is the week in random internet eye candy and art news. Should the universe cooperate, I plan to post on this subject on a frequent basis and add to Popten what the internet provides in the visually interesting from art world and away from it. Enjoy!
10. The folks over at Mashable have put together a slideshow of their favorite iPad portraits. Nothing says (or should I say texts) 21st Century Art than the use of digital hardware as a medium. This one, by Andrei Popa, is my favorite.
image by Andrei Popa
9. Brooklyn resident Johnathan Lopes has been making a Lego version of Brooklyn for the last four years. The Daily News got the scoop, but Gothamist has better images of Lopes’ living room installation.
8. Mitt Romney kicked off his likely 2012 presidential campaign this week. The logo his graphic designers came up with reminded some commentators of the Aquafresh logo. Perhaps his campaign song will be Outkast’s “So Fresh, So Clean.” Inspired by Romney’s logo, Elizabeth Weingarten at Slate put together a slideshow of the strangest presidential advertisements from history.
7. Look out Google, there are some new kids on the digital art block. TheStreet.com reported earlier this week on tech-start ups attempting to “bring art to the masses.” In January I attended a demonstration of one them, Artsicle, which is a NY-based start-up that allows users to rent a piece of art for 50 dollars a month before committing to buying it.
6. I came across a post the other day by the artist Inge Jacobson, who has created a hand-stiched reproduction of a Vogue cover. My hope is that Ms. Jacobson’s work gets the attention of Conde Nast, who in turn stops publishing the magazine on paper and switches to an all fabric format.
Image by Inge Jacobson
5. Fliers showing detained Chinese artist Ai Weiwei as a missing person are popping up in NYC and in Berlin. I’m waiting for a contemporary pop artist to start making empty milk boxes with Weiwei’s face on them. Here is a flier hanging outside of The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 
4. Guy meets art school girl. Guy knows nothing about art. Guy seeks out advice on how to sound art educated on Reddit and funny comments ensue. Trying to impress cute artsy chick. Know noting about art. Help. My favorite response is: “I love impressionism… This is my Gilbert Gottfried voice.”
3. The other night my wife and I attended the premier of “Nine Types of Light,” the film companion to TV on the Radio’s new album with the same name. The band, their friends and an assortment of directors came up with a unique music video for each song on the album. Some are animated, some are funny, some are just plain weird. All are interesting. The videos were storybooked together by Tunde Adebimpe, the band’s lead singer. The entire film can be viewed on YouTube: http://youtu.be/8B5GP0AiQMc?hd=1
2. In an interview before he died, John Hughes explained the Museum scene from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”: http://youtu.be/p89gBjHB2Gs My favorite part is when he compares the Seurat pointillist painting to the making of the movie itself.
1. You know those pictures you take of the ground and the clouds while you fly to Florida to see your grandma? Well, the gauntlet has been thrown down to you, amateur airplane passenger photographer. Popten contributor Morgan Holzer put me on to her friend Nate Bolt, who did a fantastic time lapse photo project while he was a passenger on a San Francisco to Paris flight. From his vantage point, he set his camera to take photos of the entire flight and captured Aurora Borealis in process! Morgan tells me that Nate’s work is usually this awesome and if this piece is any indication, she is damn right. You can follow Nate on Twitter.
Love the way you look at art. San Fran to Paris incredible!
The timelapse video was especially awesome, Christopher. I am really loving your top ten lists!