Warner Bros. has apparently given the go-ahead to produce a live action Lego movie, tentatively scheduled for 2014.  According to a Variety article, Warner Bros. tapped Australian company Animal Logic (famous for The Matrix series, Happy Feet and The Lord of the Rings) to animate the film, which is expected to be 80% live Lego.

We’re always interested in the future of manufacturing and Shane Hope’s new exhibit falls right in line with that.  Hope experiments with 3-D printing and molecular nanotechnologies in his new exhibit “Transubstrational: As a Smartmatter of Nanofacture” at the Winkleman Gallery.

One series is a group of 3-D “holographic-like” prints of molecular models using customized open-source nanomolecular software systems.

For the other series, “Hope built by hand open-source / open-hardware 3D printers (RepRaps) with the intent to literally convert bits back into atoms.”  He then uses these 3-D printers to create pieces of other 3-D printers. Printers printing printers.

It’ll be really interesting to see where 3-D printing technology goes in the coming years as it’s eventually passed onto consumers and you can print products from home.

Last night, Occupy Wall St. protesters and members of the Teamsters swarmed upon Sotheby’s auction house in response to Sotheby’s moves to cut art handlers’ wages.  According to OWS, Sotheby’s is trying to cut these wages, despite its CEO making $60,000 PER DAY.

Eight protesters were arrested. Horns and whistles blared. Hilarity ensued.

This protest is an illustration of, not only the fight to keep corporations from cutting union wages and examples of income discrepancy, but the cold established art world of the 1% vs. the vibrancy of “the rest of us. ”

This New York Observer Article describes the event in detail (i.e., disgusted blond women in pencil skirts running from protesters and being rushed inside, Teamsters apparently calling out the names of the billionaire families and buyers entering the space).

$60,000 PER DAY? Shame.

Check out the video below.

When you were young, how many crayon doodles did you do of animals that existed only in the realm of your imagination?

Child’s Own is a cool small shop company that takes a kid’s drawings and brings them to life in the form of stuffed animals.

File under: websites we wish had been around when we were little.

We stumbled onto this today while hanging out at Zuccotti Park with Occupy Wall Street. According to the sign, they are asking supporters of The 99% to bring more Legos and help grow their Occupy Lego Land – hopefully to the proportions of the real thing. The attention to detail is great, from the placards and Joie de Vivre sculpture (which someone climbed last month), to the constant hovering of police presence.

A Wall St. Journal article highlighted a faction of men who are defying gender roles by being die hard fans of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, a remake of the original TV show from the 80s. Referring to themselves as “Bronies,” these guys meet in bars to watch the show and have recently started a convention here in New York. Not only that, apparently they have become dissatisfied with the merchandise created by the show and were inspired to design their own, including My Little Pony pipe-cleaners (genius). Other fans have apparently started covering rock versions of the songs with their bands and making crazy mashup videos.

The article takes a skeptically neutral take on the phenomenon; but, people were also surprised when so many college kids started waking up early to watch Yo Gabba Gabba. It’s easy to defy stereotypes and watch things outside of the box laid out for a person when what is offered is simply a great show: surreal and creative, with deep characters, challenging plot lines and great music. With so much uncreative television (especially children’s shows) floating through the ether, it’s understandable that a show like My Little Pony would become a stalwart icon of pop creativity. Why not? Here’s an an episode.

During a Jailbreak conversation over a beer last night, I was reminded of a short story I wrote in college about an art critic in Chicago who witnessed a man caressing a statue of a woman at a museum. He was appalled  at the sight — having always been taught by parents and teachers to avoid touching any art for reasons he could not articulate.

He confronted the caresser. The two men launched into an argument about art and of the senses. With eyes, we see only form and color. With hands, we feel the subtleties of the material – the chisel marks, the tiny indentations, the accidental things that make objects alive.  Why stop at the eyes with so many senses at our disposal? Should we not smell, taste, hear and touch as well?

I’ve since seen museum patrons touching pieces and getting away with it, and despite writing such a story, I still can’t bring myself to join them.  Sadly chained to my lessons and the established norms.