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Bot written to buy random things each month from Amazon

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Re: Bot written to buy random things each month from Amazon

#21

Post by mseebach »

elteto wrote: post #20
jaysonelliot wrote: post #19

If you look at what he's doing from an art perspective, he's engaging in Generative art, art that is created by process outside the control of the artist: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative_art I usually think of John Cage when I think of generative art, and the way he let the environment or random events become part of his music. One of the coolest things I've learned about recently in this realm is Joseph Nech…

"If you look at what he's doing from an art perspective" What exactly is an art perspective? I buy stuff every month from Amazon to serve different purposes, so that they are pseudo-random if looked from outside without context. That doesn't make me an artist, at least not in my book. I don't want to start a modern art flame fest, but where do we draw the line? I mean, it seems like nowadays anything is or can be art…

> but where do we draw the line?

Somewhere around "If you have to explain to people that it's art, it's not."

Re: Bot written to buy random things each month from Amazon

#22

Post by omaranto »

alpb wrote: post #12

Off topic: I'm wondering when HN users will figure out how to get permalink of a Tumblr post. Everybody is linking to blog home except companies hosting their blogs on Tumblr.

Just to be clear, this is off topic because here the intention probably was to link to the entire blog (all of which is about the bot in the submission title), right?

Re: Bot written to buy random things each month from Amazon

#23

Post by runemadsen »

elteto wrote: post #20
jaysonelliot wrote: post #19

If you look at what he's doing from an art perspective, he's engaging in Generative art, art that is created by process outside the control of the artist: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative_art I usually think of John Cage when I think of generative art, and the way he let the environment or random events become part of his music. One of the coolest things I've learned about recently in this realm is Joseph Nech…

"If you look at what he's doing from an art perspective" What exactly is an art perspective? I buy stuff every month from Amazon to serve different purposes, so that they are pseudo-random if looked from outside without context. That doesn't make me an artist, at least not in my book. I don't want to start a modern art flame fest, but where do we draw the line? I mean, it seems like nowadays anything is or can be art…

I guess the question is: Why draw a line?

Re: Bot written to buy random things each month from Amazon

#24

Post by jlgreco »

mseebach wrote: post #21
elteto wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"If you look at what he's doing from an art perspective" What exactly is an art perspective? I buy stuff every month from Amazon to serve different purposes, so that they are pseudo-random if looked from outside without context. That doesn't make me an artist, at least not in my book. I don't want to start a modern art flame fest, but where do we draw the line? I mean, it seems like nowadays anything is or can be art…

> but where do we draw the line? Somewhere around "If you have to explain to people that it's art, it's not."

Seems like a fuzzy line still. What if the artist doesn't really "explain" that it is art so much as he tells someone it is art? If, as a classic example, you submit a urinal on it's side to an exhibit, I don't think the act of submission would necessarily be an act of explanation.

Of course you can go the other direction, and wonder who this explanation has to be directed to in order to disqualify something as art. If I am a particularly dense person and ask what the point of the Sistine Chapel is, that certainly does not disqualify the chapel's ceiling from being art.

Is there perhaps a threshold percentage of the population that has to understand something as art for it to be art?

Re: Bot written to buy random things each month from Amazon

#25

Post by oboizt »

runemadsen wrote: post #23
elteto wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"If you look at what he's doing from an art perspective" What exactly is an art perspective? I buy stuff every month from Amazon to serve different purposes, so that they are pseudo-random if looked from outside without context. That doesn't make me an artist, at least not in my book. I don't want to start a modern art flame fest, but where do we draw the line? I mean, it seems like nowadays anything is or can be art…

I guess the question is: Why draw a line?

Art for the artist's sake. No need to explain it to anyone. :) Regardless of any artistic intent, this still sounds like a fun idea.

(And thank goodness for a generally good return policy)

Re: Bot written to buy random things each month from Amazon

#27

Post by enjo »

bieh wrote: post #13
citricsquid wrote: post #7

This was done a few years back as the result of an XKCD, the original article is gone, but there's a few articles about it: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-11/09/xkcd-packages... http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20022153-1.html it's a cool idea. Not sure if I'm imagining it, but I think that someone built this into a web service that you could subscribe to and it would buy things for you every day. Does a…

I'm the guy who built the original XKCD-inspired bot -- the original blog post is still around at http://bieh.net/wordpress/2010/11/08/xkcd-576/ , though the images have since broken. Possibly the web service you mean is http://www.eachdayisagift.com/ ?

Does anything like that exist in the states? I think that'd be an amazing and fun thing to have in my life:)

Re: Bot written to buy random things each month from Amazon

#28

Post by fleitz »

elteto wrote: post #20
jaysonelliot wrote: post #19

If you look at what he's doing from an art perspective, he's engaging in Generative art, art that is created by process outside the control of the artist: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative_art I usually think of John Cage when I think of generative art, and the way he let the environment or random events become part of his music. One of the coolest things I've learned about recently in this realm is Joseph Nech…

"If you look at what he's doing from an art perspective" What exactly is an art perspective? I buy stuff every month from Amazon to serve different purposes, so that they are pseudo-random if looked from outside without context. That doesn't make me an artist, at least not in my book. I don't want to start a modern art flame fest, but where do we draw the line? I mean, it seems like nowadays anything is or can be art…

We draw the line at everything is art when viewed from the perspective of art.

It is like asking when a coffee cup becomes a jerry can, or vice versa, and the answer is always: it depends on how it's used.

It's not that you don't get it, it's that it means something different, possibly nothing, to you than to others. It's only a problem if you want to appreciate it from the same perspective as others.

Art is in the eye of the buyer. If the buyer thinks it's art then it is art.

Re: Bot written to buy random things each month from Amazon

#30

Post by dbaupp »

bieh wrote: post #15
citricsquid wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that's it! Thanks. Here's the related show HN: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3825524 re: blog post, the wired article ( http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-11/09/xkcd-packages... ) links to http://bieh.net/2010/11/08/xkcd-576/ which is broken (missing the wordpress I think)

Yeah, I phased out the blog a year or so back, hence why it's not on http://bieh.net any more. I wish I'd worked a bit harder not to break the links now :)

Can you put a mod_rewrite rule "^/(20[01][0-9]/.*) => /wordpress/$1" in a .htaccess somewhere?
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