Rhizome is pleased to announce that eleven international artists/groups have been awarded commissions to assist them in creating original works of Internet-based art. Each commission will range from $2500 — $1000. The selected artists are Annie Abrahams and Igor Stromajer, Nadia Anderson and Fritz Donnelly, Adam Brown and Andrew Fagg, Corey Jackson and Aaron Meyers, Zach Lieberman, Michael Mandiberg, the Institute for Applied Autonomy and Trevor Paglen, Evan Roth and Ben Engebre, SLOWLab (Carolyn Strauss and Julian Bleecker), Marek Walczak and Martin Wattenberg and YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES.

How much can you borrow, quote or copy from someone else’s work? What happens if you get a “cease and desist” letter from a copyright owner? These and many other questions make “intellectual property,” or “IP,” law, a mass of confusion for artists, scholars, journalists, bloggers, and everyone else who contributes to culture and political debate.

The Fair Use Network was created because of the many questions that artists, writers, and others have about “IP” issues. Whether you are trying to understand your own copyright or trademark rights, or are a “user” of materials created by others, the information here will help you understand the system — and especially its free-expression safeguards.

If you have received a “cease and desist” letter from a copyright or trademark owner, or a notice from your Internet service provider about a “takedown” letter, you’ll also find useful information on this site.

Last week, a contractor bought a bathroom vanity at a Massachusetts Home Depot and discovered two 50-pound “bricks” of grass inside. Elsewhere in the state, a plumber purchased a similar product at an unnamed “hardware store” and opened it to find 40 pounds of weed plus 3 kilograms of cocaine. Police and DEA officials have swept a dozen Home Depots in the state and found other loaded vanities.

Novel writers and film and theater producers have started selling voyeurism, drugs, homosexuality, and pedophilia to middle-Americans at the mall, instead of leaving these things to patrons of peep shows and trendy art galleries. One of the most heavily Oscar-awarded movies of recent years — American Beauty — combined all four of those degradations in one package.

Please go to www.mtvk.com and vote for Maggie Kim’s video for “Obvious (Want You)”.

Don’t vote for Yeah Yeah Yeahs, because they get ALL the candy. They don’t need any more candy. Let someone else have some candy for a change. Let that someone be Maggie Kim.

So, please vote, and help re-distribute the candy.

“Geeks in the Gallery” is a three part discussion with artists Michael Bell-Smith and Tom Moody, which will run on Art Fag City from Monday June 12 – Wednesday, June 14, 2006. A recurring theme of the talk is how technology informs artistic production, as both artists have individually exhibited work usually described as New Media, yet also seem somewhat skeptical of “tech art.”

HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO KICK-0FF A GLOBAL CREATIVE MOVEMENT?

Coca-Cola has asked us, Look-Look, to find the most creative thinkers and doers from all over the world to contribute original work to a new website. This collection of videos, animations, songs, photos, paintings, drawings, (and anything else you can dream up) will set the tone — and the benchmark — for a new generation of global creators. That’s why you’ve been handpicked for this invitation.

In the generic “plastic brick” design world of game console hardware, the passive player is usually subjected to standardized devices that they may choose to augment with their own “case mods”. Although extremely creative, most of these modifications are embellishments that have no connection to the games themselves. Exploring this contextual rift between mass-produced consoles and their software counterparts is Brooklyn, NY based artist, Paul Johnson. Johnson creates work that challenges traditional console forms by integrating the goals and virtual landscapes of games into the physical realization of the hardware. His projects examine the inherent conflicts between constructed systems and their emotional proclivity. Gizmodo spoke to Johnson about the future of gaming, interactivity, and why the physical design of consoles should be closer tied to the games that they support.