Hasta La Ideas

• Nike veteran Mike Friton gets his close-up in “The Innovator” (above), a video portrait by Portland-based Cineastas.

• Elsewhere in visually astute videos, Scott “The Sartorialist” Schumann paused in his prowling the streets for stylish sportcoats to interview Magnum photographer Steve McCurry. Click here to watch part one of the five-part chat.

• Pinterest has raised a new $200 million round of funding. The cash infusion brings the virtual scrapbooking company’s valuation up to $2.5 billion.

• Look for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week parent company IMG to change hands. Private equity firm Forstmann Little & Co. is planning to sell the sports and modeling talent agency.

• Adieu, Mondays with André. Vogue‘s very own caped crusader, André Leon Talley, is leaving the magazine.
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Tracey Emin‘s “I Promise To Love You” neonworks now playing on screens throughout Times Square a project for which s[edition] served as curatorial partner. (Photo: Ka-Man Tse)

Would art lovers pay up to download a Damien Hirst? So pondered the art and tech worlds in November 2011, when London-based s[edition] opened its digital doors on the eve of Art Basel Miami Beach–having convinced artists such as Hirst, Tracey Emin, Bill Viola, and Shepard Fairey to create original works for a new breed of online gallery. The answer is, apparently, yes.

Founders Harry Blain and Robert Norton have seen the iDevice-wielding masses embrace the concept of collecting art in a digital format and are making inroads into museum collections, placing pieces with the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and Norway’s Stavanger Art Museum, and creating digital editions in partnership with the Serpentine Gallery and the ICA London. The company is also to thank for the love-themed works by Emin that are now lighting up Times Square on a nightly basis. While in NYC to feel the love, Norton made time to answer our seven questions about how s[edition] works, a new initiative to seek out fresh talents, advice for fellow entrepreneurs, and the artwork he would most like to have on his wall–or screen.

1. How do you describe s[edition] to someone who is unfamiliar with it?
s[edition] works with world leading artists who wish to see their work collected in a digital medium. The online platform offers contemporary art enthusiasts the opportunity to buy original art, at affordable prices. The art is sold as digital limited editions to be viewed on TVs, iPads, iPhones, and digital screens. s[edition] members can browse and acquire works to start their own collection, follow artists, and send limited editions as gifts to friends.

2. s[edition] has been in business for just over a year. How would you characterize the reaction from collectors?
The feedback from our collectors has been fantastic. The prices are very affordable which means we have opened up an entirely new market for collecting digital art. We have an active audience of 400,000 digital art enthusiasts, collectors, and fans.

3. Can collectors resell works they have purchased on s[edition]?
Collectors can resell their editions through an open marketplace after edition runs have sold out. We have found that some collectors will never want to sell their edition while others trade continually.

4. Do you plan to expand the star-studded s[edition] roster to include emerging artists?
This year, we have plans to launch the s[edition] Open Platform, a separate section on the website, where emerging and established artists will be able to submit their art for consideration and be selected by world renowned artists and curators to sell their works online. By opening our platform, we provide these artists with a gateway to a global audience of art enthusiasts. It also enables us to search out new talent. Artists who are interested should email us at info@seditionart.com
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“Ettore Sottsass’s Valentine typewriter, designed in 1969, was made in tens of thousands at the Olivetti factory in Barcelona. What makes it fascinating is that it was the first time a company that specialized in making office equipment tried to turn the kind of machine that signalled work into something that looked playful. Or, as Sottsass put it, the kind of thing that might keep poets company on lonely Sundays in the country.

Sottsass made the Valentine bright red and used moulded plastic for the shell. The two ribbon spools were bright orange. According to Perry King, Sottsass’s British assistant on the project, the spools were meant to suggest the flashing of a pair of nipples. Less sexist, the carrying case was designed to be as stylish as the machine itself and could, at a push, be turned into a makeshift stool. But the marketing department at Olivetti vetoed Sottsass’s other idea: that it should only have upper case letters so as to simplify the mechanism and lower the price. The company saw itself as radical but not that radical.”

–Deyan Sudjic, director of London’s Design Museum, in the Financial Times

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“Having to do a hotel where I was given an almost incomprehensible [very tight] budget, so ridiculous, led me to black and white. I had to use the lowest priced tile in the United States. At first they brought me little pink tiles for the bathrooms. My voice trembling with despair, I asked if they came in white…They said yes! Suddenly I realized, that’s going to be horribly dull!…And in black? Yes…A-ha! We’ll do the bathrooms in black and white. A sort of potluck, with a nice metal washbasin and a few good lights…Suddenly, we had a really nice bathroom. The black and white label comes from there.”

-Interior designer Andrée Putman, who died Saturday in Paris at the age of 87

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Fashion force Fern Mallis was back on stage at New York’s 92nd Street Y last night for a chat with the irrepressible Betsey Johnson. The designer, clad in a black tee that proclaimed her a “rocker,” shredded leggings, wedge sneakers, and a hot pink tutu that she would later shimmy out of to get comfortable, bounded on stage with a signature cartwheel and concluded the evening by showering Mallis, her old friend, in rose petals. “That was good I think,” she said of their fizzy dialogue before skipping off to greet fans. Here’s ten fun facts that emerged from the conversation:

10. She spends $20,000 a year on hair extensions. “It costs 5,000 a pop to look this cheap and trashy,” she said.

9. She made her first garment at age four. “I still have that apron. The print is so great. It has little Scottie dogs on it.”

8. She dropped out of Pratt Institute after one year to pursue…cheerleading. “Pratt was a bitch. It was a killer year. I didn’t have time to do anything…well, I had time to eat. I think I gained 100 pounds. But we didn’t have time to sleep. I had to leave and cheerlead [at Syracuse University].”

7. As a guest editor at Mademoiselle, she traveled to London (and met Margaret Thatcher). “I came back [from London] and wanted to be an American Mary Quant. I connected with that fashion–primitive, basic, almost flat-patterned, primal, kindergarten kind of clothing.”

6. At least one First Lady has worn her clothes. “Jackie Kennedy came in [to mod NYC boutique Paraphernalia] and bought 12 or 13 of these satin-backed crepe bush shirts. [She was pictured wearing one on the] cover of Life, tromping around in Cambodia.”
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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.