Link List #123: Reflective hot air balloons, SEO artists, and the women behind the first man on the moon - Friends of Friends / Freunde von Freunden (FvF)

Link List #123: Reflective hot air balloons, SEO artists, and the women behind the first man on the moon

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Link List #123: Reflective hot air balloons, SEO artists, and the women behind the first man on the moon

This week we’ve been reading about the women involved in the Apollo 11 moon landing, the hot air balloon promoting cultural conversation across Massachusetts, and the SEO artist who seeks to hypnotize Google.

Apollo 10 Commander Tom Stafford pats the nose of a stuffed Snoopy held by Jamye Flowers (Coplin), astronaut Gordon Cooper’s secretary. Photograph: NASA
    • As we celebrate fifty years since the Apollo 11 moon landing this week, The Guardian draws our attention to the women—from computer engineers and mathematicians to secretaries and seamstresses—who helped to put the first man on the moon.
    • Dazed Digital interviews Doug Aitkin, the mastermind behind New Horizon. The project will see a mirror-surfaced hot air balloon touch down in six locations in Massachusetts throughout July, acting as a springboard for conversation, performance, and the emergence of new ideas.
    • Should a progressive art museum have an arms manufacturer as their vice-chairman? In the wake of calls for Safariland CEO to stand down from the board of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Frieze explores what museums can do to avoid appointing board members with unethical business ties.
    • The far-right, anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany has begun to request information on the nationalities of artists employed in German state-funded opera, orchestra, and ballet companies. The New York Times talks to members of Germany’s cultural industries who see this as an ominous indication of what the party might focus on if it were to gain greater power over arts institutions.
    • As a self-described “internet imperialist,” Gretchen Andrew is a search engine artist who exposes holes in the internet’s knowledge. In this interview with WePresent, she discusses how the internet is being driven by commercialism, and what she hopes to gain from hypnotizing Google.

Hopefully you enjoyed the reads from this week’s Link List, but if you’ve still got an internet itch to scratch, you can find more here.

Also, be sure to check out FvF Mixtapes for some tracks selected by our friends and favorite artists, and subscribe to our newsletter to stay up-to-date with FvF stories.

Text: Emily May

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