Lofts and domains

I thought I'd tell you about a couple of things today. The first is a fantastic art show I saw at the ICA in London on Friday, Klutterkammer by Berlin artist John Bock. Bock burst into my world at the 2001 Yokohama Triennale, where he had an enigmatic loft installation you had to clamber on chairs to see. I thought it was the best thing in the whole Triennale. The loft theme continues at the ICA, where Bock has gathered work by artists he likes and staged it in a series of hay lofts and odd little folksy huts you reach by clambering up ladders or crawling on your hands and knees along plyboard corridors. The show is spread across three floors, and it's really worth climbing the ladders to peek at Bock's comical, throwaway, bizarre videos (Bock trying to control a tractor run amok, Bock zooming his camera around a series of little installations in the forecourt of a petrol station...)

The other thing I have to report is that my good friend Jean Snow seems to have been cyber-squatted. He's apparently forgotten to renew his ownership of jeansnow.net (where he keeps the fastest moving and best guide to Toyko cultural and pop cultural life I've seen anywhere) and some domain sharks have snapped it up. No doubt they'll be demanding a ludicrous amount of money to sell it back. I thought I'd write about this here so that Jean can leave a message in the Comments section. He may need our PayPal donations. In the meantime, you can keep up with Jean (on a slightly less personal level) at the design site he edits, MoCo Tokyo.

The moral of all this? Always renew your domain name before it expires. (If you want to know when that is, check here.)