Sabotage

Sabotage - what does that mean?

The word "sabotage" comes from the French word "sabot" and means "to trample with wooden shoes." A sabot is a clog with a leather top. At the beginning of agricultural mechanization French farm workers threw their "sabotes" into harvesting and processing machines (which were taking their jobs), thereby blocking the complicated mechanics of the mowing and threshing machines and rendering them useless. For the sake of their labor, they engaged in "sabotage".

Interesting.... I wonder if this means that self sabotage is actually a way to create "work" for ourselves. I mean, we wouldn't want things to be too easy, now would we? My sister and I recently did some "work" on this subject. You can read about it here.

One Thousand Paintings

I found something really interesting today... A website called One Thousand Paintings. I stared at it in disbelief for a full 10 minutes while the full impact of the idea sank in.

It said: For sale: the numbers 1 through 1000.

One thousand numbers = one thousand paintings. All beautifully painted on canvas (approx. 12 x 12 x 1.5 inches). Each number is unique - the number and the demand define the price. An experiment of art & mathematics, on the web, the first of its kind.

There were satisfied customer comments like this one:

"This is such an amazing idea - I had been looking to purchase a piece of unique art online and this 100% fits the bill."
Teresa Critien, UK

And this one:

"Several weeks later, a battered yellow box arrived bearing a Zurich postmark. Inside, swathed in bubble wrap, was the gift. I must say, it was glorious."
Dan Pink, WIRED Magazine

And this blurb about sales:

Paintings have been sold to the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, China, Singapore, Mexico, Brasil, South Africa, Germany, France, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Kyrgyzstan, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Portugal, and Israel.

I began to wonder how much they were being sold for and found this intriguing pricing policy:

Price calculator:
Price = 1000 - number.
Initial discount: 90%.
Current discount: 20%.
The discount will decrease by an absolute 10% for every 100 paintings sold.
Min. price: $40.

How many have been sold?

Well, there are only 240 numbers left! I didn't calculate how much money this guy must have brought in. But DAMN! That's a lot of sales!

So what makes these paintings so cool? What makes them so interesting? Why are people buying them?

I have no idea. This is what they look like. Yep. Just a plain blue number on a white canvas. I don't get it. Would you buy one? Are you even tempted?