– New "Swimming Cities" Expedition in Oregon: Street artist Swoon made waves with her "Swimming Cities" projects of years past, flotillas of ramshackle sculptural rafts that floated down the Hudson or across the lagoon in Venice, crewed by a motley team of free-spirited art types. Now, her friend Tod Seelie is planning to kick off a new installment of the rafting expedition in Oregon this August — though Swoon herself will apparently not be onboard. "[T]here’s a plan to do some rafts on the Willamette near Portland in mid-August," Seelie posted on his blog. "It’s mostly a different group but has a few of the original Swimming Cities crew, Swoon won’t be there as part for this. It will be a smaller affair but should have some fun shows and interactive events. Keep an eye on this blog or suckapants.com for more info. Thanks!’" [Wired, TodSeelie.com]
– Shepard Fairey’s Public Art Campaign: Shepard Fairey has been recruited by the nonprofit L.A. Fund for Public Education to create the third installment of its #ArtsMatter campaign by covering Los Angeles’s buses and billboards in his signature designs. Fairey’s campaign centers on the phrase "Create Your Future" and was inspired by responses from L.A. students to the question, "What does the world look like when you take away the things that limit you?" Previous #ArtsMatter campaigns have been designed by Barbara Kruger and John Baldessari. [Daily News]
– Reina Sofia Deploys Restoration Robot: Madrid's Reina Sofia Museum is using a giant robotic camera in its basement restoration lab to scan artworks for scratches, cracks, subsurface preparatory drawings, and traces of previous restorations, taking hundreds of close-up ultraviolet and infrared photos. Its current object of inquiry is Joan Miro's "Women, Bird in the Night" (1974). "With this Miro work we have already seen a series of touch-ups and stains that were completely hidden," said Humberto Duran, the designer of the robot, which was first put to use on Pablo Picasso's "Guernica," thus earning it the nickname "Pablito." [AFP]
– MCA Plaza Transformed Into Photo Studio: Amanda Ross-Ho’s new exhibition has turned the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago’s plaza into an open-air photo studio replete with with larger-than-life still-life models that visitors are invited to engage with and photograph. [ArtDaily]
– Art World Archive: The massive, unlabeled photo archive of the recently retired "Soho Photographer," D. James Dee, will be donated to non-profit digital archive ARTstor, which will work with museum and gallery officials, scholars, and librarians to try to caption the photographs. [NYT]
– Huge Market for Miniature Books: The Telegraph cracks open the growing market for miniature books, which can fetch as much as £3 million. [Telegraph]
– The Saint Louis Art Museum has hired Jason T. Busch, current chief curator and curator of decorative arts and design at the Carnegie Museum of Art, to be its new deputy director, a job he'll start in October. [Press Release]
– Two men have been indicted for growing marijuana on the grounds of the Frontier Culture Museum in Virginia. [NBC29]
– After having her debit card stolen, British art teacher Serena O'Connor handed the local authorities a watercolor portrait she painted of the suspect. [Independent]
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