Dezeen Magazine

One laptop per artist: OLPC charity auction

Design Miami 07: eight leading artists have donated works based on the One Laptop Per Child initiative for an auction to raise funds for the project. Above: It's Good to be Cheerful by Richard Tuttle.

The eight works, by David Altmejd, John Baldessari, Olafur Eliasson, Catherine Opie, Jorge Pardo, Ugo Rondinone, Cindy Sherman and Richard Tuttle, are on show at the Luminaire showroom in the Miami Design District this weekend. Above: Untitled by Cindy Sherman.

One Laptop Per Child is a humanitarian project to create an affordable computer to help children in the developing world. Above: Screensaver by Jorge Pardo.

The resulting computer, the XO, is designed by Yves Béhar of Fuseproject. The Complete Poems of Ingebord Bachmann by Ugo Rondinone. Below: Everything Can Change by Olafur Eliasson.

Here's some info from Luminaire:

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Luminaire, Design Miami, and Yves Behar are proud to present a charity auction in aid of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC). The brainchild of Nicholas Negroponte, OLPC’s mission is to provide a means for learning, self-expression, and exploration to the nearly two billion children of the developing world with little or no access to education. By giving children their very own connected XO laptop, (it’s innovative and playful design by Yves Behar of fuseproject), OLPC is giving them a window to the outside world, access to vast amounts of information, a way to connect with each other, and a springboard into their future.

And they also help these countries develop an essential resource—educated, empowered children. Much in the same way that the XO laptop invites children to explore, experiment and express themselves, Luminaire, Design Miami, and Yves Behar of fuseproject have invited seven prominent contemporary visual artists (David Altmejd, John Baldessari, Olafur Eliasson, Catherine Opie, Jorge Pardo, Ugo Rondinone, Cindy Sherman, Richard Tuttle) to do the same.

Asked to treat the laptop as they would a blank canvas, these participating artists have trans-formed our familiar aesthetic and functional notions of the laptop computer and we believe it is safe to say that the results are nothing short of spectacular.

THESE PIECES OF ART WILL BE AUCTIONED ONLINE WITH 100% OF THE PROCEEDS TO SUPPORT THE OLPC PROJECT.
http://www.luminaire.com/olpc/