Paul Schmelzer as signed by Rep. Michele Bachmann

The illustrious Minnesota congresswoman participates in my Signifier, Signed autograph project, joining the likes of Paul Wellstone, Noam Chomsky, Yoko Ono and 70 others in signing my name.

Bits: 02.09.10

Sue Coe, Helping Hands (2010), via Graphic Witness and Provisions Library

• The new issue of the Journal of Aesthetics & Protest includes Futurefarmers founder Amy Franceschini in discussion with Spanish organic farmer Javier Perez about "whether it's possible to undertake projects outside the market" and the "social banking" Perez and Coop 57 do.

• RIP Bob Noorda, designer of the NYC Subway's iconic signage.

• Art critic Jerry Saltz makes art cry: He says he took so long talking to a girl who was "performing" a Tino Seghal work at the Guggenheim that she broke down in tears. It's "the only time in my life I ever wrote a letter of abject apology to a work of art," he says.

• Read: Susan Sontag's 1967 essay, "The Aesthetics of Silence."

• A sculpture that endlessly tries to sell itself on eBay: "Every ten minutes the black box pings a server on the internet via the ethernet connection to check if it is for sale on the eBay. If its auction has ended or it has sold, it automatically creates a new auction of itself."

• Yes Man in Minneapolis: Mike Bonanno, co-founder of The Yes Men, will be in town for a screening of The Yes Men Fix The World this Friday night at Oak Street Cinema.

• Minimalist posters for Star Wars planets and moons -- like Endor!

• The haters at Westboro Baptist Church shouldn't have all the sign-making fun. And a WBC counter-protest outside Twitter headquarters gets delightfully absurd.

• Artboobs, via @TylerGreenDC.

Shaq on art

High-larious. Shaquille O'Neal, interviewed by New York Magazine on curating the Flag Art Foundation show Size DOES Matter (opening Feb. 19), on an art project he'd like to fund:

“I’d like Ron Mueck to do a sculpture of me. I would like to make it twenty feet tall and put it in the middle of a residential neighborhood—make it two stories high and in the head I’d have my office.”