Subvertisement

This project is about taking an ad and visually creating some kind of commentary which disputes or impugns that ad. 

After some consideration I found a topic that I thought would be a good choice.  The title of this work is "The oPhone."  As was suggested in a previous class, I've focused on one specific element rather than on a large topic.  The project is about how President Obama's choice to appoint a large number of czars appears almost like he has created a personal toolbox to handle situations without the oversight of a collective set of advisors.  Some people see this as an overcentralization of power, and while it is probably only an organizational effort, perhaps it could have been approached in a different way.

Black Shoals Planetarium

Again, Turbulence delivers a fascinating story. The Black Shoals Stock Market Planetarium is, at first glance, merely a pretty star chart. Upon closer inspection, this work by Lise Autogena and Joshua Portway not only reacts to a huge influx of publically traded companies, but does so in such a way that causes the stars to cluster into groups which have similarities. On top of that, the display is programmed to generate artificial life forms which feed off of the light of strong stock-representational "stars", which form communities, devour other lifeforms, and interact with the "universe" on the whole.

This is the first turbulence post I've seriously wanted to visit, unfortunately due to its location in Denmark, I doubt it will happen anytime soon. Regardless, the technological and artistic innovation in this work is amazing to me. To combine The Game of Life with a planetarium that's reactive to our own "corporate monsters" is a very relevant topic to this week, but is just flat-out awesome regardless.

More info here.

Subvertisement: John Berger

John Berger, our focus for the topic Subertisement, is a grand master of its practice and theory. If the image above is as sinister as I've made it out to be in my perception, the catchphrase, "Things happen after a badedas bath." becomes a message of fear, even terror, as this strange man outside peeps on, and perhaps stalks this woman in what we see as her own home.

I'm looking forward to exploring this topic, it will be fun to use sarcasm in the form of our in-class movie, "The Corporation" not, mind you, to insult aimlessly a corporation which we consider an irritant, but to create a real cultural, functional, or marketing-based critique on how a given entity, represented in advertisement, conducts itself on a daily basis.

Perhaps not completely about Subvertisement, but I noticed an article on Berger at Turbulence. You can read more on the topic here.

Happiness Hat

In this post on turbulence, one Lauren  McCarthy has devised a hat containing a "smile detector" and a metal spike which drills into your head if you begin to frown.

This was too bizarre not to write about. Can you say coercion? This headgear unintentionally (or perhaps intentionally) speaks to elements of society we don't fully notice, where people are perhaps forced or at least coerced by society to wear a smile at all times. After all, if you smile at the world, the world smiles back. What happens if we stop smiling?

More info here: http://lauren-mccarthy.com/happinesshat/

Montage

This week I've integrated the video and still projects under a project I'm calling Priorities. I'm still not sure how to compress my video such that the audio will work, so I have refrained from uploading any corrupt animations until this issue is resolved in class. However, the two stills are available.

First, this realistic image, entitled "Pleasant Obfuscation" seeks to contrast the disparity between what we see on a daily basis, what seeks to hold our attention (usually for monetary gain) and how these things exclude the more dire elements of life, especially poverty. We really are a culture with our heads in the sand in regard to third world life.



I call this next image "My Generation" because I think that people my age tend to have, in a macroscopic sense, an inordinate amount of selfishness and an extreme sense of entitlement. I don't mean to say that I'm not selfish at times, or that I don't ever feel entitled to things, only that, to me, this seems like a large enough cultural phenomenon to explore artistically.



Images updated and reduced to fit web format. Full resolution images are available upon request, and were used for printed copies.

Norman White: We Fix Toasters

Comically, and poignantly, White's work exudes the true sense of art in this post on Networked Performance. The intent seems to be to create whimsical gadgetry out of ordinary objects, hence the title of the series. White describes himself as an 'expert in doing things the wrong way', and values displaying his creations in places not normally expected, as in, places where art 'should not be' in the eyes of the casual observer.

From my perspective, I can't tell whether it's more appropriate to laugh or ponder at inventions such as a "helpless robot" who ends up being a complete jerk, and a demanding one at that! Moreover, robots performing noisy sexual acts or, one other piece involving a mechanical eye popping out of a painting leave one to wonder where this inventor gets his crazy ideas. Regardless, it is quintessentially creative, and his choice to display these machinations in the oddest of places leaves one with a feeling of high regard for this artist motivated so strongly by the desire to create.

For more information, check out White's Art.

Brian Knep: Exempla

In a half-depressing, half-enlightening commentary on contemporary society, Knep uses cartoonish drawings projected onto walls to make statements about how he sees the world. From Turbulence, The pieces are more about futility than emergence. The works use child-like drawings to examine the illusions that drive us, in a humorous way. The creatures, with their huge, exaggerated faces and skeletal legs, are caricatures of the endlessly cycling everyman. You can find the original story here.

I appreciate the type of artwork that simultaneously laughs at itself and at the people around it, though often I find that it is much more palpable to laugh with others, it is undeniable that there is a great social impact to laughing at ourselves now and then. This undertaking seems to exemplify that attitude, and is therefore worth at least some attention. Hopefully Mr. Knep will achieve his desired result, despite the dreary nature of the meaning behind these works being rather somber, and pensive. More information can be found on Knep's work at his website.