More Proof that I am a Man-Child

BIG-ASS SWINGS!!! Yeah, now that’s what I’m talking about. For any newcomers out there (hopefully) I’ll state right here that I’m a huge fan of art that is playful and often larger than life. My pervious posts are evidence of that. This is a “multisensory” project by Ann Hamilton that occupies theWade Thompson Drill Hall which, bee tee dubs, is 55,000 square feet…are as I like to say with all the eloquence I’ve gathered after four years of reading classic literature: “Reaaaly fuckin’ big”

I would jump out of that thing...screw up the experiance but it would kick ass

 



It doesn’t end with just a bunch of swings, a curtain, and hardwood flooring. A pair of readers in robes will read from large scrolls which participants can listen to through ear-piece radio transmitters that you can pick up from the floor…why they are in robes and why they have pigeons caged next to them is not something I’m equipped to answer.



My Answer is: Yes, they can be.

The debate has raged for several years (hell, decades at this point) of whether video games are art. My stance has always been, and will always be barring some quantum crazy world altering shit, that video games are capable of being art. I view them as a medium for artistic expression on many, many different levels. But like films and novels and even some paintings and photographs, I think it is possible to not be art as well. What I’m saying is not every game made is a piece of art. But I do believe that many can be art either by actively being as so (the work of Jenova Chen) or unintentionally (the early works of Shigeru Miyamoto, the man behind Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda). But my personal views aside, I bring this up now because the Museum of Modern Art in New York has just announced that they’ll be adding video games to their collection. Classics like Pac-Man and Pong will also be joined by more modern examples such as Portal and Katamari Damacy (which is just bat-shit crazy fun and hilarious).

One of the Best Villians in History

 

Take a look here for the whole story and a complete list of all the games being added. I think it’s a fine list but why no Ico or Shadow of the Colossus?



It's looking into my soul

I think it’s safe to say that the American populace was an unhealthy relationship with Hollywood stars and their appearances. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think the fact that Taylor Swift being seen in public without makeup on or that Lady Gaga was spotted dressed as a fucking human being are newsworthy. It’s a strange obsession with beauty, or at least superficial beauty. This is what Matthew Rolston's “Talking Heads” project is addressing (or that’s what I’m taking from it). By gussying up (or not) ventriloquist dummies in the style of Hollywood stars of yesteryear (and a few from today) we get a kind of unsettling imagery that some claim to be hauntingly bea—GHA! WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!?

IT.KNOWS.THINGS.

 

Sweet mercy! Those things creep me right the fuck out. Which is good. Art should elicit and emotional reaction, something I try to do with me writing (mainly by being an irreverent ass, but hey, still a reaction). This certainly elicits a reaction…it’s the eyes. Seriously, some kind of hell-dimension creature is using ventriloquist dummies to spy on humanity…I just know it…no inanimate eyes can look so dead yet so knowing at the same time (*shudders and tries to think of happy things like unicorns and shit*). Sorry…I got off topic for a moment. In all seriousness though, I do think this project is very interesting and I’m for some social commentary leveled at our fascination with Hollywood stars. You can see for youself here

Out of Touch

This article really doesn’t have much do with digital arts or culture, but I think it is important to call someone on saying something really fucking stupid. Elon Musk wants to be one of the first to set up a colony on Mars. Okay, that’s all well and good. Ah, and he wants to make it so the “average guy” in their mid-forties could easily afford a ticket. Well, damn that’s even better. It’s the Mayflower all over again. Humanity is finally stepping out of the nest and expanding to new horizons of greatness…I’m sorry, Mr. Musk what was that? I was kinda high on the seer awesome of…WHAT! A “reasonably” priced ticket to you is HALF A FUCKING MILLION DOLLARS!...you can kind go fuck yourself.

Pictured: the average savings of a male in his mid-forites

I try to not be such a belligerent dick, I really do…but why does the world keep making it so damned hard. Even adjusted for inflation that is still a lot of money. What’s gonna happen is only the super wealthy are going to be able to afford tickets and BAM, just like that Mars just became the next Dubai-esque playground for the rich. I bring this up because the future of humanity is something I’m often concerned about…but this guy is either just completely out of touch with just how much the “average guy” makes or is just that fucking stupid.

Symphony for the Office

No, I don’t mean the television series in either its American or British formats. I meant, you know, like an office…with cubicles and shit. Anyway, use this article to go to a composition by Rolf Liebermann. I’ll wait…

Okay, so if you managed to get through thirty seconds of that without losing your goddamned mind, congrats you fared much better than me. Hey, I love trying new and crazy things as much as the next guy, but at some point it is important to remember that a gimmick is not a replacement for an actual artistic experiment. But that’s just me, if you liked it than I’m not disparaging your musical taste at all. I’m happy for you, nay envious. I think it’s a cool concept, but I also think it could have pushed itself a little harder to make a better tune.

Artist's renderign of my reaction to this song

 

The huffpost article asks us “What do you get when you combine 16 typewriters, 18 calculators, eight accounting machines, 12 office perforators, 10 cash registers, eight humidifiers, eight tickers, two metronomes, four bells, two entrance door gongs, 10 electric horns, 16 telephones, 40 experimental signal receptors, a fork lift, a duplicator and an elevator?” Well, unnamed author, for one you get a long fucking paragraph of a question, and two you get one of the most annoying techno songs made entirely of things that inhabit workplaces…take that as you will



This Photo came from Someplace very Interesting...

Act Swiftly Awesome Pachyderm

(Title, not my non sequitur flippancy)

 

That right there was made on a freakin’ iPhone. Hand to god. It’s one of the pieces being exhibited in a new show featuring nothing but works made on iPhones, iPads and so on. It’s called “digital painting”. Unfortunately the story doesn’t really explain how people managed to do this but it makes me all kinds of happy.

This is what I like to see. People actually taking the new technology we have and using it for artistic purposes. It makes even me, the grouchiest cynical ass you’ll meet for a good long while (at least I hope so), simile like an idiot. I posted before about “Resses Moments” those times when tech and art fuse to make the most kick as creative cyborg…this is one of those moments. Gotta love it!



More like PFA-1

I would call this Pretty Fuckin’ Awesome One (see what I did there…bask in it for a second). The Public Farm One is a project to show how somewhat large scale agriculture can be carried out in a small urban environment and look good. They tell about it far better than I, so have at it. I’m always fascinated by things like this, it’s a shame that practically none of them have caught on in a big way. Imagine what our country would be like if we didn’t depend solely on rural farms for agriculture. We could produce that much more fresh produce. It would kick several kinds of ass.

I would totaly use this as a water slide

 

I post this because I just had a…I’m going to be generous and call it a “discussion” with an individual who espoused the idea that creativity was something next to useless. I’m not a patient person when it comes to these kinds of things. One need only look at older posts to find ample evidence of that, but I think creativity and innovation go hand-in-hand to the point that they’re inseparable. All I have to do to prove that creativity makes the world go ‘round is point at irrigation. You think whoever came up with that idea was some idiot who stumbled on the idea of redirecting water for crops. Hell no. and what made civilization advance to the point were we have access to damn near the entire accumulated mass of human knowledge on a fucking phone…you guessed; irrigation. The next time some dick tells you creativity doesn’t matter simply point to his smart phone and give him a proverbial knowledge bitch-slap.