You are currently browsing the monthly archive for January 2009.
If you don’t have anything good to blog about, post some You Tube videos.
Darius Himes wrote a great essay entitled “Who Cares About Books?” over at Words Without Pictures…. which has, ironically, closed shop for awhile to publish a book. Download the PDF and enjoy.
My New Home?
My rhetorical question: when is it OK to move into the less-than-desirable neighborhoods of a city?
After much searching through the various cubes, dirty duplexes, and non-descript condo-turned-apartment buildings scattered throughout Minneapolis, I finally found a place that I would like to call home. As soon as I annouced this to my friends, they managed to point out that I’m probably going to be stabbed, raped, or shot (hopefully all of the above) while waiting for the bus.
However, I refuse to be deterred. This place is perfect for me. Good southern exposure… hardwood floors… older building… I just can’t say no.
*****
Consequently, when apartment hunting, how does one actually identify what areas to look in?
Maybe I’m way way way behind the times… but looking for a place to live this time around, has taken a different form… usuall something along the lines of:
- finding apartment on Craig’s List
- Using Google Map to see where it is…
- Using Google Street view to see if I like the shape of the building…
- Using Spot Crime to look up the crime stats for the area…
Leon de Grief Library Park from Archdaily
The amazing blog Archdaily has me convinced that experimentation in architecture is really happening everywhere but the US. Take for example, the Leon de Grief Library Park in Medellin, Columbia. It is truly amazing to me that 15 years ago, I would never have been able to go here because of the rampant violence and other side effects of the “War on Drugs”.
I’ve never been truly convinced that such a thing as the avante garde can exist. However, I find myself calling a transformation of this type, which is in such stark contrast with the past, exactly that.
*****
It’s a slow and steady day at work and I find myself drifting back and forth between work, my sketchbook, and this time-sucking blog. My mind is wandering and I’m curious if it’s not too late to start looking at photography in a completely different capacity. I love architecture. I love photography. Why on God’s blue earth haven’t I concluded that I want to be an architectural photographer?
Making art, being critical, and exhibiting the results has turned into such a narrow path that I feel like its a revelation to just simply want to make photos of buildings, built environments, and architectural interventions. That’s it. That’s what I actually want to be doing… right now.
After a long weekend of phlegm, I’m back in action. I was riding in my buddy Mike’s car on an errand at work and the topic of cool new ads and the Walker’s hosting of the British Advertising Awards came up.
What does it mean when the most interesting parts of a society’s visual culture are advertisements? I’m asking this in lieu of both the Brit’s advertising foray’s and also the Adicolor series from Adidas. For the most part, there seems to be a distinct lack of products (aside from the following VW commercial) -but- these ads seem to go beyond the touchy-feely, emotional adverts of the 90s.
Lets take for example the Cabury advert of a Gorilla playing the drum sequence in the Phil Collins’ song “In the Air Tonight”. The advertisment has nothing to do with the crappy chocolate from Cadbury… but… I can’t stop watching the ad. Taken a step further… apparently the studio that owns the rights to the song has prevented it from being included in versions of the ad posted to You Tube. So, the gorilla ad runs… without Phil Collins.
The result is something akin to a piece of video art you could find in any white cube gallery. (Embedding has been disabled… you’ll have to… click)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1hfNNcOrfY
*****
A different side of the coin: What happens when a social fabric (in this case a city) decides to openly reject advertisements? The city of Sao Paulo, Brazil decided last year to ban outdoor advertisements. Photographer Tony de Marco has been documenting the city’s empty billboard structures…
From Tony de Marco's FLICKR
My next question: If visual advertisements are banned – how have the advertisers retaliated? Is all advertising product placement? Word of mouth? Do people “randomly” break into the Coke jingle in order to sell soda?
Vacationing in Golden Valley This Year!
Zen Habits has a great article about being pigeonholed. I feel like the art world demands that artists brand themselves through their work… this little article has a great take on how to recognize when you’re being pushed to be one way or another based on surrounding circumstances.
I’d also like to add that the Minnesota Martini at the Longfellow Grill is amazing.
Proof my phone's camera sucks!
Cheers to all and to all a good (but cold) night!
Clinton Ave Public Space, February 2008
Americans are either in their cars, in their homes, or in shopping malls.
The sense of public space in the contemporary American city is so exceptionally abbreviated it seems that I am able to pass to and from work without ever really having to navigate a truly “public” place. I get up in the morning, and pass from my house to an abandoned street of private homes and get onto a bus that systematically seals me off from the public sphere passing outside. When I arrive at work, I migrate upwards into the sky-ways and am deluged by an array of private interests and intentions – starting with some corporate architect’s premeditated control of my movement and ending with the various retail establishments that pull me in to spend money.
There is never a sense of openness, possibility, or social exchange in the mock public environment I’m surrounded by. I guess I’m comparing this to the various public spaces I’ve spent time in – The Zocalo area in Mexico City or Central Park or the Museum Plein in Amsterdam. There is something that is distinctly lost when public space is mutated and downsized as it is in Minneapolis. Supposedly there is a new public space opening up – Target Plaza… next to Target Field… next to the Target Center.
Does it bother anyone else that we are so willing to have our open forum spaces co-opted by a corporation’s private PR interests?
With the above thoughts in mind, I intend to actually start doing some work again (keeping in mind, I can’t really make any prints until this time next year). A couple of goals for this project/direction:
- Research the history of the corporate sponsorship of art, architecture, and the public sphere.
- Photograph the spaces that constitute public space, in its abbreviated and shrunken state.
- Intervene in the dialog between the accessibility and inaccessibility of the public and private, corporate and free.
Peter Griffin - Postmodern Superhero?
In the last two years, I’ve seen many episodes of the television show “Family Guy” and have to say, I’ve enjoyed every single one. I’m a little bit embarrassed to admit this – as I like to point out that I don’t watch television and generally avoid many of the institutions of popular/mass-mediated culture. Being an overly neurotic creature, I can’t let myself enjoy something without analyzing it to death.
Today’s question for y’all is Family Guy -or, more specifically: what is the relationship between Family Guy and Postmodernism. Does the TV series represent the epitome of the postmodern concepts of intertextuality, opposition to meta-narratives, deconstruction, and “death of the author”?
Does anyone else see this?
What Would Lyotard Have to Say?
Ladies and gentlemen, it is Friday. I’m off to have happy hour with David before he departs for Bergen, Norway to become a famous photographer and eventually will be stalking my prey and having dinner with Courdis. Before departure, here are a few images that are keeping me sane on this dismal day.
-as
