~SIX THINGS: SAGMEISTER & WALSH .. NOW IS BETTER, after BOSTON is BOMBED .. ? ?
wow, what a BUBBLE we do live in.
I only meant BLEEDING EDGE, as a metaphor, for cutting edge art .. I didn’t expect to see blood and gore and carnage all over the media and in the streets of Boston – just a day or so later.
thick and red .. on the streets.
SIX THINGS: SAGMEISTER & WALSH
MARCH 15 – AUGUST 4, 2013
THE JEWISH MUSEUM – 1109 FIFTH AVE, NYC
at any rate it shows you just how relevant art really is .. to the global conversation.
SAGMEISTER might not have it called it, exactly right .. but he asked the right questions.
so .. yes life is a slippery slope. (was it ever not ?)
so .. yes, maybe it was just the calm before the storm.
SO:
no, I don’t think it’s a BETTER time in human history – just a very different one. the implications and impact of diverse cultures colliding because of the web .. is just as ‘exponential’ in potential as any other impact digital technology .. is playing out.
this is the actual text that ran with the SAGMEISTER & WALSH project no. 6 – NOW IS BETTER / animated video.
(in collaboration with MATTHEW & ERIK HUBER.)
it reads:
“I’d much rather live now than in an other time in history. This is the first time that large parts of the world population can be in charge of their own destiny. The Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker shows that crime (Death by the hand of another man) actually decreased in every singe century over all the last 2000 years including the Twentieth Century that featured both world wars and the Holocaust.
NOW is BETTER.”
no, Now is different.
and a few, as opposed to hundreds of thousands, of terrible bloody mutilations .. arriving graphically, in your face and immediately .. around the world simultaneously .. does have an impact .. that cannot be denied.
it’s just different.
it’s also .. ironic that the mass universe of the web information today, makes smaller numbers – more lethal ?
it might not play out in the body bag count, but it takes a toll on all, and at all levels, not the least which is freedom of speech and .. whole generations not only growing up under threat, but living in downsized dreams and opportunities due to the vast sums of money & energy diverted to counter-terrorism & hi-level security.
I’m thinking .. and it’s just my PERSONAL take .. that as a ‘graphic’ designer, crossing the divide into no-holds barred design / content & then onto .. artist, by asking the BIG questions, and opening up a cross-cultural dialog .. that therefore, hopefully results meaningful thought and reflection, not to forget : HAPPINESS (!!) .. that SAGMEISTER comes off as a being in a BUBBLE .. with some of his conclusions, because he is a professional – ‘PACKAGER’.
he makes his living, bottomline – packaging goods, and services and websites, etc etc. and as such .. he is used to having a tidy & attractive .. wrap.
but consider .. SETH MacFARLANE & ‘THE FAMILY GUY’ . . .
it is SETH MacFARLANE’S job, and ART .. to make cutting edge .. comic book genre / humor that hits the ‘commentary’ button. i.e. more commonly termed: adult cartoon.
PHOTO: AP via DAILY MAIL
caption reads .. Pulled: Fox will not re-air an episode of the adult cartoon ‘Family Guy’ that depicts mass deaths at the BOSTON MARATHON
the episode, which first aired this past MARCH 17, 2013 and is becoming notorious through a souped-up edit going viral on Youtube .. (read the article ..) .. “features the show’s main character Peter Griffin, unwittingly befriending a terrorist who is planning to blow up a bridge and then accidentally detonating two bombs using a cell phone the friend gave him. In a separate and unrelated scene, the episode depicts Griffin reminiscing about how he won a former BOSTON MARATHON by mowing over runners in his car.”
surprise surprise .. some people don’t like being made fun of . . even if they deserve it (?)
and two: sticks and stones .. it’s only a cartoon.
though, I dunno, you know what they say: maybe the pen is mightier than the sword ?
I don’t think it’s a far stretch to say this episode might have triggered things, or given up a ‘tasty’ target . . considering the fact that ‘they’ say, in a nutshell, pressure cooker bombs .. can’t travel far, or they blow up prematurely. which I think might mean, they also can’t be built too far back .. before they are supposed to go off.
not that terrorists don’t have their own sense of humor. did you catch the name of the article that details how to make a homemade bomb like this .. that was put out by, I read this in a few sources .. Al Qaeda’s Yemen branch in 2010, in the 2010 issue of “Inspire” Magazine .. ( yes, this is for real !!) under the title:
“Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mother.”
well there’s the cultural diff in a nutshell, DIY bomb manuals vs gross American TV humor.
that’s also, further demonstration of what I mean .. by the insidious nature of this century’s war(s) .. and how everything is impacted by the information explosion.
case in point: (made you look !!) (see post below)
never mind, with the .. NOW IS BETTER.
BETTER WATCH it .. is more like it. or we are all gonna end up fat STUDIO GHIBLI characters .. speaking a new global language: blandspeak, yeah I’ve gone on about this before.
I did make a bad joke on APRIL FOOLS last year, inspired by that ridiculous two-ton all-steel life-size train engine that STUDIO JEFF KOONS was floating to hang from a crane .. over the Chelsea Highline. so I know from what, I speak.
next thing you know an internet ‘souvenir’ post card .. stating Al Qaeda is coming to New York pops up on the radar .. and it’s in the NEW YORK POST & being investigated by HOMELAND SECURITY, turns out it was .. just an ‘art’ student in Cairo ?
and I’m thinking damn. either artlovers has bonafide fans in Cairo, or the these guys .. really watch the web.
damn, it’s a complicated world. it’s a slippery slope.
the cutting edge .. really does, bleed.
funny .. how everybody thinks of technology as so .. non-bio.
oh for the faded days of the FRENCH IMPRESSIONISTS breaking the art barriers .. depicting the newest dress styles on their mistresses (MET MUSEUM).
and apparently even .. the subject of mistresses wasn’t controversial ?
on which note: museums in Boston caned their admission fees this week – so people, I guess esp visitors from the marathon .. could have somewhere to go, to rest their weary heads.
1. well guess that takes the heat off TALLULAH (WILLIS) for smoking ‘weed’ (?) behind a dumpster.
2. and p.s. next thing you know, LENA DUNHAM will be blamed for setting off some 3rd party bomb, or does JUDD APATOW have it all – covered ?
and 3.
just wondering, since my daughter is 27 or so, and it’s no problemo (!!) .. just how old do you have to be .. for your mom to let you watch .. GIRLS ?
if I was 10, or even younger & I went to a kid-friendly (?) or maybe not, maybe just Artforum friendly .. Purim party .. I know I’d sure be CURIOUS, YES. about the guest of honor !!
BUT, you know what . . maybe that’s a … GOOD THING !! all things considered.
oh, the things that go in in your mom’s kitchen today, or what !!
PHOTO: NANCY SMITH