Brett, the most successful art practice in this regards happens when the
work becomes "iconic" in the culture. And then, when it is reskinned by
others after that. While this is not non-commercial art, the reskinning of
Apple's iPod ads using an Abu Gareb silhouette is one example. Then moving
on to this: http://www.happygolarry.com/2004/10/13/bulge
Jeff
On Tue, 19 Oct 2004, Brett Stalbaum wrote:
Hi Randall,
Given, yes. But it raises some interesting questions. At this moment
(politically/tactically) is it most effective (or interesting) for
artists to perform their own "pre-emptive reality annihilation" (or
perhaps: envisioning an alternative future and trying to instantiate it
as the Rove's of the world seem to do quite successfully), or to
"culture jam" any such (nearly psychotic) right-wing reality distortions
(using them as art supplies and comic fodder - seemingly easy to do), or
perhaps to formulate an art practice that turns to and engages with (or
grapples with) the real maintaining a general goal of producing tools
(be they analytic, aesthetic, software, hardware), that are useful for
individuals in terms of formulating their own, more congruent readings
of the real? All? Something else?
Randall Packer wrote:
This, Mathieu, is an example of pre-emptive reality annihilation. If you
have all the military might in the world, and 50 million right-wing
Christian fundamentalists behind you, you can drive those nostalgic
reality worshippers into the ground. You can invent your own reality and
you can take it all the way to Babylonia and create your own apocalypse,
now...
Here is an extract from an extraordinary article by Ron Suskind which
goes to the heart of who exactly George W. Bush is, what he stands for
and what his faith-based convictions and policies means for the rest
of us:
In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that
the White House didn't like about Bush's former communications
director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush.
He expressed the White House's displeasure, and then he told me
something that at the time I didn't fully comprehend -- but which I
now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.
The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the
reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe
that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible
reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment
principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the
world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and
when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that
reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other
new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will
sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be
left to just study what we do.''
You can read the rest there:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/magazine/17BUSH.html?oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=
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--
Brett Stalbaum
Lecturer, psoe
Coordinator, ICAM
Department of Visual Arts, mail code 0084
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gillman
La Jolla CA 92093
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..................................................
Jeff Gates
Outtacontext.com
Life Outtacontext: Farm Fresh Writing at a Fraction of the Cost!
http://life.outtacontext.com
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