06.26.08
Chaos theory for dummies
As he was flicking through the channels a documentary on Chaos Theory caught George’s attention.
Unfortunately he didn’t quite get all of it.
All characters and situations mentioned in this blog are completely fictional. Anyresemblance to actual people or places is purely coincidental. The publisher cannot be held responsible. For anything. Ever.
06.25.08
Moblogic
When I think about it… Moblogic actually sounds like quite a good name for a webchannel about economics and polictics (‘n stuff) targeting the socially aware segment of the internet generation. (Hurrah, finally I 
managed to sound like a marketing guy!). I was made aware of these hip e-savvy cats through my my Flickr account, proving the use of online communities for me personally. I had a look at their site, watched a few videos, had a couple of laughs (Note #1: if Americans can apparently be funny, why on earth did they make that awful and exceptionally unfunny American version of ‘The Office’?). Anyway, this experience made me feel all 2.0 inside, so I decided to write a short post about it. A blog-to-blog campaign can be exteremely succesful in gaining in popularity and I am willing to put my two cents in for a channel I seem to be able to ‘dig’. (Note #2:If you doubt my claim on blog-to-blog campaigning, please e-mail this guy I have heard about who can tell you all about it at: b.obama@thewhitehouse.org).
So there you have it. A posting without a proper conclusion (I am quite happy with the opening though). Except that I will probabaly be a regular viewer of Moblogic and perhaps even steal a couple of their items to be able to write about current events without having to do much of the actual work myself. (Note #3: obviously I will give proper credits wherever due.)
06.24.08
Everybody’s a photographer
‘Everybody’s a photographer‘ is just about as big a mistake as ‘everybody’s an artist‘. I am sympathetic towards the thought, but it’s just all wrong, dude. Photography is hard. It’s difficult to get a good shot with an intruiging subject, exciting composition… or just something that worth looking at. But since everyone is capable of the act of pushing the shutter button everybody’s able to make a registration of an image through a lens. And if the end result sucks… Let’s call it art.
Well… let’s not call it art. Let’s call it ‘crap’. Which is what it is, most of the time. With the rise of the digital camera, photography courses have been flooded and one amateur photography exhibition after the other has been organised. Flickr was worth millions when it was bought by Yahoo and why? Because everyone is a photographer.
I’ve just been leafing through the photography special of Juxtapoz, which is always a beacon of good taste in a world that’s becoming increasingly amateur-image-crazy, but in a lot of cases… I just don’t see it. Could it be that the photographer that managed to get his image up in a gallery and published in this magazine is way better at his/her PR than his/her photography work? I’d imagine so.
Fortunately there are also a lot of gems to be discovered. Beautiful heart stopping images that made me gasp for air when I looked at them. My faith in photography as a mature art-form has been restored. With this posting, a couple of wonderful examples. Please click on images for links to the photographer’s websites.
Credit: all pictures published in the Juxtapoz photo-issue 2008 and taken from the Juxtapoz website. Photocredits top to bottom: Aaron Hobson, Patrick Smith, Alex Prager and Graham French (click on photos for their websites).
06.23.08
Life is a curve???
Making sarcastic comments about the intellectual and philosophical qualities of advertising or financial people is taking cheap shots in front of an open goal. But if they are asking for it, they are asking for it. Last weekend I drove past a billboard of the Belgian financial multinational Fortis on which I read in big letters (images on billboards are overrated anyway): “Life is a curve, where on this curve are you?” (and where on his curve is their new shareholder, the Libean leader Khadaffi? Or, where on this curve is Fortis itself? I’d say on a downslope….).
My first thought was: “Life is a curve? … No, it isn’t” Actually, it may be one of the most stupid comments ever printed on a billboard poster. Many beautiful, insightful, philosophical things have been said and written about life. Socrates wrote that true wisdom is in knowing how little we know about life, I wonder if he would have thought that deeming life ‘a curve’, was perhaps oversimplifying matters a bit. We all know the analogies that have become bad clichés: how life is a rollercoaster, a river. Or perhaps the bizarre quotes like “life is like a tin of sardines, we are all looking for the key.” Every era gets the quotes it deserves and these times may not be bizarre, a cliché, or wise. Our era might deserve populist, unintelligent quotes. Actually, I don’t know who to feel more sorry for, the idiot copywriter that wrote it, or the idiot that approved of it and paid several million euros for this campaign.
At the same time I felt rather offended actually. “Where on this curve are you?” they have the nerve to ask me. Not only do those arrogant people at Fortis have the poor wit to inform about the alleged ‘curviness’ of life, they immediately try to convince me that this is a given fact and, since I undoubtedly accept this fallacy, ask me about my location on this curve. For the sake of argument: would life have been a curve (which, by intelligent and logical lines of reasoning, it isn’t), it would have been completely impossible for anyone to say where on this curve you are. Theoretically, it could be possible to say where you were in life at a given point, after your death, but I doubt that Fortis has informants in the hereafter.
In a press release Adrian Martorana, the Fortis exec that is guilty of this so-called ‘corporate campaign’, states”The ‘Life is a curve’ campaign encourages people to think about their financial needs today and plan for tomorrow, with the help of a trusted partner such as Fortis.” And to make matters even worse: “We carried out extensive global research over 12 months to make sure our message was relevant in today’s environment.” I don’t expect bankers to be good philosophers, I do expect them to able to do a bit of decent research, draw some solid conclusions from it and act according to them. I might be expecting too much.
I should mentally have linked Fortis with qualities such as ‘future financial needs”and ‘trusted financial partner’. How on earth this should have been done by bad philosophy is beyond me. The creatives at their advertising agency Grey EMEA were probably a bit too high on bad cocaine. When they listened to the lyrics of their superior in philospophy, Jessica Simpson, who begins her song “Walkin’ Round in a circle” with the sentence “Life is a curve BALL”. There is virtually no job easier than that of creating a corporate advertising campaign to build a brand image. That’s why, when you fail as a proper artist or writer, you can still work in advertsing (and if you even fail there: ‘corporate advertising’).
But perhaps all this is my mistake. The fact that all I think about is their poor ability in logical reasoning, and not their superior qualities in banking, is all my mistake. Or maybe I just have it wrong. Maybe ‘life is a curve’ actually makes wonderful sense. I don’t think I’ll be taking any of my banking to the lovely people at Fortis. But they probably don’t care anyway. I don’t have a clue about where I am on my curve.
06.19.08
6th Euclidian Postulate
Should you injure yourself while laughing, please note that we cannot be held responsible for that.
Should you not get the joke, we cannot be held responsible for that either.
We could, however, help you out a bit.
06.17.08
Lady in distress – Art by Sarah Folkman
Men are strong, brave and dependable. Women are caring, loving and understanding. Those are easy to understand rules. Another set of rules determines that male artists get to paint monsters and gruesome images filled with torture and pain. Female artists on the other hand get to paint cute animals or, should they be politically active, perhaps a homeless or starving child. But not nightmares. That’s not in the female art-domain. Sarah Folkman doesn’t care one bit about those conservative and backwards ‘rules’. She paints your nightmares like the best of men. She even paints the nightmares you weren’t aware of you ever had them. … oh, and a couple of cute animals don’t hurt…
However, don’t let the ‘cuteness’ fool you. You’d better take these pets seriously. As in a David Lynch movie, or a Gregory Crewdson photo, there is always a hidden layer of suspense. Like a mortal threat buried just beneath the surface of the beautiful and tranquil lake.
Sarah is currently (till June 21st) exhibiting her work at the Corey Helford Gallery, in Culver, California, with colleagues Karen Hsiao, Jason Shawn Alexander (whose works pretty much ‘rock’ as well), Miso and Melissa Forman. You can check out some opening photos at the Juxtapoz website.
A thing I really should’ve find out is whether or not the artist Sarah Folkman is also the singer and songwriter Sarah Folkman of the trophop band T.H.C. . Should’ve, could’ve, but didn’t. Guess I’m just not a big fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer music…. Go check out her art!
06.16.08
Luke Chueh: More childhood trauma?
Beautifully painted, utterly uneasy, often disturbing works. I have declared before that I am a great admirer of the work of Kendrick Mar. There are many other artists that try the same trick: “I’ll paint a beheaded teddy bear and make my parents worry about my emotional state.” More often than not: this only leads for very immature and shallow works (granted: it does usually make me wonder about the emotional state of the maker…) Not so for the works of Luke Chueh (pronounced Luke ‘Chu’). This wonderful artist manages to paint sceneries that have all the aforementioned qualities, but add that extra layer that separates the men from the traumatised boys.
Unlike a lot of paintings depicting ocean sceneries and mountain views, this sort of work is generally very personal, even though in this case I would not go so far as to label it: unprocessed childhood trauma. Chueh’s work is clever, wonderfully executed but personally I prefer the work of artists like Kendrick Mar that use a lot of the same iconography. Chueh graduated from the California Polytechnic State Uni with a BS in graphic design. Since he had a hard time finding employment after employment (any companies that turned him down should feel very stupid indeed) he resorted to painting stuff to keep busy. That background is still very visible in his work. They’re not so much paintings as they are painted designs on a painted background. Which is not criticizing his work by any means, but merely my personal preference.
Should the non-US readers of this site/blog want to see some of the works of Luke Chueh in real-life, as I can imagine, he has working relations with galleries all over that states from NYC, to Detroit to LA. Have a look at his site for some cool works and info on expositions.
06.03.08
The Chinese are coming
We’ve known it for a long time and we stood by, watching it happen. The Chinese are coming. And they’re ready to take over. Bad news? Not really. Okay, so there’s a lot ‘not quite right’ yet about China and the Chinese politics… that does not mean it’s all bad over there. And you certainly can’t blame all Chinese. Especially not the Chinese citizens I would like to discuss here; Chinese artists.
Fact: China is a big place. And there are a whole lotta Chinese people. So, statistically, there should be quite some very good Chinese artists among them. for the last couple of years we’ve been seeing more and more of them, their works are no longer a rarity in Western contemporary art galleries. And that’s not just because the works are, by default, politically charged since they’re from China (although it does help: paint a building with some Chinese writing on it and the work immediately gains in meaning when it is shipped to the western hemisphere, deny it as much as you like).
Too much talk, not enough images. For your enjoyment, some images of talented and hyped Chinese painters. (click on artist’s name for a link)
06.02.08
Web 3.0
For over a hundred years, technological progress has been spreading change up increasingly. In the early years it took quite some time before everyone owned a freezer, a telephone or a radio. Computers, cell phones and internet were considered ‘commodities’ in virtually no time at all.
A couple of years ago someone started a web 2.0 craze. The magic word was ‘user generated content’ (UGC). (should you have been living on the moon: User generated content means that internetcompanies don’t even bother to create stuff to amuse you anymore, the just create a toy and let you amuse each other. Not a bad business model.) What was said to be revolutionary about the internet (mainly by people who had missed the aforementioned ‘telephone’ technology), was that it was reversed economy: the value of a product increased when it became more widespread. The web 2.0 philosophy was born out of this vision; give control back to the people and the internet will bring peace and prosperity to all.
Even though the popularity of this web 2.0 model might suggest otherwise, web 2.0 is -in fact- on the verge of collapse already (which could be considered ‘quick’, but hey: that’s the technological change for you). We are at a point were ‘more internetusers’ does not necessarily mean ‘more value for everyone’. A lot of times ‘more internetusers’ means: more clutter, more ‘noise’, more ‘annoyance’… and less value for others. Who or what to blame? I say: web 2.0.
The biggest problem with scientific or journalistic UGC is that it is often indistinguishable from content of professional quality. The biggest problem with creative UGC is that it is clogging up databases and search-engines. When you are looking for medical information, it is very difficult to ascertain whether or not the site you have reached is writen or moderated by trustworthy medical professionals or by well-meaning but ignorant amateurs (or a pharmaceutical company). When you are looking for quality artwork or good-quality video (like you will find on CultBlender.org) it can be very frustrating to have to sift through all that junk that’s clogging up sites like Flickr and Youtube.
I think it’s time for a web 3.0 philosophy, where good, professional and trustworthy content can be marked and easily found. There are new search engines out there, like Mahalo and ChaCha for example, that aim to do just that. They have human moderators rate search engine results, so that when you make a query for, say, ‘web 2.0 discussion’ you won’t end up on this page because it is not a well written, well documented piece of wrting, but merely a blogpost by a wellmeaning amateur. However, this new searchengine thing is not enough (even besides the fact that for a dazzling majority of queries you get a ‘no result’ which sends you back to Google anyway). We need to find a way to stop the madness. We need web three point o.
