“Why would you want to waste your time on watching that drug-infested display of EPO cyclism?” I’ve been getting quite a few of that sort of questions lately. I am great fan of cycling. I love watching races and especially the Tour de France. Unfortunately, since in no other sport there is so strict drug-testing as in cycling, there are more cyclists testing positive on stimulants than in most others. And people that do not enjoy watching Le Tour feel strengthened in their opinion that the greatest annual sporting event of the year is better missed because of it.
Check your cynism at the door please. There are many arguments why people who state that the Tour de France is not worth watching because every cyclist is a athletic drug-addict are wrong, but I don’t want to waste my time on cynics here (even though I recommend reading this article). What I would like to do, is explain my love for cycling races. And hopefully some of you out there will also see that the Tour de France is a masterpiece of sports.
Structure of the peloton
Cycling is more than about two hundred athletes competing in one race (that fact alone would make it more interesting than most other sports); the structure of the peleton adds elegance: several teams consisting of 9 riders with their own specialities and one or two leaders per team. This makes cycling both an individual as a teamsport. Strategies and tactics are involved. At what point do what riders of a team try to escape the peleton? What riders will be a the leaders of the pack? What team is best a working together, thus giving their leader the extra edge?
Tradition
To further complicate matters, cycling is also a sport with a very long and rich tradition. Riders that don’t like each other, teams that have an old quarrel. It’s like throwing Machiavelli into the mixture. The strongest rider doesn’t always win, often it’s the teams and riders that are better at the political games. The once that ‘read the race’ and interpret the tactics of the competition. You look at small gestures, facial expressions, how much time is spent at the head of the group, what gear someone is driving in… There is an almost endless amount of information you can use to calculate your chances and for a strategy.
Heroism Machiavelli was an Italian, but in the tour you also see a lot of the great Greek tragedies performed live. The lone hero, taking on the greatest mountains, fighting of the pack of hungry wolves that chase him. Men that have no strength left, fighting their way forward on pure willpower. The perfectly timed jump over the competition to cross the finishline victorious. There is planning and plotting, anger, euphoria and sorrow. Something there for everybody. All set in the beautiful French countryside,
Complexity, not randomness
A lot of sports are quite straightforward. Especially the sports where it’s a matter of one side against the other side. In my humble opinion, these sports become increasingly less interesting to watch when the outcome is more a matter of randomness than of effort and quality. Cycling is very complex, which makes it interesting and the even though the winner is not necessarily the best rider, the winner is very rarely determined by pure randomness. Cycling offers something to both sides of your brain. All you need to invest, is a bit of time
Tagclouds may be revealing and all that, but they’re also quite boring. Visually I mean. Fortunately, there’s something you can do about it with Wordle. IBM programmer Jonathan Feinberg wrote some algorithms for laying out and displaying words. His site reads the content directly from your blog or you can copy and paste text from your site, to make your own, cool wordcloud.
Loads of possibilities with fonts, colourschemes and layouts will make it a lot prettier to look at I tell ya…
Just look at that beautiful CultBlender Blog Wordle… I’m especially happy with the prominent place the word ‘pigeons’has…
It’s easy to be all ‘2.0′ and ‘open source’ when you’ve got nothing to lose. It’s an entirely different thing if you’re one of the biggest rock bands of our time (and indisputably the most influential band of the fin de siècle of the 20th century). I’m talking about Radiohead here. After they let their fans download their newest album directly form their website for free (paying was optional) and their innovative idea of selling the several separate tracks to their single ‘nude’, they’ve now put the source code of their new video ‘house of cards‘ online for all the vid-techie-fans out there to manipulate. (I’m a BIG sucker for ‘making of’ films, so that site’s an absolute treat for me…)
When I bought the DVD of the brilliant David Payne film ‘About Schmidt’ it included as an extra, some edits of the opening sequence, made by different editors. Very entertaining and inspiring to watch. The various remixes of ‘nude’ mainly proved the brilliance of Radiohead themselves; none of the remixes came close to the original. I still can’t wait to see some of the ‘fan-made’ video version of House of Cards. You may call Radiohead whatever you want, but you cannot deny the fact that their innovative ideas for making their fans experience their music keep revolutionizing the music industry.
In 1948 the famous Harvard psychologist B.F. Skinner did a test on some pigeons (poor things). He kept the pigeons in a box and with a button they could operate a mechanism that provided food. So, not surprisinlgy, the pigeons learned how the system worked: ‘push button, get food’. Lesson: pigeons are capable of learning, no news there. but then Skinner took this test to a different level.
B.F. Skinner
Pigeonrituals
These pigeons did not have the intellectual capabilities of actually understanding what happened when they pushed the button; this button that gave off an electrical signal that set some mechanical device in motion thet released food into the box (or something like that). As far as the pigeons were concerned, this could all just have been magic. What Skinner did, was randomize the dispensing of food in the box. At completely random moments, without any sort of button or switch the pigeons would get food in the box. Skinner then saw that the pigeons started developping all sorts of rituals that -in their minds- preceded getting food. Some pigeons started doing elaborate dances (not unlike a raindance I’d imagine) other started pecking the walls of the box. All of this in anticipation of food, which eventually came. As far as the pigeons were concerned: their rituals worked.
Randomness
The key in this experiment is not the proof that pigeons apparently may learn to operate a button, but are incapable of understanding the mechanism behind a switch; it is that pigeons developped some sort of religious rituals that they believe worked, since they could not grasp the concept of randomness. And, my fellow human beings, neither can we. It is a well known saying that ‘the way to predict the future is to study the past’. But this is also a great misconception.
Pigeons
Divine intervention
If you look back on past random events, our human minds operates in a way that will start seeing patterns, even if they’re not there. Sure, we understand the randomness of the outcome of throwing a pair of dice, but not the randomness in the failure of the crops. For that; there must be a reason. And, if we cannot find this reason; than that must be a case of divine intervention, right? There must be a reason why food drops down your box and the reason is ‘I did this dance’ and if your dance wasn;t followed by food, than you must have done something wrong. And that might just be how religion is born. Religion might just be a way of understanding this very randomised world around us.
In a previous post I briefly mentioned the artwork of Jason Shawn Alexander, whose work is currently exhibited in a group exhibition with, among others, Sarah Folkman. But Alexander is not an artist one can briefly mention without giving him your full attention, even if this is only for one blogposting.
Alexander’s work is a lot of things, but ‘cheerful’ is not one of them. As he puts it himself, on his website: “The subject is suspended in moments of pain or sorrow.” A description like that could point in the direction of adolescent paintings, filled with gore, but it could also describe the paintings of brilliant artists like Francis Bacon. Fortunately, Alexander’s paintings have a lot more in common with the latter. That is; had Bacon been employed by Stan Lee to do a comics version of his paintings. Alexander, who is also a very gifted illustrator, is a virtuoso with the brush.
Alexander does not overdo it with all the pain and suffering. He leaves his audience room to come up for air; “The ultimate expression, however, is one of survival, if not hope.” And he doesn’t overdo it with the realism either; even though his talent as comics artist shines through, on closer inspection the undeniable personality of the brush is there. It’s not work that would have looked just as good, had it been a pen and ink image.
Perhaps it’s not the sort of stuff you’d take your mother to go and see on a sunday morning (not that I know your mom’s taste), but that can be said for many works. To me, the paintings feel true and the images sincere.
Works by Jason Shawn Alexendar were recently in a group exhibition in the Corey Hertford Gallery. After taking a quick peek at his blog, I guess the results were pleasing to the artist. And as a fan of great painting, I can only agree to that,
“The increasing digitalization of our culture has consequences for art.” Not a very strong opening for a press release for the show ‘Deep Screen – Art in Digital Culture’at the Stedelijk Museum CS in Amsterdam. It actually made me yawn with utter boredom instead of filling me with energizing anticipation of information to come. It also made me doubt whether or not to go see it. When a show is promoted with one of the most commonplace clichés, what does that say about the quality of what’s to see? Will it provide me with anything new and exciting, or just more annoyance?
The Deep Screen hosts works by some ‘big names’, such as Geert Mul or internet-art pioneers JODI , as well as artist who I had not yet heard of like Meiya Lin -part of her video can be seen on youtube (below)- and Marnix de Nijs & Edwin van der Heide (a video of their installation ‘Spatial Sounds’ can be seen above). The works of the more senior artists seems to have focused on the digitalization itself. What does that digitalization mean for our culture? The younger ones, some of which will barely have a memory left of a non-digitalized society. used the technology as a given. for them it’s just another way to express themselves of their message and a medium for their art. In most reviews I’ve read, the journalist seems to feel that the second form is the superior one. They suffer from the ‘been there, done that’ syndrome. As if everyone is already aware of every aspect and finesse that is influenced by this digitalization after the ‘The Matrix’ trilogy. However, I feel that there is still a lot to be said for art that takes a step back and makes us aware of what this digitalization really means for our culture, but also for other matters such as world politics and science. In that sense, the digital medium means a bit more than a painting and makes for far more interesting research into the medium.
A more interesting question is, does digital art still have a place in a museum? Isn’t; the most interesting digital art to be found outside of museum and gallery walls? What does the SMCS building add to seeing an animation instead of watching it online somewhere? That question, unfortunately, still remains unanswered by Deep Screen.
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.
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.)
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.
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!
There are many arguments why people who state that the Tour de France is not worth watching because every cyclist is a athletic drug-addict are wrong, but I don’t want to waste my time on cynics here (even though I recommend reading this article). What I would like to do, is explain my love for cycling races. And hopefully some of you out there will also see that the Tour de France is a masterpiece of sports.
Machiavelli was an Italian, but in the tour you also see a lot of the great Greek tragedies performed live. The lone hero, taking on the greatest mountains, fighting of the pack of hungry wolves that chase him. Men that have no strength left, fighting their way forward on pure willpower. The perfectly timed jump over the competition to cross the finishline victorious. There is planning and plotting, anger, euphoria and sorrow. Something there for everybody. All set in the beautiful French countryside,
