NYSAT response

I think that the issue should not be framed as Art Vs Advertisement but instead, as interaction versus limitation or conversation versus monologue. The issue is that there are spaces that have been designated as purely for the dissemination of information regarding commerce, corporate interests, events and communication, and that these spaces must only be received. It is very problematic that the circulation of information is controlled and regulated by systems of bureaucracy that sanction and decide the content and placement of communication. This intensely hierarchical system that dictates our public sphere prevents unwanted information that is not congruous with the agenda of the companies or governments that control advertising from being disseminated. It is not democratic in its current state but obviously has the potential to be a useful mechanism for democracy.

The art in the advertisement is undeniable, but the conflict is in who gets to speak and how are we spoken to? Does the soliloquy of advertisement that speaks regardless of who is there to hear, warrant a response? And if so where is the platform for such a response? Unfortunately, given the current situation of how we organize ourselves within the public domain, there is no space for dialogue between promulgated information and the public’s reaction. It is purely a circumstance of reception, of feeding.

There are obvious problems associated with an interaction with the environment that is open and unhindered. Our current structure that dictates the movement of bodies, how they organize, express, direct and occupy themselves, is one that is intensely arranged by bureaucracy, administration and regulation. These structures function as a filter to protect from disorder. Whether we are managed within our workplace, our hospitals, institutions of education, or the coercive measures of police and roving dangers such as criminals, our behavior is allowed agency as long as it fits within acceptability. It is difficult to think of a situation where the minute details of our lives and presences are not being tracked and codified.

Thus, it is difficult to imagine a situation, especially in the public sphere, where we could function and interact with our physical environment beyond the bureaucracies of community boards, panels, police and even assertions of private property. It seems absurd to think that a company could finance such an insane amount of capital into advertising in the public sphere and have their investments be precariously vulnerable to the public’s intervention. It seems even more absurd that a governing system would allow its citizens to express their opinion either verbally or physically anywhere without permission, permits or overview.

This project was a symbolic challenge to these coercive systems that decide the behavior of our daily lives. It was a gesture of complexity and disorder beyond the capacity of these systems. It was a moment of democratic interaction.

NYSAT2

 

NYSAT2 struck the streets of New York yesterday morning, whitewashing over 100 illegal street level billboard advertisements and adorning them with work from various artists. Despite intense NPA harassment and a major police crackdown that resulted in a few arrests, it seems that every artist had the chance to at least get their work up for a few hours. Unfortunately, NPA made a tremendous effort to reclaim all of their space so I think it is safe to say that nothing has lasted into this morning. But fear not, the whole process was documented so incredibly well that it was staggering. Here is the flickr account from last year! http://www.flickr.com/photos/37774782@N05

For a more detailed account of the activities yesterday, check out the New York Times article that ran in the paper today in the New York Region section written by reporter  COLIN MOYNIHAN who I had the pleasure of rolling with most of the day.  And of course http://www.publicadcampaign.com/ will be releasing more in depth coverage and documentation.

Here are the pieces that I hit up yesterday with ClownSoldier. We ended up taking two billboards and concluded the route with a revisit to a classic spot in Chelsea that I haven’t put work up at in a minute. Was super nice to be back in New York for a couple days but now back to school

End Time Now by Adrian Heathfield

A brief consideration of the Temporal Rationalization and Logics instrumental within late Capitalism that is apart of the book Small Acts: Performance, the Millennium and the Marking of Time . Adrian Heathfield explores the dilemmas of performance within a contemporary culture dictated by linear, compartmented, managed and marketable time. This concept of organizing time to maximize production is discussed explored in greater detail within Foucault’s “Docile Bodies” chapter within Discipline and Punish and Adorno’s Culture Industry. Life determined by efficiency, measured through absences and presences, endless fabric of the time continuum made distinct into categories. This is the innovation of late capitalism, blossomed from the seeds of the proto-institutions established within the European Renaissance.

Yet it is the cyclical that haunts the promise of linear growth and projection. It is the shadow of death that threatens this faith in progress, the uncertainty of the future that institutions attempt to control, moreover to colonize into an extended present(Nowotny).
Here is the link to the essay that I uploaded on mediafire.

Fever Ray

This video is a near proximity to what I consider this contemporary zeitgeist of neo naturalism, romanticized nature. The lyrics pining for nature, the gaze forward into the future with “when I grow up,” the contrast with the pool, the suburban reality.

The Location of Culture, The Other Question

Homi Bhabha’s chapter in the Location of Culture entitled “The Other Question” posits the notion of the Other as a misrepresentation as opposed to an understanding of the self through representation as established in Orientalism. He positions the stereotype as a stagnant, trapped moment of exaggeration that are employed in order to give evidence to supposed truths. These gross exaggerations are characterized by their fixivity. They serve as mechanisms for easily comprehending the subjugated Other and serve as an excuse for continued inequity. Essentially, the circumscribing and simple definitions of people function to continue an agenda of repeated discrimination.

The reading was definitely dense, and difficult to navigate because due to the complexity of its terms especially in relation to the Freudian theory that was referenced. But upon review and rereading, its explanations of the structure of stereotypes and how it behaves were very eye opening. My notes are in the Read More section. Here is the link to the chapter http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=e31beb6c39699ebc1bee9a6e9edd9c76e04e75f6e8ebb871

The Ox

Ichthys, Quetzalcoatl and Cortes

This is going to be a quick post but I’ve been considering the uncanny relationship between the return of Quetzalcoatl to the Aztecs and the second coming of Jesus Christ and the intersection that occurs between these two cultural beliefs when Cortes landed on the mainland of Mexico. While some scholars, such as Matthew Restall,  dispute whether in fact the Aztecs believed Cortes and his men to be the return of the Gods, it is incredible to consider that the Spanish fulfilled the legend of the Aztecs, but instead of salvation, they brought Catholicism and destruction. Also, I was struck in exploring the various relations between Christian and Aztec iconography, to rediscover from my old learning that the fish, represented by the appropriated Ichthys, is the symbol of Jesus and that Cortes, in alignment with the return of Quetzalcoatl, arrived to the mainland using ships that were described by the indigenous peoples as “floating mountains.”

Now the dilemma is how do I make this into a piece? How do I translate all of these junctions of cultures into a contemporary object. More on this topic as I continue to explore it later.

Cleo From 5 to 7

It is the social organism that we have independently developed that defines the development of the urban. It is the portrait of the urban as the result of industrialization, or modernization, and now its epoch, celebration, revival, and constant struggle over its organization. It is a picture of the urban anxiety, it is the occurrence of the dichotomy between the human urban organization, and the romantic, organic, realm of nature. The separation that is born of the intensity of the city streets that instigates the desire for green space and parks as an escape.

It is within the social that she descends to become awash in people and find a resolution to her constant apprehension. When she is alone in the park, she finds romance and solace.

It forces one to question whether the system invents and then settles her emotional instability. Whether she is in a paradigm that is perpetually reinstating itself upon her. Whether her desires and predicaments are in fact determined by her environment, and then appropriately met. This cycle of meeting formulated needs is expressed most clearly in the scene of the silent movie where the saddened protagonist is comforted by vendors who are selling everything he needs for the death his loved one. He is seamlessly met with a handkerchief and a bouquet of flowers as if they were awaiting him.

And besides all of the incredible details that one could endlessly explore in the movie, its worth the watch just for the wonderful romance.

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

Max Weber’s seminal work The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism attempts to map the influence of Protestant values on the development of Capitalism. He demonstrated that the Protestant emphasis on the individual, intense asceticism and their constant anxiety over salvation made them well adapted for modern capitalism. Particularly, their notion that God’s will to organize the world according to his commandments is achieved through the social and material success of his chosen. His thesis is in direct opposition to the apparently Marxist philosophy that Capitalism is driven by an inherent greed and disregard for collateral or maybe even a notion that it has developed purely out of a structure of survival of the fittest.

I am pursuing this text in an effort to get a grasp on how religious beliefs have shaped capitalism and its development. One series that I would suggest, despite its rudimentary nature, is the Ascent of Money series on PBS which is led by economist and historian Niall Ferguson, whom I became acquainted with on the Planet Money Podcast. I know that this is a tremendous and practically unmapable pursuit, but I have some faith that even just small insights through a variety of resources will provide some rich material for pieces. In the read more section of this post I ll include the notes that I’ve taken thus so far.

Thomas Kinkade

Apparently Thomas Kinkade is the most widely collected artist in America. While I cannot find the specific study, which is really unfortunate given how strangely insightful it is, Kinkade’s work reminds me of the finding that the archetypal piece that Americans would find most appealing is a bucolic landscape preferably with president situated in the scenery.