August 2008

Chris Bowers' reasons for not feeling like cheering Democratic speeches:

* I have a difficult time wrapping my head around the notion that Obama will be great because he will work with Democrats and Republicans, even though we should all make sure to vote for Democrats.

* I have a difficult time wearing my partisan hat and cheering loudly for speeches that virtually all complain about partisanship being a major problem in Washington, D.C.

* I have a difficult time understanding Democratic criticism of McCain since it is always prefaced with effusive compliments about the service he has done to the country, and how we should all respect him so deeply.

* I have a difficult time cheering when I am told someone will end the war, even though we all know he will leave a large residual force in the country.

* I have a difficult time cheering when I am told we are going to pass universal health care legislation, even though we know that no one is proposing universal health care legislation.

"Hope" and "change" aren't synonymous with the words "Joe Biden." (More like "credit cards" and "war.")

Alan Sondheim, "Skinned" [YouTube]

Writhing, topologically-distorted flayed man--this is what we will all look like when the big black hole takes us in the Final Days. (Unless you are saved, then it will be OK.)

Stylistically, JODI's Max Payne cheats meets Carpenter's thing meets that exhibit with all the plasticized corpses. Quite gnarly and great. Sondheim's description of the method: "experimental motion capture doubled avatar work through poser and proprietary motion capture software."

Compare: Get Low, Petra Cortright hand (and Crispin Creeper finale), Silicious John McCain video.

An article in Minneapolis' The Rake titled The New Dada discusses Internet surfing clubs. The writer comes to the scene with a fresh set of eyes (i.e., from outside the circle of usual suspects looking in) and concludes that while much political art post 9/11 is "dull and dry and deadpan and rote," the clubs' brash and chaotic approach might be closer to the spirit of Zurich 1916.

Interestingly he found the clubs via online discussion of the Net Aesthetics 2.0 panel at the New Museum. This blog feels a bit vindicated since it was trashed after the panel for being insufficiently respectful of the "sincere" political art that is out there.

A piece of mine was used in the article: the Mark Napier Steven Dutch Remix. It's funny, I've been introduced to Mark Napier several times and he says "I've heard your name somewhere..."