Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

project mapping

THEY





designs: vegetable piece


these are some ideas for something that has to do with vegetables. more info later

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

AM

LIQUIFIED SCUBA DIVER

discovering information fields


as an unmarked object, the cels within the senior design lab are visually identical until inhabited by dozens of students. each mode of information is sequestered into the cels, retaining the organizing quality of the space while imprinting so many personalities upon the space. next year the space will be cleansed of information and start anew.
a vertical field of information altered into a horizontal field of information SIMPLY BY LYING ON THE GROUND AND LOOKING UP
metal information hidden under a grassy field

the confusion of touchscreen information fields, where infinite information is spread like layers of digital cake across a flat glass screen.

john mccain, according to the internet

certain symbols in american culture exist solely on their status, representation, and interpretation as a symbol: take, for example, the symbols of people whose entire fame and recognition exists in digital forms and mainstream media, for example myspace monsters such as tila tequila, dirk nasty, and perez hilton.

while watching an mtv show last night that revolved on Paris Hilton searching for her next bff by placing the power of choice in a conglomerate media supermachine (in this case, a television show) which converts the drama of choice into a multi-million dollar project designed to make even more money, paris introduced herself as, among other things, an "image." Placed next to "actress" and "model," 'image' as a profession demonstrates the social status and mainstream acceptance that popular media culture has placed on the IMAGE of a PERSON: i.e., the reflection in media that a person projects, and not the person his or herself.

okay, okay, so this is actually a post about john mccain, whose 'image' matters (hopefully) even more than paris hilton's.

JOHN MCCAIN, ACCORDING TO INTERNET EXPLORATION

a simple google image search consists of two of the same humiliating angry face, a picture of him as a child, three offical presidential pictures, and a photoshopped image of mccain within a Pirates of the Carribian reference:

thus google's image representation of mccain consists of 5 pro-image pictures and 3 anti-image pictures. this seems like good news- after all, mccain only needs half, right?



a youtube search further tarnishes the digital image of john mccain. the first hit, from johnmccain.com, reminds the viewer that corporate media has some hand of control on mccain's image. after that, adhering to youtube's philosophy of more hits on a page=higher permission to the top of the search, the next three hits are an interview on The View, an acceptable if perhaps slightly skewed introduction to his image, and two borderline-conspiracy theory videos alterting the viewer to how mccain's "ads are LIES" and how "mccain's youtube problem just became a nightmare." clearly, the digital image of mccain is warped by the concept of mass appeal, which suggests that a conspiracy theory is much more entertaining to read than a grainy video of a speech.



screengrab showing a comic from Captain Cartoon, a man who claims he is the lovechild of john mccain.
http://www.captcartoon.com/index.html
http://derekclontz.com/?p=217

i found this by adding the word "shock" to "john mccain" in google blog searches.







screengrabs from http://www.manipulator.com/, a flash-based media presentation by Jill Greenberg, these are her photoshopped images, alterations to original images of mccain which thus re-incorporate themselves into mccain's DIGITAL image.


this is the first cel in "the 1934 george bush john mccain tijijuana bible," a bizzare counter-cultural mashup media disguised as a porno comic from the depression era by legendary bizzare comic collector, ethan persoff.

ethan persoff's comic blog (extremely offensive, please believe me when i say this is by far the tamest- and least nude- cel in the series.)

the media device is not easily identifiable, as it contains contemporary satire in the digital image of an antique comic, a combination made possible by the elasticity of digital media. what it is, however, is a caricature of image effective in its nihilistic treatment of public image, public decency, and popular culture.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

bookcase