slash and femmeslash

A nod to Elisa, who works at CCTV in Cambridge..and co manages a blog on remix culture and video.

http://www.politicalremixvideo.com/.

Here's an example of slash in video. Slash is a form that evolved out of fans and literature..where fans would make same sex romantic pairings of characters, often in the science fiction genre. The website of the author "laurasha" is http://www.imeem.com/laurasha/

-sam smiley

that new york post thing

jay smooth..brilliant as always..
although he doesn't talk about the media response to the New York post monkey cartoon, he does address the image of the monkey cartoon and the New York Post in a great way.
Also take a look at the UK Guardian summation of the cartoon and its aftermath for a picture of the image and more references. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/18/new-york-post-cartoon-race

-sam smiley



ADDENDUM:
Turns out Rupert Murdoch (same guy who owns FOX news) also owns the parent company of the NY post. Here for posterity is his apology..but if you click the link I just included..look out for LOTS of advertising on his apology page.

As the Chairman of the New York Post, I am ultimately responsible for what is printed in its pages. The buck stops with me.

Last week, we made a mistake. We ran a cartoon that offended many people. Today I want to personally apologize to any reader who felt offended, and even insulted.

Over the past couple of days, I have spoken to a number of people and I now better understand the hurt this cartoon has caused. At the same time, I have had conversations with Post editors about the situation and I can assure you - without a doubt - that the only intent of that cartoon was to mock a badly written piece of legislation. It was not meant to be racist, but unfortunately, it was interpreted by many as such.

We all hold the readers of the New York Post in high regard and I promise you that we will seek to be more attuned to the sensitivities of our community.

William Pope. L This Thursday!

William Pope. L is an interventionist performance artist who does performance artwork about
race and equity in the United States. One of my favorite works is called 
The Great White Way, in which he crawled down Broadway in New York City in
a Superman costume with a skateboard on his back.
Also check out  "The Black Factory"

This Thursday February 19 at 6pm, he will be giving a lecture on his exhibit
"Corbu Pops" at the Carpenter Center at Harvard University for the opening
of his exhibit. This satirizes the work of Le Corbusier,
one of the leaders of modernism in architecture.

The Carpenter Center is at:

Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts
Harvard University
24 Quincy Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
617.495.3251
http://www.ves.fas.harvard.edu/ccva.html
More about the exhibit:
http://www.ves.fas.harvard.edu/corbupops.html
Wine and cheese reception to follow.

-sam smiley

La Pendule/ The Pendula or "Time flies when you are having fun"

Retrieved February 13, 2009 from http://flickr.com/photos/manuelitro/2472979432/

I chose this image because it is by Robert Doisneau, one of my favorite photographers. He probably is the most famous French phographer of all time and, being French myself, his photography particularly speaks to me. I have a print of La Pendule cut out from an old calendar hanging on the wall above my desk. I have had this picture along with other Doisneau photographs for at least 4 or 5 years now. I think this one, taken in Paris in 1957, is particularly great because it really captures the atmosphere of this old fashioned classroom and the three boys' different behaviors. The boy in the front left has such a serious expression on his face that he looks like he just got reprimanded for something. The boys in the back are also hilarious to me; the one on the left seems either hypnotized by the lesson or zoning off into his own world while the one on the right, coiffed with a Tintin-like hairstyle, is writing while looking at the clock instead of the paper. I really like the detail that is visible on the boys' clothing which is characteristic of the time when younger children had to wear smocks which makes me think that the boy in the front is older as he is not wearing one. I also enjoy the framing of the photograph with the serious boy in the left corner of the foreground and the two other boys centered by the lines on the wall drawing a cross from the clock. This image makes me laugh every time I see it and reminds me of when I was bored in school looking at my watch or the clock. This is why I chose to give my post the ironic title "Time flies when you are having fun" as none of these boys seems to be enjoying himself in class.
Laurene.

Jay Smooth and talking about race

squirrel monkey
Friday, February 6, 2009

JR's beautiful photography

This image is incredibly powerful to me in that the artist "JR" put the eyes and faces of women on the side of the favella (a community or city in Rio de Janiero) creating a powerful image and a powerful statement. In the artist's words "To pay tribute to those who play an essential role in society, but who are the victims of war, crime, rape, or political and religious fanaticism... women." These women's eyes have been integrated right onto the side of the building structures- homes. Allowing their gaze to permeate the community and to acknowledge that they are a strong part of the community that has been abused in various manner and can no longer be overlooked. My exposure to the images was through the magazine Juxtapoz- which I love and can't wait for the next issue.
Posted by Lawrence M. szalay at 2:04 PM 0 comments

Do we live in a theocracy?

I took this photo in front of the Statehouse in 2003 during a Constitutional Convention of the Massachusetts legislature. Same-sex couples had recently been granted the right to marry in Massachusetts–the first state in the country to do so–via the Goodrich decision that had been handed down by the Supreme Judicial Court. Opponents of equal marriage rights were trying to get a question on the 2004 state ballot to amend the constitution. If passed, the amendment would strictly define “marriage” as an institution held between “one man and one woman.” While the legislature met to decide whether to allow a question on the 2004 ballot pertaining to amending the constitution, hundreds of same-sex marriage supporters and opponents gathered inside and outside the statehouse to let their voices be heard. I stumbled upon this man as I was documenting this historical event via photographs. This photo captures how some misuse religion to oppress (or try to oppress) others. He is pushing the bible in my face; his expression is smug. He, and what he represented, scared me. This photo (although not my best, as it is fuzzy) is important to me because it reaffirms the importance of the strict separation of church and state. (by Sharon Winston)

Chewbacca Throws 1st Pitch at Red Sox Game

This photo of Chewbacca (copyright: Boston Globe) is very important to me because I set up the media event back in September 2005.  It was my first large public relations campaign that I handled on my own for the Museum of Science in Boston.  Ironically, I had never see a Star Wars film prior to my work on the Star Wars exhibit for the Museum.  I researched Chewbacca costumes and purchased this one.  One of the exhibit designers, Mike Horvath, is the person wearing the costume.  Before the pitch, I brushed him out and hair sprayed the fur into place. Most importantly to me, this photo made headlines around the world and was the most downloaded photo of all time on Yahoo (in 2005, it may have changed over the years)!  I also won a Bell Ringer award from the New England Publicity Club for my work with this event.  This photo gave me a place in PR history and I'm very proud of it. 

Copters and Soldiers

This image of a black military helicopter in the air dropping something and a soldier running on a red/sandy ground came from the New York Times. Week in Review section on January 25, 2009. The image accompanied an article with a byline of “Obama’s War – Fearing Another Quagmire” and is about troops in Afghanistan.
But the image could be set anywhere.

Typical media images are sharp and locate the contents to a specific place, people, country, or action. This image is blurry and yet we can still make out the contents. Because of its unspecificity, we don’t know which war, where it is taking place, yet we still get the gist; the image itself has become an icon.

When I first looked at this image, I was surprised that it was printed intentionally blurry. One doesn’t expect that in a newspaper Why did I notice it, I wondered. I realized it was precisely because it was blurry, it caught my eye. By this point in my life, I have seen dozens of images of helicopters and soldiers -in fact, I’ve become immune to them - and yet I wanted to read the article that accompanied this one. Why?

Typical images of war in the media are strong, hard-hitting, gut wrenching images of specific people, refugees, war torn towns and homes, destruction and fire. While informing us, these images have also made us become numb to the effects of war. Because it is not happening near us, or to anyone we know, these images have depersonalized war and its victims. Most of us don’t know what it feels like to be a victim of war. We are safe in the U.S. it seems for now, from our homes being bombed, our children taken away, death, and the destruction of our families and our livelihood.

The media inadvertently does a disservice in reporting about all the different wars in so many locations around the world, with the objective of informing us and engaging us to outrage. War images in media become synthesized as one “war” image in the viewer’s mind. These images become iconic, for we no longer have to think about their origin, specifics, and relevance. I wonder then, do iconic images still engage? Do specific destruction war images with pictures of victims engage ? If helicopter and soldiers are common and iconic, does the form of presentation of the image (ie, blurry and arty) engage? Did this image engage me as an artist first because it is beautiful, moody, and blurry?

As a final thought, I want to contrast the very powerful emotion that I still feel, looking at the image of the naked girl child running from the bomb blast during the Vietnam War. I’m sure most of you have seen this image at some point. This image, although specific, is also iconic, but it has retained its emotion and its significance as a reminder of that war, its effects and its folly.

by aparna

An image by Harry Callahan