MSNBC Live Poll: Impeach Bush

What does this MSNBC poll tell you about the latest approval ratings of President Bush?

In Defense of Art

There have been three unique incidents of "real life" shock art in the past week or so, each receiving publicity and followed by public outcry. Each receives its share of online petitions, Facebook groups, disapproving blog entries and so on. This is my defense.

• Gregor Schneider looks to feature terminally person's death in an exhibition piece
  
• Aliza Shvarts (Yale's "Abortion Girl") uses menstrual blood and artificial insemination in a sculpture piece
• Guillermo Habacuc Vargas starved an already ill street dog to death in an exhibition piece

Death, abortions, animal cruelty. One can call these artists sick, deviant, or insane but the reality is that they're addressing the controversies that divide many of us. Art, in its many forms, often incorporates death, sex, suffering and similarly uncomfortable themes. To make their statements, these artists choose to discard the popular set of morals and notions of what is considered in good taste. While distant photos of Haitians resorting to the consumption of sun-baked mud cakes grace our newspapers, we never have to actually taste the mud-cake, smell the stench of starvation or touch the distended abdomen of a chronically malnourished child. People quickly forget that a huge percentage of the world's population lives outside the walls of the safe and comfortable bubble in which so many of us gently float. Then we have these artists, with the masses of do-good bubble-dwelling citizens calling for them to be stripped of their title and relabeled monsters. Their crime, their indiscretion, is nothing more than bringing into the bubble a mere essence of the pain with which so many people live.
People, in order to maintain their comfort level, need the dying to lay quietly in their beds– remaining suspended in the clean, quiet sea of hospital white. To sleep soundly at night, people need their stray or unwanted dogs to be put in the pound or quietly euthanized. Abortions should be quiet, unspoken affairs... never mentioned or discussed, even in the name of coming to terms with the choices a female has made for herself and her body.
These artists, who are both brave and daring in their decisions, demand that their audiences face certain realities. While their exhibitions may be cancelled, their tenures cut short and their names spoken in disgusted voices– they have already succeeded. An artist can never expect word of their concepts to reach the ears and eyes of the greater public, but when celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton or a New York Times columnist broadcast their outrage with the art world to their readership of millions, the piece is already a success in the eyes of an artist looking to raise awareness, inspire discourse and outrage.
Is anyone out there of the same mind as me? Is anyone out there open to the fact that art isn't all oil paints and marble statues? The literal impact of pieces like these is so irrelevant in the larger composition of life. Many dogs will starve, many abortions will occur and many terminally ill will breathe their final breath alone in a hospital room.
The public outrage and shock stems from fear. Fear of death and pain. The truth is we all die and we all experience pain in its various forms to greater or lesser extents. Death, when not maliciously begotten, should be both expected and thought of as a natural chapter in the course of things. Of course, nobody enjoys losing a loved one, but to expect anyone to live longer than they or their body wishes is nothing less than selfish.
Finally, while many will hear about these pieces, nobody is being forced to witness the exhibits firsthand or patronize the artist responsible for them. If it offends you so much, turn the page or change the channel– because you are clearly not ready to broaden your perspective.

It's Brita™, Bitch

Fiji Water® is delicious. I can't deny it. I'm in Duane Reade® looking at water during a 10 minute break from class. The bottles are all priced in a bracket narrow enough that I'm more concerned about the taste than the price. Poland Springs™ tastes like tap water, Smart Water™ isn't memorable and the only thing that I can't look away from is Fiji Water®. It is so good, so rich in silica my smile must simply sparkle with mineraly goodness. After I got back to the classroom with my 500ml bottle of luscious H2O, I whipped out my Helio™ to Google Search™ Fiji Water®.

What I found from the hippest pseudo-encyclopedia around, Wikipedia, was surprising. Surprising enough that I even followed up on the wiki page's bibliography... reading the source articles.

A one liter bottle of Fiji Water® contaminates 6.74 liters of water during the bottle's manufacturing process. Transportation and production of the bottle results in half a kilogram of greenhouse emissions.

Let's just say I'll fill up this premium plastic Fiji Water® bottle at least twice from the Brita® water pitcher in the fridge before I go out and buy another one.

I leave you with two links of relevance:
The Story of Stuff
Message in a Bottle

Questioning Consumer Culture - Stop Motion Video

Questioning Consumer Culture - A Laboratory Project at the Parsons School of Design

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Cloverfield!

Cloverfield is how a disaster movie should be made. Even though my biggest issue with J.J. Abrams is that he leaves so many unanswered questions, that's more of a stylistic choice on his part that leaves you wanting more without feeling like you've been ripped off. Anyway, Cloverfield definitely hit my disaster movie fetish sweet spot, particularly taking place in the city which I have come to call my home.

I'm going home this weekend with Alex! Should be most excellent.

Kenyan Roses & Why Food Miles Aren't Always Bad

Questioning consumer culture and the food miles myth. A project for a laboratory class at Parsons the New School for Design examining what food miles don't take into account.

read more | digg story

New designs on the way?

It looks like I may be introducing a few more shirt designs in the coming weeks, depending on when I get around to wrapping them up and such. School goes well, I can't say I don't like using wire in my 3D class, I'm currently making a button mushroom (table mushroom) at 2x life size out of black 16g and 28g annealed wire.

Alex scored a fashion week production pass to some Friday's shows through her friend. I won't say I'm not jealous, but I'm sure it'll be an awesome experience.

My own Trampish Apparel Euthanize Britney shirt came the other day and I must say it looks smashing. Buy one.