Blog 4: Appropriation/Reappropriation

The artist, Banksy has used his art as a commentary about several topical issues including war, poverty, government and capitalism. It could almost be said that he is a sort of political cartoonist, except instead of being published in magazines, his images are displayed on public property. He not only paints graffiti, he also sneaks altered pictures into museums and paints/draws pictures that he puts on his website, www.banksy.co.uk/. One of his key techniques is altering known images to give them a different meaning. He does this much along the same lines as Barbara Kruger, except he doesn’t always use an ambiguous phrase; often he just adds an extra detail to the picture. Like Andy Warhol, he took famous works of art (like Monet’s water lilies) and altered them to produce different interpretations of the original work of art. Here are a few examples: (The original work is on the left and Banksy's work is on the right.)Banksy’s artwork, which originally started as a rebellious act, is becoming reappropriated. Though his personal identity is still unknown, his popularity as an artist has grown immensely. “His refusal to be interviewed in person or even to reveal his real name has added to his mystique over the years.” (http://weburbanist.com/2008/07/15/who-is-banksy-about-banksy/) I recently recognized Banksy art in Children of Men, a movie by Alfonso Cuarón. The movie is set in 2027 on Earth, where humans have somehow lost the ability to procreate. The whole world seems to be coming to an end, and while the majority of the population is desperate and poor, there are a few who are disgustingly rich. One of the wealthy people has taken to collecting the great works of art to stop them from being destroyed during this chaotic time. Cuarón decided that Banksy’s work was among those valuable pieces. This piece of work is shown on part of a wall in the movie: Another example of the growing popularity of his work is evident by the number of websites selling shirts with his art on them, like shop.com, ebay, http://www.vandaldesigns.co.uk, and various other t-shirt selling websites. The fact that his work is popping up in pop culture and growing in demand as a product means it that it is only a matter of time before the rest of the world knows who he is, if only the pseudonym.

Robert Frank: Visual Interpretation Strategies

For my Studium/Punctum piece, I ended up using two of Robert Frank’s photos and combining them. In the picture of the couple on the motorcycle, the couple seemed to be distinctly looking down and I expanded on that by placing another picture “underneath” them. I was thinking of it metaphorically as them not only visually looking down upon the people in the bottom picture, but as them disliking them and finding them not as worthy as themselves. In the bottom picture, the people are predominantly Caucasians and the couple on the motorcycle are African American, as are most of the people in the background of their picture. The story that I created in my mind was that the black couple was either resentful for segregation and racism or they felt some pity on the ignorant white people who force themselves above blacks. I think with the hard looks on their faces, though, that the former seems more fitting.

Another detail I added was a sense of more depth by changing the darkness/brightness of the different pictures. I see that as metaphorical in a sense, also, because it’s showing that racism isn’t a simply one-dimensional issue. There are many layers of truths and different reasons for people acting the way they do (not that I’m justifying prejudice in any way, shape or form). The overall idea is that the picture invokes thoughts about racism and its meaning.

Dead Media Project: Phonograph Doll and Beyond

The phonograph had its first origins in 1877 when Thomas Edison was “experimenting with a machine that could reproduce the message given by a voice on the telephone.” Not long after (1878), Edison patented the phonograph doll in an attempt to make childrens’ toys seem more realistic. Edison’s first dolls recited nursery rhymes through a little needle tracing grooves on a wax covered disc. French took the phonograph doll a step further by allowing a wider variety of phrases to be said by one doll by creating multiple cylinders. They even made them in three different languages: French, Spanish and English. Companies in America and in Europe stole ideas from each other, especially around the time of the first World War.

As a little girl, I remember having a teddy bear with a music box inside of it as well as several dolls that had several phrases they could say when their hand was squeezed or a button was pushed. While the music box bear was an older technology (available in the late 18th century), the speaking dolls that I owned as a little girl were much more advanced than the originals from the early 1900s. My dolls ran on battery power and had a microchip that recorded what they were supposed to say.

It seems that the goal of toy manufacturers is to make children’s toys increasingly more realistic; when I was about 8, I remember the Furby toy was released. I never owned one, but I heard from my friends that when you first buy a Furby, they speak only their language, “Furbish.” But as you have them their knowledge of English grows and they speak less Furbish and more English. “The more English they learn, the more they "grow", thus placing them under the autonomous robot category.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furby) After reading http://www.kidsturncentral.com/topics/toys/tn080205.htm, I learned that the Furby was re-released in 2005. “The new FURBY now has an off switch so the chatterbox toy won’t break into song or story-telling mode during the middle of the night!” (http://www.kidsturncentral.com/topics/toys/tn080205.htm) This was one of the main complaints I had from my friends; they would be awakened in the middle of the night to a creepy voice saying “Fuuuuurby looooooooove yooouuu.” I would have been frightened too. During a UN Plaza event, Furbies were used to allow children who spoken different language to communicate using Furbish. The technology of Furby indicates the possibilities for its expansion, like new ways to teach children to acquire languages or even simply as educational electronic playmates. Especially because so many cultures value the education of their children, interactive playtime technology will only expand from Edison’s phonograph doll to become more advanced as time goes on.

Einstein in California: 3 Winters in the Sun

The way the content is represented in Einstein in California: Three Winters in the Sun more realistically portrays Einstein’s life than a regular biography. Because there isn’t a specific flow to exploring the particle streams of the interactive video, there isn’t a directed way to learn about his life. Multiple categories of his life were happening at once (political activism while hobnobbing with celebrities while conducting scientific research) this interactive method allowed a better understanding to be established about his multifaceted life. At first, the strange sounds in the background made me feel as if I were in an alternate reality while learning about his life, but as I got used to it, I started likening it to more of a reflective world. I also began paying attention to the fact that a lot of the strange sounds were coming from string instruments, which reminded me of Einstein’s love of playing the violin in his free time.

Personally, I agree with Einstein’s actions concerning the atomic bomb. He knew that the Germans were pursuing the technology of the atomic bomb and felt it was pressing that the US have the technology before the “bad guys” did. I never realized how much guilt he must have felt concerning the use of such a destructive technology. I liked this quote that summed up his feelings on the subject:

“We scientists, whose tragic destiny it has been to help make the methods of annihilation ever more gruesome and more effective, must consider it our solemn and transcendent duty to do all in our power to prevent those weapons from being used for the brutal purpose for which they were invented.”
-Albert Einstein, 1948

Though it must have been hard living with the knowledge of the possibilities of the atomic bomb, I think he made the correct decision in encouraging Roosevelt to develop the bomb. With the catastrophic events that were happening during the holocaust, the idea of the Nazis having such a devastating power in their arsenal gives me chills. As we discussed in our last class, I think that new inventions will always be created if there is the knowledge of how to do so. The scary part about it all is wondering what kind of people will be the holders of that technology. Cloning, for example, can be used to clone and entire being, which brings up ethical questions like whether or not that cloned person should have the same rights as the original being and if it’s even right for humans to be playing the part of God. On the other hand, though, cloning body parts might allow thousands to live when no other organs are available for an emergency transplant. So although the atomic bomb had devastating effects on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, I think the possibility of allowing the Nazis to have that technology would have been far worse.