Robot Monkeys

Perhaps Maynard James Keenan would have would take issue with me, but if there was any doubt that Shepard Fairey has sold out, Levi’s hired Fairey to develop a clothing line, complete with a paste up at Times Square, should remove all doubt. The art? Obey Giant in the shape of a jeans pocket, and previously work (“Stay Up Girl” 2004 (Plate 196 in “Supply and Demand”, “Obey Factory” 2000 (Plate 201 ibid), and two others) defaced with Levi’s Giant and Levi’s new slogan, “Go Forth.”

Granted the guy has to pay the bills, and he’s done commercial work before, but there seems like a line is crossed when you’re repurposing your own work for a marketing campaign, especially when your art is has a very strong anti-conformity, anti-establisment, anti-commerical bent to it. Then to top it off, you write:

One of my main concepts with the ["This is Your God" show in 2003 at the Six Space Gallery in Los Angeles] (and the campaign as a whole) was that obedience is the most valuable currency. People rarely consider how much power they sacrifice by blindly following a self-serving corporation’s marketing agenda, and how their spending habits reflect the direction i which they choose to transfer power.

At least the irony of the situation isn’t lost on one of us.

Now if only we can get that damn Carmen Sandiego.

I would pay for that to be put on a t-shirt. Oh good! There might be one.

The mind reels that the Nazis would invoke the Klan in an attempt to demonize the US.

Life Magazine is running a selection of WWII propaganda posters, in recognition of the 70th anniversary of the start of the the Second World War.

I’ll admit it, I have a soft spot for the most romanticized period of 20th century. The epic fight of Good versus Evil. The last Good War. The rapid advances of technology. The streamline styling of the era. The Greatest Generation had class and style. (Levittown not withstanding.) It set in motion all the changes of the latter half of the 20th century.

The poster art always really grabbed me. (Such as the Varga Girls, whether on a calendar, or a warplane.) It’s probably one of the most easily recognizable art forms of the era. It’s what initially drew me to Shepard Fairey’s work, until I realized that I had all the original images sitting on my hard drive, and decided he was DJ Fuckface. (Don’t miss the remix!) (Yeah, yeah. I know.)

via BoingBoing

The Rut
via BurnLab

Last February Chris Bodle Watermarks Project was a series of projections throughout Bristol, England that illustrated high-tide water levels if the Greenland ice shelf would melt.

I really like BLDGBLOG thoughts about this project. How idea of projecting a different geography over the current geography. A kind of public augmented reality.

I would love for something like Watermarks to change people’s attitudes and motivate the radical changes that are needed, but it won’t. We’re doomed, by our own hubris.

BLDGBLOG writes about Nina Burleigh’s book about the French in Egypt during Napoleon, Mirage. In it, Burleigh mentions how each neighborhood in Cairo was walled off from each other. Only small gates, sometimes, just a single gate for a neighborhood interconnected the city. A city of cities if you will. Napoleon ordered that the entire city be mapped.

[I]t was deemed so daunting that at first the engineers hoped the order [to map Cairo] would be rescinded” – but, of course, “it was not.” Edme-François Jomard, the cartographer in charge of the project, wrote: “The city is almost entirely composed of very short streets and twisting alleys, with innumerable dead-ends. Each of these sections is closed by a gate, which the inhabitants open when they wish; as a result the interior of Cairo is very difficult to know.” Jomard, Burleigh writes, would spend his time “knocking on gates that hid whole neighborhoods.”

When I read this, I thought of two things. First, it sounds like 18th century Cairo was almost like Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley. Only if you knew where you were going, and knew the password, would the hidden areas be open to you. The other was the Forma Urbis Romae.

The Forma Urbis Romane was an detailed marble map of Rome circa 200 CE. It outlined every street, alley, doorway, and stairwell in the city. Not just public areas, but the internal plans to the buildings as well. Unfortunately, a majority of the map was destroyed and used for lime and other building materials. Today, only about 10% remains.

I’ve always had a soft sport of maps every since I was little. Whether the map was a real location, or a fictional one, a map always filled me with wonder. It was a window to an adventure. With a map, I’m prepared to go.

Dan Goods, artist at JPL, recently curated the Data + Art exhibit at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. (Show ran from January to April 2009.) As part of this exhibit is the crayon shaded printout of raw data from the Mariner 4 of the first image from Mars.

I like the very low tech solution to rendering the image, but I do find it a strange when compared to the processed image. Perhaps it’s because of the colors of the crayons used, but the colored image makes the image appear like a landscape. If this was a Viking image, I wouldn’t have thought anything was strange, but Mariner 4 was an orbiter. In the processed image, the planet doesn’t even appear to fill the entire frame.

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Caffe Pergolesi (418 Cedar) in Santa Cruz is hosting all this month “Organize Before They Rise!”, a zombie themed show featuring local artists.

Zombies have been played out for a while now, but this show features some talent, and it’s local so check it out.

Strange Attractor mentions Greenpeace’s Design Awards 2009 call for submissions. That’s not what this post is about. This year’s logo?

Well that’s familiar.

Not entirely sure how I feel about this. Obviously they’re different, and I have no reason to suspect anything beyond independent creation, since it’s not like anyone ever reads this thing. But still…

Obama unveiled logos for recovery.gov and the Department of Transportation’s TIGER project. The logos designed by Mode Project. The logos not only represent the economic recovery program, but will be affixed to projects that have been funded though the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The idea of affixing logos to the projects that are receiving ARRA funds reminds me of the blue eagle from the New Deal’s National Recovery Administration.

The eagle was displayed in the windows of businesses that agreed to economic restrictions such as a minimum wage, maximum work hours, and minimum price laws.

I like the idea of clearly marking how the money is being spent. Not only does it promote accountability (assuming of course that the logos are properly affixed), but also highlights just where tax money is being spent. Too often people complain that they never see where their tax money is going. That’s because it’s spread out and in the background. It’s road, the police, the fire truck, the post office, and the school. Perhaps it’s naïve, but maybe seeing a logo will promote an idea of community. I don’t know.

The unveiling of the recovery.gov logo, caused me to notice that TARP doesn’t have a logo. Perhaps one of these could be displayed on doors of and ATMs of Citi and AIG.

via Swiss Miss