Jedi knights, sex symbols, explosions, and helicopters: Things that have nothing to do with this blog post.

What, the play doesn't involve Jedi Knights, helicopters, and sports cars? What a letdown!
Just kidding, I thought it was interesting.

At first read, I was posed with a question of purpose, of what this play is about, what does it stand for? But after a reread and a quick websearch, my thoughts were confirmed, it's an apartheid era play that compares the current system to the corrupt Greek system in Antigone. I liked it. Besides the obvious comparison of two corrupt methods of governing, I greatly enjoyed the portrayal of prison life. I think that this image, of life in prison, has received a lot of media attention from early times on. Bible times when that fellow wrote some sacred text while in prison, books written in prison, manifestoes...it's almost like being in prison is a form of activism. Do one normal, everyday action in prison, and all of a sudden it is a form of activism. I suppose everyone in prison could be considered a political activist. They are there for a reason, be it fair or unfair. If it is a fair, (let's pretend that there are only two sides here) the person clearly thought poorly of the law he or she broke, and therefore practiced civil disobedience, and went to jail for it. Clearly this person didn't agree with the current legislation, so he threw it out of the window, his prison sentence being his silent protest. Now if one were incarcerated for little to no reason, the prison sentence is in itself activism, showing the crookedness of our system of law.

Now I also enjoyed the part in which the degrading of the prisoners to children was the focus. What better way to break one's spirit than convincing them that they are reverting back to childhood, or at least making them feel the part. It's such a horrible tactic really, stripping away all maturity from the inmates, and taking them back not to the pleasant childhood where fond, careless memories exist, but instead to the terrible part of childhood. The phase of having no voice, no say, where one's opinion did not matter at all. The phase where life is governed by someone else, and free decisions are nonexistent. Yes, make one feel like an oppressed child, and the spirit is gone.



AHHH, never going to find that clip I'm looking for. Barbie is pleasant enough I guess.

Jesus Christ throws his hat in.

Interesting reading, I cannot wait for these readings to be torn to shreds in class. I find it funny that we collectively disapprove of most of the liberal activism we study; we don't disagree with the message, but rather with the way of presenting it. This Tuesday will be different, for we have a message that most of us won't agree with, as well as a form of presentation that we probably will scoff at.

Gay Rights, Special Rights

• So here we have our first half of the reading, Gay Rights, Special Rights, whose producer aims to say that homosexuals and lesbians are now seeking unjust rights simply because of the wave of social change from past decades, that these are unjustly deserved privileges which no one should have.
• Obviously, the Religious Right are at the helm of this movement; this brings up one of many disagreements I have with this film. What is religion doing with trying to influence government laws and legislation? Right, clearly religion should be the foremost authority on how we govern ourselves.
• What a cheap and gutless argument to try turning African Americans and homosexuals against each other.
• I find myself wanting to read more actual excerpts from the movie than commentary, something about it feels filtered and unreal. Primary sources they call them. I feel as if the narrator is opposed to the views presented by this type of activism, and although I may be opposed as well, I'd appreciate to hear it from the source.

Pro-Life Movement

• Ugh, violence to try proving points, great. Again, religion can make people do crazy things.
• I find it interesting that these publications will never really change anyone's mind, but the people who have an inherent agreement with these ideologies will feel more entitled to pursue their beliefs, under the thought that they are justified to bomb abortion clinics and murder doctors who provide abortions. It's not the fact that these religious zealots are changing people's minds, they are merely reinforcing a belief. Everyone feels more comfortable within a crowd.

More to come tomorrow, I have a pressing reading to do which I cannot accomplish tomorrow before class.

Gorillas, Blood, and Sweaters

Good stuff, I'm digging reading for all of my classes, especially this one. Finally, opposed to high school, I feel like I'm actually learning more, and not just memorizing facts, dates, and places. Now, time to bust out my immensely articulate and intellectual interpretation of the three readings due this week.

Guerrilla Girls

• Mmmm, these ads remind me of the current campaign by that one collective of people completely opposed to smoking, and the use of shock and awe to draw crowds. While the Guerrilla girls use a milder form of this viral marketing, so to call it, it is definitely effective. Based on posting a rather harmless poster in public places, the Guerrilla Girls draw crowds' and critics' attention in a subtle way.
• The positive nature of the messages really works for me, and I would assume that it does for others as well. It's passive-aggressiveness on a new level. It's funny but at the same time screams frustration with the current situation in the contemporary art world. Everyone clearly knows that these women are not happy, and this sort of delivery system works wonders.
• Equality for women in the art world, awesome, right? Well yeah, if you keep it at that. As soon as you have posters like the one in this post, I kind of drift away from your cause. It's great, I totally agree with you and feel that women should be represented in more galleries, you've shown me statistics showing just how underrepresented you are, but please don't start saying things like being a woman artist of "Not having to be in shows with men" Maybe men are misrepresented too, we're not all gun and Nickelback loving creatures, some of us also believe in equality. Some of us believe in a world where men and women can coexist, without sounding cheesy.
  

Circulation

• Fascinating, I've never thought about blood as much as I did over the past fifteen minutes of reading. I suppose that taken in a certain context, blood can be seen as artistic, enthralling even.
  
• I like how blood can be associated with more than one view. Sure, blood is directly associated with death, but I still talk to the boy who became my blood brother a good twelve years ago. Again, context, you can look at blood as the result of violence, but also as life giving liquid, a necessary part of life.
• When they compare the architecture in cities to our own circulatory system, what is that trying to convey? Did ancient builders of cities look at the human body when designing the said towns. Is the Paris description significant as the city works just like our own circulatory system? In order to better circulation, all the streets would have had to be clean and free.
  

United Colors of Benetton

• The first thing I thought about when I saw the name Benetton was that when I was young in Romania, the rich kid and his parents wore this stuff. That's all I knew. So I guess I am reading this article non-objectively, well since when did objectivity exist anyway?
• Right, great cause, I think we can all agree that Benetton has done the world some good, right? But was this the primary concern, or was building a multi-million dollar sweater the primary purpose, and the activist marketing campaign a side-effect?
• I find that I am very skeptical about any kind of commercial, or marketing in general. I'll recognize exactly what the commercial is not saying, but ultimately trying to convey. Axe commercials kind of go like this: "Look, you're 18-25, straight, and quite possibly have a really fun and exciting life, women LOVE men who smell like chemicals, you love women! We have a win/win here buddy, you totally aren't a 13 year old boy or fratboy."
• Ok so having said that, these ads scream to me that Benetton is simply trying to tap into the clientele of activists, and young people ready for change. It's really the perfect setup, you have a large movement in the world, and why not brand yourself the clothing of a movement, you will sell a lot of sweaters. Their marketing techniques don't even seem that radical today.
  
• Also I find it interesting that it seems that this might have been the time when the counterculture merged with the consumerist culture. Suddenly being different was the norm, ads have now become a bit more thought provoking and artsy, so let's all jump all over them and fall in love with them.
  

One step Forward, Five Steps Back

So on the theme of feminism and what not, I'll present one of my favorite bands who also happen to be feminists. Their name is Le Tigre, and the song I'll share is called FYR, it comes from the album "Feminist Sweepstakes". I guess they're a continuation of the Riot Grrl movement, nevertheless, here are the lyrics, and the video's below.

"Ten short years of progressive change, fifty fucking years of calling us names. Can we trade title nine for an end to hate crime? RU-486 if we suck your fucking dick? One step forward, five steps back. One cool record in the year of rock-rap. Yeah we got all the power getting stabbed in the shower and we got equal rights on ladies night. Feminists we're calling you. Please report to the front desk. Let's name this phenomenon. It's too dumb to bring us down. F.Y.R. Fifty years of ridicule. F.Y.R. take another picture. . . . . Mrs. Doubtfire on mother's day. On-the-job stalker for equal pay. Toss us a few new AIDS drugs as national healthcare bites the dust. While you were on vacation black people didn't get reparations. You know these days no one's exploited. Sorry dude can't hear ya with my head in the toilet. Feminists we're calling you. Please report to the front desk. Let's name this phenomenon. It's too dumb to bring us down. F.Y.R. Fifty years of ridicule. F.Y.R. take another picture. . . . . . You've really come a long way baby. It's you, not the world, that's totally crazy. Cuz we really rocked the fuckin vote with election fraud in poor zip codes. Celebrate gay marriage in Vermont by enforcing those old sodomy laws. One step foreward five steps back. We tell the truth they turn up the laugh track. Feminists we're calling you. Please report to the front desk. Let's name this phenomenon. It's too dumb to bring us down."

Womanhouse and The Feminist Art Program

Ok here we are, there are five articles so we'll divide this up into five sections.

The Education of Women as Artists: Project Womanhouse

• since when does one need to be educated to be an artist, maybe I should read more.
• interesting how in Womanhouse, rather than becoming disillusioned with the formal idea of a woman's role in the house, the students embraced it as a common thought, and at the same time revolutionized it.
• So what started as a place of study and struggle turned into an art exhibit that signifies the triumphs and troubles of women. Literally a "Womanhouse".

The First Feminist Art Program: A View from the 1980s

• Again, I don't believe in ideology before art, the opposite seems to be more fitting for me.
• "We knew we had to take a hard look at who we were--and when we're in the society of men, we're generally prohibited from doing that. We're permitted to see ourselves as men want us to see ourselves but not as we really are." --kind of makes a lot of sense I suppose, I find it tragic how some women's lives are governed by the other sex's opinions.
• "I concluded that in the visual arts the necessary first step is to be able to see women's work as work by women." I don't agree with this, I believe that a woman artist should never strive to be a woman artist, but strive to be an artist that happens to be a woman, and be regarded on the same level as any other artist.

Every other remaining article:

• The rest of the readings are all related to Womanhouse, the Feminist Art Program, and Judy Chicago; now I do understand that the entire feminist movement is an answer to the misogynist train of thought, but I again do not believe in women making art simply for the sake of showing that they are women through the art.
• Womanhouse and Ablutions are genius. Finally something that lets everyone know about the entire experience of being a woman, and mostly the things that one would not think about. The bathrooms, the bathtubs, they all speak out to anyone who listen, on a level that simply cannot be expressed by mere words.

In conclusion, while the minds behind these exhibits and programs are brilliant minds, I respectfully disagree with their general idea. I just like to think that I don't believe in gender, for anything. But these women are placing their gender in front of their artwork, which I ultimately cannot accept.

Hello.

So this is my ILS 275 sketchbook blog, where I'll mostly comment on class readings and what not, but also on random things that I find are related to the class. Enjoy!