The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Thursday, January 17, 2008 - 3
Forget cynicism: How
media can help art
In the 1960s, artists such as
Desmond Paul Henry start-
ed manipulating existing
computer technology for artis-
tic purposes. He made drawing
machines, and other artists tin-
kered with randomly generated
paintings and the like. The ques-
tion then was how to incorpo-
rate the burgeoning technology
into contemporary art. Reac-
tionary art dealt with politics
- McCarthy-
ism, Vietnam
- and with
pop culture.
Fifty years
later, we have
a different;
situation. Art
reacts (some- ANDREW
times) to the SARGUS
universality of KLEIN
contemporary
mass media, like the Internet,
broadcast television and brand-
driven culture.
A handful of students and fac-
ulty have added their reactions
at the School of Art and Design's
Work Gallery on State Street.
The current exhibit, "Mania," is
a collection of artwork inspired
by media - a vague concept that,
correctly, takes many forms. But
it's easy for this theme to be too
cynical. Is the art reacting to
mass media, or is it incorporat-
ing it? What's the difference?
You won't find much differentia-
tion, as the bulk of the displayed
work barely escapes the qualifier
"unmitigated whining."
There are the typical adver-
tisement mash-ups: senior
sDevin MacDonald's "iBaby" is
a slick poster of a silhouetted
infant with an iPod, and senior
Sara Burke's digital photo series
"Beef Cakes (unintentional)"
mocks fashion/modeling. The
best of these reinterpretations
are found in Candy Wei's "Works
from the Collage Series." Maga-
zine ads for Neiman Marcus and
Chanel are manipulated with
additional photos and sentences
made up of words cut out ofmag-
azines. Models have dogs for
heads and slogans are mocked.
Especially appealing is Wei's
rejoinder to the slogan "Where
fashion meets function": "Heck
No."
It's no surprise the exhibit
is rife with cynicism. After all,
Google and Amazon are figuring
out what you're going to click on
before you do, Apple is creating
a lifestyle out of hard drives and
ear buds and models are forever
divorced from real-world beau-
ty (on a Chanel ad with a dog's
snarling head on the model, Wei
pasted the words "liposuctioned
monster from hell"). It's fright-
ening, this notion of corpora-
tions plugging product choice
into an algorithm and calculat-
ing my love for sci-fi/fantasy
novels before my friends do.
Apparently we all have a
genome made up of choices,
not alleles. To wit from "High
Fidelity": "A while ago, Dick,
Barry and I agreed that what
really matters is what you like
- not what you are like. Books,
records, movies, these things
matter." Yes, they certainly do.
As such, several works seem to
reflect this feeling. Senior Gene-
vieve Mihalko's"Sushi Rides The
Tentacle Train" doesn't make a
whole lot of sense, but pictures
of sushi ride up tentacles toward
a human brain (perhaps Sushi.
come had something to do with
it). Senior MargaretChen's "Sub-
urbia" looks like a periodic table
of elements: detached, unfeel-
ing. Urban sprawl is exposed as
a formula.
A more prevalent unifier is
the grid. Several of the exhibited
works are arranged in a strict
grid format, best expressed in
the exhibit's video installations
by Joey Ostrander and Steve
Coy, who have separate but
similar pieces in the basement
gallery. Each features a grid of
television feeds, including mov-
ies, commercials and sitcoms.
Coy's piece, "Target Audience,"
is small in scale. A grid of video
feeds washes over several white,
movable dolls (used by artists
for sketching exercises) with red
targets on their heads, a rather
literal interpretation of the title.
Ostrander's "For Your View-
ing Pleasure: a perfect com-
bination" is more mocking
- better cynicism because it
quietly makes jabs at the audi-
ence. A grid of 81 videos is pro-
jected onto the wall. The images
are too small and change too
Art. Media.
Synchronism.
Pseudo genome.
Internet.
quickly for accurate identifica-
tion. While it's impossible to
watch any one clip, audio from
the clips can be heard - but not
all at once. The brief snippets of
dialogue and commentary don't
overlap. Basically, Ostrander
has recreated manic inattention.
There's too much to focus on, too
much to absorb. The title tells us
this is a "perfect combination."
Sarcasm, anyone?
But that's about it. It's dis-
heartening to see so little rein-
terpretation or imagination.
Instead, we have reaction, reac-
tion, reaction. Make a video of
the artistic process and put it
on YouTube. Invite the viewer
to get on the Internet. There's
plenty of good to be mined from
all this "media" stuff. How are
artists manipulating it to their
advantages? Contemporary cri-
tique of pop culture is just fine,
but as in the case of Burke's
"Beef Cakes (unintentional)"
series, art is sometimes under-
mined by that which it attempts
to undermine. The work can't
be "unintentional" if the back-
grounds are completely white
(as if taken in a studio). With
few exceptions there is no audio,
no tactile elements, no audience
participation. Isn't that a major
part of modern mass media? The
viewer/audience member/con-
sumer is king. They need to be
engaged.
Mass media - and all its
many tentacles - is a blessing
and curse, right? It's time to see
where the blessings exist. Cyni-
cism only goes so far.
Wish Klein would write
more about Lolcats? Email him
at andresar@umich.edu.
GRAPHIC
From Page 1B
"Believe it!! Everyday some-
one successfully uses a condom
under the influence of alcohol," the
poster exclaims. It continues, "Did
you know? 4 out of 4 persons pre-
fer condoms to herpes?" and gives
them the "warning" that objects in
condoms "may appear larger than
they actually are." "Sandpaper"
is among the products the poster
advises notto use with condoms.
"These posters make us recon-
struct our culturalreferences," said
Rebecca Zurier, an associate profes-
sor in the history of artdepartment.
"So much of our visual environ-
ment is shapedby big ad firms. This
is a chance to see the picture in a
new way."
"The posters and ads that we
are used to seeing rarely give you
a 'what's wrong here' picture," she
said. Not in "Imperative."
Especially during election time,
we're constantly bombarded by
"The Graphic Imperative" runs until Jan. 25 at the School of Art andDesign's Slusser Gallery.
images,I
"Polit
the styli
F
SOC
p
Zurier s
to feel b
to feel g:
ture."
"Imp
away. T
bad, the
graphics and ads. they make you feel like there is a
ical and social ads are in need for change. And while stand-
e of high production ads," ing in the face of all of the problems
raised by "Imperative" may seem
daunting, there is one poster that
e add gives a solution.
?osters a"Don't Vote," it announces
ial against a canvas of red, white and
lai context to blue with a man in a gag, "and you
S images. won't be heard," finishes the mes-
Op msage in smaller scroll.
"[The exhibit] challenges the
notion that graphic design is only
aid. "They don't want you a commercial activity," said Eliza-
ad or ugly. They want you beth Resnick, an associate profes-
ood about what's in the pic- sor of graphic design at the
Massachusetts College of Art
erative" throws that all and Design, who led a discussion at
'he posters make you feel the gallery before opening night.
y make you feel ugly and As viewers moved from poster
to poster, a silence spread over the
room. Seeds were being planted, a
consciousness being raised. Design
was not just a commercial com-
modity, posters were not just sell-
ing socks: They were selling ideas.
Meg Young, an LSA freshman
and member of student activ-
ist group SOLE, tried to pinpoint
the experience. After viewing the
Vietnam anti-war poster that pairs
a photograph of slaughtered Viet
Cong with the text "Q. And babies?
A. And babies," she said she was
paralyzed by her experience. The
poster conveyed what is often over-
looked in wartime: Body count has
a face, and sometimes that means
the face of a child.
"What 'The Imperative' is trying
to do is give people an idea that they
are empowered," Young said. "It
lets them know that something is
goingon and somethingneeds tobe
done and that they are being called
on to do it."
Young understands the power of
the image.
"The drive for name brands and
name recognition shows the power
behind visual cues."
If these visual cues of the com-
mercial world are replaced by the
images of reality, there's an oppor-
tunity for change. If "Abu Ghraib"
replaces "iPod," and "Sun Mad"
replaces "Sun-Maid," there is a
chance that we can become less
commercialized and more politi-
TRAILER REVIEWS
"BE KIND REWIND"
NEW LINE
Z ippy, colorful and genuinely funny-look-
ing, this trailer for the new film from the
director of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spot-
less Mind" looks to be the next big indie com-
edy hit. A scene with Jack Black ("Shallow Hal")
dressed in a flowery, old woman's dress, hitting
co-star Mos Def ("16 Blocks") over the head with
his purse would seem like typical banal slapstick
if it weren't for the fact it was a spoof of the sappy
Oscar-winner "Driving Miss Daisy." Finally, just
what we need: a well-earned punch in the arm to
the all the heartless and overindulgent prestige
films Hollywood's given us.
BRAND ON CONRADIS
"YOU DON'T MESS WITH ZOHAN"
COLUMBIA
T he trailer for Judd Apatow's "You Don't Mess With
the Zohan" assures comedy fans they're in for yet
another forced, meekly amusing picture starring
a funnyman fallen from grace, played by Adam Sandler
in this case. In the trailer alone, Zohan (Sandler) an ex-
Mossad agent who's fled to New York to style hair and
fornicate with his clients, epitomizes a handful of dis-
paraging stereotypes of Middle Eastern immigrants while
somehow managing to remain entirely unfunny. Even that
which is meant to be edgy and off-color seems recycled.
Apatow's brand of humor apparently doesn't translate
when forced through the grind of a terrible accent and an
even worse haircut.
NOAH DEAN STAHL
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