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 TO SEE THESE TRAILERS AND MORE, VISIT MICHIGANDAILY.COM/THEFILTER , w^er^1AI r"rl 1 nv ,-~! 1n REES 310/Ru 'sa 310: 2 edits All lectured in EniNo pre-quisites.