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- Written by: Rod Boyle
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Art is a tough thing to define, and for economies sake I'll define it as any act of creation (man-made, sorry Zoo) that has the ability to inspire the intellect, the imagination or emotion. Typically it's original, because the repetition of ideas tends to dull the senses and remove any "inspiring" effects, a funny joke told again and again becomes stale and boring in the retelling.
If you accept that as a definition (and, hey, I understand if you don't, it's poorly abbreviated at best), then I'd like to propose to define the life cycle of Art.
1) Creation, the artist in the studio, at their easel, guitar, piano, on the computer, their typewriter, you get the idea. This is Genesis, Genius, Art as a process. It's followed by:
2) Art - as the object - the output of that creative effort, be it a painting, building, song, etc.
3) Art - the object, the book, painting, song - becomes currency for the artist to purchase more supplies, and if they're very, very lucky (and occasionally talented) there's enough left over for them to pay the rent and buy groceries.
4) Art now becomes a commodity, traded and sold as an investment, speculative, a brand name (the Artist), capitalizing on it's ability to provoke/inspire/generate that feeling/sentiment/awe/status, etc. that's currently in vogue. It's success in this depends somewhat on the artists skill and reputation, the investor's knowledge of this, and a whole host of other effects too numerous to list here, but include both public opinion, that of "experts", fellow artists, the opinion of the Artist as a human being, the life of the artist (long suffering, or well pampered: Van Gogh VS Damien Hirst), it's relevance to other Art of it's generation, etc.
As a commodity, art can expect to be reproduced "Ad Infinitum" - endless copies of postcards, calendars, records, tapes, CD's, downloads, blueprints, etc, all of which serve to enhance the value of the original and return investment dollars through the mass production of cheap imitations.
5) The most successful combinations of these factors will result in the Art becoming an Artifact, collected by museums and galleries all over the world. At this point the art, is, really, dead, it is alive to us only in that it fills gaps in our collective unconscious - it's first impression on us - the new and uneducated viewer, is overwhelming, it provokes all of the intended visceral responses, but these are merely shortfalls in our cultural education, a reflection of how poorly the imitation (the postcard, print, poster, CD) reflects the original. The original, It's made it's mark for decades, hundreds or thousands of years even, it's been discussed, dissected, analyzed, and gasp - even understood - and, now, no longer "Art", but "Artifact", it rests in a museum for all those of us who've never found time to catch up and appreciate it.
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When I worked as a clown I had a bit I did for younger kids, "The Flea Circus", in which with a concealed pencil and sheet of plain white paper I'd try to persuade a group of suspicious 5 year-olds that there were indeed fleas doing all sorts of acrobatics and stunts. They were pretty skeptical, but with my free left hand hidden under the paper playing the role of "Escaped Flea", dispensing abundant pinches to the unbelievers, I managed to bring them all back into the fold...
Imagine my surprise when I found out there was actually such a thing!
Links: Wiki on the Flea Circus, http://flea-circus.com/
Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9BjN_GHIic, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQLPhS1N9pc
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
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It's been kinda the meme of the week, that Chasity belts in fact probably never existed, and if they did were more for novelty use and whipped up for museums.
I console myself with the thought that "Fury Road" is set in the future.
That said, the more literal and kinky members of society have been quick to embrace them, and six centuries later there's any number of suppliers to be found online. I'll let you do your own research there...
There were, however, any number of ideas for anti-erection and anti-mastubatory devices patented. I'd be curious to see the resultant psychology of any child that suffered an adolescence wearing one of these:
More at (appropriately enough) Christwire. I'm not making this up, they even added their website to the image - clearly any self-respecting anti-mastubator or erectionist would want a Jesus branded and approved product, although I have to say I think I have a very different understanding of both arousing and the Bible than they do.
And, finally, proof that the more things change, the more they stay the same - anti-erection boxers, to save your child from the embarrassment of a poorly timed boner.
It's a wonderful world.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
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It's tempting to embed links, a quick search will find you all the moving videos you can stand (Try: "People trying on Enchroma glasses for first time"). Not being colorblind (despite obviously poor fashion & artistic choices), I have a hard time imagining what they're going through, but I'm curious where they'll take this - imagining the sensory "add-ons" or mods they'll be able to do for regular "sighted" people; things like viewing into the infra-red, or UV, spectrums, or viewing the polarization of light, the possibilities are indeed endless...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
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A curious site, purportedly by a deranged mathematician, follow the links from page to page and try and figure it out...