AND found something that reminded me of when life didn't suck.

This art show that I put a photo in ended up on the viceland blog a while back. Check it out. http://www.viceland.com/wp/2008/10/vice-pics-maggie-lee-visits-allston/

surrounded by horrible people.

scouring the darkest corners of the internet early this morning. found an interview with weirdo dave about his zine "fuck this life." Pretty amazing, and somehow uplifting.
http://vice.typepad.com/vice_magazine/2008/09/literary---fuck.html

self monitoring skills and incompetence

     Dr. Dunning is scared that in this day and age people suffer from an abnormal level of incompetence. The article speaks of various tests performed on individuals, and how it has led him to believe the truth in his theory. Towards the end of the article they discuss a possible treatment that was tested to correct the heightened sense of self perception, and inability to correct themselves. In conclusion i can't tell if the article is a joke or not.

     Zizek draws many comparisons to the way that the United States acted while occupying Iraq, and how the Occupied Iraqi government acted while being occupied. He also compares the treatment of war prisoners by by American guards to the hazing that more than likely occurred to bush while joining the skull and bones fraternity. Zizek also discusses the notion of community and how it can be portrayed in its purest and true sense when one of these inhumane acts occurs. Zizek cites the inhumane torture practices committed by the United States and its various organizations that patrol the world, throughout the world. My favorite reference was that of the CIA and its involvement in educating many South American and third world countries on the subject of torture, and how it should be carried out properly.

Who are you? Who are you people?

Why do I do art? It is nine thirty in the morning. I am in the library. Blah Blah Blah. I am scanning as many images as I can before I fall asleep of instances that I believe are motivating, and crucial to the creation of art. Blah Blah Blah. No one is ever interested. I know that we had Allen Scarrit, or Allin scaritt, or Allin Scarrit. I do not know how to spell his name. In the time that it took me to spell his name three times I am sure that i could have figured out how to spell his name by typing his name into a search engine. But he is not important right now. What is important is my description of the people that created art during his era, and how they have impacted my life/made beautiful meaningful things. I don't mean to pull the whole I-ME-I-ME garbage, but I genuinely feel that this man is much more important. I took the time to scan these photos onto this picture machine. If you take the time to read this, I thank you. I will start that conversation with a basic piece of Dennis Oppenheim. The use of basic materials to change the earth. There is no fancy circles. When slightly fancy circles are used, they are generally referencing something other than face value aesthetics. 

This next one is amazing.  Oppenheim installed guard dogs around the MFA in Boston Massachusetts. I think that it is self explanatory that he was making a commentary on high art. I believe that a piece like this is a big middle finger to people like Nicholas Bourriaud. He was trying to take a stand against the preciousness that is placed upon an art piece when placed inside of a museum. I think a simple concept such as this highly exaggerated can be a beautiful thing. The idea of using the same breed of dog that was once used to brutalize mankind in concentration camps to guard pieces of art if beautiful and ingenious. It's too bad that the guard dogs weren't there when I visited the same museum this summer for a Picasso exhibition. 

The piece above is also a Dennis Oppenheim piece. I think that it is amazing that he can make such beautiful intelligent pieces out of near to no medium. When i first saw this piece i was roughly twenty one years old. I paid five bucks to visit the harvard museum. I was really depressed at the lost money until I wandered to the back of the museum. There was a video playing in a small closet of an older man drawing on the back of a small child back, and vice versa. I found the piece to be intriguing without knowing why. As is turns out the artist was delving into time travel. By drawing on the back of his son, and having his son transfer the line that he feels upon his back onto the wall, he is essentially transgressing his past and future state of being. 

And last but not least the big "fuck you" to painting, as well as art history/historians. For an artist to transgress to transgress medium is a hard and long journey. To transgress painting and medium in the broad sense is beyond achieving zen, or whatever ridiculous term you would want to use for referencing being at peace with yourself. He speaks of the color red and how he can control the exposure/intensity of the pigment. He claims that he "feels" the act of becoming red, which is my favorite part of the whole performance. He also references the fact that artists/painters generally artificially instigate color activity. The use of his body to reference such color changes brings the conversation into a whole new realm. 

CB and NB. I am not a francophile by any means.

CB talks about Bourriad and his relationship to relational aesthetics. She references the two prime examples that Bourriad references to be examples of that specific type of work. Tiravanija and Gillick being the two artists referenced. She claims later on in the reading that there are two other artists that better serve as a prime example of the movement. Those two artists being Laclau and Moffe. She claims that these two artists are a better reference of art that is not unclear and undefined. She also claims that Bourriad "ignored" these artists. It almost seems as though she was offended by the fact that he had done so. The artists Santiago sierra is also referenced towards the end of the writing. CB claims that this artist is a direct reference to much of the conceptual and minimal art that occured throughout the seventies. Marina Abromovic and Chris Burden are used as reference tools to give a clear non visual portrayal of her work.