Thoughtful Preparations: Media Spin Blog

Kurt Schwitters, "Merz Picture 25A: The Star Picture" 1920 Montage, collage and oil on cardboard, 104.5 x 79 cm, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf ©1999 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild Kunst, Bonn

This curious poem, “Meatloaf” by Donald Hall, reminded me of the peculiar brilliance of German artist Kurt Schwitters.

Twenty-five years ago, Kurt Schwitters,
I tried to instruct you in baseball
but kept getting distracted, gluing
bits and pieces of world history
alongside personal anecdote
instead of explicating baseball’s
habits. I was K.C. (for Casey)
in stanzas of nine times nine times nine.

Kurt Schwitters appearing in a poem, printed in a modern magazine, over 60 years past his death, caused me to wonder, “What would Schwitters Twitter?”  Perhaps in 1936 he would write:

Drunk on victory in the Rhineland the German masses
listen bewildered to their radios:
the Fuhrer is declaring war
on abstract art

It turns out that Kurt tweets on.

rakete bee bee

10:00 PM Jul 25th from Twitter4J

See more Schwitters Twitters here.

Collage Homage to Kurt Schwitters, by Hank Grebe, 1972, paper on cardboard, 8.5 x 8.5 inches.

Above: Surrealists’ Circus painting by H. Grebe, 1976.  Below: AT&T Wireless ad by BBDO Agency, 2008.

Evidence that visual ideas are out there to be perpetually revisited and revised by artists.  I like the way the AT&T hand painting artist realized this visual illusion in the way I had previoously envisioned it. 

 

Oil is king, oil is god, and oil must be prayed to be merciful upon us poor miserable auto drivers. We witness a sign of the times in this SF Chronicle photo by Paul Chinn of Kendall Guy, an Oakland pastor (left), and Rocky Twyman praying for lower gas prices after filling Guy’s car.

Praying to higher powers tends to be one alternative employed by humans when dealing with situations beyond their control. Who knows? It may help, although finding inspiration to invent more energy efficient modes of travel may make God and Mother Earth smile upon us.

Recently, I’ve had two graphic design encounters invloving church and religiously influenced themes. The first was an offer through an IT recruiter to work in Flash on a large website. The work was to be performed on location at the production facility, Golden Era Productions, which is the promotional media arm of the Church of Scientology. Plans leading up to the assignment in remote Hemet, CA including paid room and board were nebulous, and after a few days the offer was withdrawn and I was told by the disappointed recruiter “the project had been put on hold.” Perhaps somebody was praying for me, or against me. I’ll never know what unique adventure I may have missed.

The second anecdote is a bit more of a hands on experience. A stock photo agency I often work with requested a 3-D rendering to be used for a breast exam publication. The breast image was to have the nipple removed at the request of the client.

In professional visual design you learn that revisions are a part of the job, so after submitting the first image (below left), I was advised to try and cover over as much of both breasts as possible by crossing one arm over them (below right). The client turned out to be a religious institution, and perhaps too much 3-D simulated, de-nippled breast could be fertile ground for Satan’s tempatation. Approaching breast examinations in the church is a delicate undertaking.

Version 2 and further revisions were still found to be too revealing for the client. (How do you show a breast exam without showing breasts?) So that my efforts were not a total loss, I decided to innovate, and insert a cross to aid in concealing the terrible breasts. In this version (below), I employed the cross style used by the Scientologists, perhaps giving this image some kind of blessed double whammy.

Heading into SF on BART last Tuesday on business, noticed the growth and development of the Lafayette Crosses memorial. Here are a few photos of how it looked.

My appointment in SF took me near the Moscone Center, where the Web 2.0 Conference was readying for its open on Wednesday. It seemed quiet. Not much to shoot photos of. Looked at the Web 2.0 program and did not see companies listed that I perceive to be collaborative, social networking websites. Instead I noticed large computer and telecomm corporations, and Disney.com. Since when is Disney collaborative?

What a joke. The best way to get into Web 2.0 is to use it on the web. The rest is just hype. Back in Lafayette stands a truly collaborative work, low tech, with heart and humanity… but at what a cost.