James Nares vs that bad actor.
Black and white version.
August 2010
Flashback: Paddy Johnson on Net Art Panels
The discussion on Rhizome about bad social media art criticism has continued and has now reached the "dudes bludgeoning other dudes with theory" stage:
Greimas' approach is still a kind of post-Saussurean (or post-Peircean) structuralism, used by Jameson and others to transition into something that might be considered proto-post-structuralism...
Nothing wrong with any of that, per se, except it avoids talking about specific examples. In the course of the conversation I re-read and linked to Paddy Johnson's notes comparing two "net aesthetics" panels, one in '06 and one in '08, and the ensuing comments. Here actual artists are talking about actual work being done on the net. So refreshing. But in a way nostalgic--the summer of '08, when that discussion took place, was pre-crash and has a feeling of hopefulness and possibility that I miss.
Art and Crimefighting
Above: blurry still from painter David Reed's video piece where he digitally inserted an abstract painting of his into the background of the '80s TV show Crime Story (mentioned in the previous post). Detectives walk around the room and the painting sort of quivers on the office wall behind them. The composite isn't exactly seamless--this was made in 2001 so the technology was still a little shaky. As I recall, the actual, physical painting was hanging nearby on the wall at Max Protetch. The low tech crappiness of the video is part of the charm: this is probably my favorite work of art by Reed.
Painting Impossible
These pics probably look better placed side by side but you get the idea: there's something inherently sexy about a suspended guy working. Top: James Nares; bottom: that bad actor.
Someone should do a James Nares/David Reed battle exhibition. Who does the best zen swirly brush stroke of death?
Nares has it goin' on with the backwards baseball cap, gas mask, and No Wave roots. Reed upped his hipness cred a while back, though, by digitally retro-compositing one of his paintings into the background of an episode of the 1986-88 TV series Crime Story.
Cruise mostly just poses, though some consider him a painter of film.
Update: Tom Cruise vs Maude Lebowsky (hat tip shm)
low-res cochlea-thing
The polished high-res version of this was posted to dump.fm by draniel. Sorry I messed it up (not really).