Posts Tagged ‘review’
0I first learned of Krzysztof Wodiczko and his work when he came to speak at the MFA. A friend and I escaped the Museum School during our lunch break to hear him talk. At the time (I think it was the middle of junior year), I was having serious doubts (again) about art’s ability to make an impact on people at all and whether I would be able to do anything meaningful or relevant to society as an artist. Seeing Wodiczko’s work helped mitigate these doubts a great deal, if not put a decisive end to them.
Polish-born artist Krzysztof Wodiczko is best known for his large-scale video projections of everyday people onto monuments and other public edifices. These projections often portray these ordinary volunteers candidly telling stories of their lives and experiences, usually centered around painful ordeal or personal suffering. His work has been installed and shown in public spaces in over a dozen countries, ranging from the town squares of authoritarian governments to right here on our National Mall in D.C. Wodiczko also designs technological devices or machines worn on the body that help construct situations in which people can share their personal stories with others.
Nearly all of Wodiczko’s work follows a socio-political theme. For instance, in his monumental projections work, he chooses to film people whose lives have intersected with war, conflict, homelessness, social inequity, gang violence. In all these works, the melding of private and public spheres is immediately obvious.
Total Recall: How the E-Memory Revolution Will Change Everything by Gordon Bell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This work is part personal journal, part manifesto, and part self-help book. Essentially, Gordon Bell tries to make a good case for the “inevitable revolution” towards “Total Recall” (caps, mind you) that will “force” us to “adapt” to it. His diction gives you a good sense of what’s to come, sigh.
If you can stomach his single-mindedly evangelical agenda, you’ll find that this book pursues some interesting ideas about the implications of recording as many details of one’s life as possible. And not just in writing, but in photos, sound, video, drawings, scanned documents, GPS locations, chat logs, pedometer readings, etc. etc.
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book felt like a really long poem rather than a novel. I say this because the prose is so beautiful it really borders on poetry. The story, though, is almost negligible. We’re told what happens from the beginning: Chuck dies. The rest of it is a drawn-out exploration of Hans’ psyche as he wanders, ghost-like, through his NY life, his semi-divorce, and his friendship with Chuck.
Hans is a weak character, even as he narrates with wisdom that seems naive and deep at the same time. He doesn’t change, evolve, or confront conflicts head-on. He doesn’t take charge (well he tries, but the results were awkward, to say the least.) Basically, he spends his time bouncing off of Chuck, and the insides of his skull.
Here I am, covered in dried sweat and someone else’s body glitter, nursing aching feet, with a glass of $4 Coke still sizzling my gut. However I am no longer in my black tights and silvery-gold lamé miniskirt (PJs being more suitable for blogging). Clearly, I just got back from the theater.
What they say about A.R.T.’s latest production, “The Donkey Show,” is mostly true. Yes, it’s an attempt at revitalizing its naughty experimental side. Yes, it blurs the lines between theater and clubbing. Yes, it’s loud and unusual and “nothing you’ve ever seen before.” And yes, there is sexiness by the bucketful.
Finally, we visited the Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Design today (after two failed attempts). And admission was free! Apparently they have invented some sort of “National Design Week” to promote itself. And design. Well, it was pretty much as I expected. Very… institutional. But still worth a visit.
The first floor was an exhibition titled “Design USA,” which was a show consisting of the winners of the National Design Awards from the past 10 years. The winners showcased were pretty predictable—many famous names like Diller Scofido + Renfro, Stefen Sagmeister, John Maeda, Adobe, Herman Miller, IDEO… I think Pentagram was mentioned a few times. I kept getting exasperated at how insular and limited and.. like, self-congratulatory the design world feels sometimes. These are names I hear over and over until it’s drilled into your head. You’d think no one else has any good ideas or knows how to innovate.
