Bored on the bus? Nixon says Pong is the answer!

Keeping in theme with the website Marc posted, here are another two websites with some neat stuff. From designs and advertisements to just some cool and pretty innovative products, such as the Tetris and Pong Forever watch from Nixon. Got a nerdy brother asking for a Photonic Disruptor for Christmas? now you can get it for him... who knew?

The Cool Hunter
Oh Gizmo

- Tyler W

Walk on the Moon

I came across a great little website showcasing some super creative products with countless witty references to popular culture (phrases, places, etc).

Usually obsure and never cheap -- Check it out: ATYPYK

Make sure you read the captions to the products.

-Marc R.

Yet another post by Jeremy Jeresky

Tonights lecture Monday 19th was interesting in that the article we discussed talked about Fanon's relationship to a visible majority ( in this case a colonial superstructure ) and his relationship to himself. The gaze of the other subsequently caused him to look at himself as an object. This objectification shaped his identiy, which is something I have never had to deal with, but thnks to this reading, has given me a personal insight into a double or even triple reading of ones identity that many people in this world must cope with. I thought it was interesting how Fanon described the black mans identity and his experience as a construct within a oppositional binary to the white man. It is in this way that he will be percieved and perceive himself. One can only hope that humanity can get past this dicotomy regarding any race. But as this cultural opposition is situated primarilay on a basis of power, it remains a question of how long this dicotomy will remain with us, absolute power corrupts.

I was a little concerned with the nature of the images that we looked at tonight. It was interesting to see the origin of the visual discourse regarding how the west views other cultures. We looked at a lot of images from the 19th century, Delacroix, images of stereo scopes, Inges, advetisments from Pears (white mans burden), and others such as a 19th century print of the Columbus discovery. And while we looked at Star Trek and Alien queen imagery, we really only saw one example of artists who examine this discourse like Fred wilson. So while we examined the backwardness of 19th century imagery, I think we lingered on it for too long and it became more of a lighthearted survey. Its pretty easy to look at these images, given our place in time and judge them as ignorant, which they are. But it would have been interesting to examine statagies which contemporary artists use to add to this discourse. Yinka Shonibare is a prime example in that he even uses 19th century conventions pertaining to western art. In his Mr. and Mrs. Andrews Without Their Heads, the artist has restaged Gainsborough's famous painted portrait as a sculpture, but has decapitated the sitters, removed the landscape, and dressed the subjects in colorful "African" fabrics that themselves have complex colonial histories. The strategy implicit in this piece is one in which the symbolic order of the original painting is inverted. "This symbolic inversion illuminates and challenges the visual conventions that police social hierarchies". ( Curator, Richard Hill ) In other words, when power relations are flipped, we can gain insights into behaviors and stereo types that we may take to be natural are merely conventional.

3 min survey about fine art & graphic design

Stumbled across this while on Youtube, some interesting thoughts...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_DizMytyt8

Alex N

Gender, Sexuality and Embodiment

Posted by:

Brittany Lockie
Kara Marciniak
Marnie Leah
Michelle Langfeldt

THE BIOTECHNOLOGICAL REPRODUCTION OF GENDER

Laparoscopy:
Laparoscopy is defined as a surgery in which a fine, lighted tube is inserted
through an incision in the stomach to view the interior of the abdominal organs
or the female pelvic organs. The reason for laparoscopy is to detect health
problems such as cysts, adhesions, fibroids, and infection.
Mainly, Laparoscopy is a technique used on women's bodies. This is because it
to check for and treat female conditions such as endometriosis, ectopic
pregnancy, or pelvic inflammatory disease. Lapraroscopy can also be used to
repair hiatal and inguinal hernia, see whether cancer has spread, and remove
organs such as the gallblader, appendix, or uterus.
Laproscopy is done by a surgeon or a gynocologist. General Anesthesia is
commonly used
http://www.bchealthguide.org/kbase/topic/medtest/hw231905/descrip.htm
last updated September 26, 2006
Author: Carrie Henley, Jan Nissi, RN, BS
HealthWise
list on blog: http://www.laparoscopy.com/

Computer Tomography:
Computed tomography is an x-ray which takes cross-sectional pictures of interior
areas of the body. The computer can then organize these images into more
detailed pictures of organs, bones, and other tissues
Computed Tomography is a scan which passes over a person who is lying very still
on a table. Sometimes the patient is given a "dye" though the mouth, injected
into a vein, or enema before the x-ray is taken. This can highlight specific
areas to create a clearer picture. The procedure is not painful for the
patient other than the uncomfort from lying still in one position from fifteen
minutes to one hour. Computed tomography takes place in a hospital and does
not require an overnight stay. There are no complications beyond that of a
regular x-ray, and allergic reactions to the contrast dyes.
http://www.cancercare.org.cy/EN/public_information/early_detection/computed_tomology.html
2003, the Cyprus Association of Cancer Patients and Friends
CT SCAN down a human spine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7HrhBMnQw8
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When a person undergoes a sex change, how does this challenge the notion of ones true gender?

If medical technology can 'turn back the clock', how does this change ones real birth age (ie date of birth)? Will we eventually see a persons date of birth change if, medically, a doctor can turn back the clock?
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Cosmetic surgery and its effects it has on people.
More and more of the youth are getting plastic surgery in hopes to look like
there favorite stars. The numbers rise every year, instead of spending the
money on school, a car, a home, we constantly see teens use there money towards
looking a little more like “Brad Pit”. As this article shows us 335 000 teens
under the age of 18 in the US have gotten cosmetic surgery in 2003 compared to
its 306 000 in 2000.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EPF/is_18_104/ai_n9532759

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How do concepts, preconceived notions of gender and ideas of gender relate to todays culture and how does this effect out visual culture?
-In the reading the ideas of gender and its modification is comparable to that of cosmetic surgery. In today`s world you can change your eyes, nose, cheeks ect, but is the idea and possibility of gender modification just as easy???
-In the culture we live in, we seem so consumed with the idea of control. We like to think of ourselves as in complete control. Plastic surgery seems to be just another example of this.
-In the reading its brought up that in the world of plastic surgery, differences are becoming alike in sameness. Why is this considered to be a good thing? Why is this so popular??

COSMETIC SURGERY AND THE INSCRIPTION OF CULTURAL STANDARDS OF BEAUTY

Human beings are instictually fearful of change. The role of art, like a sense
of humor, is to transition people to adapt to change.
Craftmanship of art is a signifier of quality. Quality, in turn directs the
viewer to value. Human's have always valued good craftmanship, and depend on
decoration which is skin deep to universally understand beauty. This is
because the image or first impression of an object is a language which almost
all of us can in some way understand or form an opinion on.
Art creates models for us to copy appearances. Is it possible that art creates
the ideal? Art displays the ways in which we judge ourselves. Art also
creates things before they even exist.
Art is something that lives beyond our own lives. Could we perhaps be so
attracted to art because it symbolizes an infinite life, and is full of youth
(because it is often changing, and never receding). Art is something that can
also freeze a moment in time that can be an exact representation of the artist
as they want to be remembered. Could art be considered a fountain of youth?
http://www.goines.net/Writing/art_&_beauty.html
1999 David Lance Goines. Last updated November 23, 2003
Women in Art History Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUDIoN-_Hxs
Women in Film Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEc4YWICeXk&feature=related
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How are plastic surgeons today affecting our preception of true beauty? Are they responsible for the individuals who are 'addicted' to plastic surgery? In what ways do they set these trends in what is considered 'fashionably beautiful'?
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To see more stars and the results of their surgeries visit
http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/gallery/0,23668,5024972-5007151-20,00.html

For celebrities responses on cosmetic surgery visit
http://www.ivillage.co.uk/newspol/celeb/cfeat/articles/0,,528719_711295,00.html
Find out exactly what they have to say some examples include
Halle Berry, 40
'I do think we've become obsessed with beauty and the fountain of youth and,
personally, I'm really saddened by the way women mutilate their faces today in
search of that. I see women in their thirties getting plastic surgery, pulling
this up, tucking that back. It's a slippery slope - once you start to pull one
thing one way, then you think, "Oh my God, I've got to do the other side." It's
really insane, and I feel sad about what society is doing to women.'

Joan Rivers, 74
'You paint the house and maintain the car, right? Well, I go to my surgeon every
six months and ask for touch-ups.'

Scarlett Johansson, 22
'I definitely believe in plastic surgery. I don't want to be an old hag. There's
no fun in that.'
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-Why is the westernized idea of beauty what it is today? Can we blame our own visual culture? What does this say about us as a society and culture?
-How does our culture accept and deal with the idea of fragmentation, ie; you are your arm, leg, nose. How does this affect us as individuals??
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COSMETIC SURGERY AS TECHNOLOGY OF THE GENDERED BODY

Balsamo suggests in her essay that perhaps the boundary between genders is
eroding. Cross-dressers are persons who take on the characteristics of the
other gender which is not their own. Between the ninteenth and twentieth
centuries cross-dressers would seek help from medical professionals, who
considered it a mental illness. It was not until the 1960's that
cross-dressers began to form support groups, and it became more accepted in
society. Though, to this day, cross-dressers are still considered by many,
including psychiatrists a perverse fetish.
Many believed that cross-dressing was an act to cover up homosexuality.
German physisist, Magnus Hirschfeld coined the term "transvestism" (latin for
cross-dressing) in 1910
Many men say that they cross dress to become more in touch with their feminine
self and to temporarily escape the expected masculine norms. It also brings
erotic pleasure to some men for doing so. Many women say that they cross dress
because they felt a sense of freedom or power, and felt it fit with their way of
life.
Since female cross-dressing is more accepted, not as much research has been done
on this group. Transvestism is becoming more accepted because of the ways in which it is
displayed in popular culture. Films such as "Some Like it Hot", "Tootsie", and
"Mrs. Doubtfire" are examples of this. Yet it is represented in a more comedic
language. On the other hand, films such as "Psycho", and "Silence of the Lambs"
represent cross-dressers as sychopathic serial killers. These interpretations
result in either laughter or fear. The comedic being an "unreal"
representation of transvestism, and horror representing the "real"
transvestism. Unfortunately, neither is a positive symbol.
http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/cross_dressing_ssh,2.html

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For what main reasons are men electing to have cosmetic surgery, and why are these reasons kept secret?
There seems to be a trend with men engaging in female body activities. Will this trend only gain momentum, or will we see the opposite take place? Will women engage in male-body activities?
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The Retouching Process

A couple weeks ago in class we talked about the believability and truthfulness of still photography and motion picture. We discussed how photography and film were once the only rational and strictly documentary mediums... obviously not the case nowadays.

Here is the website of insane-o French retoucher Christophe Huet -- the best thing about this site is that you can see the progress of most of his composite images, just click the "making of" button on the right navigation and it gives you the ability to manually scroll through the process behind these images.

CHRISTOPHE HUET - THE FRENCH (re)TOUCH

-Marc R

Jeremy Jeresky New Blog

On The Cutting Edge
I found it interesting that the first image which we saw on last mon lecture was the Nip/Tuck promo. Its an interesting show, fiction non the less but based on reality. Its obvious that the writers of Nip/Tuck must obtain an extensive amount of research into the specifics of contemporary plastic surgery, which will give a great veracity and corproreality to the show itself, but as well gives a great deal of insight into this overall practice. I,ve never seen the characters of this show apply methodoligies of the "proportions of the aesthetic face", but I have seen them apply a post operative interview process. "so, what do you want to change about yourself?" This interview process is actually a standard in plastic surgery procedures, according to emedicine, a website that I checked out. Written by Anthony Sclafani, director of the departmentof Otolaryngology, New York Medical College www.emedicine.com/ent/topic36.htm Actually, the interview process is alot more stringent in real life as Dr. Sclafani writes that "evaluating the patients psychological condition is essential". Who knows if all doctors actually do this, after all in the United States, its a business and standars are no doubt all over the board. Who do you think the "DR. Nick" character on the simpsons is based off of?
The intriuge of shows like Nip/Tuck, Extreme Makeover and The Swan play mostly on our inertest and our compulsiveness in viewing a certain gore and unatural metamorphesis. A natural metamorphesis would be the growing from child through puberty to middle and then old age. But radical reconstructive and plastic surgery inherant to these shows and many others presents us with an unatural alternate metamorphesis, which, I think is indicative and particular to modernism.
I say this because, even though Balsamo talks about the fashionable prediliction of women for the "pert" or upturned nose of the 40's and 50's, such paradigms have been active in societal imagination for much longer.
And this is were question 1 of our group discusion especially resonates a mesure of signifigance.
Keeping in mind the first two Nip/Tuck images we saw last Mon, I coincidently studied a classic short story this week in my English 314 class. The relevance was staggering. "The Birthmark" was written by the Brittish author Thomas Hawthorne in 1850. It is a story about a scientist named Alymer and his new young wife Georgiana. Georgiana, although immaculatley beautiful bears a small pixie like hand shaped birthmark on her cheek. Alymer, possesing the scientific mind, (this is where the story begins) one day asks her "Has it ever occured to you that the mark upon your cheek might be removed?" , She replies "No, indeed, to tell you the truth, it has been so often called a charm, that I was simple enough to imagine it might be so". Alymer becomes obsessed with a scientific and personal perfection to a perpetual youthful idealization of life. He convinces his wife to see the deathly blemeshed nature of her apperance. "I am convinced of the perfect practibility of its removal" he dispels. "If there be the remotest possibility of it," Georgiana pleads, "let the attempt be made, at whatever risk. Danger is nothing to me, for life-while this hateful mark mkes me the object of your horror and disgust, life is a burthen which I would fling down with joy, Either remove this dreadful hand, or take my wretched life! You have deep science!"
Through a series of concoctions Alymer devises an elixer "bright enough to be the draught of immortality" to remove the birthmark. Georgiana drinks it and the pixie shaped hand slowly fades from her cheek. As Alymer revels in his accomplishment Georgiana succombs to its side effects and instantly dies.
A tragic ending "The fatal hand had grappled with the mystery of life, and was bond by which an angelic spirit kept itself in union with a mortal frame."
As all stories reveal a message, we can derive several morals from this tragic tale. Should intracacies of nature be dabbled with? Can science solve all of our problems? espescially of the most humane? Is prying into natures secrets a good thing? What about living in the moment and excepting imperfections and individual apperances? A uniqueness ? Like all classic literature, this short story does'nt give us a didactic messeage to confront, rather we are left with an ambigous rational of foreseeable options to look at in life. The stagering line is that most of these questions and insights are just as prevelant now. The fact that Hawthorne wrote about the scientist, the rational male, who performs the "surgery" on the female, In this case his wife brings us back to question 1 and the Nip/Tuck promo. Balsamo states that cosmetic surgery enacts a form of cultural signification where we can examine the literal and material ideas of beauty. Are these ideas created and perpetuated by men, to be yet materialized on the woman? Balsamo futher writes that cosemetic surgery is said to improve self esteem, social status and sometimes even profesional standing. Certainly the idea of wanting to look younger and stave off natural ageing is another motivational factor. Statistically, are there more men plastic surgeons than women plastic surgeons? I couldnt find any stats on this but I imagine this might be changing as the Cutting Edge article was written over 10 years ago. Certainly the media plays an enormous role in causing the female body to become an object of heightend personal surveillance. Hyper- saturated images of females, be they models or movie stars swarm us from every concievable angle of our lives and we cant seem to avoid these, we know that these images are touched up and hyperreal or a simulacra, but they have an indelible impression on us. Recent studies have revealed that men are becoming an increasingly prolific market interms of plastic surgery and other such new treatments such as Botox and hair restoration and removal. The dynamic is changing. Still the themes of Hawthorne's BirthMark pervade and can allow us to negotiate a moral discussion of this oh so complex,now post modern phenomena.