Sunday, September 19, 2010
I believe Ezra pound is accurate in the quote referring to the artist as "the antannae of the race." Artists are trained to look deeper than the surface and see things from varying perspectives. Most people cannot see the deeper connections in art mediums. As McLuhan mentions in his text, (pg 9) even IBM was not aware that it "was not in the business of making office equipment or business machines, but ... processing information." Are we aware of what we are actually doing in our lives? The first image of the assignment posting may be what an artist sees when looking at a windmill. They are the "electric light" that is "pure information".
As an artist, this is what I see in an extreme example when looking at the top image. Let's say you purchase energy from an electric company that owns windmills because you get a discount for using this type of energy. The windmills use technology created by the Microsoft Windows company. You may know this information because of advertising directly on the windmill for Microsoft. You, also, are a MasterCard credit card holder. Windows also creates the operating systems for the MasterCard company. When it comes time for you to pay your electricity bill, you use the convenient billpay option from MasterCard because the windmill has already inspired you to go green and become paperless. The billpay service costs $10 per month to use. The credit card itself also carries an annual payment for use as well as a high interest rate. When you think about it, you are actually paying more to use this "cheaper" type of energy. If this would be a true case of your life, can you see how you may be more deeply influenced by one "simple" decision to use green energy?
A windmill is a medium all on its own and it advertises to us everytime we drive by one or see one in an ad. It may say, "Recycle" or "Use this electric company because we support the green movement" or in the extreme case I mentioned before, "Support MasterCard." Even if we know the connection from windmill to credit card, will the average person choose to be aware of it? This is where art becomes the "alarm" that McLuhan speaks of. Leibling (pg 20, McLuhan) "a man is not free if he cannot see where he is going, even if he has a gun to help him get there." Will we wake up to the alarm or keep hitting the snooze?
As an artist, this is what I see in an extreme example when looking at the top image. Let's say you purchase energy from an electric company that owns windmills because you get a discount for using this type of energy. The windmills use technology created by the Microsoft Windows company. You may know this information because of advertising directly on the windmill for Microsoft. You, also, are a MasterCard credit card holder. Windows also creates the operating systems for the MasterCard company. When it comes time for you to pay your electricity bill, you use the convenient billpay option from MasterCard because the windmill has already inspired you to go green and become paperless. The billpay service costs $10 per month to use. The credit card itself also carries an annual payment for use as well as a high interest rate. When you think about it, you are actually paying more to use this "cheaper" type of energy. If this would be a true case of your life, can you see how you may be more deeply influenced by one "simple" decision to use green energy?
A windmill is a medium all on its own and it advertises to us everytime we drive by one or see one in an ad. It may say, "Recycle" or "Use this electric company because we support the green movement" or in the extreme case I mentioned before, "Support MasterCard." Even if we know the connection from windmill to credit card, will the average person choose to be aware of it? This is where art becomes the "alarm" that McLuhan speaks of. Leibling (pg 20, McLuhan) "a man is not free if he cannot see where he is going, even if he has a gun to help him get there." Will we wake up to the alarm or keep hitting the snooze?
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