11.14.2006
Stun-grenades
When our emotions are dictated to us globally in real time, "to create an accident is sought universally" -- by artists, terrorists, and activists. So says the always irksome Paul Virilio, and I might add "advertisers" to that list. The idea is to throw an information "stun grenade" and temporarily knock out our ability to instantaneously assimilate everything as "banal." I can watch a commercial that makes wild promises for my sex life or my tough pain, and as I see the images they are glazed with a veneer of irony, which is then glazed with a veneer of self-loathing. But enough about me, seriously folks.
Art that creates accidents -- breaks the loathsome chain of simu-ironization. The work of homepage hero Jason Nelson comes to mind when trying to visualize accident-art. He calls his work his "creatures" which seems lodged somewhere in between Frankenstien and chiapets -- either way there is growth beyond the control of the producer. The 9/11 terrorists couldn't pay for all the publicity they've received since their stunt. Every image of Osama is like a free recruitment video for extremism.
Our compulsion to explain washes over awe in fuzzy grey waves, reducing solid moments with radioactive decay. But what, I say, about synthesis? I love to revel in fragmentation as much as the next infosurfer, but I think that we've internalized the notion that the "world is chaos" and nothing can be done about it. It goes without saying that you cannot put everything together, but what about tracing out patterns in the visual-goo coating your eyes? I'm talking pattern without a predicted structure (like Virilio-Nelson-Osama-pomo sandwiches in the morning).
