April 09, 2004

• "The topics I chose for the Screenshots were ones that had an enormous impact on me." I can't believe the Sound of Music would have that much impact on a person.
• Whoa, reality meets "The Sims"...
• This is an incredible link.
• [banana]
• The Columbine one is *really* creepy. I don't recognize the one labeled "Hernando"- what's the reference?
• The artist contextualizes all the images here.
• read the faq
• oops. anyway: faq explains
• tracicle, really its better not to think about that too much.
• Incredible. Beautifully done. All of them are disturbing, but the Columbine one rings quite true to me. As tragic as that day was, the true tragedy is that no one seems to really understand why it happened. Quite odd to see these horrible acts of violence and oppression next to "The Sound of Music" and "Twelve Angry Men." This person has an off-beat way of thinking.
• Awesome link. I think that maybe the point that the artist is trying to make is that each event has a history, that each event has a context behind one or two famous photos that make us consider the lucky setting or lighting behind the random snapshot. Or maybe I need to go to bed.
• Great link pmdboi!
• I can't believe the Sound of Music would have that much impact on a person. *fidgets, looks shifty*
• I saw part of this exhibit when it was at the Whitney - really cool. Cooler than the exhibit it was paired with - one where the artist took famous photos - like Kent State - and just erased all the people. Kind of looked cool, but it didn't really have much of a point.
• The Sound of Music = the Columbiner massacre. So, everything is somehow samed, events are presented here as equal, smoothed out by having the same visual quality. The unsurprisingness of the world's happenings. Makes me consider how much of what we think we really 'see' of contemporary events comes via a camera and a transmission of -- what? electrons? ions?
• Kind of looked cool, but it didn't really have much of a point. actually, what you described really does sound like it has a point: that in the popular consciousness, famous tragedies are often married to their venue (as evidenced by the names of many events... 'columbine' for example, or the one you mention, 'kent state'). the removal of the people draws attention to this and reminds us that these places are neutral... that there is nothing inherently tragic in the architecture. horrible, memorable actions can happen anywhere -- they follow the people who commit them. the artist is showing us what, say, kent state would've looked like on the day of the event that made it famous had it happened somewhere else, or not happened at all. what should be moving is the banality. well, i haven't seen the photos. i'm just going by your description. but if i had to imagine them and make up an essay for some imaginary university course, the above would be part of it.