Art410: Post #18

Ideas for Final Project: Creating a Monument/Memorial...

I was thinking of maybe doing a bronze Aztec Statue and placing it right in the middle of the Mission District in San Francisco. Something along these attributes...

but with the second warrior holding the heart. Kind of simply signifying the heart of the mission district. I keep thinking of things to make, but then I think of it being a waste of space/money. I would really like to create something that is resourceful so it would have a purpose at the same time.

Dolores Park would be a great place to create a monument of good times too since there's always people having picnics and small get-togethers there. Again though, I feel like if I were to build something it might ruin the environment or be in the way of the beautiful view that the park has. Maybe it's fine if it's completely useless, according to the Barthes' article the Eiffel Tower is useless too...

Art410: Post #17

In response to The Eiffel Tower by Roland Barthes...

I think this article was one of the most interesting articles we had to read during the semester, it made me think from a different perspective on the way people view monuments. Instead of seeing, for example, the Golden Gate as something phenomenal, I imagined having to cross it every morning during rush hour. The bridge would most definitely lose some of its credibility for me in that circumstance, I would begin associating it with hours of traffic and high costs for crossing it. I was also intrigued when I read that "theres nothing to see in the tower, its empty, yet it still stirs up a crowd every year (p. 5-6)." How can something be so incredibly popular among the world, yet be completely useless? Sure the tower must have a beautiful view of Paris, must look amazing when lit up at night, and just simply gigantic but is this why people care about it so much? People must have an emotional attachment with the tower or associate it with something of great honor for Italy. Maybe what makes a monument or memorial long lasting is creating a significant presence that people can connect with, even if the monument/memorial is useless in reality.

Art410: Post #16

In regards to The Yes Men...

I was reading through an article online and I bumped into this short interview with Mike and Andy. I thought it was a fun read since I watched the film just a few days ago, but anyways check it out if you're interested: CLICK HERE!

Art410: Post #15

My Culture Jamming Project...

I actually ended up working with the Sabritas logo, a Mexican logo for chips, which are pretty much the Doritos of Mexico. The Sabritas company is under the PepsiCo corporation (Pepsi-Cola merged with Frito-Lay), which is one of the elite manufacturers of junk foods/fast foods in the world. PepsiCo alone is associated with so many brands and corporations like Starbucks Coffee, most carbonated soft drinks in America like Mountain Dew, and were even partnered with popular fast food restaurants like KFC and Taco Bell at one point. As a result, I wanted to expose childhood obesity through my version of the Sabritas logo since the logo is very appealing towards children due to the cute smiling face of it.

I will post my kmz file of GoogleEarth later on today that describes the locations I chose for posting my culture jamming logo. I chose these popular Mexican grocery/produce stores in Hayward that carry Sabritas because I knew they sold the product and because of its huge consumer impact in Hayward. These stores are always packed whenever I walk in for my usual pack of tortillas or what have you. Plus, I always notice how children give their parents hard times when they're at the cash register because they want an unhealthy snack like candy, soda, or chips (like Sabritas) and since the parents don't wish to deal with their child crying/whining in public they'll simply buy it for them. It's issues like these that are causing so much childhood obesity in the world and corporations like PepsiCo aren't helping one bit.

Art410: Post #14

First community art event: The Yes Men Fix The World @ The Roxie Theatre...

So this last Wednesday, I finally had some free time on my hands and was lucky enough to have class end early in order to go see the Yes Men movie. The film was amazing, not only was it heavily informative, but it was witty and charismatic as well.

(SPOILER! Don't say I didn't warn you haha)

I thought it was great how Mike and Andy would always ask people if they were angry with their stunt. Like when they asked the people of Bhopal, India if they were angry with Mike and Andy for telling them that the Dow company was actually going to pay them back for their wrongdoings and then have it turn out that it wasn't true. Every time Mike and Andy would ask, they would get the same response, "no, we're actually happy you did it." People were grateful for the Yes Men's actions because it brought forth awareness to their devastation.

Another aspect of the film that I enjoyed was The New York Times stunt where the Yes Men and a group of others got together and successfully printed a mass amount of newspapers (labeled as The New York Times) with nothing but good news. The stunt was something purely positive and enlightening. With headlines like "Iraq War Over," people were left confused yet excited. I would love to get a copy of that newspaper, maybe it's online? I'll definitely have to look for it. Overall, the film is a definite must see, I've recommended it to my friends not in our class and they've responded truly intrigued.