The Paradox of Choice (Animated)

Bugs

Genocide is going on as we speak. What must be in the billions, bugs are senselessly slaughtered everyday. Surely the world is big enough for the both of us.

PS: this is just a rant

Gaps

Society is largely composed of gaps. Gaps in logic. Gaps in intellect. Gaps in reason. Gaps in justice. Gaps in equality. But in this case I speak of socioeconomic gaps. Through the course of a society's lifespan, those who function as the make up of it's existence see changes. As people depart, they fall off like a rusted piece of metal in a pipeline. This in turn leads to gaps needing to be filled so that the water system will flow smoothly and properly. Some gaps are located in the not so pleasant areas like irrigation, and in relation to others some are more privileged than others as some gaps needing to be filled serve more clean stages of the system like water fountains. Similar gaps emerge as socioeconomic gaps. This perhaps is best understood in terms of jobs. Jobs need to be filled. In order for society to work smoothly these vacant positions or socioeconomic gaps need to be filled. In this sense, someone needs to make the hamburgers we eat, someone needs to clean our rubbish, someone needs to count corporate earnings. The question then becomes which gaps do I fill? Do I even have a say? Or is it dictated by circumstance?

PS: this is just a rant

Life in Copenhagen

DISTORTION FESTIVAL COPENHAGEN from Anders Hemmingsen on Vimeo.

I've been traveling through Europe, and spent most of my time in Copenhagen. This video epitomizes the city.

Questionable Ad

"What would Canada be without nature?"

... Peru?

Social Networking Cliches

The Job of the Artist

The "artist" can be understood as a societal conscience. The artist reminds us of our ridiculous ways and the fragility and temporality of life.

I shall bestow you with truth, I hath indeed shared your mother's bed

I shall bestow you with truth, I hath indeed shared your mother's bed from Thomas Zukowski on Vimeo.

Part 2 of The Remix Project. Building on dm.finearts.yorku.ca/​~banruby/​a3/​index.html
-in this video I add photos of nude panhandlers, underlining the montage of contemporary rap videos and a score by Frederik Chopin.

The title taken from the meme of Joseph Ducreux, where rap lyrics are translated into "proper english."

Online Empathy

Online Empathy Remix from Thomas Zukowski on Vimeo.

In this video I juxtapose video/images indicative of the contemporary online cabinet of curiosities in which silly dances, drunk people, and celebrity rants fill our virtual shelves. And in continuation of my interest in the affects of such online technologies on human behavior, I again ask if this archival of memories on this scale through this technology makes us more empathetic or narcissistic.
As a result a juxtapose the visual zeitgeist with a lecture that discusses theories of an empathetic civilizations. In retrospect of the video where, "are we really an empathetic civilization?"

Me, Myself & I (password: facs1939)

Assignment 2: Lab 4 Group 4 from FACS 1939 on Vimeo.

The multimedia performance piece of Me, Myself & I, stems from the overarching question of “why do we do what we do?” The piece is a collaborative attempt in exploring the human obsession with memory and the archival of memories. Hence, in attempt to answer the central conundrum of why humans are so obsessed with the archival of memory, the performance positions this question in the context of contemporary web culture, where millions upon millions have become active archivists, storing private memories in public spaces like video recordings on YouTube, photographs on Facebook, as well as diary entries on Twitter. In reference to these digital technologies, Me, Myself & I’s digital zeitgeist asks more directly whether these archival technologies make us more empathetic or increasingly narcissistic? All in aims to answer humanity’s true motivations for the persistent archival of memory throughout human history.

Me, Myself & I acts as a kind of cultural critique, passively suggesting an answer through a kind of montage of digital-social-zeitgeist-montage, highlighting the irony in the banality of the narcissistic cultural behavior. The extraction of the predominant ‘web user content’ points to the fundamental dreams and desires that underly the basis of much of humankind’s history. As a result, Me, Myself & I suggests that humanity’s compulsive-obsessive drive to archive its memories is not a contemporary phenomenon. It is not a result of technologies bending and manipulating humans to their will. It is a result of a simple desire that I believe existed embedded in the human race from the times of our ancestors, to the times of Caesar and Napoleon, and all the way to the present day. It is a dream not exclusive to those in positions of power. It is a dream shared by all classes and all races. It is a dream shared by both you and I.

“What I dream of is what all humans dream of, the dream of eternal life promised to us by our Gods. I want to live on like our memories of the Great Romans. I want my footprint to be immune to the high-tides of the sea. I dream of being relevant.’

Media Performance: Me, Myself & I

Assignment 2: Lab 4 Group 4 from FACS 1939 on Vimeo.

Why do we love sports?

Why the hell do so many of us bother watching men kick a ball around or carry a funny shaped ball to another side of a large patch of grass? I mean it makes no rational sense at face value. It really sounds and looks quite childish. None-the-less, I for some reason am continually drawn to sports and will continue to take part in the spectacle for the rest of my life.

A while back a professor had mentioned sports in a conversation about capitalism. He pointed out that a reason billions of people flock to the television to catch a sporting event is in part because it is arguably the one thing that can not be sold and packaged in the midst of the current capitalist society. I mean sure God knows we try with all the sports team paraphernalia, and some may argue that it indeed allows for sports to be packaged and sold like everything else, but that isn't the main reason we're captivated by sports. That's just a peripheral of the spectacle.

My prof argued that the captivating moment in sports, like a tennis match or football game, is the fact that it has no predetermined outcome. It cannot be 'consumed' before or after the actual event. For example, people don't rush to the nearest blockbuster to pick up a copy of a football game that just happened in the same way many may rush to grab a copy of a new released movie and watch it over and over. In sports, once the game happens it looses its value. What draws us to sports is the fact that it immerses its audience and participants in the moment of 'now.' The LIVE aspect of sports is something that eludes capitalism.

These ideas lead me to believe that the reason sports captivates the world is because it allows our true human nature to surface. It sheds light on our primordial and ancestral act of surviving. An act which is rooted in the 'now' moment.

We are watching something that has not yet been determined. It shares a relationship with life, as sports too allows us to hope, fight, and cheer.

It allows us to step away temporarily from the capitalist system, a system the believes every aspect of life can be packaged and sold.

If you are one of the 10 in the world that don't like sports, and thinks its stupid or childish... well at least appreciate it for what it is, a cultural phenomenon that can not be packaged or sold like a movie, video game, or mobile phone.

The Empathic Civilisation

The Illusion of Catharsis

Many are trapped in catharsis. The cathartic illusion. The feeling where one feels better, happier, some how more meaningful, connected, or somehow whole, and things begin to make sense. This feeling is now provided on a regular basis. It is embedded in every aspect of modern life, in every form of mass media, like films, newspaper stories, the Internet and most notably music in our ear-buds. Don't get me wrong, catharsis is great. But it is often an experience at a climactic end. Hence that feeling of motivation or meaning and purpose is short lived and rather than creating or manifesting our own cathartic moment, what I call a holy moment, it is fed to us. Of course it can be argued that it is necessary to revisit external cathartic moments, but the problem is, what happens when we are cathartic on a regular basis? What happens when we are always made to feel whole or connected? At the moment I tend to argue that we as a result become passive observers. We immerse ourselves and surrender ourselves to a read-only culture. A way of life in which our intentions are good and true, but any sense of having to go out and make something, make an impact or a difference, tends to be satisfied by a movie or that one great song. For example, I learn of injustices happening around the world and in light of the revolutionary attitude I turn up the volume on Coldplay's Viva La Vida, and I am overwhelmed by this heightened sense of catharsis, where I experience a rush of ideas and for whatever reason I feel content and blissful that somehow everything makes sense in that moment and that things are okey. Afterward there is a sense of satisfaction and that some sort of resolution was made as I feel in some way spent and tired of all the rapid synapses going off in my brain during that cathartic moment. But in the end nothing is actually done. Maybe a few motivational lines are written in a journal or a pretty picture gets doodled or painted, but soon afterward it is put aside while I soon after loose myself in the mumbo-jumbo of the Internet or a video game. No where is the real issue resolved. Instead what seems to happen is that the very issue of injustice becomes used to simply fuel a desire for catharsis, a selfish subconscious desire for a heightened feeling of mortality, which in turn fuels a chain reaction. Where in return the "inspirational" event simply fuels a desire to be fed, a desire to quench ones thirst, one's divine discontent, and make one's self feel better. By no means am I proposing that this trend is universal, because thank god there are those that are quite proactive in creating their own catharsis by directly dealing with issues such as an injustice and who do not feel content or satisfied with a movie, book, or painting. What I fear though is the fact that where there is one, there are often many others just like it/them. I fear that my experiences with the illusion of catharsis are shared by millions of others. I fear that the intensification of information available in conjunction with the exponential growth of technology and media outlets will in turn shape a world where humankind's innate discontents may become quickly ignored and forgotten, creating a truly passive society.

Lecture: Implications of Canada as Beaver

Duke Redbird talks about the problems of Canada's totem being a beaver. He also argues that a nation's consciousness can be illustrated by it's totem. Hence, he ultimately highlights the power of the totem in shaping a nation.

Duke Redbird: Contesting the Canadian Beaver from tomzuker on Vimeo.

Facebooking or Vaguebooking? NATIONAL POST

When you blitz your social network with a purposely vague news flash on your life, you’re begging for attention

“What’s on your mind?”

It’s the question Facebook asks millions of people every day. And it’s a question that many choose to answer with obscurity.

Steve is wondering if it’s all worth it … Rebecca shouldn’t have done that.

This kind of indeterminate status updating hardly answers the Facebook question. If anything, it elicits more questions in return.

Enter vaguebooking: the act of posting an unclear status that prompts, even dares, friends to ask you more. The term was originally coined on UrbanDictionary.com — an online collection of slang terminology created by the people, for the people — and gained attention when it was featured as the site’s word of the day earlier this month.

Vaguebooking’s core concept lies within the status writer’s ability to bait its readers while still remaining elusive. It is always confessional, provocative and indeterminably sly. Bob was wrong to do that. Jane should have handled that better. These phrases are consistently open-ended but hint at something more just below their surface. For example, Stephanie

is late … and worried could simply mean that Stephanie is late for school or work. If accompanied by inside knowledge about Stephanie’s sex life, though, it could imply something much more pressing.

Specificity is forbidden in vaguebooking, and one certain rule is never mentioning anyone by name. However, the use of Vaguebooking to message other (often unwilling) parties is common practice, whether the person is directly mentioned or not. Therefore the posting Liz shouldn’t have slept over last night holds special meaning to someone out there, while the rest of us get to indulge in asking questions about where Liz slept (or who she slept with) last night. Occasionally Vaguebookers will also mention a person in terms of their role, often as a cowardly way of confronting them. Trudy wishes her boss hadn’t done that. Steve isn’t sure about his wife.

In its simplest form, vaguebooking can be used to celebrate, Jen just got some great news; to grieve, Jen will miss her; or to bitch, Jen hates this. Sure, Jen could have just told us her big news, or who it is she will miss or what it is that she hates but then, that’s the whole point to Vaguebooking: Why just tell people when you can get them to guess?

Upon reading these statuses, we can’t help but ask, “What’s the great news, Jen?” or “What are you late for, Stephanie?” They compel our curiosity and appeal to our desire for drama.

Facebook has created the ideal platform for our ego — that little (or in some people, big) part of our psyche that is immersed in self-importance. In the social networking realm, our audience, those handpicked people — whether it’s your ex, your high school crush or your mom — are always ready to read whatever it is you have to say. With vaguebooking, it’s easy to create suspense. Martin isn’t

sure if he should tell you. And just like that, within the span of a short unclear phrase, a regular event becomes mysterious and fully exposed people become enigmas.

However, all ego-stroking aside, there must be a larger reason behind all this ambiguity. With virtual soapboxes at our disposal every second, why then are we purposefully failing to communicate?

In its extended definition, vaguebooking can also be used as “a cry for help.” Statements like Ann just

doesn’t know anymore or Brian is

wondering if it’s all worth it could easily be interpreted as depressive projecting at its very saddest. So why post it online then? Perhaps technology has created a protective veil, allowing us to engage in emotions we otherwise wouldn’t have without our third-person (Steve, Jen, Stephanie, instead of me, myself and I) anonymity. Could it be that vaguebooking allows us to reach out in a safe way? For example, through the use of song lyrics: Ciaran … lonely, lonely, that is me. Kim Why are you lonely? Ciaran It’s a lyric from Feist. I’m

fine!

In this case lyrics further protect the writer from vulnerability because even though the lyric obviously means something to them, they can quickly change their tune if anyone out-and-out asks them about it.

Then again, maybe vaguebooking is much simpler then all of this. Perhaps, in this online world where everyone has an immediate voice, a problem has arisen: No one is listening. As a result, people have started to yearn for the dialogue lacking in our one-way communication culture. Maybe people aren’t vaguebooking for attention, but are simply doing it to elicit a response. Maybe Facebook, Twitter and all the other social sites have in fact painted us into a lonely corner and this is the social butterfly’s way of inducing good old-fashioned conversation in a new world format.

Or maybe we’re just a bunch of egomaniacs.

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Vote for this story Well Written Not Well Written

A TA brought this to mind:

The Evolution of the 'Read-Write Culture'

1. printing press 1440: more access to reading
2. consumer xerox machines & typewriters: small shift to writing and distributing information i.e. pamphlets
3. internet: allowed people on a massive scale to write and distribute their own writings i.e. blogs
4. software development: "what if people were able to write programs as easily as they write words on blogs, forums, and social networks?"
-the next step will be OR is to write software (like the Google duo), people will then hold even more power as they are not only able to say things but can create tools for others to say things, sparking even greater technological, social, and cultural innovations.

Theory on Life: Joe Rogan's Theory on Life VS Singing & Clapping Man

I can't say I had planned this remix, it somewhat organically happened as both of these videos had some sort of profound resonance, especially when viewed in juxtaposition. What happened was simply having two videos stand out in mind that promoted two very different ways of viewing the world. I feel that I am frequently on some ground agreeing with both very different perspectives. When I turn to the web for inspiration I am often caught between two extremes, which I have juxtaposed. On the one hand I am often faced with the inspiration of very serious political and philosophical ideas ethics, justice, and life, and on the other hand I face the radically opposite inspirational forms of happy-go-lucky/feel good/john lenon & love is all you need.

I still struggle to understand myself what happens in the mind of the viewer in relation to this remix. So what I think happens, is not an argument that is presented, but rather confronts the viewer in a way that provokes a critique or evaluation of human life. At least in terms of myself, I am confused and don't know which perspective of life to agree with (the pessimistic or happy-go-lucky).
Like the previous remix, this one has a certain profound humor, as the power of serious pessimistic philosophy on life death clashes with an endearing amateur folk singer who sings about a near death experience with a happy-go-lucky demeanor.

I smile and laugh while at the same time,
I'm forced to philosophize about human life

A similar artist is Franceso Vizzoli's E! True Hollywood Story
-in which I am not sure if it is a parody and I should laugh, or
-whether I should critically reflect upon a subconscious call to
deconstruct the perpetuated desire to be relevant and famous, or
-whether it is "truly" an E! Hollywood Story

Motivational Speech

I could care less