the OBSCENE machine

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Ace London correspondent and musician Lauren Brennan checks in with this report

Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2007 02:37:22 -0800
From: Laura
Subject: possible blog entry for E493
To: bnericci@mail.sdsu.edu

Greetings, Profe! I don't know if this is quite what you had in mind for a blog entry fit for class consumption, but I hope so! I was recently introduced to the art of Julian Beever, an internationally renowned sidewalk chalk artist, best known for his use of perspective and optical illusions in his work to simulate three-dimensional objects or scenes on the sidewalks of London. Not quite along the same lines as giant puppets or racist robotics, I know, but ever since I first glimpsed this guy's work I knew I wanted to bring it up for the class to see, and not just because it's pretty amazing to look at. I think Beever's art deserves to make its way into the Obscene Machine's collective consciousness because of the immersive nature of his sidewalk works. People walking by his art are immediately drawn into his world (no pun intended), the false reality he's creating to trap people, literally, at a pedestrian level; snatching the ground out from under the passers-by on the street around him and using it as a canvas. I've attached a couple of my favorite pieces, but the entire site is worth a closer look.

As impressed as I continue to be by the waterfall scene, I especially think that his self-portrait/still life of he and his chalk doppleganger drawing together works particularly well with our art-as-ersatz-humans angle. For an added level of weirdness, take a closer look at the beer bottles - which one is two-dimensional again? ;)

Also, here's Beever's official website and here's a link to a BBC article about him:

Thanks, Nericcio!

Laura Brennan

1 comment:

Anonymous10:48 PM
Beever's work reminds me of the art of Thomas Demand. Demand is a German sculptor/photographer who uses cardboard and colored paper to create realistic images. His subjects range from nature scenes to Saddam Hussein's kitchen. I saw an exhibit of his work in London last summer. The photographs of his subjects were printed on wallpaper and covered all the walls of the gallery. Just like pedestrians were drawn into the world of Beever's drawings, I felt drawn into the oddly realistic scenes in Demand's work. Demand plays with the idea that photographs represent reality. His photos seem realistic, but on closer inspection the viewer can see the scenes are handmade. Demand draws you in to a simulation of reality but forces you to see what he wants you to see.
Here is one of Demand's works:
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a301/mariahbush/demand1.jpg
And another called Space Simulator:
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a301/mariahbush/demand2.jpg
Or go to Demand's website www.thomasdemand.de
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

History of the Obscene Machine Cyberhive...

The Obscene Machine is an ever-evolving "ARTkive" chronicling cultural studies advancements in something I call the "ersatz human"--broadly understood, it is a series of links to stories that document the history of human self-fashioning, from ancient "primitive" totems and fetiches, to contemporary digital avatars and dolls.

In other times, this blog has served as a community exchange vehicle for my students at San Diego State University. In Fall 2011, The Obscene Machine was a cultural studies seminar at San Diego State University entitled TECHNOSEXUALITIES--the course is led by head cyborg Professor William A. Nericcio. Previously, it was the host cyberHIVE for a Spring 2011 undergraduate English 220 seminar: Robotic, Erotic, Electric: Televisual Nightmares, Seductive Hallucinations, and Naked Pscyhes in Literature, Film, Art, and the Web.

Know, also, that this blog had earlier incarnations and aspirations: The Obscene Machine began its life as an online supplement both to English 493, a literature and film undergraduate class at San Diego State University, and English 725, an Ethnic American cultural studies graduate seminar--both were directed in the Spring of 2007 by the aforementioned Dr. Nericcio and the posts associated with those two classes remain online here as an ersatz gallery and a living memorial.

These mirrored courses, both experimental, fuse an interrogation of Ethnic American critical theory with a more general probing of "fictional humans"--hence the term "Ethnic Mannequins" as a subtitle for the graduate seminar and its coincident obsessions with cyborgs, novels, stereotypes, and film. Both courses may be interpreted as supplements, if not revisions, to Tex[t]-Mex (UT Press, 2007) book and precursors to Eyegiene.

The Robot Running this Site...

William Anthony Nericcio is the Director of MALAS, the Master of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences at San Diego State University. When not shepherding brilliant graduate student devotees of cultural studies, Nericcio also hangs his hat as a Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Chicana/o Studies, and serves on the faculty of the Center for Latin American Studies. Utterly more than is necessary to know can be found in his perplexing, image-laced online autobiography and a complete digital index of his web-based shenanigans is located here. Lastly, can also see a graphic design portfolio by Guillermo Nericcio García, his, er, 'cousin,' at memogr@phics designcasa.