Cabinet Magazine Journal Post 1

Cabinet magazine or as I viewed it on the web at cabinetmagazine.org, is one of the more interesting periodicals that I’ve come across in my lifetime. It seems as if each issue of the company puts out revolves around some sort of theme that is always titled using no more than two words, but usually one. For example some of the most recent issues titles include Sloth, Bones, and Magic. In these, the articles really do represent that of the given title. The magazine centers itself under a historical context, yet the history it provides is quite unusual. For the most part the history provided is centered on interesting information that has the feel of Ripley’s Believe it or Not. I will discuss two of these articles I read from Cabinet Magazine.

In “Visectomania and Other Cures for Sloth” Christopher Turner discusses the history of trying to cure laziness in people throughout the world in time. The article begins by discussing a proposal that a chemist named Wilhelm Weichardt made in 1904. In his announcement Weichardt made the claim that he had made a drug that would cure fatigue by cleansing the blood called antikenotoxin. This he suggested would be enough for all men to never become tireless and live prosperous lives as machine-like creatures. As I read on I learned of many other trials throughout time to beat the ugly and what some claim “immoral” act of sloth according to the article. Turner speaks of how Weichardt’s antikenotoxin went on to be tested on Children in classrooms who’s; “speed of calculation increased by fifty percent, and their answers showed improved accuracy” after being secretly induced. Even stranger, in the article we read of productivity increasing in males after the injection of dog testicles into their system and in Paris in the 1920’s the corruption of the city due to what I’ll call testicle thieves. Yes, I said testicle thieves. According to Turner there was a point in Paris’ history where corruption in the city was so high due to the demand of testicular transplants to cure sloth, that a scientist began “slicing and grafting on the testicles of monkeys to those who sought his treatment.” This article by Turner although somewhat repulsive and scary was completely intriguing and made me grateful for a historical magazine that offers a little more “zest” I’ll call it, than what I first expected.

Another particular article on Cabinet magazine’s website that intrigued me greatly was titled “Bone Play” by Michael Sappol and Eva Ahren. In this article a brief history of anatomy was given describing the early interaction with medical students and that of the corpses they studied. Pictures and descriptions of the medical students breaking the so-called rules depict the pupils jokingly putting cigarettes and taking photographs with the skeletons. The article goes on to explain how the early mechanics of anatomy students paved the way for our skeleton accepting and loving culture i.e.; their representations in horror films , rock bands, and tattoos have taken a once immoral and disrespectful standpoint on bones to a now almost masking of the true reality within them. All I know is when the going gets rough for me, the Foo Fighter’s song, “Skin and Bones” always cheers me up reminding the listener that, “we’re just skin and bones.” This article was quite interesting in following a similar motif on bones to the song and giving a historical background behind the movement to the present. Cabinet magazine is highly entertaining, enlightening and unique and I look forward to reading more and more as time continues from the website and might pick up one at a newsstand sometime in the near future.

Act/ React

In George Fifield’s essay on interactive art, he points out a quote from none other than the praised, famous film critic Roger Ebert. Ebert once said according to the article that he considered, “video games inherently inferior to film and literature. There is a structural reason for that: Video Games by their nature require player choices, which is the opposite of the strategy of serious film and literature, which requires authorial control.” Now I’m a fan of Roger Ebert and usually find his reviews quite persuasive and agreeable, yet this statement did not sit well with me, especially after visiting the Act/ React exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

In his article Fifield goes on to explain that the counterargument to Ebert’s accusation is “the elevation of the passive viewer/reader to active/user in fact expands the auteur’s area.” I couldn’t agree more with this statement. In terms of visual art that one would normally see at a museum, I found the works within the Act/ React exhibit far more engaging than the usual painting or sculpture. With that being said the artists to me most definitely displayed their authorial control even further by giving myself control within their creations.

In Brian Knep’s Healing #1 a glowing floor covered in biological patterns is set up in the center of a room at the Milwaukee Art Museum. When my two friends and I entered his piece we were stunned by the visual hypnosis the bright colors exhibited. Soon we walked across the floor as instructed and discovered the biological patterns disappearing and molding back as we walked on and away from them respectively. This left the impression that every person who has ever stepped on the floor had somewhat of an impact on its present appearance. The same concept was obviously apparent in the work Deep Walls by Scott Snibbe. In this piece, a grid of the silhouettes of the past 16 people to walk in front of it, is displayed with those people’s exact mannerisms running in loops. In the same sense this piece is also ever changing and contains the history of those before it, however in Deep Walls there is the limit based on the sixteen silhouettes. In other words whereas Knep’s piece will eternally have the affect of everyone whoever walked on it, Snibbe’s loses the seventeenth previous person to walk before it every time a new person does. To me this brings a certain mystique to Snibb’s piece in the sense that one realizes that those before them have been lost with time. With Knep’s work this not the case. Nothing has been lost in time, only created. Both pieces were extremely interesting and I can’t say I appreciated one above the other. What I will say however is that for the moment I was there Snibbe’s piece held my interest more in the sense that I knew I wouldn’t be part of it forever and the fact that for a brief moment in time after I left the work, others would see that. That is until the seventeenth person after me walks in front of it.

Field Report 1 Schaller and The Bear Garden

Trances are rare to encounter. It’s not always that one is able to slip mentally passed the grind of the hustle and bustle of everyday and quiet the mind for any amount of time. Art seems to be the only outlet for something of this nature to even remotely occur outside of receiving hypnotic therapy or using illegal substances. Even then it happens less often than more that something can call for a patron’s complete absorption to the extent that one experiences the cessation of all thoughts and truly just observes what is there before them. I experienced this for a brief moment however when I experienced two films based off the 201’s class curriculum. I can sincerely say that I was brought into a sort of meditation with both the work of Robert Schaller and that of The Bear Garden by Andrea Leutenker.
Firstly I’d like to tip my hat off to Robert Schaller. On top of making the films, his projection work was quite impressive. The way in which he collaborated the films in which he made and the performance of their projections was remarkable. I was stunned by it visually when watching and afterward pondered the motivation for such work. What outcome was Schaller hoping for?
For me it had to have been to put the audience member in a trance. From his three projector composed story of the dancer I was completely captivated throughout its entirety. I was literally thrown from all my day’s work, expectations and misconceptions to come and just try to understand this work. This was just a prelude to the trance however. The real hallucinogenic experience came from Schaller’s riveting piece on the trees. The alternate perceptions from juxtaposing the different shots and angles in rapid succession developed my thesis of this meditative stance on these works. One second I was viewing a tree on the screen with its depth location changing quite moderately and the next minute, I was watching a collage of trees moving rapidly before my eyes. I didn’t have a second to think about the last; which all the while had put me in a trance until the very end. Only then was I able to make sense of the work and only now am I able to reiterate it.
The Bear Garden I believe was similar in motivation. The artist I believe wished to have a similar outcome as my response to Schaller’s tree piece; only for me it fell quite short. It went no where slowly. In the beginning I most certainly felt similar feelings in the work to Schaller’s. Brushing through the golden meadows following the camera was exquisitely representative of this trance like state within the film for me. I watched with great gratitude for the opportunity to become overwhelmed by it, but then this feeling honestly vanished within me. From the slow whispers in the background to the faint images of the people overcast by the colored lenses applied by Leuteneker I found myself distracted and at moments humored. Basically it was difficult for me to get into it the way Schaller’s piece did. In moments the imagery was brilliant, but the range of sounds and overlapping images really dragged me into thinking there was a little bit too much aspiration involved for its own good.
In conclusion it was Schaller’s simplicity and tempo of his film that made it work for me in completely captivating myself in this trance like state. The Bear Garden was a little extensive and at times boring for even though it contained much of the same aesthetic values as Schaller’s. Yet, Schaller’s soundless piece left my mind in silence for the moment and its visuals kept my eyes communicating with the picture the entire way through; fully embodying a trance as much as it possibly could have.

Name of my Journal

http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/