Society of the Spectacle? Is this a reflection of the post-modern in its unwashed morning glory psychosis as the state of society? Pop art values of the sensational, at least socially, and an emotional hollowness part of capitalism’s ingenuity to manufacture and capitalize on spectacular appearances…..Exhibitionism. Pike working through his problems as performance art. The evident exploitative potential of this style of reality television. The pepper spray cop memes show what kinds of dazzling displays of spectacle can be connected to technology, and at the same time opens up the spectrum for almost unlimited creativity.
…The thing acquires its use value and exchange value by being exhibited. The moment it is exhibited it becomes this technique of exhibition, of staging. Think for example of Warhol who begins by doing windows for Bonwit Teller. Rosenquist begins by doing advertising posters. That is staging a product – a commodity – in some way …. It’s now called “incentive marketing.” Read More: http://dks.thing.net/Donald-Kuspit-Diane-Thodos.html
---Throughout the week, hundreds of photoshopped images were shared online, many of them placing Lieutenant Pike into various historical events and milestones in civil rights, ranging from the signing of the U.S. constitution to Picasso’s famous anti-war painting Guernica.--- Image:http://www.damncoolpictures.com/2011/11/pepper-spraying-cop-becomes-internet.html
The basic point to remember is that a digital image is a double vision; a communication that is based on codes rather than image which is secondary to the abstract code. It is a code in the process of crystallizing into an image, producing what Kuspit calls a matrix of “electrifying” sensations. The memes really do show the concept as the primary creative act where reality is always virtual, removed from the real, the “life of its own” dynamic where the virtual becomes the really real.
---The images are a cheeky way of fighting back against what students say was an unwarranted use of forceful policing tactics. The university has defended Pike’s actions, though he and two other police officers have been suspended pending an investigation. Online, the damage to his and the university’s reputations may already be done: Kennicott says the video will be among the defining imagery of the movement.--- Read More:http://amferneeballer.blogspot.com/2011/11/pepper-spray-cop-works-his-way-through.html
On November 21st, 2011, Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly appeared on political commentator Bill O’Reilly’s talk show The O’Reilly Factor to discuss the UC Davis pepper spray incident. In discussing the effects of pepper spray, Kelly described pepper spray as a food product:
Bill O’Reilly: “First of all, pepper spray — that just burns your eyes, right?”
Megyn Kelly: “It’s like a derivative of actual pepper. It’s a food product, essentially.”
Bill O’Reilly went on to defend the officer saying, “I don’t think we have the right to Monday-morning quarterback the police. Particularly at a place like UC Davis, which is a fairly liberal campus.” A YouTube upload was subsequently posted to Gawker the same day. On November 22nd, the video was posted to BuzzFeed, The Daily What and The Examiner. A petition for Kelly to “drink a full dose of pepper spray on national televsion” on change.org by Slactory editor Nick Douglas. Read More:http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/pepper-spray-cop-casually-pepper-spray-everything-cop
Read More:http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/pepper-spray-cop-casually-pepper-spray-everything-cop
ADDENDUM:
DK: Plus the power of money. I was in Amsterdam not too long ago and I went to the Rijks Museum – a classic museum. The Rijks was being restored and rebuilt but they kept one section where they had a number of their older works. When I went there – and I didn’t know this would be the case – they had Damien Hirst’s diamond skull on display. Not only did they have the diamond skull, but also at the beginning of every room – and it’s no exaggeration – they had a little plaque that said something like “if you keep on g
you will get to the Damien Hirst Skull.” I didn’t ever see anything saying “if you keep on going you will get to Rembrandt’s Night Watch.” So then you got to a room that was roped off like for a movie marquee with a velvet rope which you stand behind. Then you went into a room, and there it was alone. I was really irritated by this thing.
DT: That is just perverse beyond imagination…
DK: This is not the end of it. The signs lead through a circuit because there was a part of the museum that was cut off. There was one last room where they had arranged a nice selection of old master works, relatively small, with a little text explaining provenance etc. discreetly next to each. Above each of these works in bigger lettering and in a different coloring (I think it was pink) was a commentary by Hirst on each of these works. The most insipid banal crap I have ever heard as comments: so he gets the voice over this old master art and then people read it. When you exited, following the circuit, you noticed on the side there was a big black Damien Hirst tent, and if you liked you could go in there to buy catalogs and write your comments. So I met the director of exhibitions at Gemente Museum in The Hague and I said “what is going on here? Has anyone protested? Is that what the Reichs Museum is about?”
DT: It destroys the credibility of the institution.
DK: Exactly. He said there was a new director and he wants to bring in more people.
DT: What a total joke.
DK: But that’s what it’s about. He told me that Hirst had a contract – something like a hundred page contract – that everything had to be done just so. The assumption is that the museum got a lot of money for this, and they just followed the contract to the letter allowing the artist to control. The artist took control just like he did with the auction. What are we interested in here? We are interested in the demonstration of power. We are interested in the spectacle and what he as done is degrade the other art with his insipid comments. It is not historical interpretation of any kind or critical consciousness. There is a skull with diamonds in it for 20 million dollars: everybody is looking at the money. Read More:http://dks.thing.net/Donald-Kuspit-Diane-Thodos.html
COMMENTS
It makes sense though, throughout history many famous artists have created artworks based on a social mentally or general social interest, such as food or sex or gender based subjects with an objective towards equality. So what makes this so stupid? A room dedicated solely to a diamond en-crusted skull with a price tag that only a few worthy contenders can and will consider… it makes sense if you think about it considering money is what we base our lives around. So unless your living in a shack hidden in the forest so you don’t even have to pay property taxes maybe you shouldn’t “diss” such artists, after-all if he can sell it, good for him. That is ,after all, about what any artist really wants, just to sell their shit!