Thursday, January 12, 2012
If you’ve been following our series, we’re looking at whether War can be eliminated and the economy revived through the creation of a system that combines the competitive aspects of Sport, the objectivity of Science, and the non-materialist orientation of Art. Back before the holidays we made a start on a synthesis by examining aesthetics [...]
Thursday, December 22, 2011
[NOTE: We'll take a break from our current series for the next couple of weeks until the holiday season is over] Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman’s “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” considered as an example of Reconstructivist Art The aggressively intellectual, modernist and experimental inclinations of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman were synthesized with the dream-drenched [...]
Thursday, December 8, 2011
To recapitulate our project, the goal is to combine Art, Science and Sport to create a hybrid capable of replacing War. But is there a way to do this without just creating some Frankenstein-like assemblage with none of the strengths of any of its parents? Instead of cobbling this institutions together, maybe a better approach [...]
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Sport, Science and Art each have strengths, but none of them has proven capable of replacing War in its natural form. It seems plausible, however, that one could create a true War-class ECS by synthesizing the three together. In other words, we might be able to reverse-engineer the system we need from the parts that [...]
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Fourth in a series on ending war. Art may seem like a odd substitute for War, but there’s reason to not dismiss the idea out of hand. We already know that Art can be a powerful economic engine, legions of starving artists and musicians notwithstanding. For proof just look at the movie and music industries. [...]
Gene Luen Yang’s graphic novel American Born Chinese as an example of Reconstructivist Art. American Born Chinese centers around what at first seem like three very different narratives. The first is a superhero-themed retelling of a beloved classic tale from Chinese mythology, the story of the kung-fu practicing Monkey King. The second is a realistic, [...]
Artist Kehinde Wiley as an example of Reconstructivist Art. From Wiley’s commissioned show at the Columbus Museum of Art, which featured Columbus area subjects in the style of portraits from the museum’s permanent collection Wiley is an African American visual artist, known primarily for his lush, full-scale portraits of young urban African-American men in poses [...]
I’m not usually one to rave about a video game, but this simple, easy to play , quick to complete game changed my entire evaluation of the potential of video games as an art form. A dark, existential humanist parable about an office drone, the game uses a severely limited set of options and locations as a strength rather than a weakness
Kutiman’s “Thru You” as an example of Reconstructivist Art Perhaps the first great Reconstructivist artwork of the “do it yourself” era, Kutiman’s labor-intensive You-Tube mashup transforms and elevates the work of countless amateur musicians. In a world where sophisticated digital remixing technology is at the fingertips of millions, and where overproduced, prefabricated pop-music idols can [...]
Monday, November 10, 2008
Joss Whedons’ “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” as an example of Reconstructivist Art Watch This Movie This internet-only mini-musical signals its reconstructivist leanings through the way it resists being dismissed as mere parody. Nod to Artifice: The movie is framed by the conceit that it is a series of video blog entries being posted by an [...]
Saturday, November 1, 2008
One of the most popular and successful movies of all time, Lucas’ “Star Wars” represented a return to classic storytelling after the more deconstructionist narratives of the 1970’s. Reconstructivist Elements: Nod to Artifice: The movie begins with a famous image of scrolling text “Long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away” that not only [...]
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
“The Warriors (Ultimate Director’s Cut)” by Walter Hill and David Shaber as an example of Reconstructivist Art I’ve been a fan of this cult classic movie for years, but it wasn’t until viewing the 2005 “Ultimate Director’s Cut” that I realized the movie was originally conceived in a reconstructivist mode. Reconstructivist Elements: Nod to Artifice: [...]
This is a great question. Unfortunately, the answer is surprisingly controversial and complex: The first challenge is figuring out what “objectively true” means. Most –but not all!– people believe there is a universe “out there” that has characteristics which are independent of any particular person’s observations or perceptions. This is a position generally known in [...]
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Jason Godeke’s “Unstill Lives” as an example of Reconstructivist Art A series of paintings by Jason Godeke, exhibited variously as “Unstill Lives,” “Construct Realities,” and “Object and Figure.” Reconstructivist Elements: Nod to Artifice: The paintings in this series focus on toy figurines, which are clearly artificial objects. Classic Structure: The paintings generally focus on classical [...]
Alfonso Cuarón’s “Y Tu Mama Tambien” as an example of Reconstructivist Art Cuarón’s movie broke records in Mexico, and was a worldwide hit, despite its racy and subversive material. Reconstructivist Elements: Nod to Artifice: The realism of the movie is broken periodically by weighty voice-overs which break into both the plot and the soundtrack. Classic [...]