Comments for How To Win

Comment on Politics as Product by duncombe

duncombe — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 21:19:59 +0000

I tend to agree with you James, particularly about the vacuous nature of Obama’s “change” so empty that it could be filled up with all of our particular wishes for change — and all sorts of merchandise. And…maybe there is a place for merchandise of the revolution: it gives us objects to live with, think through, remember by. Is our beef against the merchandise or is it with merchandise as a replacement for organization and politics? It’s useful to think of the Catholic Church here: they had icons, but they ALSO had priests and churches and rites and rituals and crusades. OK, that last one wasn’t so great, but the point was they didn’t use icons as a replacement for organization and action they used then in the service of these things. Capitalism and the fetishism of the commodity and all that may have changed the ball game, but perhaps not…

Comment on Andy Goldsworthy by Steve Lambert

Steve Lambert — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 21:14:13 +0000

ah fair enough. he is the preeminent artist working with the natural environment today. There’s a documentary about him called “Rivers and Tides” that is worth watching. (Rumor is the film single-handedly saved the Roxie Cinema in SF from going bankrupt). Here’s an excerpt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TWBSMc47bw

Comment on Marketing Lessons from Obama’s Campaign - BusinessWeek by duncombe

duncombe — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 21:05:18 +0000

To which I’d add: I think one of the reasons that people were drawn to Obama’s message of hope and change is because they realized that it is in the political realm (albeit in this version: lame electoral politics) that these things actually can be realized. For years advertising has kept these words alive, holding them out as promises, only to frustrate us with their banal “solutions”: yogurt, perfume, an SUV. Call Obmamania the beginnings of a sort of de-sublimation.

Comment on Design and the end of the world by duncombe

duncombe — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 21:01:06 +0000

Yes, I think we need to make a place for understanding art as place and space for exploration. What is seemingly purposeless might end up having a purpose that lies outside the way we understand the problem (or even purpose itself.) However, there has to a moment when one applies what might not have originally be conceived of as applicable.

Comment on Utopia by duncombe

duncombe — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 20:54:31 +0000

I’ve hear it translated more literally as “No Place” which I kind of like better

Comment on Andy Goldsworthy by duncombe

duncombe — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 20:53:05 +0000

Ah, but what exactly is Goldsworthy doing? Is this a problem that I don’t know? That without knowing who he is (who is he?) and what he’s standing on (Volcanoes? Bread ovens?) I have no idea what he’s doing there. It says something important about intelligibility I think.

Comment on George Bush discusses what’s effective by duncombe

duncombe — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 20:43:07 +0000

But also an interesting re-direction by Bush: “he’s succeeded in drawing attention to himself” That is: all this is about the individual, not the politics

Comment on Design Won’t Save The World by Siobhan

Siobhan — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:42:45 +0000

amen.

Comment on Seun Kuti by Steve Lambert

Steve Lambert — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 21:52:27 +0000

That was the “ah ha” for me too. In a different way, people have talked about the memory - something like “that site will always be different because they will remember the action whenever they go by,” things like that. Or creating a mnemonic with a site, a corporation, and concept. Bogad’s Oil Enforcement Agency will always be connected to the car show and those SUVs for the people who experienced it. We should definitely build on this idea.

Comment on Seun Kuti by stephen duncombe

stephen duncombe — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 20:52:17 +0000

“What we can do is… put the struggle in our music, even if it’s one song. It will last forever. 10 generations will hear that song and they will understand what’s happening now. This is the records.”

This is something I hadn’t really thought much about in this context: protest art as record and memory. This works better with music — which is more of a public and shared memory — than the visual arts, which often have a smaller audience and can not be reproduced as easily, but it is worth thinking about.