http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_and_Water_IThe points made by Kevin and others on its implications with regard to the Gulf oil spill strike me as right on the money. Water turns to oil indeed.
How do I react introspectively, subjectively? I guess this is more of a macro reaction (political) than a micro analysis (purely psychological), but this is how I react. I respond to the oily pelican as a metaphor for even more than just the oil disaster, which itself I take as a sign. To me, this clever cover suggests (possibly not entirely self-consciously) how **pervasive** that oil disaster is - that not only is modern capitalist society destroying the planet eco- system, but it is also undermining humanity itself. Subtly corrupting a popular Escher poster like this (adding an oily pelican and a turtle) is an ironic statement to me about how destructive capitalism has become, symbolized by the Gulf oil catastrophe. Nothing - not the sky, the water, the birds, fish, amphibians, etc. - and not even the deep ocean itself - is safe under this social system. And now this death grip drips and oozes from our classic art on magazine covers. No animals or humans can be safe in such a world. That's my reaction, anyway.
- Steve On Jul 2, 2010, at 6:55 PM, O'Connor, Kevin wrote:
I had the exact first impression as Andy, that it's an Escher drawing. My attention was drawn to the center, and I gradually worked out from there to the top and bottom, and also gradually noticed the different species. I wondered about the tortoise, and about the haziness of the bottom levels in the water - but it wasn't until I got to the pelican and saw the black drops - from the beak, from the wings, from the tail - that I suspected that this was oil, and that the drawing is a commentary on a devastated ecosystem. Interesting that color, which in the original simply provides contrast, in this drawing is meaningful in representing the oil. In fact it changed fromwater to oil before my eyes after seeing the drops. Kevin On 7/2/10 9:07 PM, "mike cole" <lchcmike@gmail.com> wrote:Interesting, Andy. What else might be there? Any Americans awake to take a peak? mikeOn Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 5:58 PM, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net> wrote:Yes, I used almost this exact image on my PowerPoint to illustrate "Gestalt" when I did my talks on CHAT in April. (See Attached) So mymicrogenetic report is somewhat invalidated. I recognised it as an Escher drawing (or in his style) immediately ... so I began by presuming that the white and black figures were both birds, and only then realised that the black / white figures were birds / fishes, and then only because you asked did I notice the variation in species and finally the tortoise, so I started to think of Darwiniam themes ... and finally wondered what the pelican hadin its mouth and why? Andy mike cole wrote:The New Yorker has done it again. If you have a minute, take a look atthis week's cover. In the process of looking new meanings will emerge. How they emerge appearsto differ from person to person. I would REALLY appreciate a microgenetic introspective report from anyone with the time. I have now collected threeexamples of such, including my own and all three are different.I sure wish I could get to ask Vygotsky and Eistenshtein to do this andreport to us about it!! mike http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=2010-07 _______________________________________________ xmca mailing list xmca@weber.ucsd.edu http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca-- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Andy Blunden*Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/ <http://home.mira.net/%7Eandy/ >Videos: http://vimeo.com/user3478333/videos Book: http://www.brill.nl/scss _______________________________________________ xmca mailing list xmca@weber.ucsd.edu http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca_______________________________________________ xmca mailing list xmca@weber.ucsd.edu http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca_______________________________________________ xmca mailing list xmca@weber.ucsd.edu http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
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