Information Sites

Here are some cool information websites I came across. Im making an infograph in Processing for design class (if i can ever figure out HOW), that I think would be really cool to use for my thesis project. If I can make it really nice maybe I'll incorporate it with the photos I need to get done...
Anyway here are the sites. I'm making an infograph about the increase in women getting plastic surgery over the past ten years or so. Enjoy whenever.

http://www.cosmeticplasticsurgerystatistics.com/statistics.html

http://womenshealthnews.wordpress.com/2007/03/23/increase-in-cosmetic-surgery-in-the-us/

http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2011/02/22/increase-plastic-surgery-sign-better-economic-times/

Mass Distractions and Cultural Decay

The new gallery exhibition has a lot of good representations of past and present American culture. My favorite piece was Michael Paul Britto's "Unarmed" 2007 digital video with sound. I am not much of a video fanatic because I find them to be too complex and sometimes hard to understand. People don't walk up to watch a video because it is aesthetically pleasing, they have to be drawn to it in other ways such as video descriptions if it's long etc. Anyways, I liked this video by Britto because it was short simple and to the point. I found the message about racism to be clear. The video was at eye-level and it showed a leggo cop raising his arm and shooting after each clip of a black or hispanic leggo flashed on the screen. Although this video was made in 2007, I think it's ironic that this video can perfectly represent the events occurring present day New Brunswick. The protests against racism happen everyday within the town due to a cop recently shooting an alleged innocent colored man who was in fact, unarmed. It goes to show that since this artist made a piece representing such a scene, means that it happens too often and that it has become a flaw in our culture. Racism is not dead and I think that is the point he was trying to make. I also noted the fact that the cop was white which has a lot to do with it, if he had put another race as the cop, the story would take on a different meaning such as abuse of authoritative powers.

The piece that I wasn't impressed with was Sam Durant's "Defaced Monuments" 2008. I thought it was a great concept but the way it was executed seemed kind of lazy. Being a design major and seeing how someone put together pictures and images and presents them has a lot of importance in the success of their project. This project was displayed on the computer, not at eye-level and the images were in the top left corner kind of small and the typeface was Times New Roman. Even non-designers know that Times New Roman is totally boring. Anyway I think this would have just been more successful with more attention to design. :)  

Heidi

For some reason whenever I think of plastic surgery amongst young women, I think of the most recent drastic surgery that I've heard about and that is Heidi Montag. I have never seen The Hills (the show that made her famous), but I have seen her before and afters and heard it all on the news. This young girl who felt pressure to look good before she became a star, pushed her over the edge when she eventually had all of this media attention. She had 10 plastic surgeries in one day and apparently the star told magazines that she is now unhappy with the results. I remember reading how her nose job gave her breathing issues, she had visible scars under her butt and her boobs were so big she had back problems... but hey! pain is beauty, right?
Attached is the link to her video of her pre-surgery and why she wanted it.
http://www.people.com/people/videos/0,,20336496,00.html

DH Cooper Video

I received a link from Amy Glass about an artist she saw a video about in class pertaining to plastic surgery. DH Cooper is a middle aged women who is feeling the effects of aging and is contemplating plastic surgery. She video tapes herself in the streets holding up a sign asking for change towards her face lift fund. Surprisingly a lot of people give money from what I think is out of amusement and not because they actually thought she needed surgery. She includes commentary battling with herself over whether or not she should go through with it and how she has stated that she is "ashamed that I've absorbed cultures messages about youth and beauty". I think that this statement applies to more than just middle aged women looking for the fountain of youth. It also pertains to young women who are looking for perfection via what media says and shows is perfect. The only difference between the young women seeking perfection and the middle aged women seeking youth, is that the young women have an insecure conscious and don't realize it is from the media they see everyday.
I also liked how a man on the street guessed her purpose by thinking it was artistic and a "fabulous statement about our times" and he looks at it as a "fabulous work of art". Ironically she was doing it in an art sense and if she wasn't then maybe she would have gotten offended. I just think it is interesting how someone looked at this experiment differently than most people walking by who were just staring and not thinking of the reasoning she was doing this. I also think that this was a test to the public to see how many people supported the idea of plastic surgery. Although it obviously wasn't for themselves, they thought about the idea for someone else and although most people said she didn't need it, they donated anyway.
 http://vimeo.com/29116705