A while ago a gentleman emailed me asking if I planned a print in response to the financial situation. Two days ago, that crisis hit home when the firm I’ve been working for “downsized” half it’s workforce in a single day, causing me, and 14 other unfortunates, to become unemployed.

I don’t know if it was getting laid off (for the 1st time in my life) that did it, but today as I was driving up to Jerusalem the creative block dissolved and I got a vision for my response. The paradigm I was facing was how to be critical of those I perceive as being responsible for the crisis, without being too blatantly offensive (as I am prone to be). I also wanted to offer a vision of hope, rather than one of gloom and doom. Ever since Ahmadinejad’s Daughter I feel like I need to balance out some of the negativity and today, after Obama’s victory, seemed like a great day to do it.

I think I’d like to make a print based on a classic “Lot’s Wife ” piece where I would retain the composition but replace the unfortunate and disobedient Lot’s wife with a banker type character looking over his shoulder.

Instead of Sodom and Gemoroh I would have the crumbling bastions of capitalism represented by a skyscraper skyline. At the foreground, or maybe on the side, I would have a group of people fleeing the catastrophe towards a safer, greener, simpler existence.

I guess I’d try and capture the Utopian vision that Bill Gates has for a post-capitalist society, mix it up with a vision of a more ecologically friendly world, and offer it as a new Eden.

Recently I have been corresponding with Meir Kordevani, one the key figures responsible for the publication of the Israeli design/art publication Picnic.

For those of you unfamiliar with the magazine, a short introduction is in order.
Picnic is described by it’s publishers as follows: “…a bi-annual magazine from Tel Aviv, 100% text-free, communicating through imagery…Introduces a fresh collection of images taken from the fields of photography, fashion, illustration, graphic design, cake making, astronomy, video and more. Suggests a unique visual experience, linking logical thinking with fantasy and the sub-conscious….“.

During our correspondence I asked Meir whether Picnic had an online version to which he replied:
“Picnic has no online version, otherwise there would be no sense to print it.

I find this position hard to agree with. In fact I can think of quite a few newspapers and magazines, including design/art/fashion publications that view things slightly differently. I believe that there’s always logic in putting a publication online. Magazines are not only appreciated for their content and people don’t buy a high gloss magazine for it’s content alone. The feeling of paper, the smell, the resolution of print, the portability - all these are unique to the printed version and are unrelated to the content. Print magazines have collector value as well and serve as status symbols for the people that leave them lying about on their coffee tables.

In Picnic’s case having the magazine online would give it a much larger exposure than it curently enjoys (and it deserves the attention). Practically speaking it would also give people an opportunity to browse the product before deciding to buy it.

If the issue of safeguarding the content is a concern it could always be decided to put only Picnic’s archive online or that only part of the content could be accessible, etc.

If you have any experiences relating to the issue of publishing a design/art/fashion magazine either as print or online your comments are much appreciated.

Recently, at the recommendation of Ahuva Berger I bought myself a pro Flickr account. Ahuva was right, I’m enjoying the social interaction on Flickr immensely and I’m also constantly running into cool and interesting photographers and artists.

I guess I’m an ass for not realizing earlier on that I would enjoy a social network dedicated to images.

Normally I wouldn’t bother to blab about this but earlier today I bumped into someone truly extraordinary. His name is Merkley??? (question marks in the original), and his photography is exceptional, alluring, critical and intelligent. So much so that not only do I dig it entirely but I’m feeling jealous as well…

The long bizarre titles that Merkley??? bestows upon his work can only be described as Spam Art, yet Merkley??? is merely describing for us the reality he is shooting. Paradoxically because we judge Merkley???’s captions to be too absurd to be precise we cast aside the reality he creates, despite the fact that it is tangible enough to be captured on film (or memory card in this case). To add to the confusion, not all the objects in a Merkley??? photo were actually there when the shutter clicked. Merkley??? has no compunctions about using Photoshop to add objects, animals and sundry doodads into his photos after the fact.

Merkley??? is definitely not a “photographer’s photographer”. He holds nothing sacred in his process and from the little material I read from him before writing this I’m willing to venture that he actually takes pleasure in blaspheming against the traditional dogma of photography. I’d go so far as to say that blasphemy is the closest thing to a hobby that Merkley??? has.

BUT…

Despite the whimsical Redneckish vibe he exudes it is very clear that beyond the tomfoolery and clowning about Merkley??? is a serious artist, committed to his concepts and messages, and very much in tune with the culture his photographs so eloquently criticize. Merkley???’s commitment to art and dichotomous disdain for it’s trappings reminds me of Chuck Dodson and the rest of my friends from the Hot Springs art scene. I guess I feel the same way pretty often but being “A nice Jewish boy” I tend to repress it…

The widget below depicts Merkley???’s work - notice the captions. If it doesn’t appear try reloading the page.

One of the greatest evolutions to take place in recent years in the world of Non For Profit organizations (NPOs) is the concept of “ePhilanthropy” - volunteering and social activism using websites and other online tools.

The incredible successes the Obama campaign had during the recent Democratic race should be proof enough of the effectiveness such campaigning can have for an NPO or social activist.

Sadly, despite Israel’s strong web based high tech sector, the state of Israeli NPOs online presences and campaigns is more often than not simply embarrassing…
Many Israeli NPOs have no online marketing strategy whatsoever while others are only beginning to scratch the surface of the online world.

This sad state of affairs does not in my opinion stem from a lack of will or intelligence on the NPOs part but more from a limited amount of resources coupled with an ignorance regarding the opportunities that the online world holds.

But there is hope…

Based on my faith in the excellent people that compose Israel’s high tech sector, and with the help of Ms. Ma’ayan Alexander from the New Israel Fund’s Empowerment and Training Center for Social Change Organizations in Israel (aka “Shatil”), we put together the facebook group “Desktop Volunteer“, with the aim of bringing together
big hearted high tech professionals with the 1,500 NPOs that Shatil works with that and are in need of some web savvy volunteers…

Hey, I’m “Web Savvy”, what can I do to help an NPO?

There are lots of ways that anyone with even the most rudimentary web skills can volunteer online and greatly help an NPO or social activist.
Here are a few ideas that Ma’ayan and I came up with based on our acquaintance with the challenges faced by NPOs today:

These are just a few of the ideas that we came up with - I’m sure that there are many more opportunities that we missed out on.
Any ideas you may have are warmly welcomed as comments for this post. In fact posting your idea here may well help promote positive change for an NPO that is struggling for ideas you believe in…

Are you ready to get your feet wet?

Meanwhile, if you feel that you are up for the challenge of using your skills and intelligence in order to promote positive social change in Israel, and if you are prepared to commit at least two hours a week to an NPO that really needs your help, please log into your facebook account and join Desktop Volunteer.

Remember - Change for the good begins when you will it…

Thanks for taking the time to read this and remember that even by simply helping expose this post and the facebook group Desktop Volunteer you are already beginning to make a difference and for this, I want to say THANK YOU…

: )
Mike

My latest slide show captions have gotten me to a point where I have begun to formulate an idea regarding a new type of digital art project.

I call it “Spam Art” for now, but this may be only a temporary name.

Spam Art is based around the concept of creating art that is inspired by the digitally created texts that SEO programs and email spam bots are constantly creating and broadcasting to the web. These texts, created with the purpose of either cheating email spam filters programs or duping google’s ranking algorithms, are created by robots in order to fool other robots.

The sentences that these machines create usually makes no sense yet are grammatically sound. In essence the programs are developing a Dada-esque language that is ceaselessly evolving through the efforts of anarchic delinquent machines intent on disrupting the daily routine of hard working bourgeois machines. The most bizarre aspect of the whole evolution is that all this is being driven by the awareness that these efforts can help achieve concrete financial goals for us humans in the physical world.

Spam Art projects build on this concept by using as their inspiration texts that at a first glance appear to be gibberish, yet in fact might be perfectly logical and coherent if the reader knows the key required for deciphering the message. The whole thing kinda plays on the idea of key based encryption.

In my pilot attempts to develop this concept I am currently using as my keys slide-shows of captioned photos accompanied by HTML texts that are based on my stream of consciousness as I walk through my daily routine. Obviously there is no real limit to the types of keys that could be developed..

This concept is really in its infancy but an example of its execution are my last blog post and especially the twitter used to promote it:

“Banqing on Genzyme’s support Abraham Obama is now grating weird dogs at a SOWA art installation. Or not… http://hellotxt.com/l/I9aM - : )”

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the concept and to see your Spam Art creations so start spamming…
: )

Mike
PS
Just in case - I just bought SpamArt.org…

PPS
Thanks to the comment from Jeroen I learned about the amusing activities of the The Spam Poetry Institute, “….an organization dedicated to collecting and preserving the fine literature created by the world’s spammers….” -check them out to read some of the finest nonsensical poetry ever created by machines.