In a Roman Osteria

This Classical Art Meme kept showing up in my social media and a strange thing happened.

Each time I looked at it, I'd spot another detail. As I did, I started to ponder the painting. In particular the question of the role of the viewer.

It seems like the viewer is put into the role of someone flirting with the two young women and who will now have to deal with their male companion.

You'll notice he is armed when you spot the knife handle sticking out of his pocket.

Yesterday when I searched for the original painting by Carl Bloch and it was interesting to learn the artwork is a kind of remix of Wilhelm Marstrand's painting of another Italian Osteria Scene. Marstrand was one of Bloch's teachers.

Another interesting detail in Bloch's artwork is that the patron who commissioned the painting, Moritz G. Melchior, is shown in the background. I'd also been wondering what brief Melchior gave Bloch. Did he say "I'd like a painting like Marstrand's one with the pretty Italian girls"? Or maybe "I'd like a painting where, when I look at it, I feel like I'm desired by young women."

Anyway, one final comment is that I think Bloch's remix is an improvement on the original and it's not just the inclusion of a cat -- although I think that was a very savvy move.

Art Misadventure #3

For my part in Art Misadventure #3 I've been given three apples as inspiration, as well as an unusual piece of gallery space.

I've been fascinated by the premise of this exhibition, that by controlling the subject matter and exhibition space of the artists, their processes will be revealed.

This exhibition is an inquiry into deconstructing creative practice. To explore this the artists will have to relinquish some control of their making and abide by a set of constraints designed by the curator.'

The three apples have allowed me to explore the mediums I had in mind, particularly audio-video and comics.



This comic shows a scene from a story in the One Thousand and One Nights collection, where Scheherazade tells a tale which features three apples. The story interested me because it ends with one character being revealed for being lazy and, when he's instructed to find something, he waits for it to come to him.

The story has been described as a "whodunit" murder mystery with multiple plot twists. However, although the story has detective fiction elements, it lacks a detective, in that the person charged with investigating the murder, Ja'far, does nothing to solve the crime, but in both cases sits at home awaiting his fate.

This reflects my process in some ways. When we were brought together for this exhibition I waited a while before taking a numbered seat, taking one that was left next to my partner. When we were encouraged to select the package holding our inspiration, I waited until others had chosen theirs and I think this strategy served me well. Brian Eno says the first part of any project is scoping the constraints, establishing the parameters as much as the resources available. Good karma too.

And what have I got to show for myself? Here's how my apple remix sounds.

Horoscopes

While I had a laugh at the above graphic when I first saw it appear in my Facebook feed, I actually quite enjoy horoscopes.

It's not so much that I believe in them as being accurate predictions of what the future holds, although there have been many times when I've found them to present details that eventuated.

And it's not the idea that the movement of astral bodies moves our own bodies because the moon moves the ocean and we're mostly made of water.

What I like about horoscopes is the short-hand they provide for talking about personalities, character traits and generally providing a sense of narrative in my life.

Yeah, it can be silly but so can life and I like the way it'll sometimes force me to reconsider my views or offer an alternate way of interpreting an event.

March into the archives : Star Wars

Woroni, the ANU student newspaper, ran my piece on the cultural impact of Star Wars in April 1997, ahead of the 20th anniversary re-release of the film.
Ahead of the re-release of the film in 3D, the argument that Luke Skywalker was an influential SNAG seems worthy of further consideration as George Lucas' new film embraces another civil rights topic

While media attention regarding the re-release of Star Wars has focused on the digital enhancements, the opportunity to analyse the effects of this cultural phenomenon has been neglected.

Just as film scholars have proposed that the Oedipal plots of the film noir genre were inspired by the spread of Freudian psychoanalytic theory, I propose that the impact of Star Wars contributed to the creation of the Sensitive New Age Guy (or SNAG). To argue this I will concentrate solely on the first film and not the original trilogy nor the subsequent pre-trilogy.

The term SNAG is a recent addition to our vocabulary and is thought to have entered into popular usuage within the last 30 years. It is noticeably absent from dictionaries in the Chifley Library.

Feminism and the women's movement were firmly entrenched in public knowledge at the time of Star Wars release in 1977. There are only two female characters in Star Wars: Princess Leia and Luke's short-lived Aunt Beru. Leia revolutionised the role of women in science fiction and her influence can be seen in later characters such as Ripley in Alien and Sarah Connor in The Terminator.

Though she may not fly an X-wing into battle (even recently released science fiction like Independence Day maintain women can't fly), Leia survives an Imperial torture device without revealing Rebel secrets, uses scathing sarcasm to undermine the male authority of Darth Vader, General Tankim and later Han Solo, wastes a few stormtroopers and takes charge to blast a way out of the Death Star's detention centre ("Somebody has to save our skins").

In comparison Aunt Beru, as a submissive older woman from an earlier generation, is happy cooking vegetables with her chrome-plated food processor. Furthermore, Feminism is given a veiled reference by Han Solo who, after referring to Leia as "Sister" says "I ain't in this for your revolution" -- linking the fight of the Rebels against the Evil Empire to fight against social patriarchy.

The SNAG message is conveyed to the audience via Luke Skywalker's indoctrination into the Jedi ideology. Under instruction from Obi Wan Kenobi, Luke is taught to use the Force ("An energy field...which penetrates and binds the galaxy together") and to develop a skill akin to women's intuition.

This process shapes young Luke into a classic SNAG as Obi encourages him to "trust your feelings" and "stretch out with your emotions" while instructing him to ignore his rational (and 'masculine') thoughts with "let go of your conscious self" and "your eyes can deceive you, don't trust them".

Luke learns these 'feminine' traits quickly and by the film's final third he tells Leia he cares, doesn't flinch from expressing his sorrow at Obi's death and learns to use sarcasm ("Take care of yourself Han, I guess that's what you're best at").

It is important to note the benefits of SNAG qualities are reinforced in the viewer in two ways. Firstly, through the rivalry between Luke and Han to win the affections of Leia. The bold Captain Solo (who dismisses both the Force and Leia's "female advice") admires her spirit, while Luke describes Leia as beautiful from his first encounter with her holographic image.

Their rivalry is explicit during a conversation when Han asks "What do you think, a princess and a guy like me?" To which Luke replies quickily and sulkily "No". Within a subdued context in the film's final scene, the SNAG gets the Princess as illustrated during the award ceremony. Leia ignores Han Solo's sleazy smuggler's grin and common wink to bestow upon Luke a full pearly white smile.

The SNAG as a sexual conqueror is suggested during the climactic battle where the vulnerable Death Star is exposed to fighters using phallic torpedoes. I propose this is a metaphor for reproduction, with the ovum being penetrated (which you may recall is a function of the Force) by the successful sperm of a "one man" X-wing spacecraft. Our fearless SNAG hero uses the Force to endure longer than his fellow Rebel pilots, who "can't hold on" and merely "impact on the surface".

Thus Luke, an ex-dirt farmer turned star blazing SNAG, wins the day and Star Wars influences a generation of males to get in touch with their feelings and use the Force to win a princess.

The Dark Knight

I saw the new Batman movie yesterday and, once again, I marvel at how Christopher Nolan and his writing partner brother have reinterpreted the superhero to comment on contemporary issues.

In Batman Begins they rewrote the cornerstone of the Batman story by having Bruce Wayne's father shot by a crim who was then assassinated outside court, like the way Lee Harvey Oswald was killed by Jack Ruby after appearing in court for shooting US president John F Kennedy. At the time I couldn't understand why they'd want to make Batman a metaphor for the president but after the second film I got an idea.

Batman is the most flawed of the well-known superheroes, a vigilante prone to excessive violence in some of the more adult graphic novels like Frank Miller's Dark Knight. As Bruce Wayne he's a playboy with wealth and power who acts like he's living up the bachelor lifestyle. As Batman he thinks he's above the law, able to act where authorities are unable.

The presidential comparisons continue in The Dark Knight when Bruce Wayne arrives at a party triumphantly stepping out of a helicopter in a moment that reminded me of George W Bush's 'mission accomplished' press conference.

One of the best things Nolan added to the Batman story was in the first film when Bruce Wayne's father explained his charitable actions as noblesse oblige, the French term referring to the honorable and benevolent behavior required of persons of noble birth. It took the idea in Sam Raimi's Spiderman movie that "with great power comes great responsibility" and used it to give a little bit more credibility to the motivation for becoming a masked crime fighter. I also liked how he made Batman a ninja because they've also been whitewashed as freedom fighters.

In the new film The Joker makes terror videos where he humiliates hostages before killing them and gets the footage screened on the news to terrorise the citizens of Gotham City. Batman uses extensive wiretapping and undertakes an extreme rendition that would do the CIA proud. And there's a bit of the War on Terror in how passengers are held hostage.

I guess the idea of using a JFK reference points to this heavily idealised president as being the model by which all those since are judged.

Anyway, I'm going to rewatch the films and think about these comparisons further. They're good fun and the sounds are also fantastic.

PS - I just did a search and see Andrew Bolt has already viewed Batman in a similar light and, as much as I don't want Batman to be Bush, I think it's great to see moral ambiguity in an onscreen hero - especially in an American film.

PPS - I think Andrew Bolt makes a very convenient and self-serving argument. For a start, in rewriting The Joker's role in the Batman story, it's not so clear to say the two are representations of Osama Bin Laden and George W Bush. Where's the scene where it's revealed that Batman's father profited from supporting The Joker earlier in his criminal career?

If the two characters are different sides of the same coin, it's because the Harvey Dent character shows they are still the same coin. The film goes to great lengths to show that it's human nature to perceive this good/evil binary and clearly shows that Batman is losing his moral ground and becoming a criminal. This is why Batman must run at the end and Harvey Dent is made into the hero - it's the simple explanation that the people of Gotham need to get on with their lives and act like humans.

Humanity is a very thin veneer on an animal that still responds to base instincts that are now given the guise of modern trappings. (Adam Curtis' documentaries The Power of Nightmares and Century of the Self cover the two themes I've raised here brilliantly and are thought-provoking and highly recommended viewing.)

It seems to me that Andrew Bolt's criticism of Tony Coady exemplifies this need for complex actions to be shown in a good versus evil light. Yes, bombing Japan helped end the war but I'd guess that there would be many people who still view this action as "an act of terrorism far greater than any single act of terrorism since by non-state actors". History is written by the victor and personally I think the US, like Batman in The Dark Knight, is struggling to maintain the moral high ground in the War on Terror because it's obvious that they have had a role in creating their enemies. After all, the US provided Saddam Hussein with chemical weapons and funded Osama Bin Laden when it suited their national interests. It also suited their national interests to create the fiction that these two figures were working together as part of the so-called 'intelligence' used to justify invading Iraq.

If there's anything to be learned from Batman it's that people want simple narratives with a good guy and a bad guy when reality is much more complicated. I'd guess that Andrew Bolt knows this all too well.

Another four minutes

After more weeks of watching Timbaland, Timberlake and Madonna in the single Four Minutes, I've come to appreciate it a bit more and reckon I might have been a bit harsh in my earlier assessment.

This reevaluation is in part because my son has been telling me how much he likes it and I like hearing him discuss Madonna in the same terms he uses for discussing superheroes because, let's face it, Madonna is a modern superhero and she's still raising the bar for women after more than two decades. So the idea of her saving the world is starting to make sense and I've started to enjoy this cartoon aspect of the chorus.

I also liked hearing my partner imitate the way Timberlake says 'Madonna'. I know elsewhere in the song his vocals are treated like a turntable but he has this natural ability to sound like one too. The fast/slow/fast cadence he employs when saying Ma-dohh-na is a good example of drawing inspiration from beatboxing I reckon.

The other thing is that I've got an interpretation of the film clip to share.

There's this bit in the clip early on where you see a painting hanging on a wall and if you look it's like a boyish young man in a pair of rubber shorts, which would fit with all the fetishistic imagery Madonna uses in her clips.

When you pause on one of the few frames in which it appears you can see it's a painting that seems to show a young black man emerging from a peeling layer of lighter coloured flesh and the shorts are the pinker shade of another layer of flesh.



I like the idea that this could illustrate how there are no human races, only one race with varying shades of tan. In the context of this clip, however, I think it illustrates the idea that Timbaland is bringing a primal and black (in the African American sense) groove to the track and Madonna, who has basically been described as a strap-on by Aphex Twin, is caught up in the sheer pervasiveness of the Timbaland sound. It acknowledges the huge influence he's had on popular music.

This idea makes sense of the blackness that's pursuing Madonna and Timberlake throughout the clip, cutting through the extras over the course of four minutes and catching our two heroes right at the end. The blackness is the unavoidably funky Timbaland beat that the man himself introduces in a black setting at the beginning.

(And, I should acknowledge, the thing that really spelt out how black the Timbaland sound is was the film clip for his tune with Flo Rida, Elevator. It seems there's only one white face in the film clip, the boyish looking DJ. No doubt that's deliberate. A bit like the recent Soulja Boy clip for Donk, which I guess is about arses, where there's only one white face among the young black folk and he's an older looking bloke. It's like an inversion of all those politically correct sitcoms, ads, university prospecti and even girl groups like the Spice Girls where there's one black face among an otherwise white group.)



I'd guess that Madonna has only got four minutes to make the most of Timbaland's oversaturated sound because, let's face it, American R&B and commercial hip hop are really struggling at the moment. I reckon you can see the trend is moving from the 'boom-tee-boom' sound the Timbaland typified toward something more like four on the floor doof of European dance music. In part this is a natural progression for the super compressed beats that started the mastering wars because it is the most effective way for music to move a speaker, as the push of a bass drum gets to use the suck of sidechained compression on the pull of the upbeat. The other thing is it makes it easy for DJs to mix, for bootleggers to mash-up and for the divide between raves and clubs to be overcome. It also fits with the way R&B have adopted autotune used heavily to sound like a vocoder. Just listen to tracks like Chris Brown's Forever or Ne-yo's Closer for examples of both the doof beat and the robot trend in vocals.

However, I still reckon tracks like Four Minutes would sound better if performed on real instruments. Like if the synth brass were replaced with an actual brass marching band. If Madonna had jumped on the Daptones sound like Amy Winehouse did then she'd really be in the cheerleader position for saving the world IMO.

Mic check

One of my favourite activities on the weekend is watching music videos and often I find myself pondering the role of the microphone in this medium, since most of the videos aren't shot while recording the song.

Shannon Noll is arguably one of the most intriguing performers in this arena, from his silly lip-syncing gag during in the clip for his duet with Natalie Bassingthwaite through to his pseudo-performance with a mic that isn't plugged in for his lead-in-to-the-footy-ad-break-anthem Loud. Is it supposed to be ironic that the lyrics even say "because you know I can't fake this"?



Sometimes I wonder if Noll might not be taking the piss. After all, he seems to stir controversy on tour when audience members and die-hard fans go on to argue in the letters section of local newspapers as to whether he was too pissed to be performing. It made me wonder if the subsequent single Everybody Needs A Little Help wasn't addressing this debate with it's faux performance.

More recently I've become obsessed with learning the model of microphone that Gabriella Cilmi is misusing in the clip for her song Sweet About Me. The mic gets a starring role, possibly because it's the closest thing to the 16-year old singer in this clip with a bunch of hot and sweaty blokes. (The drummer really nails it IMO, his performance makes me wonder why you don't see what he's sitting on!)



Note how much screen time the mic gets from the opening shot. It makes me think the way that Cilmi is singing into the top of a side-address mic must be a deliberate joke. However, Cilmi isn't the only singer using a big old fashioned chrome-plated microphone in her film clip though and it's this trend that I'm going to try and stay focused upon.

If I take a lead from Roland Barthes and attempt a semiotic analysis here, it seems old chunky mics play an important role in establishing the credentials of the vocalist in a film clip. After all, we're used to seeing the walls of amplifiers to show the band are loud and some drummers rely on an abundance of tom toms and cymbals for credibility to the point where they're all you see when looking at them playing the drum kit.

Actually, here I'll digress but I think I spotted an interesting new trend for drummers in the clip for Motley Crue's Saints of Los Angeles - just have a look at the size of the kick drum!



But to get back to microphones, let me suggest some of the messages you might associate with seeing a contemporary singer pretending to sing into an old fashioned microphone.

First, a big chrome mic looks serious. It's probably no coincidence that there are clips like Prince's Sexy Motherfucker where he's holding a microphone that looks like a gun. Hell, it's probably no coincidence that there are mics called shotguns. You wouldn't mess with someone with a gun so you'd better take that gun-shaped mic seriously. Really.

Second, you could take a Freudian view and see the phallic shape as making the user look powerful. After all, porn and fashion are built on fetishism and Freud argued that fetishism derives power from being misplaced phallic power. Check out this clip for Mercy by the wannabe Duffy and tell me she wouldn't look like a porno actress if you substituted her mic with a cock. (The opposite is also true, try substituting the knobs being fellated on porno covers with Shure SM-58s and it's like magic, the actresses look just like pop starlets!)



Third, the old fashioned mics give reference to the old fashioned singers that used them. Want to give the idea you're in the same league as Elvis or Frank Sinatra or whoever? Easy, use their props and if there's any room for doubt then add a bunch of attractive actors admiring the singer.

For an example of the latter, look at the earlier clip for Mercy by Duffy - which I'd guess must've failed to convince the younger audience because there weren't enough young people in the clip for them to feel interested.