P/D3 Preview (a test with works in progress)

First of all, the images below are not finished. There's still probably another months worth of pondering, fussing and adjusting to do on all 48 of the new works that comprise Perfect/Defect 3 (Phase One - Collage Studies). I've just had a lot of people asking how the collages are coming along, so I though I'd post a few of the images along with all the titles. They are made from cut paper, glue, pencil and ink.

A link to my new art site featuring the entire 2010 P/D3 Suite will be provided when the dust settles at the beginning of the year.

LEFT: P/D3 > Exploiting Digital Behavior

P/D3 > Runner Request

P/D3 > Part Wash

P/D3 > An Elite Club of Billions

P/D3 > Winding Up Mechanical

P/D3 > Ambulance Chaser

P/D3 > The Unreasonable Man

P/D3 > The System Affects the Information that Travels Through it

LEFT: P/D3 > Knowing Wink

P/D3 > Paradox Network

P/D3 > Stealing Actualized Icons

P/D3 > Linear Thinking Trip-Switch

P/D3 > Nothing is Accomplished

P/D3 > A Symbol of Belonging

P/D3 > Surrender Your Information

P/D3 > Highly Resolved Ghost

LEFT: P/D3 > Divergence Toward Chaotic Attractors

P/D3 > Creating Circumstances 4 Error 2 Fill the System with Meaning

P/D3 > Opportunistic Species

P/D3 > Simultaneous Love and Loathing

P/D3 > Do the Hokey Pokey

P/D3 > I Blame the Pollen

P/D3 > 3G Mixed Reality Free Space

P/D3 > Atomic Bokeh

LEFT: P/D3 > Vulnerability Commerce

P/D3 > File and Soul not Found

P/D3 > Pack Mule

P/D3 > My Friend, Surveillance

P/D3 > Clipboard’n

P/D3 > Click n’ Fail

P/D3 > Crossing the Threshold of Sticky Potential

P/D3 > Comfortable Ambiguity

LEFT: P/D3 > Variance Police

P/D3 > The Way of Invisible Things

P/D3 > Clinically Proven

P/D3 > A Virtual Two by Four

P/D3 > The Importance of Measuring Feet

P/D3 > The Cost-Benefit Analysis of Balls

P/D3 > Activating the Intended and Unforeseen

P/D3 > Nagging Little Virtual Elements

LEFT: P/D3 > The Flaw Advantage

P/D3 > Pretty Morning Rainbow & Butterfly Pep Rally

P/D3 > Natural Selection Doesn’t Play Fair

P/D3 > The Eternal Return of the Unique Event

P/D3 > Confused Images Behind the Interface

P/D3 > Hole Dancing and Navigation

P/D3 > Removing Filters

P/D3 > Post-Digital Tendencies Emerge

Photo reuse

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Doing the Hokey Pokey Atomic Bokeh

For anyone that has followed my artwork for any length of time, blur is not an adjective that you might use to describe it. My tendency has always leaned towards an OCDish ultimate power of sharpness. Crisp lines and hard edges are what you get with Wayne's artwork.

So it make come as a complete surprise to some that I've had a perfect/defect epiphany and now am embracing an "imperfection in focus," or Bokeh.

Wikipedia explains Bokeh this way:

In photography, bokeh is the blur, or the æsthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image, or "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light." Differences in lens aberrations and aperture shape cause some lens designs to blur the image in a way that is pleasing to the eye, while others produce blurring that is unpleasant or distracting— "good" or "bad" bokeh, respectively. Bokeh occurs for parts of the scene that lie outside the depth of field. Photographers sometimes deliberately use a shallow focus technique to create images with prominent out-of-focus regions.

Bokeh is often most visible around small background highlights, such as specular reflections and light sources, which is why it often associated with such areas. However, bokeh is not limited to highlights, as blur occurs in all out-of-focus regions of the image.

The term comes from the Japanese word boke (暈け or ボケ), which means "blur" or "haze", or boke-aji (ボケ味), the "blur quality". The Japanese term boke is also used in the sense of a mental haze or senility

That's not to say that my new P/D3 works look entirely different from previous art that I've made; there's just a new element: images appropriated from nanotechnology.

The image above and left are examples of raw source material that is being used in portions of upcoming works.

I've simply added a layer of perception by adding fuzzy soft aspects to the field with (the usual suspects) competing sharp components. I've positioned my art to comment on the world that is captured in images from cameras (in addition to the previous hard edge of internet graphics and science textbook charts and graphs).

Apparently, to folks who travel in photographic circles, bokeh is all the rage. As blogger lauriewrites has written on her site:

It took me forever to ask what the HBW tag stood for on Flickr, and what it does is Happy Bokeh Wednesday, a weekly celebration of blurry backgrounds that never fails to blow my mind. Want more examples? There's Extreme Bokeh, Bokeh: Smooth and Silky, Bokeh of the Day and Bokeh for the Common Folk (that's a lot of bokeh.)

My wife believes that my new found love of out-of-focus imagery has more to do with the fact that I wear glasses now and am blind as a bat. Or perhaps, it's my ever growing "mental haze." Perhaps, she's right? I have become accustomed to the blur.

In any case, I'm excited that my new preliminary b&w collage studies (bokeh included) for P/D3 are nearly done. When I'm not busy putting my left foot in, then taking my left foot out (or, for that matter, spinning all about), I've been working diligently on creating Perfect/Defect 3 to the exclusion of having any life outside the home. Stay tuned for further updates and expect a new website (coming at the beginning of 2010!) to see and read about 48 new images available for purchase.

Vacationing with a Cardboard Chicken

I really must apologize. I've not been spending any real quality time on the computer [with my blog readers] for over a month. The frequency of my blog posts as dropped dramatically as of late.

I'm sorry. I'll try harder to be a better blogger.

Actually, I have a really good excuse...

I was on my very first trip to Europe!

Cluckers and The Leaning Tower of Piza

Just as some people might imagine that they were born during the wrong time in history, or that they were born in the body of the wrong gender or race, I have often thought that I was born on the wrong continent.

Traveling to Europe has always been at the top of the list of things that I wanted to do. I needed to find out if my perspectives about the USA were based in the fact that the metaphorical stork had placed me with the wrong parents.

Cluckers and Big Ben in London

The impetus to finally make the journey was exacerbated as a result of starting this blog (almost two years ago). My assumptions about my European sensibilities were somewhat confirmed, in that I regularly have received more hits from people on your side of the pond than mine. Could we be kindred spirits?

Cluckers in Amsterdam's Red Light District

What I discovered in nearly all of the countries that I visited was that I felt like I was finally at home. Everything made sense. The food and drink tasted better. Priorities seemed to be in the proper place. Mass transit and city planning was more efficiently laid out and conducted in spite of it being a much older place. It was cleaner and "greener." Many of the pressing social issues that continue to be ignored in America had apparently been resolved intelligently in Europe ages ago. The people around me on the streets seemed smarter, healthier, more attractive and polite (except, of course, for the conspicuous "ugly" American tourists).

Cluckers and the Arc De Triomphe Etoile in Paris

Somehow, a lack of consideration for your world, and fellow human beings hasn't been able to make the trip back across the ocean. People in Europe genuinely seem to be more concerned for others. They're not being regularly dosed with fear and pharmaceutical broadcasting. And, believe it or not, Europeans actually seem to appreciate art!

I know... it's totally wack!

The real point of this rant is that we should all know that the national conversation about healthcare in the USA is showing it's ignorance. Americans need to all have a first hand experience of other societal models before they accept the crap we're told to believe by our conservative leaders.

Cluckers at the Colosseum in Roma

I have a theory that because Europeans have more landmarks reminding them of human evils of the past, they have been forced to grow up and act like adults. We in America, on the other hand, are relatively free of historical perspectives asserting their lessons on our psyche, and correspondingly more childlike in our attention spans and expectations.

Perhaps after a few more centuries of accumulating 9/11 like monuments and poisoning our own population with bad food and empty promises, Americans will mature and finally act like responsible adults too?

An American Chicken with a Swiss Lion in Luzern

Sure, Europeans pay more taxes. But, the quality of their lives is much better. Their governments do a much better job of caring for all of their citizens. Companies can't exploit the population for profits to the same degree they do in America. Quality and cooperation is still a priority. They recognize that there's no pill, silver bullet or game show prize that will solve all their problems. They have been and are doing the hard work together to make the world a better place for everybody with an agenda that places quality of life first. If that's the evil Socialism that the Republican base in America repeatedly says it is so against, I can't help but wonder why? Could they possibly be getting paid off by big business to keep the status quo?

Cluckers whispers his own version of The Divine Comedy to Dante in Florence

And so... to all those flag-waving "red, white and blue" folks whose infantile response to my diatribe is to say "Why don't you move there if you like it so much?"... I say, you're gonna miss me when I take my cardboard chicken and go.

To see more pictures of Cluckers in Europe, click here.

To learn more about Cluckers, click here.

Remembrancer

In Remembrancer (2009) presented in The Taubman Museum of Art's MediaLab, Alberto Gaitán comments on the malleability of memory, the inherent loss of information when events are transcribed, the limitations placed on us by our subjectivity, how much is lost when we surrender our information gathering to trusted agents, and how recorded history is affected by these phenomena.

LEFT: Alberto Gaitán, Remembrancer
original configuration installed at Curator's Office, Washington, DC in 2007

The exhibition consists of three 'robotic painters' that perform according to information gathered using a round-the-clock connection to Internet news feeds from around the globe and local sensors. The program looks for the frequency of key words within three frames of reference and conflates the details of what's being written about them to the proportional drip of paint on a panel. There is a sound component as well that is reproduced through a speaker while the paint deposition process is taking place. The machines create a new row of paint drips every day. While some key words (e.g., birth, death, money) will be shared between the three machines, each will also use a set of key words more applicable to its frame of reference.

The machines use three colors: red, blue, and green. Red paint will represent local and regional events, green is assigned to global events, and blue will illustrate national events. The choice of these colors is significant as they are the three colors that are used to reproduce images on computer, mobile phone, and television screens and therefore are the component colors from which most of the news we receive is composed. In this way the exhibition breaks down the technique of image reproduction that is hidden from the great majority of users. In a similar mannerRemembrancer 2009 does not reveal the dynamic keyword lists it will be using.

"This piece is ultimately about loss," explains Gaitán. "Nobody has the capacity for total information awareness so we relinquish big chunks of our understanding to black boxes of knowledge whose provenance we don't fully understand. We make important decisions and base stacks of assumptions on these. Our memories are rife with inaccuracies, placed there by similar simplification processes that are part of how our minds work. Forgetting or ignoring becomes a significant aspect of remembering."

Alberto Gaitán: Remembrancer will run from September 4 - November 1, 2009 at the new Taubman Museum of Art (Roanoke, VA). The two final weeks of exhibition will be dedicated to showing the three finished panels.

For more information:

The Taubman Museum of Art
Alberto Gaitán
curator's office

http://www.designingimperfection.com/

CLICK

Glitch becomes everything (again)

Imperfection is the new perfection.

Can u appreciate the way of things?

Have some room in your life for a beautiful new book on the subject?

Or maybe you'd prefer to fling some paint, Jackson?

Personally, as the pixel replaces pigment, I find myself wondering if the element of chance as captured glitch can be faked? Is the human mind and hand capable of purposefully creating the flaw that clicks?

If you're like me, order it now at Amazon.com.

I'm looking forward to this book's long awaited September delivery.

ROBOTS ARE HERE!

I came across the following black copy at a site called used-robots.com. The links below will also bring you to their site. While I know nothing specifically about the company, I found the copy intriguing in a Star Wars geeky sort of way. Enjoy. Enjoy the purple robot related quotes and video too. The photo (LEFT) is of the most prized timepiece in my clock collection; a birthday gift given to me by my wife.

Below is a list of the top 10 most common mistakes companies make during a used robot purchase. RobotWorx recognizes these mistakes and makes sure that we give customers the best reconditioned robot systems on the market.

1. Buying a robot system without warranty.

Make sure there is a warranty offered with the used system. A used robot supplier should offer a 1 year warranty with certified parts and labor. Technical support should be offered with the warranty.

RobotWorx includes with every robot we sell a 100% parts / 100% labor warranty. Our robot integration packages come with a 1 year warranty. Our technical support lines are open Monday-Friday 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM , Eastern Standard Time.

Replicating assemblers and thinking machines pose threats to people and to life on Earth. Among the cognoscenti of nanotechnology, this threat has become known as the gray goo problem.

Eric Drexler

2. Buying a robot with no guarantee.

Many companies will buy a used robot as is, with no guarantee. A robotic system can cost many thousands of dollars and it is important that who ever you are buying the robot from that they guarantee that the robot will perform to your satisfaction.

We offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee with every robot sold. We guarantee that the robot will meet your satisfaction before it ships our facility. We will demonstrate all the features of the robot, weld parts and cycle the robot in your presence until you are satisfied with its performance.

Scientists are saying that in the future we will be able to have sex with robots. I tried that once. It was horrible. Right in the middle I had to call tech support.

David Letterman

3. Buying a robot from an auction.

This may appear to be a great bargain, but beware of the lack of warranty, no guarantee that it will even power up and the lack of past history. The unit might not even have all the necessary parts when you get it, so there's a great deal of risk when buying from auctions. Auctions are often a hassle because of the distance required to attend and the problems associated with shipping arrangements. There are a number of additional fees associated with auctions. Buyer premiums alone range 13-15%. Obtaining authorization for bidding is a nuisance and occasionally nearly impossible. Web auctions also feature annoying time delays that can cause you to lose an item by not registering your bid in time.

RobotWorx reconditions all their used robot systems, so our customers do not have to worry about the longevity of the robot. Our quotes offer a detailed list of costs associated with the purchase of the robot. Our sales team works with the customer to ensure they are getting the most effective system for their budget. Each system is custom-tailored to the needs of the individual customer.

I believe that at the end of the century the use of words and the general educated opinion will have altered so much that one will be able to speak of machines thinking without expecting to be contradicted.

Alan Turing, 1937

4. Buying a used robot from an online venue.

You will find many great bargains online, but beware of the lack of warranty, service, and support you are getting with the robot. Plus, there is no guarantee that the robot will work when you get it.

RobotWorx reconditions all their used robot systems, so our customers do not have to worry about the longevity of the robot. Our robots come with a warranty, and a satisfaction guarantee. We also include, integration, prototype tooling and training with different robot packages purchased. See our packages page for more details.

The machine has no feelings, it feels no fear and no hope ... it operates according to the pure logic of probability. For this reason I assert that the robot perceives more accurately than man.

Max Frisch, Homo Faber: A Report

5. Ignoring the spare parts policy of the supplier.

Some suppliers don't offer a spare parts policy with their used robot. Make sure to ask about parts exchange, and the suppliers ability to get the parts you need.

RobotWorx offers our customers 100% certified parts exchange during the warranty period. We guarantee our reconditioning process to be the highest in quality, therefore we will replace any parts during the warranty period.

Man is a robot with defects.

Emile Cioran, The Trouble With Being Born

6. Choosing a vendor without looking at their service department.

Is the supplier capable of servicing the robot? Make sure that the used robot vendor is able to service your system before buying it.

RobotWorx has an experienced technical support department that is on call for customer support. We are fully staffed with factory trained technicians who are on call to answer any questions that may arise. Our technical support lines are open Monday-Friday 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM , Eastern Standard Time.

You gotta be pretty desperate to make it with a robot.

Homer Simpson, The Simpsons

7. Not requiring the robot to be reconditioned.

Buying a used system that comes 'as is' leaves a lot of room for error. There are many parts of a robot that need to be replaced after it has been in production. A reconditioned system will last far longer than a used robot that is sold as is.

RobotWorx takes great pride in our extensive service department. Every part of the robot is tested to discover any excessive play in axes or repeatability problems. Each robot system is put through a 168-Point Inspection, and is thoroughly tested before it is ready for production.

Machines smart enough to do anything for us will probably also be able to do anything with us: go to dinner, own property, compete for sexual partners. They might even have passionate opinions about politics or, like the robots on Battlestar Galactica, even religious beliefs. Some have worried about robot rebellions, but with so many tort lawyers around to apply the brakes, the bigger question is this: Will humanoid machines enrich our social lives, or will they be a new kind of television, destroying our relationships with real humans?

Fred Hapgood, Discover Magazine, June 2008

8. Inheriting someone else's robot issues.

Buying a used robot system it is much like buying a used car. It is possible to inherit someone else's lemon. Individuals and auctioneers are not likely to be forthcoming about possible issues with a used robot either because of inexperience or for personal benefit.

RobotWorx offers robots that are reconditioned. With a warranty and satisfaction guarantee, our customers don't have to worry about the system they are getting. We offer a quality product, at a great price. See our integration packages for more options.

We are all robots when uncritically involved with our technologies.

Marshall McLuhan

9. Not checking the vendors resume.

There are many companies out there that sell used robots but few of them have the qualified technicians that can really help you when your robot is down, or you are having technical issues.

RobotWorx is fully staffed with quality engineers and technicians that can help customers with any robot problem. Our technicians are qualified to help with any questions that may arise. We are here to give training and support to our valued customers Monday-Friday 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM , Eastern Standard Time.

Bite my shiny metal ass!

Bender, Futurama

10. No documentation or training included:

Many used robots are sold without any documentation or training, leaving it to the customer to find their own information on the system and to seek outside help in learning how the robot system operates.

RobotWorx includes with every robot sold, manuals on how to operate and program the robot. Plus we will train your personnel at our facility and\or at your facility. We know that the more informed our customers are on the operation of a robot, the better they are at supporting their own needs and schedule and the more satisfied they will be with their purchase.

The Royal Mint's "Doh!"

Bigger valuation for faulty coins

A batch of 20p coins accidentally issued with no date on them could be worth £50 each, say coin collectors.

Tens of thousands of the coins have been produced in error by the Royal Mint at Llantrisant, near Cardiff.

They are said to be the first undated British coins to enter circulation for more than 300 years.

The Royal Mint said the issue had been resolved but wanted to reassure the public that the faulty 20p coins were still legal tender.

But with experts saying the coins could be worth up to £50 each, anyone finding an undated 20p may be reluctant to put it towards a loaf of bread.

The date on the new 20p was moved from the 'tails' to the 'heads' side when the country's coins were redesigned last year.

The coins without a date were created by accidentally pairing up the new 'tails' side with the old 'heads' - meaning no date appeared at all.

Legal tender

A batch of somewhere between 50,000 and 200,000 of the coins are thought to have entered circulation.

A Royal Mint spokesperson said: "The Royal Mint can confirm that a small number of new design 20 pence coins have been incorrectly struck using the obverse from the previous design, resulting in these coins having no date.

"The issue has now been resolved and the Royal Mint would like to reassure members of the public that these coins are legal tender." Nick Hart, of specialist coin collector company The London Mint Office, said: "Last year the Royal Mint changed all the designs of our circulating coinage, which is a tradition every 40 years or so.

"And when they did this they struck a new design on one side of the coin and the old design on the reverse of the coin and that's led to one of the sides being undated - which makes them incredibly valuable."

The London Mint Office said there had been two other coins with errors produced in the decimal era, but they did not enter circulation.

In 1983 some 2p coins were struck with a die that used the old terminology "NEW PENCE" instead of "TWO PENCE".

And in 1994 a gold £2 commemorative coin was issued with the wrong legend on the Queen's portrait side.

Many thanks to Ant Scott for the "heads up" on this story, which can be read in full by clicking here.

Freedom From Choice (is what we want)

I recently had a conversation with a friend about the joy of creating art with imposed constraints from others. "Working with limits is not unusual when you are doing a commission piece," repeating what I had told a newspaper reporter over a decade ago. "When the goal is to support, decorate or illustrate another person's vision, a certain paradoxical freedom grows from being restricted."

What follows is the statement I submitted back in 1995 to explain my thought process when making a public work for what was and is still referred to as "Congress' Airport."

Statement about my work and participation in Architectural Enhancement Program

New North Terminal / Washington National Airport

The imagery I created for three double-sided porcelain balustrade panels has no title. I approached the project in much the same way artists and artisans decorated buildings during FDR's New Deal program of the Works Projects Administration.

The stylized and patterned symbol stars, crescent moons, and liquid droplets were chosen because of there obvious reference to the sky. Additionally, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, Italian painters portrayed God's spirit or enlightenment shining on (and protecting) a holy person with the image of golden droplets falling on them in patterned lines from the sky.

The arched or curved olive branch is a variation on a leaf festoon, flipped upside down. Festoons, or hanging clusters, have been a popular decoration motif of pilaster and similar panels in the Roman Style. They were revived by the Renaissance, and have remained a classic theme to the present time. The olive branch owes its introduction into ornamentation to the symbolical significance assigned it by ancient Greeks. The olive is the symbol of peace and was sacred to Athena; olive branches were given to victorious heroes as they returned home. What better symbols to greet travelers as they disembark from their planes.

The curves, arches, glass and metal structure of Cesar Pelli's airport design reminds me of the Neo-classic Imperial style or a branch of the Beaux-Arts export style, popular in America at the turn of the twentieth century. A typical example of this style was New York's former Pennsylvania Station 1906-10 (now demolished), which was a knock-off of the Roman baths of Caracalla. Again, the terminal's architectural style and the shape of the balustrade panels was a major factor in my choice of an updated form of classical imagery.

Colors within the work were chosen to be compatible with preexisting colors of surrounding aspects of the terminal space; however, the combination of red, gold, black and green are a color scheme that I have commonly used in other works.

The smooth, shiny surface of the porcelain balustrade panels is an ideal material to translate the enamel paint and gloss varnish that I traditionally use to make my art on flat wood panels.

My new work for National Airport, and the subsequent Purple Gang III suite of twenty mixed media pieces, mark a return to the popular "Pattern and Decoration" style I employed ten years ago. The symbols within the work, still referencing both their former meanings and the architectural relief decoration in Washington's federal buildings, now have been placed in a new context of two dimensional comic colored cartoons. A checkerboard pattern background was chosen as a metaphor for the underlying games implicit in Washington's political deal making and in social interaction as a whole.

Repeatedly, my ideas have found their voice through what appears to be system-based art, reflecting the human desire to make sense of things and quantify the uncontrollable. Ornament and pattern often play a large role as an abstract representation of nature that affirms the human desire to impose precision and order on the environment. Human presence is always evident in my work by using conspicuously hand drawn designs and pointillist halftones, a process that produces a subliminal "human warmth and friendliness" that can't be generated with the forced precision of a computer.

I have always been an advocate for the necessity of public art. Any past civilization has primarily contributed to man's awareness and enrichment through it's culture. As an artist, I must seek out audiences in places other than museums if I truly expect to broaden visual arts role in our culture. Great art is a celebration of humanity; why not place it where it can challenge the mind and dazzle the senses of a larger population without the context of an art institution to grant it validity.

Wayne Edson Bryan - December 1995

Epilogue: Fast forward to July 2009, and I'm working on a suite of work for viewing on the publicly accessable internet that could be described as digital faux-glitch collage created pixel by pixel, layer by layer, dice throw by dice throw.

I've realized that it isn't that I dislike choice, but rather prefer the results when chance and lack of ego/will are healthy components in the art making process. In other words, I like the action of the hand; it's the decision by the brain that gives me problems.

White Lab Coats Don't Lie

I've long been fascinated by how scientific looking visuals (molecules, grids, graphs, technologically advanced machinery, etc.) are used in advertising to communicate the appearance of truth on a subliminal level. With my forthcoming suite of artwork (Perfect Defect 3) dealing specifically with how this plays out before our eyes everyday, I've been paying special attention to print and television advertising for pharmaceuticals and items that appeal to aging people wishing to improve their health (or the appearance of youth and good health). "Snake oil" or miracle cures have been around for a long time, but with pseudo-science now better than ever at pulling the wool over our eyes, it's become harder for us to determine which products we should approach with skepticism.

A recent Google search of "Science in Advertising," revealed this fascinating essay below at LabLit.com - the culture of science in fiction & fact, an awesome site that's definitely worth a visit.

While the following essay may not deal with the visual aspects of advertising, it does focus on yet another way that the corporate merchants and "clever advertising types exploit the feelings of helplessness many people have when confronted by scientific claims."

LEFT: Wayne Edson Bryan and Doug Brown, Liven Up Yoself - Rastas Foo's Positive Vibration Oil, 1991, four-color printed image reproduced as a quarter page advertisement in May/June 1991 edition of Museum & Arts Washington Magazine to promote an art exhibition by Rastas Foo.

Essay

Clinically unproven

On the misuse of science in advertising

Philip Strange 12 October 2008

Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it

- Stephen Leacock

Science sells, or at least science can induce us to buy. Those clever advertising types know this and exploit the feelings of helplessness many people have when confronted by scientific claims. One particularly insidious example of this is the use in advertising of the phrase Clinically Proven. This label conjures up for me an image of friendly scientists in white lab coats holding clipboards. They have performed a carefully controlled clinical trial and are smiling and giving the thumbs-up to the product they have tested. “Clinically proven” in an advertisement adds a veneer of respectability and reassures us about the safety of its product: it is using science to sell.

Of course, “clinically proven” should only be used for products that have undergone a full clinical trial. There are strict guidelines for conducting clinical trials to ensure that the results are meaningful. If the guidelines are not followed, the results are likely to be untrustworthy.

In a recent case, the “clinically proven” tag was used in advertising for RoC Complete Lift Cream, and this got its manufacturers, Johnson and Johnson, into deep water. Complete Lift Cream is a snip at £18 for a 50ml pot and is sold to make the skin look lifted and firmer, to “rediscover a younger looking you”. The advertisement showed the face of a woman holding a tape measure and a pot of the Complete Lift Cream with the claim: “measurable lift in just 8 weeks”.

A second scientific ploy used in advertising is to say that the product contains a special chemical. No one will know what this is but it increases the mystique attached to the product. The accompanying text for the RoC Complete Lift advertisement stated that the product “contains patented THPE which re-tightens and firms the facial contours by contracting skin cells...Clinically proven to work in just 8 weeks of use”.

Bafflingly, however, the small print below the advertisement contained the statement “It has not been proven to have a physical lift effect”. This was added, I believe, to show that the effects of the cream, if any, were not long-lasting but it ended up negating everything the advertisement claimed.

Following two complaints from members of the public, the Advertising Standards Authority requested the advertisement be withdrawn as they said it was misleading and the claims could not be substantiated. Johnson and Johnson said that the product had been tested in a clinical trial. The Advertising Standards Authority examined the trial and concluded that it had not been carried out properly as no objective data had been recorded and only one person was rating the effects and this was a Johnson and Johnson employee. The advertisement was withdrawn.

The story was run in several papers, including the Daily Mail where one sceptical reader suggested that if you want to tighten your skin, then rub raw egg white on it and let it dry! It also reminded me of the story I read about the model Twiggy who won’t do any filming before noon nowadays as she has to wait for her face to “lift” – which it apparently does naturally.

I came across another example of the use of pseudo-science to add gloss to a product when I was in France recently. I was wandering around a supermarket and I noticed that some of the fruit juice on sale has semi-scientific messages on the carton. For example the pineapple juice said “contains fibre – for inner comfort” and there was a mixture of apple, grape, cranberry, blackcurrant and blackberry juices with a message “contains antioxidants – to help in the struggle against cellular ageing”. This sounds good, but does it really mean anything?

There is a widespread belief that antioxidants can counteract various deleterious processes in the body including ageing, heart disease and cancer. You see this in the popular press and one of the outcomes of this belief is the huge consumption of antioxidant supplements. But is there any evidence that antioxidants really have these beneficial effects? This has been addressed by the Cochrane Collaboration (an independent foundation) who analysed the results of a number of trials of antioxidant supplements and concluded that far from being beneficial, most of them had no effect and some of them might actually be harmful. So, based on the evidence, antioxidant supplements do not have beneficial effects.

This is all terribly confusing and to use these marketing tactics plays upon some of our deep insecurities. There is huge pressure in Western society for women to appear young and beautiful and the Complete Lift Cream takes advantage of that. We also want to live long lives untroubled by illness and this makes us easy prey for those who talk about the benefits of antioxidants.

What can be done? Not much I fear. This sort of thing will continue to occur and pseudo-scientific messages will be used to sell cosmetics and food. But we can try to be watchful for these claims. It is unlikely that a cream will lift your face so don’t be taken in. At least the Advertising Standards Authority is there to help in these cases.

Several newspapers derided Johnson and Johnson over this advertisement and ran critical pieces. Despite this, the same papers are happy to run crass science stories on a regular basis. Underlying all of this is the poor knowledge of science in the general population. This causes people to react with fear and awe when presented with science and makes them easy prey for the advertisers.

Related information:

Editor's note: A distinction should probably be drawn between food and drink that naturally contains antioxidants, and pills and supplements containing these compounds. There are many food scientists studying the link between consumption of antioxidants and human health who do indeed believe that antioxidant-rich foods have proven benefits to health, and a large number of peer-reviewed papers are published in the literature each month on the topic. So the jury is still out on whether consumption of antioxidant-containing food and drink (as opposed to supplements) is good for you – to lump them in with bogus facelift creams might be a bit premature.

Philip Strange is Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Reading. His research concerns the mechanisms of drug action. He also enjoys teaching, trying where he can to interest students in the wider aspects of their science.

A Dream Realized

When I was in my late teens, I regularly fantasized that someday I'd be designing the art for album covers.

I used to have this big, thick, record album-sized square book on the history of album art with hundreds of full-color illustrations. It chronicled every significant album from the 40's through to the present day, which then was the mid-70's. I would love to study every picture and dream of what artwork I would create for my favorite rock and roll band's future LPs.

Back then, it seemed a smarter choice to make art for my peers on packaging for vinyl records than to pursue creating art for galleries and museums. Album art ultimately had a more intimate connection to my friends memories and daily lives and surely a larger audience than a painting in a museum would ever have.

And, I love all kinds of music! While my desires about what kind of art to make and perceptions about museums have changed, I still can remember specifically what music I was listening to while creating each work I've made during the past few decades.

LEFT: Wayne Edson Bryan, artwork for disc and opposite inside image of music CD: Macro, 2009

I'd like to thank Jay Hixson for giving me the opportunity to finally fulfill a dream. I'm still attracted to the idea of creating intellectually challenging art for the masses, and hopefully I'll be doing more design work that integrates cultural icons, sound and coolness on the Internet. I'm also quite proud that the first album which featured my artwork is such awesome music.

LEFT: Jay Hixson, artwork for front and back cover of music CD: Macro, 2009

The following is excerpted from the Official Press Release for the album:

Subliminal Rape is releasing a fourth and perhaps final album: Macro, a harbinger of the next evolutionary step in electronic music and the newest mutated strains of techno. Featuring artwork by Jay Hixson and Wayne Edson Bryan, Macro is available beginning July 7th through Myopic Media, as well as digital distribution on iTunes and Amazon.com.

Macro showcases exceptionally smooth grooves sandwiching mind melting glitchy techno and experimental compositions with harmonics that vibrate your cerebral cortex like an interstellar octopus sucking on your brain. Reactions from testing on small children and local DJ's has been astounding. "I'd steal it from the internet," says an world renown DJ specializing in minimal and tech-house. Beta testing by music teachers received this analysis from elementary students: "This composer uses raindrops and a modern beat, plus tin cans. It is cool, fun and full of rhythms." - anonymous 5th Grader. A second grade student correctly identified that the album featured the fourth dimensional sounds of time-traveling "Jello cubes bouncing."

Subliminal Rape is the craft of Jay Hixson, a former music conservatory student, composer, producer, award-winning graphic designer and artist. Consistently pushing the boundaries of electronic music by abusing obsolesent music software: Subliminal Rape embodies and satirizes the contradictions, hype and hypocrisy of mass media and pop culture. With musical inspiration ranging from Autechre, Bach and Coil to the likes of Skinny Puppy, Frankie Bones and Einsturzende Neubauten: Subliminal Rape is at once smooth, brutal and full of raw emotion.

Already receiving a warm reception from music fans after a debut on extlabs radio, Macro is set to overload the arsenal of DJs and mutate the brainwaves of audiences everywhere.

For more information, promo requests, interviews or other inquiries please contact:

Myopic Media

3110 Mount Vernon Ave. #1110

Alexandria, VA 22305

contact@myopicmedia.com

www.myopicmedia.com

Perfect Defect Celebrity Personified

In case you hadn't heard, Michael Jackson Died.
I'm telling you now, cause I thought you'd appreciate being in the loop.

A Perfect Defect Freakshow for a Perfect Defect World

I don't think that there has been (or will ever be) another celebrity that seems so conspicuously screwed up. He wore his self-loathing for everyone to see. He indulged in self-mutilation in a quest for perfection. A ground-breaker, multi-millionaire, Peter Pan, junkie, gender and race bender, pedophile and master showman ... he was the paradoxical product of too much and not enough.

I actually heard someone say on TV that "Wacko Jacko" was the most famous person in the world! I also heard that he was planning a big comeback. Does death qualify? Clearly, he's never been more popular.

Will we ever feel so comforted by our normalcy in comparison again?

The Manchurian Primate

Can something positive come out of a negative? I'd like to think so.

I've always believed that there may be some sort of stimuli out there in the universe that we have yet to be exposed to... and that when experienced will trigger a response in our subconsciousness making us all wiser and more considerate people.

I imagine that there will be a huge fear component to it, not unlike witnessing the bomb being dropped on Hiroshima, or the World Trade Center falling or the horrors of WWII concentration camps, only it would have to be even more intense to make the permanent positive change happen that didn't occur after any of those previously mentioned human low points. Like some kind of corrective spanking, this pending super-slap of terror will help us all wake up and realize how we are all wasting time being the greedy, manipulative and egotistical creatures that we are.

Do you think positive change is possible; and what is it going to take?

New Research Shows Evolution Buried Post-Hypnotic Suggestions in Our Behavior

Evolution has hidden post-hypnotic suggestions in your behavior. You may think you're the absolute master of your emotions, but that whole "consciousness" thing is just a thin scraping of self-awareness over a huge network of evolved drives and compulsions. If you can honestly say you're not affected by your subconscious wiring then we're flattered, because we didn't think many Buddhas read this site.

ABOVE: Purple Gang III / Ghosts / St. Crispin's Day, 1995, mixed media, 45" x 45" x 7/8"

Some excellent experiments in behavioral research were conducted by Professor Susan Mineka in the eighties. She worked with monkeys and videotapes, and unlike most recorded work featuring monkeys from the eighties, hers did not feature skateboards, wacky escapes from inept hitmen or even a single harebrained scheme to raise funds for the local youth center. It was about fear.

Wild monkeys are deathly afraid of snakes - to the point where they'll starve to death rather than reach across even a fake snake to get food. Since learning this fear by experience is a literally short-lived solution, this fear was thought to be hereditary. Monkeys born in captivity exhibited no such fear, however, which seemed to hole the hereditary idea - until Mineka got together some primates for the ultimate horror movie.

By showing some monkeys footage of a wild monkey utterly terrified of snakes, she triggered the same hysterical responses in those who had never seen the object of fear, would never see it and were never going to be at any risk from it. We can't comment on whether the Department of Homeland Security read this research. Further, attempts to trigger a fear of flowers by showing fake footage of a monkey scared of plants failed. It seemed that the "snakes suck" wiring was always there, but until it was externally triggered it never manifested.

The same research also showed how to combat these phobic trip-switches: by showing them a monkey that wasn't scared of snakes, even if that was a fake monkey, the terror-reaction was strongly reduced. Which technically means you could make a child immune to letting them watch Chuck Norris movies when young. Because all these phobic-factors seem as applicable to humans as they are to other primates, with applications in child-rearing and anxiety management. They weren't just doing this research because somebody wanted the job "monkey frightener."

Originally posted by Luke McKinney on The Daily Galaxy.

Purrfect Defect: CooloCat's Top Ten Ways to Succeed in Business Without Really Working

10. Focus all of your time and attention on hugging the cartoon management bosses, giving them tastee snacks and telling them what they want to hear, regardless if it's true or not. Appear to be the answer to their desires.

9. Frequently complain that you're so busy making people smile and being cute that you have no time for breaks, in spite of the fact that you are taking dozens of breaks everyday.

8. If you get to the Pretty Morning Rainbow and Butterfly Pep Rally late, slowly squeeze your way through the animated character crowd until you're standing next to the head honcho. If you can crawl into their lap, go for it!

7. Send endless emails about all the merriment you've accomplished during your shift. You don't really have to do anything, just say that you are.

6. Rearrange your schedule so that you're not around when excessive cheerfulness and heavy lifting is required.

5. Carry a clipboard and pose in a way that makes you look like you're doing love research.

4. Why actually work at making customers glad when you can endlessly talk about the delight you're planning on distributing to the children of the world soon with everyone at the workplace. When cartoon peers offer good ideas, pass them on to the cartoon management boss as yours.

3. If you block your coworkers (especially that sappy Kitty) from completing their appointed gleeful tasks, the fact that you're goofing off is less noticeable.

2. Go as slow as possible. There's no spirit raising job that can't be done in ten steps instead of one. And, there's a good chance that you'll forget to finish if you stretch it out enough... that means less work!

1. If you absolutely have to work and spread some joy and happiness, spread it in such a way that forces everyone around you to trip over it. Let everybody know that everything is about you!

Drawing of Coolocat courtesy of SubliminalJ

Goodbye Kitty

Since we last checked in with Kitty, things unfortunately have only gotten worse. She now is wandering the streets in a daze, begging for "loose love" to feed her "cheerful habit." She's lost a lot of weight and started muttering to herself while twitching erratically. Her now hourly OCD'ish licking, grooming and coughing up fur balls has escalated to new levels of neurosis! Poor Kitty!!! Occasionally, with her Hello Squeegee in hand, she's even been seen spitting on cars at red lights, then offering to clean their windshields for "goodness sake"! It all started when "Silly Sanrio" asked "that Dooshibag" CooloCat to join the cast of lovable cartoon characters. "I had to shay goobye to 'eem," Kitty exclaims with several blinking tics and a cute but urgent squeaky mumble reminiscent of Tourette Syndrome.

Assholes of Nature: Opportunistic Organisms

A: It all depends on how you look at things...

When observing human behavior, we often judge others who act in a aggressive manner as being rude. The pushy, greedy, back-stabbing and manipulative folks may seem to have a social defect from our point of view, yet as often is the case, they end up on top. Why? Is their perceived flaw actually an advantage?

While I'm in no way advocating for giving up on human kindness, consideration, empathy and politeness, I mention the above because I also am constantly frustrated when decent people are taken advantage of by opportunistic individuals. Unfortunately, just as in nature, people that have a sympathetic and loving instinct can easily be preyed upon, as they posses a vulnerability to exploit.

Q: Should success, conquest, superiority and survival be somehow tied to the concept of perfection in our perceptions?

Opportunistic organisms commonly refer to animals and plants that tolerate variable environmental conditions and food sources. Some opportunistic species can thrive on almost any available nutrient source: omnivorous rats, bears, and raccoons are all opportunistic feeders. Many opportunists flourish under varied environmental conditions: the common house sparrow (Passer domesticus) can survive both in the warm, humid climate of Florida and in the cold, dry conditions of a Midwestern winter. Aquatic opportunists, often aggressive fish species, fast-spreading plankton, and water plants, frequently tolerate fluctuations in water salinity as well as temperature.

LEFT: Jaded Search, 1998, enamel and varnish on birch plywood, 23" x 31"

A secondary use of the term "opportunistic" signifies species that can quickly take advantage of favorable conditions when they arise. Such species can postpone reproduction, or even remain dormant, until appropriate temperatures, moisture availability, or food sources make growth and reproduction possible. Some springtime-breeding lizards in Australian deserts, for example, can spend months or years in a juvenile form, but when temperatures are right and a rare rainfall makes food available, no matter what time of year, they quickly mature and produce young while water is still available. More familiar opportunists are viruses and bacteria that reside in the human body. Often such organisms will remain undetected with a healthy host for a long time. But when the host's immune system becomes weak, resident viruses and bacteria seize an opportunity to grow and spread. Thus people suffering from malnutrition, exhaustion, or a prolonged illness are especially vulnerable to common opportunistic diseases such as the common cold or pneumonia.

Adaptable and prolific reproductive strategies usually characterize opportunistic organisms. While some plants can reproduced only when pollinated by a specific, rare insect and many animals can breed only in certain conditions and at a precise time of year, opportunistic species often reproduce at any time of year or under almost any conditions. House mice (Mus musculus) are extremely opportunistic breeders: they can produce sizeable litters at any time of year. Opportunistic feeding aids their ability to breed year round; these mice can nourish their young with almost any available vegetable matter, fresh or dry.

The common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) is also an opportunistic breeder. Producing thousands of seeds per plant from early spring through late fall, the dandelion can reproduce despite competition from fast-growing grass, under heavy applications of chemical herbicides, and even with the violent weekly disturbance of a lawn mower. Once mature, dandelion seeds disperse rapidly and effectively, riding on the wind or on the fur of passing rodents. The common housefly (Musca domestica) is also an opportunistic feeder and reproducer—it can both feed and lay eggs on almost any organic material as long as it is fairly warm and moist.

Because of their adaptability, opportunistic organisms commonly tolerate severe environmental disturbances. Fire, floods, drought, and pollution disturb or even eliminate plants and animals that require stable conditions and have specialized nutrient sources. Fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium), an opportunist that readily takes advantage of bare ground and open sunlight, spreads quickly after land is cleared by fire or by human disturbance. Because they tolerate, or even thrive, in disturbed environments, many opportunists flourish around human settlements, actively expanding their ranges as human activity disrupts the habitat of more sensitive animals and plants. Opportunists are especially visible where chemical pollutants contaminate habitat. In such conditions overall species diversity usually declines, but the population of certain opportunistic species may increase as competition from more sensitive or specialized species is eliminated.

Because they are tolerant, prolific, and hardy, many opportunistic organisms, including the house fly, the house mouse, and the dandelion, are considered pests. Where they occur naturally and have natural limits to their spread, however, opportunists play important environmental roles. By quickly colonizing bare ground, fireweed and opportunistic grasses help prevent erosion. Cottonwood trees (Populus spp.), highly opportunistic propagators, are among the few trees able to spread into arid regions, providing shade and nesting places along stream channels in deserts and dry plains. Some opportunists that are highly tolerant of pollution are now considered indicators of otherwise undetected chemical spills. In such hard-to-observe environments as the sea floor, sudden population explosions among certain bottom-dwelling marine mollusks, plankton, and other invertebrates have been used to identify petrochemical spills around drilling platforms and shipping lanes.

For more information on opportunistic organisms, click here.