Category Archives: Poetry

History, Poetry, Security

The Daily Show on the Irony of Art, but no Banksy

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I was a little disappointed with John Stewart’s piece on art authentication. While humorous, he attacked the notion of art and consumerism but skirted the more controversial subjects of graffitti and censorship.

It seems to me that Banksy would have been a better example than Van Gough or Pollock. He is apparently about to have an auction and many of his works are said to be worth hundreds of thousands, while at the same time others still brand his work as too controversial or just an eye-sore. His themes remind me of the sharp jabs of Tom Toles yet in a more public forum and without the consent of the people who own the canvas. On the flip side he does not charge for admission.

I would like to think it is a particular work or theme that is found objectionable, rather than the nature of the art form, but that is not the message from those involved:

A spokeswoman for Tower Hamlets Council said it had not thought of selling the potentially valuable artwork to help raise money for council services, but did not rule out such action being considered in the future.

[…]

Tower Hamlets councillor Abdal Ullah said: “We need to be clear here, graffiti is a crime.

“It spoils the environment, makes our neighbourhoods feel less safe, and costs thousands of pounds each year to clean – money that could instead be paying for valuable local services.”

It is not yet known how many of the artist’s works would be affected.

The future of a Banksy piece painted on a wall in Bristol recently went to public vote, with 97% of people saying it should be kept.

Perhaps, then, Banksy’s crime is not in the manner chosen to create art but in the message. My guess is that an authority has to be exceptionally confident and secure in its position to allow freedom of expression and creative works. The Tower Hamlets insecurity and subsequent reaction (on the premise of exerting control) could actually increase the value of Banksy works and raise support for graffitti.

BANKSY

The cost of preventing an immitator of Banksy is higher than most tagging artists since the originals come from stencil. Can you tell a real Banksy?

The Tower Hamlet could use this point to their advantage and host talent competitions to supplant Banksy’s stencils with local ones with more general appeal. On the other hand, his work is nothing if not controversial and sarcastic and so a mainstream competition might not have the appeal for rebellious “artists” — like most competitions in art, even Banksy could lose if the criteria includes making people comfortable. He certainly has critics:

Here’s a mystery for you. Renegade urban graffiti artist Banksy is clearly a guffhead of massive proportions, yet he’s often feted as a genius straddling the bleeding edge of now. Why? Because his work looks dazzlingly clever to idiots. And apparently that’ll do.

Clever to idiots? That about sums up the definition of something with broad appeal, no? How long did it take for Pollack and Van Gough to be seen as genius? Mainstream? How much longer would it have taken if they used graffitti as their medium rather than private canvas?

BANKSY

I love the “anti-climb paint” sign, almost as much as I like the rat characters themselves.

Here is an excellent commentary on the surveillance society in Britain, which has been unable to crack the identity of Banksy.

Poetry, Security

Stop all the clocks

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by W.H. Auden

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

I keep thinking about the ongoing noise of industrialism, the blaring pipes and mufflers of the brand-conscious consumerists, and wondering why silence is associated with mourning. At what point does the battle to outdo each other in noise become so overwhelming that it takes on the persona of despair and silence becomes the song of joyfulness? On the other hand, silence is given out of respect, so is noise a means of taunting and disrespect?

One thing is still for certain, while silence is power and comes from control, noise comes from a lack of control.

BART started work on its tracks between El Cerrito and Richmond earlier this week in an effort to quiet a high-pitched squeal grinding on residents’ nerves, according to a spokesman for the transit agency.

A machine that fixes noisy tracks at a rate of one-tenth of a mile each day is scheduled to work the line from Albany to Richmond, spokesman Linton Johnson said.

The work started after complaints mounted the past year, he said. The machine smoothes tiny ripples that form on the track over time, causing the noise when trains roll by.

Smell is another matter entirely, although Benjamin Franklin apparently did his part to discuss the two and recommend solutions. But seriously, on a related note (pun not intended), I found an interesting study in Biology Letters about crickets who silenced themselves to survive:

On the Hawaiian Island of Kauai, more than 90% of male field crickets (Teleogryllus oceanicus) shifted in less than 20 generations from a normal-wing morphology to a mutated wing that renders males unable to call (flatwing). Flatwing morphology protects male crickets from the parasitoid, which uses song to find hosts, but poses obstacles for mate attraction, since females also use the males’ song to locate mates. Field experiments support the hypothesis that flatwings overcome the difficulty of attracting females without song by acting as ‘satellites’ to the few remaining callers, showing enhanced phonotaxis to the calling song that increases female encounter rate. Thus, variation in behaviour facilitated establishment of an otherwise maladaptive morphological mutation.

Would humans have to adapt their mating behavior to compensate for a more quiet life? Imagine a night out that shuns loudness, but instead emphasizes silence, or even the delicacy of sound. Could muscle-car drivers, truckers and bikers survive without loud pipes? Will quality of sound ever supplant quantity at parties? No mourning, just joy at the beauty of quiet time. I predict that in the next ten years, quiet will become increasingly valued.

History, Poetry, Security

Espana En El Corazon

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from Espana En El Corazon (Spain in Our Hearts)
by Pablo Neruda
translated by Donald Walsh

Nothing, not even victory
will erase the terrible hollow of the blood:
nothing, neither the sea, nor the passage
of sand and time, nor the geranium flaming
upon the grave.

The Spanish Civil War generated a wealth of literature and art. In contrast, even in this age of information there seems to be very little escaping places like Darfur, Iraq or Afghanistan and making it to the mainstream media. Thank goodness for the individuals who took time to get their blogs flowing, like A Glimpse of Iraq:

Poetry is so central in Iraqi people’s sentiment and disposition that any glimpse of Iraq would be incomplete without some mention of it.

For centuries, poetry was the first religion for many people. People’s collective wisdom, their history and heritage, their values and ideals, their pride and achievements are all preserved in poetry lines.

You won’t find that recognition on CNN, or even most poetry sites in America.

Poetry, Security

Comoros wins Bank Note of the Year 2006

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The International Bank Note Society (IBNS) has just given the Bank Note of the Year award to the Banque Centrale des Comoros for their 1,000-franc note issued in 2006.

Comoroes1000FF

Comoroes1000FB

The IBNS Bank Note of the Year is awarded to the banknote which, in the eyes of the judges, has a high level of artistic merit, an imaginative design, and features that present the best of modern security printing (taking into account the value of the note). The Comoran 1,000-franc note impressed the judges with innovative design, well-balanced color, and sensible use of modern security features.

Here is the best part, in my opinion:

Poetry is common to the entire series of notes to which the 1,000 franc belongs, with a verse appearing on the front and the back of each note. The verse on the front of the 1,000-franc note can be translated from French as:

From our feelings, what you expect I understood
For it is a love that is so absolutely exclusive
That, not to lose you, I hereby consent.
Truthfully, it will be a love
That our times have never seen.

Continued on the back of the note is a further verse which translates as:

I claim these different names which are ours
and if I speak the rainbow
It is to better greet our Indian Ocean sea-mother
whose waves of pleasures brings
to insularity abundance and joy

The final line below the verse identifies the author, Mab Elhad, and the book in which his verse appears: Kaulu la Mwando (meaning First Word in the Comoran language). The book was published in 2004 and the verses of the author, a Comoran policeman, celebrate his Comoran life and nationality.

And then there are the security features:

Despite a low face value (approximately US$2.70 at current exchange rates), the 1,000-franc note sports an impressive array of security features. Portions of the design are printed with the intaglio process, imparting a tactile element to the raised ink, along with the latent image created by the BCC embossed above the signatures. Counterfeiting is made more difficult through the use of microtext, incorporation of a perfect-registration device, and the inclusion of Omron rings. The paper contains an embedded security strip that fluoresces under UV light, and a watermark of a crescent moon, four stars, and the letters BCC. Finally there is an iridescent band on the front of the note that can be seen only when tilting the note at an angle to the light.

Impressive indeed. Is it possible for the bill value to go higher due to the Bank Note of the Year award coupled with the high-tech security features? Clearly smaller circulation countries have an advantage as they can be more nimble with their designs and adoption of new technology. Large networks of legacy ATMs, for example, will probably never need to read Comorian denominations. But the “series of notes” comment is not lost on me.

It does not make a lot of sense (pun not intended) for currency in America to be so tired and stagnant while innovation abounds elsewhere in the world. From a national pride let alone security perspective the dollar series has been flat. Strange that credit cards can be issued in a million colors and patterns yet the new currency in America has barely changed in 60 years. With the life of an actual dollar bill of less than two years, one would think there could be more variety in the series.