MEDIA ROOTS- Aphex Twin’s full length video of the song Windowlicker. This is one of the longest, best, most hilarious parody (but not) videos of all time by the man who changed electronic music forever. Directed by video mastermind Chris Cunningham.
Check out more of Aphex Twin’s genuis at http://www.drukqs.net/
MEDIA ROOTS- Freakin’ awesome music video for Beck’s song Cell Phone’s Dead. The video is just another stunning visual display and brilliant concept from multi-talented Michel Gondry. Check out http://www.michelgondry.com/
Also, more about Beck and his addicting beats at http://www.beck.com/
The Roots of Heaven, 2009 (107 x 107 x 13 cm)
Acid free 120 gsm paper, glue, acrylic paint and wooden frame
White Hand, 2007
Acid free A4 115 gsm paper and glue
Hanging Image, 2008 (139 x 107 x 13 cm)
Water colour and pencil on 120 gsm acid free paper, glue and oak frame
Performance festival Amorph in Helsinki, August 29-31 2003
2 x 3 x 3 meter floating Castle made of white polystyrene.
DESIGN BOOM– Danish artist Peter Callesen doesn’t so much create works on paper, but rather works from paper. He uses paper as his medium, creating sculptural works by folding paper. But his work is more complicated than than cutting and pasting pieces of paper. Each work is made by cutting a single sheet and using only the removed paper to create figures or buildings. According to Callesen, “My paper works have been based around an exploration of the relationship between the two and three dimensionality. I find the materialization of a flat piece of paper into a 3D form almost a magic process.”
To check out more of Peter Callesen’s intricate and fascinating paper pieces along with performance art, installations and other splendorous things, visit http://www.petercallesen.com/index.html
Acid-free 120 gsm paper, glue, acrylic paint and wooden frame
MEDIA ROOTS- Mark Jenkins’s work with inserting the human form into settings that are jarring and unsettling- like digging through a garbage can, dead face down in a riverbank, or a suicidal girl atop a billboard, calls into question the relationship human beings have with each other in big cities. Hundreds of people walk busily by his displays and don’t give them a second look. What does that say about our society? Nonetheless, his art is extremely provocative and fun to follow.
Winston-Salem, NC
Prato, Italy
Washington, DC
Malmö, Sweden
Check out more at http://www.xmarkjenkinsx.com/
TIMES OF INDIA– US President Barack Obama has signed a $680 billion defence appropriations bill with one provision giving commanders the ability to pay Taliban members to switch sides, but some experts feel the programme may buy only temporary loyalty.
The payments to Taliban would be made under a Taliban reintegration provision under the Commander’s Emergency Response Programme (CERP), which is now receiving $1.3 billion in the bill pay for military operations in the 2010 fiscal year, signed by Obama on Wednesday.
CERP funding is also intended for humanitarian relief and reconstruction projects at commanders’ discretion.
The buyout idea, according to Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is to separate local Taliban from their leaders, replicating a programme used to neutralise the insurgency against Americans in Iraq.
“Afghan leaders and our military say that local Taliban fighters are motivated largely by the need for a job or loyalty to the local leader who pays them and not by ideology or religious zeal,” Levin said in a Senate floor speech Sep 11.
“They believe an effort to attract these fighters to the government’s side could succeed, if they are offered security for themselves and their families, and if there is no penalty for previous activity against us.”
The top commander in Afghanistan has backed the plan for the Taliban. “Most of the fighters we see in Afghanistan are Afghans, some with (a) foreign cadre with them,” said Gen. Stanley McChrystal in a July 28 Los Angeles Times interview.
Most are not ideologically or even politically motivated, he said in the interview.
“Most are operating for pay; some are under a commanders charismatic leadership; some are frustrated with local leaders.”
But Nicholas Schmidle, an expert on the Afghanistan-Pakistan region for the non-partisan New America Foundation, cited by CNN said that while the plan has a “reasonable chance for some success”, the old Afghan saying – “You can rent an Afghan, but you can’t buy him” – will eventually be borne out.
“So long as the Americans are keenly aware of this, you’re buying a very, very, very temporary allegiance,” he said. “If that’s the foundation for moving forward, it’s a shaky foundation.”
CNN security analyst Peter Bergen said the idea of paying off Taliban members to quit is nothing new. “There’s been an amnesty programme for low-level Taliban in place for many years now and thousands of people have taken advantage of it,” he said.
© COPYRIGHT TIMES OF INDIA, 2010
