Recently I moved from London to Vancouver. Good times. However, the change of physical scenery also meant a change in the internet ads I found coming my way. Where banners in England offered me various swag for only £9.99 per month, they were now offering me something very similar for only $14.99 a month. I say very similar – everything was more aggressive, less subtle and often put a far more negative spin on the world. Think “YOUR HOME IS AT RISK. PROTECT YOUR FAMILY NOW FOR ONLY $14.99 PER MONTH!!!” etc.

Something had to be done.

Lucky for me a righteous dude named Wladimir Palant has invented Adblock Plus! An add-on for Firefox, this little beauty knows the web addresses for advertisements and zaps them. Instead of hot singles or cheap drugs or personal injury lawyers, instead I see soothing white space. A lot less visual noise, and a lot more of my precious attention focused where it should be. This program has seriously changed my virtual life for the better.

Here’s the link -> https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865

Goodness me, where to begin? When I first saw this I was at a loss for words, and I still am really. Simultaneously promising me hot Korean women and hot Korean nukes? This is a faliure on so many levels.

This is a perfect example of how dumb our ‘smart’ advertsing can be. What appears to have happened is that the ad banner software has taken key words from the article and displayed an advert with matching key words. I’m sure that it works very well for the majority of the time, but this slip-up reminds us that a computer algorithm is not responsible, not sympathetic and not intelligent. By allowing computers to make choices that a person should be making, the Guardian newspaper has here allowed itself to look foolish, and undermined both its ability to report the news and its authority to advertise.

Before you go, some homework questions to answer:

1. What does this image say about our basic interests, and how those interests are fed by the news media?

2. What does this image say about our perception of North Korea, and it’s place in the world?

A quick note: I took this screen grab on the 23rd of May 2009 on a computer in Canada. It may not still exist as pictured here, and viewing the page from a different country may not show the same ads.

Head over to the ever excellent Guardian newspaper website for this slideshow of  great environmental advertising, compiled by Swiss activists ACT Responsible. There are some ‘Wow!’ moments, some striking imagery and some great lateral thinking. It is heartening to know that sharp minds are fighting for change.

I have to say I feel that relentless, pervasive advertising is a key pillar of the constant, blind growth that has got us into our current environmental/economic shambles. (Would our society be so carelessly materialistic if screen and print didn’t constantly remind us to be carelesley materialistic?) Therefore it seems a little rich for big ad agencies to greenwash themselves with a couple of briefs for Greenpeace after years of fighting for the dark side. However I also feel that big change can happen in small steps, and these ads are at least a small step in the right direction. So guys you are still on the naughty list but at least a little further from the top.

Enjoy the images!

JR is an artist from France, and his thing is to paste huge, striking portraits of people onto houses, museums, trains, viaducts…

He says of himself  “I’m more a wallpaper guy than a photographer. The whole work is about pasting it in places where it makes sense.”

I love this work because it liberates art from the galleries; this art makes an effort to come into your space rather than the other way around. You don’t need to take a special trip to see it, and no entrance fee is required. It provokes and inspires more people than it ever could if it was safely stored in a venerable institution. This is street art of the best kind.

I strongly believe that our constructed landscape should be art – practical when needed but also beautiful, stimulating, even challenging. JR has proved that a little bold creativity and technical application can transform the regular into the spectacular. The function of the bricks and mortar in these houses have been elevated, so that they now exhilarate the mind as well as sheltering the body.

Take a look at JR’s website -> http://jr-art.net/

I first heard about him on this BBC special report -> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/8091890.stm

And just in case the film stirred your inner eco-warrior (I know it did mine) here is the link for the Greenpeace website. Sign up for the newsletter, you never know where it might lead!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2009/may/31/nick-broomfield-kingsnorth

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/

The Soviet-era statue Worker and Kolkhoz Woman has always fascinated me. I see it as a kind of counterpoint to New York’s Statue of Liberty, a big hunk of industrial strength communism in contrast with the more subtle curves and classical lines of democracy (if you can call a 300ft tall green lady subtle). The statue normally stands in Moscow and you can click this Wikipedia link to see it in all of its OTT glory.

This discovery for the Keep Pile has made it even more interesting for me – it appears that the statue has been cut into bits and put into storage for cleaning, but never reassembled due to budget cuts. The original plan was to restore it to glory, but these best intentions have instead left it obliterated and in limbo. It looks as if it has been put through a surrealist cheese-grater. It has been remixed, abstracted and re-presented in a compelling new way. It is an unintentional work of cubism – a ‘happy accident’ as my art tutor would say.

The core value of the ‘Soviet Realist’ style was to be purely figurative and teleological – the complete opposite of the state in which the statue now exists. You could now see this statue as an allegory for the Western victory in the Cold War – the ordered Soviet system has collapsed and capitalist abstraction has replaced it, claiming the sculpture as a prize and re-forming it in its own disjointed, chaotic image.

Personally I think that it looks amazing. All credit to the Russian photographer who has documented this strange, stunning sight. Follow the link below for the many large and excellent pictures.

The link -> http://community.livejournal.com/ru_sovarch/175556.html

That previous post was far too intellectual. So as a counterpoint I present to you the undignified tale of a lot of whale, a lot of dynamite and not a lot of thinking. The reporter really does a fine job, considering the circumstances…

New York Cover

Cmd-T is a very useful shortcut. I use it every time I use my computer. It allows me to open a new tab in my web browser, allows me to investigate and explore and change direction whilst still working on my original task. If I’m reading an article and need to open wikipedia, for example, or if an email sparks off an idea in my brain, Cmd-T is there to help. However, within a few clicks I often find myself a long way from where I started. My attention is divided. The ‘T’ might well stand for ‘Tangent’.

In his thought provoking article Sam Anderson examines the influence of  new technology on the way we find, analyse and absorb information.  He explores the new ‘attentional landscape’ and asks whether we are now living in a state of ‘continuous partial attention’.  Can we really thrive on the internet, or do we simply wander around aimlessly, our minds frazzled by the constant sensation?

The article itself is a good example of how fascinating a wandering focus can be; Buddhist Monks, Twitter and the Boston Molasses Disaster all feature. It seems that there is a fine line between finding buried treasure and simply digging in the mud.  So close your tabs, minimise your IM and turn off your iPhone. Take a look at the article – your attention is precious and it certainly got me thinking about how I spend mine.

The link ->http://nymag.com/news/features/56793/