THE is a tediously hip magazine by the Future Laboratory. It is free and apparently a quarterly, though it only has two issues out and I suppose it will probably not last out the year. We are told that it is about “showcasing the best design and trend ideas from around the world”, which sounds quite ghastly. And it is, quite. Rolodex Teens, the fashions of the Myspace generation; synthetics, in addition to being shiny and pretty, are more better than natural fabrics because they have a lower carbon footprint; random artcock where some guy plugs light sensors into a chair and calls it art; “Buenos Aires has gone mash-up”. Oy.
Still, it has the odd funny bit. Ever heard of smokeasies?
“We said : ‘Smokers worldwide are running out of space. Some governments and councils are even moving to stop people from smoking in their cars. Ingenious smokers, however, are coming up with new ways to beat the ban and get their hit.’ (The Future Laboratory Newsletter, Summer 2006)
Now : Smokeasies are popping up in no-smoking US cities such as Seattle and New York, as the illicit thrill of smoking in a bar evokes the seedy glamour of moonshine liquor during Prohibition. We are also seeing the rise of ‘smocial networking’, the new networks being built with the likeminded people that smokers meet while enjoying a quick drag outside bars and clubs.”
Of course, “smocial networking” makes me want to kill myself, or at least quit.
It is possible that the anti-migraine drugs are making me crankier than usual. “Irritability” is listed among the possible side effects.
Everyone! Let’s pretend the Earth is going to explode at midnight tonight!
Anton Kannemeyer’s been in the feeds lately, I think thanks to an exhibition of his work somewhere in darkest America. Kannemayer did a remake of the cover of Tintin in the Congo, seen here (this is what the original cover looked like). Fred de Vries has interesting commentary, including a quote from Kannemeyer on the subject:
And then there’s Tintin and the controversial Tintin in the Congo, which was recently banned in the UK because of its racist connotations. Kannemeyer has re-drawn the cover, calling it Pappa in Afrika. It features Tintin and his black chauffeur driving through a Sierra Leone-like landscape with of AK-47 toting soldiers, skulls, dead bodies and maimed people. Given Kannemeyer’s contrarian and irreverent past one would think his drawing is a stand against the political correctness that has recently engulfed western society. Instead his explanation is uncharacteristically sentimental.
“When I was in Berlin recently I bought a copy of Tintin in the Congo for my 2-year old daughter Anna. She loved the animals and seeing all the action. But then I realized there are certain stereotypes she cannot understand. Like she calls the black people monkeys. It puts me in a position where I don’t want her to grow up with those stereotypes and the idea that some figures are better than others. It’s very difficult to explain that to her, and find it problematic that that book is available to children without a context where it’s explained to them. So I did a parody of that cover, which triggered everything for this exhibition: looking more broadly at the white colonialist in Africa.”
