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Most and Least Wanted Paintings and Music: Noah's reviews
via Nick, Noah and I perused the survey-generated art.
The Song
Me: Noah, do you like the song?
Noah: Yeah!
Me: Which is your favorite part?
Noah: The one where it says "Christmas". [Later:] I love the wild part.
America's Most and Least Wanted Paintings
Me: Noah, do you like this one or this one better?
Noah: the first one.
Me: Why?
Noah: Because it looks more like it has goats and trees and stuff.
France's Most and Least Wanted Paintings
Me: Noah, do you like this one or this one better?
Noah: the second one.
Me: Why?
Noah: (Pointing to the abstract Christ figure and waving hand) because of this "djlbjlbjjgbllblg"...
Me: Can you elaborate on that?
Noah: Yeah!
Me: Go ahead.
Noah: I don't know what elaborate means.
Me: Well, what does it make you think of?
Noah: A dinosaur.
Holland's Most and Least Wanted Paintings:
Me: Noah, do you like this one or this one better?
Noah: the second one.
Me: Why?
Noah: Because it looks like a pig standing on the table.
Italy's Most and Least Wanted Paintings:
Me: Noah, do you like this one or this one better?
Noah: the second one.
Me: Why?
Noah: Because it's so scary and I like things that are scary.
Posted by benrosen at April 20, 2008 09:33 AM | Up to blogYou know, I like the Komar and Melamed pieces even better after reading this interview -- while it's a gag, it's also not entirely a gag, it's an authentic expression of frustration:
"Artists now - I cannot speak for all, but I have talked to many artists who feel this way--we have lost even our belief that we are the minority which knows. We believed ten years ago, twenty years ago, that we knew the secret. Now we have lost this belief. We are a minority with no power and no belief, no faith. I feel myself, as an artist and as a citizen, just totally obsolete. I don't know why I am here, what I am doing. What is so good about me doing this, or any other artist? Looking down the SoHo galleries, or going to the museums, you see contemporary things, and you say, Why? O.K., it can be done this way or that way, or this way, or in splashes or smoothly, but why? What the hell is it about?"
...and as such it rings very true...
Posted by: Benjamin Rosenbaum at April 20, 2008 12:17 PMIn the song, when the kids hollered: "Hey, everybody! It's Labor Day!" I laughed so long and loud that everyone in the office wanted to come and hear it.
No one else enjoyed it like I did, though. I think most couldn't hang in there long enough to get to Labor Day.
Posted by: Haddayr at April 20, 2008 05:10 PMI'm downloading the song right now; it sounds right up my alley. Hope it doesn't suck, but even if it does, that'll be okay.
peace
Matt
Wow... a child is almost like a really good Eliza program ;-)
Posted by: Ethan at April 21, 2008 05:13 PMHoly Chao! That song is off the hook, yo!
Posted by: Matt at April 21, 2008 08:21 PMNoah's comment about the dinosaur reminds me of a moment from my own childhood:
There was this game. It came with a bunch of crayons or crayon-like objects, and a bunch of maybe 4"x6" cards. Each card had an abstract collection of intersecting lines/spaces on it. To play the game, each player is given a secret word or famous person's name, and they have to color in the spaces on the cards in such a way as to suggest the word or name to the other person, who then has to guess what or who the colored-in card represents.
In one round of this game, I received the name "Buckminster Fuller." It was vaguely familiar (my father liked Fuller), but I knew nothing about him. I colored in the spaces in various shades of brown, and showed the card to my father.
He was, unsurprisingly, unable to guess who I was indicating.
Finally he asked who it was, and I said it was Buckminster Fuller. He asked why, and I explained that a buck is a deer, and that's brown, and a minister wears brown, so Buckminster should be brown.
I think that was the last (and probably only) time we played that game.
Posted by: Jed Hartman at April 24, 2008 05:59 AMI bet that game is more successful as a child-on-child sort of thing, than an adult-vs-child sort of thing. I'm Luke's principal translator, but most people think inside the box too habitually to understand a reference to "that thing with the long thing that lifts cars for smooshing?" F'r instance.
peace
Matt
