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THAT THING

While contemporary culture is bombarded with images, an artist’s preoccupation still lies in translating abstract ideas into the material world.  The featured artists wrestle with transforming the mundane into the metaphysical while pointing out the redemptive quality of everyday things. Working within the traditions of photography, sculpture, installation and painting, the selected work displays a yearning for the concrete while reflecting on the transitory and ephemeral nature of our surroundings. Despite the diverse media and content, these four artists pay close attention to surface, texture and the inherent colors of their materials. The practice of creating in of itself becomes a meditation on the actual world, while the physical materials that each artist employs turn out to be the thing carrying the abstract.

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- Lucy Kim, Curator Statement, CultureHall Preview/Feature Issue #39

[In her interdisciplinary studio practice Lucy Kim navigates the gap between the persuasiveness of consumer culture and the literal traps of visual communication.  Drawing her inspirations from such diverse sources as legal transcripts, advertisements, death penalty cases and window displays, Kim creates paintings, sculptures, videos and site specific installations out of aluminum foil impressions of everyday objects and surfaces.  In her piece The Necklace, Kim molded a head and bust of a mannequin, painted it trompe l'oeil and then crushed the foil cast by embedding it in a concrete block. Through crumpling the flimsy foil under the heavy concrete pour, the bored and wistful look in the model's eyes is transformed into a ghoulish parody of glamour and desire.  Kim's interpretations of consumerism have a whimsical, uncanny frankness, while her own interest in "the stuff" as raw material is far more ambivalent than a first glance suggests.] (From the press release)

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ENVIRONMENTAL NOTES:

• Artificial persons don’t care if you end up sleeping in a cardboard box - unless it helps their bottom line.
• Artificial persons don’t care about your brakes failing - unless it hurts their bottom line.
• Artificial persons don’t care if you get the wrong medicine dosage - unless it hurts their bottom line.
• Artificial persons don’t care if you’re gay or straight - unless it helps their bottom line.
• Artificial persons don’t care if your child gets left behind - unless it helps their bottom line.
• Artificial persons don’t care how much money you have to buy food - unless it helps their bottom line.
• Artificial persons don’t care about Israel - unless it helps their bottom line.
• Artificial persons don’t care about America - unless it helps their bottom line.
• Artificial persons don’t care if you protest - unless it hurts their bottom line.
• Artificial persons don’t care about the Post Office - unless it hurts their bottom line.
• Artificial persons don’t care about New York’s fiscal crisis - unless it helps their bottom line.
• Artificial persons don’t care about financial collapse - unless it hurts their bottom line.
• Artificial persons don’t care about brain tumors in real people - unless they help their bottom line.

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Management
Main article: Treatment of Tourette syndrome

The treatment of Tourette’s focuses on identifying and helping the individual manage the most troubling or impairing symptoms. Most cases of Tourette’s are mild, and do not require pharmacological treatment; instead, psychobehavioral therapy, education, and reassurance may be sufficient. Treatments, where warranted, can be divided into those that target tics and comorbid conditions, which, when present, are often a larger source of impairment than the tics themselves. Not all people with tics have comorbid conditions, but when those conditions are present, they often take treatment priority.

There is no cure for Tourette’s and no medication that works universally for all individuals without significant adverse effects. Knowledge, education and understanding are uppermost in management plans for tic disorders. The management of the symptoms of Tourette’s may include pharmacological, behavioral and psychological therapies. While pharmacological intervention is reserved for more severe symptoms, other treatments (such as supportive psychotherapy or cognitive behavioral therapy) may help to avoid or ameliorate depression and social isolation, and to improve family support. Educating a patient, family, and surrounding community (such as friends, school, and church) is a key treatment strategy, and may be all that is required in mild cases.

Medication is available to help when symptoms interfere with functioning. The classes of medication with the most proven efficacy in treating tics—typical and atypical neuroleptics including risperidone (trade name Risperdal), ziprasidone (Geodon), haloperidol (Haldol), pimozide (Orap) and fluphenazine (Prolixin)—can have long-term and short-term adverse effects. The antihypertensive agents clonidine (trade name Catapres) and guanfacine (Tenex) are also used to treat tics; studies show variable efficacy, but a lower side effect profile than the neuroleptics. Stimulants and other medications may be useful in treating ADHD when it co-occurs with tic disorders. Drugs from several other classes of medications can be used when stimulant trials fail, including guanfacine (trade name Tenex), atomoxetine (Strattera) and tricyclics. Clomipramine (Anafranil), a tricyclic antidepressant, and SSRIs—a class of antidepressants including fluoxetine (Prozac), sertraline (Zoloft), and fluvoxamine (Luvox)—may be prescribed when a Tourette’s patient also has symptoms of obsessive–compulsive disorder. Several other medications have been tried, including nicotine patches, but evidence to support their use is unconvincing.

Because children with tics often present to physicians when their tics are most severe, and because of the waxing and waning nature of tics, it is recommended that medication not be started immediately or changed often. Frequently, the tics subside with explanation, reassurance, understanding of the condition and a supportive environment. When medication is used, the goal is not to eliminate symptoms: it should be used at the lowest possible dose that manages symptoms without adverse effects, given that these may be more disturbing than the symptoms for which they were prescribed.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a useful treatment when OCD is present, and there is increasing evidence supporting the use of habit reversal in the treatment of tics. Relaxation techniques, such as exercise, yoga or meditation, may be useful in relieving the stress that may aggravate tics, but the majority of behavioral interventions (such as relaxation training and biofeedback, with the exception of habit reversal) have not been systematically evaluated and are not empirically supported therapies for Tourette’s.

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[Wikipedia]

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- Did you ever watch a program like “How They Make It” on Samurai swords or Damascas blades, doctor? That’s folding Time.

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He whittles at meaning. He investigates the systems. He scours the newspapers with 3 eyes. He searches for patterns. He catalogues mechanics. He ingests the lies to digest their meaning, the liar’s motivation. He sets aside ambition and proceeds slowly, carefully, deliberately.

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Arawak men and women, naked, tawny, and full of wonder, emerged from their villages onto the island’s beaches and swam out to get a closer look at the strange big boat. When Columbus and his sailors came ashore, carrying swords, speaking oddly, the Arawaks ran to greet them, brought them food, water, gifts. He later wrote of this in his log:

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They … brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks’ bells. They willingly traded everything they owned… . They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features…. They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane… . They would make fine servants…. With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.

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- From A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn [http://www.historyisaweapon.com/zinnapeopleshistory.html]

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A state trooper pulls over Robbie [”Little Bear,” “Coyote”] in his pickup for speeding. Robbie slashes his own face with a handy beer can tab, while he’s waiting for the cop to saunter up to the driver side window. “That madman in the grey Toyota attacked me, I guess ’cause he thought I cut him off at the truck stop back a’ways! He saw your lights and ran off! Thank God, you showed up, officer! (Weeping uncontrollably) Thank God… Thank God… I thought I might bleed to death. How’s my face? Is it bad? … No, I don’t need an ambulance. I’ll be fine. I think I’m alright. I hope you get the bastard.” It works every time, Robbie says. He’s done it twice or three times. Works every time. [We perform for the audience.] Another patrol car arrives. The police decide to let him go. “They can’t believe anybody would do this to his own face, especially one as pretty as this one. It don’t take long to heal up. I don’t cut very deep, anyhow. Stings a little, but it’s better than paying the ticket and seeing your insurance rates go th’u the roof!” Robbie takes a bead on that 3-legged dog next door with his .22 revolver. We’ve been swilling
Tequila, hunting for medicine, painting barbecue chickens outside in the backyard, on a Sunday in the high desert, passing the time on a Sunday.

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When the old Indian man, my friend, finally passed, and the ceremonies were done, I drove to my guro’s home in the mountains, where he kindly nursed me in the transition. On the first day, right away, we hiked down to the stream and I found a wide, flat rock. I handed the guro my blade (the one he’d gifted me), and he cut my arms, sawing into the leather-tough skin, one three- or four-inch incision for each side, while I sang one of the songs. On a sunny day, the Thunders came. We were all crying. My assistant was sitting nearby, his head in his hands, unable to watch. It was a beautiful moment. Afterwards, we walked in silence back to the adobe and ate fresh-killed rabbit, left by an eagle or hawk, I can’t remember which.

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Toyota is pushing media on both coasts to cover its artificial ass. Yesterday it was Michael Fumento in the LA Times [”Toyota hysteria: Reaction to its cars’ safety records is way over the top” http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-fumento9-2010mar09,0,3126393.story]. Today it’s “Toyotas Are Safe (Enough)” by Robert Wright for the NY Times. This is media power in play. “I mean, I’m sorry about the professor and his family, but I think this whole Toyota thing is overblown, writes Wright. “…(W)hat I am worried about, with the current avalanche of unintended-acceleration complaints against the company and the congressional hearings, is the hysteria promoted by sensationalist headlines and pompous government officials…Moreover, some of those reports surely could have been driver fault. To err is human; to blame errors on external factors is even more so,” writes Fumento. To reach the middle of America, the Toyota media machine uses FOX and friendlies or bought-and-paid-for’s on the other networks, plus a massive and pervasive ad campaign. Surely, it doesn’t hurt to have access to Larry King or well-compensated lawmakers with Toyota factories in their districts. Fumento at the LAT is an amazingly valuable asset. He and his wife were involved in an accident caused by a Toyota in 1992 [initially, in the article, Fumento got the dates wrong - memory issues, blurred by time, and possibly head trauma, one might assume]. According to the LAT, Fumento “is director of the nonprofit Independent Journalism Project, where he specializes in health and safety issues.” His perspective must be trustworthy, right? His opinion is based on personal experience [the crash], a wealth of industry statistics explaining how safe Toyotas are, relative to other brands, how many Americans are employed by Toyota, how valuable Toyota is to the economy, implying how “American” Toyota is. “Toyota directly and indirectly employs about 200,000 Americans, and directly invests more than $18 billion in this country every year. The Toyota Camry, built in Kentucky and Indiana, is the most “American” car on the market, according to Cars.com,” writes Fumento. The article is filled with similar points promoting the value of Toyota. It’s a case study for the genre. I personally love this gem: “One hundred people are . . . killed every day, and it has nothing to do with technology, recent or otherwise,” says Evans. “We can cut that number by half by concentrating on driver attitudes.” But this one takes the cake: “Nobody wants to minimize any deaths Toyota defects may have caused,” says Russ Rader of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. “But vehicle defects are just a tiny, tiny part of what leads to crashes.” On the other coast, for the nation’s leading corporate daily, Wright opines (this needs a sequential analysis:

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Besides, good mileage means dollars saved, and dollars can be translated into human welfare. I could take the gas money I save via electronic throttle control and send it to Africa and save several lives.

Of course, I probably won’t. But if I don’t — if I pass up the chance to spend some money to save a life — am I any less culpable than Toyota was when it bargained with the government to get the least costly fix available (new floor mats) without obsessing over whether floor mats were the root of the problem? (Perhaps the most nauseating sight in Washington recently — and that’s saying something — was the infinitely contrite Toyota head, Akio Toyoda, being browbeaten by legislators who, God knows, discharge their professional responsibilities no more conscientiously than he discharges his.)

Don’t get me wrong. It’s good that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration keeps an eye on carmakers, so that the beta testing doesn’t get too gruesome.

But it worries me that this Toyota thing worries us so much. We live in a world where responding irrationally to risk (say, the risk of a terrorist attack) can lead us to make mistakes (say, invading Iraq). So the Toyota story is a kind of test of our terrorism-fighting capacity — our ability to keep our wits about us when things seem spooky.

Passing the test depends on lots of things. It depends on politicians resisting the temptation to score cheap points via the exploitation of irrational fear. It depends on journalists doing the same. And it depends on Americans in general keeping cool, notwithstanding the likely failure of many politicians and journalists to do their part.

So go out today and buy a Toyota. It’s the patriotic thing to do.

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The essay sidenote/extract:  "It worries me that this Toyota thing worries us so much." It's hard to know where to begin.  If you murdered and maimed as many people as Toyota has, what would they do with you? [Milo: The judge would give you the needle.] Let's introduce some SUCK corporate memes.

• Government is ineffective.
• Don’t trust your hypocritical politician.
• Human error is probably the cause.
• The multinational is too big to fail.
• Quit beating up on the poor CEO.
• Accidents happen.
• We’re doing our best.
• This is not the time for regulation.
• No crime was committed here.
• Stay calm. Don’t get angry.
• You can trust me [PR].
• I’m a person just like you.
• I care. I’m sorry.
• This happened partly, because we were simply giving you what you said you wanted: the best product, cheap.
• Look at the stats: 1 in a million!
• This could never happen to you.
• Don’t overreact!
• Don’t be prejudiced!
• Remember the global economy.

In my thesis [http://artforhumans.com/vision/v_pages/Intro.html], I performed a dimensional analysis of Peter Drucker’s essay, “A View of Japan through Japanese Art.” I developed insight on Japanese management culture, and the global implications over the course of an extended investigation, supervised by Drucker expert Joseph Maciariello. Some pertinent data:

• Japan is an authoritarian, highly managed society.
• The Samurai sword is Japan’s prime cultural symbol.
• The defining cultural linkage between America and Japan is the atom bomb.
• Japan views economics as a form of warfare.
• Japan’s most effective tool for economic domination is market share.
• Asian interventions in the auto manufacturing and distribution economy in America serve SUCK purposes.
• The SUCK is dedicated to the goal of eradicating American nationalism.
• The SUCK is dedicated to the goal of eradicating American representative democracy.
• The SUCK is dedicated to the goal of eradicating American trade unions.
• The SUCK is dedicated to the goal of eradicating American manufacturing might.
• The SUCK is dedicated to the goal of eradicating American democratic activism.
• The SUCK is dedicated to the goal of eradicating American regulatory protections.
• The SUCK benefits from Toyota defeating American auto manufacturers in the American marketplace.
• The SUCK [and Toyota] engage in the systematic corruption of American politicians.
• The SUCK is dedicated to the use of human shields as a means for corporate advancement.
• The SUCK uses propaganda to achieve its goals.
• The SUCK controls the monopolized corporate global media.
• Corporations [artificial persons] use natural persons [proxies] to defend the corporate person against retaliation.
• Japan is a world leader in the field of eugenics.

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• Toyota doesn’t care about you.
• Toyota uses dimensional methods to manipulate human perception.
• Toyota doesn’t care if you die or are maimed as a result of their malpractice - unless it hurts Toyota’s bottom line.
• Toyota doesn’t care if someone you love dies or is maimed as a result of the corporation’s malevolence.
• Toyota is not a Japanese person interred in an American WW2 prison camp.
• Toyota is not a Japanese person killed or maimed by an American atom bomb dropped on Nagasaki or Hiroshima.
• Toyota is terrified that outraged Americans will rise up and destroy the corporation.
• Toyota is terrified that you will exercise your democratic rights and demand appropriate penalties for the corporation’s killing and maiming of American citizens.
• Toyota knew about the problems with their cars, the problems that have killed and maimed Americans, for years.
• Toyota management decided to ignore American laborers’ warnings that the accelerator problem existed.
• Toyota killed Americans, based on the results of secret internal cost-benefit analyses, most likely.
• Toyota doesn’t care if Americans breathe polluted air - unless it helps Toyota’s bottom line.
• Toyota doesn’t care about global environmental damage caused by Toyota products - unless it hurts Toyota’s bottom line.
• Toyota will spend billions to keep you in your place.
• Toyota will spend billions to force you to accept its murderous behavior.
• Toyota doesn’t care how long you sit in traffic.
• Toyota needs your business.
• Toyota needs consumers.
• Toyota exists by consuming your wealth and your freedom.

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The superiority of the cutting edge of the Samurai sword in Japan at one time not long ago was tested by experts, who counted the number of criminals’ bodies a blade could completely slash through, before losing its sharpness.

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During World War 2, Japanese officers routinely beheaded American prisoners, using Samurai swords.

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Toyota Motor Corporation is an industry partner of the World Economic Forum.

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The CEO of TMC was paid over $900,000. [data from Manifest: the proxy voting agency {http://www.manifest.co.uk/default.htm} “Mission: ‘We Make Things Clear’”]

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The Toyota Research Institute will be directed by Dr. Noboru Kikuchi, who is the Roger L. McCarthy Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan and also a Director of Toyota Central Research & Development Laboratories, Inc. in Japan. Dr. Kikuchi will report directly to Mr. Yasuhiko Ichihashi, President of Toyota Technical Center-NA. TRI-NA initially will employ 35 researchers and administration staff, and plans to add 10 researchers in 2008 and an additional 20 by 2010. “Creating the Toyota Research Institute is the next step to strengthen Toyota’s advanced research function throughout North America and to discover cutting-edge technologies for sustainable mobility,” said Dr. Kikuchi.

“Toyota’s decision to establish the Toyota Research Institute in Ann Arbor to direct advanced research activities for North America is another piece of good news for Michigan,” Governor Jennifer M. Granholm said. “Toyota’s decision demonstrates that Michigan is a leading state for research and offers an attractive business climate for companies to grow.”

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- From Toyota Press Release, dated April 1, 2008 - Ann Arbor, Mich.