As you may have read in the past I studied Art History at Uni and it was my favourite subject. During that time I wrote two essays on Star Trek. The last one was for the course called The Body in Question: Images of the Body in Western Art. I used an image of Captain Kirk and Spock being whipped in the Star Trek Original Series episode "Patterns of Force" which features a Nazi type society. The picture shown is as close to the one I used as I could find. The one I used was of the two lain over side by side being whipped, with their backs crisscrossed with pink (Kirk) and green (Spock) paint. The image I used for the essay was also used as one of the early sets of promotional cards for the show!!So, what's all this got to do with "I, Florence"? You maybe wondering. Well at the end of that essay, which could have done with a heavy edit, I made the statement that I was a Narcissian Surrealist. Whoa! What is that? (and why the hell was I talking about myself in an essay?). Well, I figured a Narcissus is in love with its own image and a surrealist can hold any number of bizarre concepts as normal, so a Narcissian Surrealist is in love with the multiple possible associations of the self. Well it gives me something to do anyway. Here's some examples, in a non-Star Trek related way.
You can play this game at home too. Just use your digital camera, take a photo of yourself by holding your arm out in front of you and click. Then use an easy to use photo imaging package, I used Picasa which is free from Google, to manipulate these. Easy! Go knock yourself out with Narcissian fun.
These photos don't really show the depth of the surrealist bit, but I'm sure those of you familiar with gaming will get the point, everybody's a Narcissian Surrealist these days!
One last thing for today's Geek Week post, as promised for Miss Wrecker, here's a link to the Japanese dance troop doing Robot Dancing that I found on YouTube. Enjoy!
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Dear Flo
I'm a bit of a budgie myself and can stare deeply into the mirror and twitter away at my bench while making jewels for hours happily grinding up seed in my crop and pecking at my tinkly bell. tracey said we should all dress up in costumes as budgies one day at mobworkspace and put on a show. maybe you could be the Artistic Director. we'll just have to be careful not to fly into the windows.
Dear Bec,
That sounds like a great idea! I'll also take the photos, only you'll have to make sure I turn the camera around to you, or I might have more images for a similar post like today's.
PS what colour budgie are you?
i think i am a greeny. love all your photos- you can take my picture anyday!
Oh, but of course! A greeny, I should lose a few nerd points for not guessing.
Our budgie when I was young was light blue, he was called Bluey. So, I'll be a bluey:)
I'll bring my camera next time I come over;)
Very surreal, Florence. Those pictures were great.
BTW, are the Borg the closest to a Nazi race, or possibly the Daleks from 'Dr Who'?
Very surreal, Florence. Those pictures were great.
BTW, are the Borg the closest to a Nazi race, or possibly the Daleks from 'Dr Who'?
geek week, what a fun idea. I liked the images very much. I also liked the painting from below, it brought to mind Joseph Albers who painted many 'homage to the square' paintings in different colours.
But I am also a huge Marc Rothko fan.
my geekiness comes by way of computer bits. I have boxes ofboards chips and other bits and I stick them on painted canvases.
geek heaven to me is a computer firm with a BIG garbage box.
The Nazi episode from star trek was never ever aired in Germany and only now can you actually get it via the dvd sets. My husband had never seen it till we got the dvd sets.
I like your self portraits a lot.You have the most astonishing eyes.
At NSCAD we sometimes played with polaroids and mucked up our self images by pushing on the prints before they had developed fully... made for some interesting images!
I have also had a go at the whole polaroid manipuation thing. I'll have to post one of my self portraits.
Jean-luc, I hope that was enough light for you.
To your question: They all share one point of ideology, that of superiority, but that superiority originates from a different source. The Nazis and the Daleks both believe in their genetic superiority; the Daleks were engineered to be and the Nazis believed in eugenics and the master race, and both believed in cleaning away inferiors.
The Borg however believe in acquiring superiority through the accumulation of other races, the eradication of the other culture was a side effect which the borg believed was actually of benifit to the said race being assimilated. This is neither a Nazi or Dalek idea. If anything the Daleks are more like the Nazis and the Borg like neither. The Borg are more a form of extreme Neo-Darwinist Communism rather than a form of Fascism. (I also studied Political Science too:^) I like questions:)
Merlie, You should have your own geek week too, we would love it for other to join the fun. I love Rothko too, but am sad to say I have only seen but a couple of his works in person:( Art in the flesh is much more vital than the prints in books. Your love of the Mother Board sounds like you'd be a perfect geek week participant, I also think you and Rebecca the Wrecker would get on really well, the thought of a pile of computer refuse also gets her going:D How about that huge polaroid camera that spits out a big 1mx1m photo! Polariod's really understood the desire to 'click and see' that today's digitals express.
Plastic Girl: I'm sure squishing the polariod gave you yet another excuse to hide your face from the camera. (She wont even let me take a photo of her!)
Great answer, Florence; you explained the differences well.
Thanks Captain, any further questions are always welcome.
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