Related: A copy of DS title Animal Crossing Wild World sent out to media yesterday by Nintendo came loaded with most of the game's secrets unlocked, it also included a surprise: a racial slur.
Statement by the artist, Jeongmee Yoon:
"To make "The Pink and Blue Project" images, I visit the child's room, where I display and rearrange his/her colored accessories. I ask my models to pose for me with their pink or blue objects, in an effort to show the viewer the extent to which children and their parents, knowingly or unknowingly, are influenced by advertising and popular culture. I first lay out the larger items, blankets or coats, and then spread smaller articles on top of the clothes. This method references objects that are displayed in a museum collection. In some pictures, the children even look like dolls."
"The Pink and Blue Project" was at first motivated by my daughter. At five years old, she loves pink so much that she wants to wear only pink clothes and use only pink toys or objects.
I found that she is not unusual and most other little girls in the U.S. and South Korea love pink clothing, accessories and toys. This phenomenon seems widespread among various ethnic groups regardless of their cultural background. It could be the result of an influence of customs or the power of pervasive commercial advertisements for merchandise such as Barbie and Hello Kitty.
While producing the "pink" images, I also became aware that many boys have a lot of blue possessions and started photographing them as well. Through advertising, consumers are directed to buy blue items, symbolizing strength and masculinity, for boys; and pink items, symbolizing sweetness and femininity, for girls.
What's Wrong With Cinderella? (in case you missed it in last week's post --from The New York Times, Dec. 24, 2006)
In case some of you were wondering what happened to the last Weekend Tunes installment which just seems to have disappeared into thin air:
This week's issue of The New York Times Magazine is their yearly Screens Issue. While usually dedicated to Hollywood, the cinema and theatrical exhibition, they figured that
Don't miss the "Immersions" video by photographer Robbie Cooper; pictures in this post are stills taken from it.
Also included: how to sell soap in a post-TV world; the year's most memorable 'clips'; the Netflix algorithm that monitors you while suggesting cool movies and a reflection on the sit-com as a TV-genre in transition.
Young Jeezy crosses words with Duke University professor Mark Anthony Neal, and draws the parallel between rapper double consciousness—the "Snoop Dogg that sells records" vs. the "Snoop Dogg that's sitting with Larry King talking about the election"—and Obama's own wink-and-disavowing nod at the rap community. (Village Voice) "Jeezy's a fascinating figure in this conversation," Neal says. "Because if we think about his rap persona, as a cat that's slinging dope on the corner, who's disaffected because the political process doesn't work ... for a figure like that to come in from the cold and go into a voter booth and decide, 'This is going to be the first time that I'm going to cast a vote' — I think it speaks volumes to where the larger community is in terms of these kinds of marginalized figures, who've never been involved in the process."
"Suddenly, recording artists don't have to go the traditional routes to get out their messages," Neal says. "They don't have to go through the traditional label structure. And if there's something they want to respond to in real time, they can do so via this new technology."
[Here. Links to the songs discussed, on the NPR website --streaming only.]
Jostein Gripsrud from Understanding Media Culture
Afrikan Boy - L.A.G.O.S.
Can I Get An Amen?, 2004
In a related note, Disney just released its first Blu-Ray title, Sleeping Beauty. The disc contains over one hundred and twenty pages of legalese for you and the kids to read including a 57 page EULA (End User License Agreement) to access the BD-Live content and a 63 page privacy policy. The kids are going to be thrilled. It's like the multiplication of the brooms in Fantasia. Read about it on Format War Central.
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