(Oh, yeah, this is a series if I ever saw one.)
I’ve been going to art museums for years. I came to it not by habits of exposure in childhood but as an adult in need of a country of origin.
The biographical details are not important because we all arrive at the same spot in our own way.
Ever stood in the same intersection in your life with exactly the same choices of straight ahead, left, right, or turn around, and just stood there, suspending all choices, until you invented a new choice?
Yep, me, too.
But, only after I’ve gone to an art museum.
Each day I’m going to post another decision in my attempt to wrestle free of moral hazard. Oh, c’mon, you’ve heard of it. Much used word during the decisions made a year ago by Henry Paulson, Ben Bernanke. Wikepedia says this about moral hazard:
“Moral hazard is the prospect that a party insulated from risk may behave differently from the way it would behave if it were fully exposed to the risk.“
So, this series is going to be about artists and creativity, insulated from risk, behaving differently than they would behave if they were fully exposed to risk, and each ‘decision’ I post shall be not the “right” or “wrong” decision but simply a decision.
Just in case, you are listening– Damen und Herren at Freddie and Fannie Mac, AIG, Bear Stearns, AIG, Wachovia Bank, and so many damn others……DO NOT DO THIS ANYMORE!! This is for artists not bankers.
The world economies can’t survive another immoral hazard from you folks.
©Pat Coakley 2009
PHOTOGRAPHS CANNOT BE USED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION
#1-After the Museum, The Series: Suburban in the City (Before I knew it was a series)
So eerie, really- not a sign of human life and the only motion or activity is a moving, person-less truck and giant concrete totems.
As an adult in need of a country of origin too, I’d like to emigrate to the United State of Coakley.
Really? Wikipedia has defined the term ” moral hazard ” officially already?
Isn’t that part of the problem.
Take a phrase, re-produce it in every media format ( Nazi, Nazi Death Panels…….) and soon it becomes language.
Because it’s easier to read it than to think it.
I’m with you on your museum journey because until even banking can be performed artfully, I can’t listen or look.
Again, Pat, you nail it.
C’mon down.. (As the saying goes)…. to the United States of Coakley… or is it slightly north and east for you, Bon Bon? There’s a special chair just for you! It has a drink holder and a snack tray, too!
sigh, i was just there. walked right there in your picture. it is eery how few people traverse the sidewalk in fpc. you just cross this line and poof they are gone. well at 4 oclockish anyway. and as for inventing new choices, yes
and moral hazards can be dealt with thusly. just have to keep wrapping the insulation, sigh. the picture is dear to me, the words are so true.
One day soon ,Tipota, we’re going to walk these deserted roads together! It is so all building and vehicles that I can hardly believe it. Then, we’ll go to Flour bakery! Sticky Buns. 100 points in Weight Watchers but I don’t care.
Pat, I love the effect you got here… do you mind telling me what treatment you did on this photo… its amazing!
As always your wit is up to par..
Amber, if I told you HDR, I’d be misleading because only some of it is. If I told you, it’s four images, which it is, I’d also have to tell you that the exposures were entirely different and one image was taken in an entirely different spot and I had to work on it and couldn’t possibly tell you how I’m not kidding to get it to match the other effects. Flower tips, I can give. Not these kind of deconstructive ones because I do it often very quickly, intuitively, and often forget how I get where I end up. It is one of the reasons I like the whole process.
Have you been playing around with HDR, Pat?
I have been playing around for many, many months, Razz, and am happy this is the first you’ve noticed.
Usually I don’t like the image to look “HDR” and, consequently, don’t use it too often and when I do I often blend them with the original or a blend of several of the originals.
Except in this case, when gray cities on sparkling days will spectacular clouds seemed a right subject. But, oh no, it couldn’t be easy and just be HDR because as I said to Amber above, there’s another non-HDR image, the truck, and it insisted it be put in and look like it was blasting out of the HDR (or whatever prism you are looking at life through) city and making a break for it…which after all is an analogue of what this series is about…
So, “play” is a good word. I am going to continue to “play” all week with images that I took “after” my museum visit. Some sense of play is released each time I go to a museum, but on that day, the mix of Damian Ortega and a Russian photographer, Boris Mikhailov, who’ll be having a solo exhibit in a few months at ICA, had a palpable mix-it -up on me. I noticed it walking back to the train station!
The absolute favorite thing about this particular series, is that I’m just playing…not saying I’m gonna dwell anywhere for sure, just playing. My version of a three month European
adventure!
This image has a powerfully soulless feel to it. I have to ruminate a bit on the idea of applying the concept of moral hazard to the arts and creativity. I’ll look forward to your thoughts!
Don, powerfully soulless…yes and what an artful way to say it!
Four! FOUR images? good golly but you are talented. I like the way you mix not only images, but opinion, current events, and conceptual challenges all in one blog post. I shall have to put visiting an art museum on my bucket list. I have visited many history museums, but the closest I’ve come to art museum was in San Antonio, visiting the City Library, they had some works on display from local artists. Though, artists are not completely without moral hazard are they? Art is a very subjective thing.
Oh, I think you should put an art museum at the top of your list!! Just go in as you would the history museum: curious. It’s all you need. Life experience doesn’t hurt, either, and you’ve got that covered before entering the doorway.
Pat, I completely understand. As I get into “processing” my own pictures with photoshop and using many different combinations to get the right effect, its hard to explain it. But thank you. Its really neat..
Glad you get this, Amber. It is not a self conscious process.
P.S. Can you believe one of my ex- blogging friends stole one of my pictures off facebook and used it? I had to take all of them down now… sheesh.
I’m still not totally sold on FB and this may be another reason. I know that if you play some on those games and quizzes that you “agree” to let third party folks use all the images and text posted on your site, and that includes your “friends”. Now, that is NOT a good thing.
“Moral Hazard”? How many strokes is that off your score on the golf course.
No one is totally insulated from moral hazards … it may take a while, but something happens eventually … it may not appease or feel good, but it’s something.
O, now, PR…that is hilarious…how many strokes off your golf score…and have absolutely no idea what the last part means but no matter…equivocating moral hazard with your golf game is brilliant enough!