mark cooley
Since 2002
Works in United States of America

ARTBASE (5)
PORTFOLIO (4)
BIO
Mark Cooley is an interdisciplinary artist interested in exploring the intersections of art, activism and institutional critique in a variety of contexts. Subjects of particular interest are U.S. foreign policy, corporate culture, and the political economy of new technologies. Recently, Mark has focused his attention on food production and consumption and the ways in which artists may mediate in these processes.

http://www.flawedart.net


The New American Dictionary


The Boston-based performance group Institute for Infinitely Small Things has published a book called The New American Dictionary.

The dictionary highlights the terminology of fear, security and war that has permeated American English post 9-11. It includes 68 new terms i.e. Preparedness and Freedom Fries as well as terms that have recently been redefined i.e. Torture.

The dictionary also has an interactive dimension. 58 terms are left undefined for the reader to pencil in their own definition. Furthermore, readers are invited to submit their additions to the institute for a possible inclusion in the 2nd edition.

The New American Dictionary is available at several online stores.

www.newamericandictionary.com

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exhaust emissions balloons


exhaust_emissions.jpg
a huge balloon, tied to a car�s vent-pipe, depicting the amount of exhaust emissions a car releases a day.

the "bursting earth" project is similar, but more dynamic. activists attach world globe balloons on exhaust pipes of cars in Berlin. the exhaust gas inflates the ballons. after the message becomes readable, there is a big "bang".

[link: frederiksamuel.com & adsoftheworld.com & 20to20.org]

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WoW!


Aram Bartholl is a german artist renowned for making physical abstractions of the digital world, particularly game-worlds.

One of Aram's not-to-be-missed performances is inspired by the popular computer game World of Warcraft (WoW).

In WoW, the nickname of the player's avatar is constantly hovering above the head of the player so that the identity is visible for everyone else in the game.

Aram took this little feature out of cyberspace to see how it would look if people's names would float above their heads in the physical world too.

WoW has been performed at different locations around the world. Luckily, it is well-documented!


Getting coffee WoW style Workshop in Ghent Project Site

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REALIZING THE IMPOSSIBLE: ART AGAINST AUTHORITY


reaimp.jpg

Aesthetics and Politics

REALIZING THE IMPOSSIBLE: ART AGAINST AUTHORITY by Josh MacPhee, Erik Reuland, editors :: There has always been a close relationship between aesthetics and politics in anti-authoritarian social movements. And those movements have in turn influenced many of the last century's most important art movements, including cubism, Dada, post-impressionism, abstract expressionism, surrealism, Fluxus, Situationism, and punk. Today, the movement against corporate globalization, with its creative acts of resistance, has brought anti-authoritarian politics into the forefront. This sprawling, inclusive collection explores this vibrant history, with topics ranging from turn-of-the-century French cartoonists to modern Indonesian printmaking, from people rolling giant balls of trash down Chicago streets to massive squatted urban villages and renegade playgrounds in Denmark, from stencil artists of Argentina to radical video collectives of the US and Mexico. Lots of illustrations, all b&w.;

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Discussions (102) Opportunities (8) Events (39) Jobs (2)
EVENT

Reagan food stamps - http://www.pocho.com


Dates:
Tue Jun 29, 2004 00:00 - Tue Jun 29, 2004

WASHINGTON D.C. (pocho.com) --The 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan has been honored with a redesign of the $1 Food Stamp. The beloved recently deceased president received a fitting tribute for all the great deeds he bestowed upon our nation as as leader of the U.S.A. during 2 terms beginning in 1980.

There are some restrictions in its use, but the stamp can be purchased for most everything except vegetables, (ketchup exempter) alcohol (trading is okay) and any drugs, except for government imported cocaine and cocaine derivatives. Poor people are encouraged to buy really cheap, non nutritious food with these coupons.

http://www.pocho.com


EVENT

war-product-war UPDATE


Dates:
Fri May 14, 2004 00:00 - Fri May 14, 2004

FYI

there have been recent additions and considerable reconstructions at http://www.war-product-war.com, a site acting as a meditation on the political economy of US war culture.     As usual war-product-war remains in a state of flux. Broken links and loose ends should be expected. Additions, deletions  and changes are continually pondered and infrequently enacted.  Critiques are always welcome.

mark cooley

http://www.war-product-war.com

http://art-design.smsu.edu/cooley


EVENT

Re: Re: Paradox of Political Art


Dates:
Fri Apr 09, 2004 00:00 - Fri Apr 09, 2004

general thoughts - this thread has produced some interesting discussion, but i keep reading that there is this thing called "political art" versus what - "regular art"? this nonpolitical art would express universality, transcendence, timelessness and other colonialist stuff. this term "political art" is more useful, i think, if we think of it as a product of the culture industry itself. Dyske, mentioned Hans Haacke back in the article. Haacke, is often called a political artist, or other such term, yet, precisely what Haacke has indicated through is works is that institutions act in accordance with a set of values, these values more often than not, in capitalist societies, are highly undemocratic self interested machines of profit that protect and nuture an elite class... art institutions are no different, but at the same time (like other institutions) they are not monolithic. there are people working and trying to uphold unpopular values from within to make changes in the institution. i think some of what Dyske was upset about (though poorly argued) is that artists don't always know that they are part of an industry while they are within it. i think that why he showed an interest in Haacke, because Haacke directly deals with the politics of the institution of which he is a part. i do think that Dyske had a couple of points, but it came off to me way too much like arguments i hear students make that come to class after having seen Bill O'reilly on Fox. "What are THEY protesting the war for, don't THEY know that THEY wouldn't even be able to protest if the THEY didn't live in this free country." that is such a fascist argument. having said that, i do think that there could be much more institutional criticism within the arts. especially within New Media practice. i dont think Dyske would disagree with me there.

ryan griffis wrote:

> hi Lee,
>
> > Lets take it back to Goya, and I am not talking about the brand of
> > beans.
>
> good beans though ;)
>
> > You can take it back through history as far as you want.
> > It wasn't until the 60's, when people like us had too much time on
> > their hands.
>
> but haven't artists always been in the class that has "too much time
> on
> their hands?" maybe there's more of us now, as global economics can
> displace our subsistence labor somewhere else.
>
> > It wasn't until the 60's that political art became a fad
>
> i'm assuming your leaving out socialist realism ( of the various
> CCCP,
> US, and Nazi varieties) on purpose. but even prior to that... what
> about American genre and history painting, regionalism, political
> portraiture? (sorry for leaving out other sources, but i'm more
> versed
> in US history) but i guess the word "fad" wasn't used so maybe you're
> right. but don;t you think it's important to contextualize the form
> of
> political art you're referring to and the 60s? people greatly
> effected
> by the various movements of the 60s are now in institutional
> positions.
> they may not be able to (or want to) structurally change the
> institutions, but they can make pictures of it. just look at the
> popularity of artists like Sam Durant.
>
> >
> > We should all be happy for this war. It really get the blood
> flowing
> > (ah ya)
> > Artists get worked up, Writers get worked up, Society gets worked
> up.
> > Unfortunately our brothers and fathers and friends and friends of
> > friends have to die for our inspiration.
> > I wonder how boring art will look after 50 years of world peace and
> > happiness.
> > I look forward to the fact that I may still be alive to see that
> day.
>
> again, this just seems to assume political art as reactionary and one
> dimensional. is it just because it has subject matter that is tied to
> a
> specific issue? why aren't the larger sets of values contained in any
> activity considered?
> political art is not just critique of specific issues. quite a bit of
> the more interesting work is as utopian and gestural as anything. to
> give a digital example, try the futurefarmers or Natalie Bookchin or
> Ricardo Miranda Zuniga.
> but i'm with you on wishing to be alive in peaceful utopia, if not
> counting on it.
> ryan
>


EVENT

Re: Re: Re: Paradox of Political Art


Dates:
Thu Apr 08, 2004 00:00 - Fri Apr 09, 2004

a few responses to Dyske's words

I do realize that there were
> artworks
> with political intentions long before that, but these historical
> tidbits of
> political art are not particularly relevant in my discussion.

how can political art, "tid bits" as you say, not be relevent. your assuming, which is fine, (though i don't think consciously) that this thing, invented about 200 years ago, called "Fine Art", in which there is supposed be some seperation between what a form is (it's pure aesthetic value) and what it does (it's cultural function).

> This was my attempt to turn political artists' own arguments on
> themselves.

WHO are THEY?

> They are the ones who purify motives, not me. They speculate, for
> instance, that the Iraq war is actually motivated by oil.

who are "THEY" and who cares about motives. i wouldn't be so bold as to judge any State's foreign policy by the supposed motives of a black substance found deep within the earth... we call it "oil", and i don't think it has motives. let's deal with structural facts. it may be "speculation" to make guesses as to what the Team Bush collective head holds, in terms of intentions, motives, secret desires, ultimate hopes for "mankind", whatever, i mean the guy wants to colonize mars as an "insurance policy" (actually a NASA quote but i couldn't resist). BUT we don't need to "speculate" to see structural facts in the global economic/political system. we don't need to speculate who payed for bush's election and who was chosen to rebuild iraq. http://opensecrets.org. again if you could say WHO the THEY are that we are (Not) talking about then we could actually bring up examples and have some sort of talk about specifics. i don't think you care much about specifics.

I would argue that such
> reduction is impossible. And, if such a reductive argument can be used
> to oppose the war, then one could also speculate that artists are
> motivated by self-promotion, and invalidate their work. If self-promotion is
> inextricably mixed in their motives, then what is wrong with oil being mixed in the
> motives of the Bush Administration?

Are you serious - are too busy philosophizing to see that maybe getting a gig at a gallery, or even (bush forbid) getting a big show or book or whatever as an artist for making consciously engaged political art IS the SAME thing as destroying a country, hundreds of thousands of people, occuppying the country, giving out the contracts to rebuild the country to the corporations that is paid(and pays) for the president's election and so on? so what if artist's are seeking self-promotion, for work that they believe in. we all have to support ourselves, we do live as Capitalists, who isn't (even unwillingly) part of this system. i mean we are all involved in wage slavery, on some level, who are we kidding. i can handle the self-promotion of an artist (even the most arrogant self promotion), i can't handle my taxes promoting a war. you really think these things are the same?

> I can't come up with good examples, because I want to avoid naming
> specific
> artists. Digital artists are not particularly successful, and they
> don't
> need any negative criticism. If I can think of some major artists I
> could
> use as examples, I'll let you know.

this is such a cop-out, sorry. you've written, and defended an article, an argument for which you can mention NO examples for fear of destroying these poor struggling digital artist's careers? is anyone is supposed to take this seriously, not to mention the overimplied arrogance at your assumption that to name names would have any effect on the success of digital artists.

>
> To elaborate further: If their desire to exist as terrorists is their
> primary concern, then they are in fact being helped by the fact that
> their
> opponents exist. That is, they should thank their enemies for letting
> them
> be what they want to be.
>
> By the same token, if your desire to be an artist is your primary
> concern,
> and if your art is about corrupt corporations, then you would have to
> thank
> the corrupt corporations for existing, for otherwise your career as an
> artist would not exist.

i hope your not serious. under this twisted logic an abolishionist in the days of slavery should have thanked the slave master for importing slaves so that the abolishionist would have something to complain about. or maybe freed slaves should have thanked the slavemasters for enslaving them in the first place for without slavery they would never have been "freed slaves". this is stupid argument. thanks Mr. Bush for giving us all something to complain about - what would we do with our art careers if we didn't have fascists to make art about... i'd better vote for bush so that i can preserve my art career. just because things are in relationship with one another (protester / protested) does not make them the same thing. i'm not that bright and i know that.

best

mark


DISCUSSION

Re: Re: Paradox of Political Art


ryan griffis wrote:

> > Why are these comments correcting Dyske on something he never said?
> > It's says very clearly 'conceptual art movement.' Delacroix, the
> > mexican muralists, Ben Shahn... NOT conceptual artists friends.
>
> what's the point in saying that political conceptual art is a phenom
> begun in the 60s and seventies, if conceptual art itself (as a
> recognized movement) wasn't there until the 60s and 70s? talk about
> tautological...
>
> > Be honest in your args, you sound like Condoleeza Rice for chrissake
> > ;-)
>
> hey, there is no silver bullet that could have prevented political
> conceptual art from happening.
> ryan

silver bullet http://img.epinions.com/images/opti/2c/e1/142056-resized200.JPG