RIP Jean Baudrillard
I only heard today that Jean Baudrillard died yesterday. He was one of the most influential thinkers I’ve encountered and I wrote reams on him in college. So long and thanks for the simulacra.
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Galway Comedy Festival Cartoon Exhibition
I’ll be representing Galway in the Galway Comedy Festival Cartoon Exhibition in the Town Hall Theatre from the 5th -9th April. I’ll be hanging alongside Jon Berkeley, Jim Cogan, Graeme Keyes, Tom Halliday, Tom Mathews, Martyn Turner, Steve Best, David Rooney, Hunt Emerson, John McCrae and Martin Honeysett.
I think I need to sit down.
Do pop in for a look if you’re in town!
Concern Workshop Tomorrow
I’ll be giving a workshop to transition year students tomorrow on the issue of child labour. It’s a heavy issue, but I try to make it informative and with an emphasis on action (like many similar issues the sheer weight of it can be overwhelming). I’ll post more on it tomorrow, hopefully I’ll have some images ready as well.
There are no Original Ideas in Editorial Cartoons!
I winced when I saw the above cartoon on Cagle’s Cartoon Index because it was followed immediately by this one:
This is exactly what every editorial cartoonist lives in fear of: that someone, somewhere, has had the same idea as you. The thing is I would guarantee there has been no plagarism here: if anything drives a cartoonist it is to be distinct by virtue of originality. This is an example of convergence.
There is a finite gene pool of tropes, references and metaphors that is at the disposal of an artist, and an idea (and don’t tell anyone this because it’s a trade secret) is simply the recombination of elements from that gene pool in the artist’s head. And sometimes this limited gene pool mixes a remarkably similar idea in the heads of two different artists. This is a really good example of where the refinement of the idea, the composition of the image, and the execution of the gag come into play: I would consider one of the above to be more successful than the other. Read back over them and I think you’ll see one of them has a sharper delivery complemented by a good composition.
I would imagine there was mutual head-slapping in Minnesota and Detroit over this, but sometimes convergence is unavoidable. I submit to the jury this example, and also my hilarious take on the bird-flu panic (I’m really flogging a dead bird at this stage, that’s enough H5N1 references for now!).
The Bird and the Bee: My New Favourite Band!
I saw this The Bird and the Bee video last night on the telly and it just stopped me in my tracks. It’s hypnotic. Buy it now!
