Friday, November 25, 2005

paranoia nation :: test yourself

tomer :: I'm one of those guys with olive skin, permanent five o'clock shadow and thick eyebrows. yes, you'll see me at a train-stop and get a bit worried. if I saw me at an airport I will likely, against my better judgment, get a bit suspicious too. I get stopped by security guards plenty, sometimes four-five times in one trip. I don't blame them. it occurred to me that each of us has an internal visual judge that categorizes whomever crosses our path based on a variety of parameters most of which are deeply personal, some are political, none are objective. we all have a 'zero' point -- where a person's appearance crosses too many 'red lines' and he becomes a 'suspect'. crossing a red line can be as slight as 10% more magenta in the general mix. this drawing wants to mess with your internal judge, making it look for that zero point-- it's natural tendency-- without quite reaching a concrete conclusion.

7 comments:

  1. Im the opposit. I just bought a more agressive looking pair of glasses, because I looked so unthreatening that everybody always immediately sits down next to me in the subway. And everybody always asks me for directions. And I never get stopped by any guard anywhere.It took almost 30 years before I was asked to show my driver's license for the first time. Of course I would be the one in the top left hand side of your drawing.

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  2. Anonymous10:55 AM

    hey,
    got to your site by coincidence,
    great art.

    behatzlaha,

    hezii

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  3. ma kore again!

    what about my color? The -1, transparent white with visible blood vessels through the flesh?

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  4. dark-forest :: thank man :)

    eliane :: i just saw your self-portrait and indeed you look mighty friendly/unthreatening. maybe the secret is in choosing the right pair of glasses...

    hezzi :: toda for stopping by.

    m.patrizio :: but that's outrageous!! what happened to the rosy healthy looking cheeks of yesteryear...has the class of 2000 begun deteriorating already?

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  5. I'm most scared of the upper left corner.

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  6. Anonymous7:16 AM

    great post. i'm in the same boat and i know how it feels.

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  7. Anonymous10:50 AM

    This is fantastic.

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