Strands of Genius: Slogan Tees, How to Ask, The Last Taboo in Art
Plus: Grosse Fatigue
WRITING FROM | Chattanooga, TN
WORKING ON | presentation for the ARF Creative Effectiveness conference
LOOKING AHEAD
Aug 18-Sept 25 | Chattanooga, TN
Sept 25-28 | New York, NY
:: WHAT’S NEW & WEEKLY GRATITUDE ::
Afternoon, sunshine! How’s it going? Last week we had an absolute blast in Charlotte NC with the lovely people from MindFire Communications. We gave a keynote about ideas and how to have better ones and ran some workshops and it was so much FUN. Everyone was up for playing and they were absolutely brilliant and followed up with some lovely feedback. It’s so much nicer, better and more fun being with people IRL, especially for this sort of work, where we can explain our POV and then get teams working to put the thinking into practice.
We were part of an inspiration weekend where they gathered the team and took them to a city, did a walking art tour, a tasting menu, saw the Lion King and played with us for a day. So cool. It’s hard for agencies of scale to do this kind of thing but even if you can get your team out for an afternoon to go see a museum or something it really does help.
This year is pretty weird, we’re hearing it has been super slow for a lot of people especially freelancers. We are helping in whatever little ways we can, lots of people have been reaching out, we’re trying to make connections and sharing any gigs we see on Linkedin and such.
Got any jobs or freelance / consulting gigs that would be ideal for one of the brilliant members of this community? Let us know and we’ll post them here.
Let’s all try to help each other, especially the young people who haven’t been through downturns before.
If you wanted to help us a tiny little bit you could share Strands on Linkedin and say you like it, or forward it to a friend, if you think they would enjoy it and find it useful or interesting…
No worries if not, we love you all. <3
This week, we’re especially thankful for:
Inga, Erik, Kyle and the whole team at Mindfire, the public art in Charlotte - there are a bunch of sculptures and 70 murals, Charlotte Pride, Sunny (AppleTV), slightly cooler temperatures, exercise, kind and courageous friends, the Campowerment crew, Liquid Death ice tea, Green Chef, Empire Pod, pottery, Umbrella Academy, pink glazes (ummm tbd on how these come out, but feeling hopeful!), camelbacks, & most of all YOU.
:: THE LINKS ::
THE ART OF THE T-SHIRT SLOGAN
Slogan tees were a big deal in the 90s and have been around since at least the 1930s (Wizard of Oz is reputed to be the first?!) and this analysis of what makes a catchy t-shirt slogan with staying power is interesting and fun and almost certainly applies in some ways to taglines for brands which need to bear endless repetition... “What makes a t-shirt best is when it’s not trying to grab onto something because it’s funny today, because people’s memories will forget it tomorrow,” he told me. “It’s something that reaches a little deeper back—it’s not good artwork, either. It’s the concept that sells a shirt: ‘Life is full of important choices’ is something that people have probably said for centuries.” (Dirt)
HOW TO ASK
For some of us, Faris included, asking for things can be quite uncomfortable. There are lots of reasons for this no doubt. Personal: e.g. were you from an asking or guessing family? Did you ask your parents directly for things and feel comfortable getting knows, or was it more guessing the emotional state of your parent/s and trying to adapt proactively? Does asking a question feel like an enquiry or an obligation you are creating? And so on. Culturally, British people tend to find it harder than Americans, I think, due in part to our overall culture of embarrassment, not putting other people out, not bothering other people at all costs, never saying what you mean directly and so on. This is a shame since the ‘Benjamin Franklin effect’ suggests asking for a small favor makes a bigger one likelier (due to cognitive dissonance) and that people can get great pleasure and satisfaction from helping others. Anyway, as mentioned above, lots of people need to get used to asking this year especially so here are some tips. “Requesters often fear they'll annoy people by asking for a referral. Meanwhile, it often doesn't occur to those being asked for help to offer one. The result is many missed opportunities to connect people with individuals and information that could really help them.” You, or someone you know, might find this helpful. No worries if not. (Inc)
THE LAST TABOO IN ART
Well one of them anyway. When Camille Henrot, a fascinating multidisciplinary artist, had her first son, she started making art about the labor of motherhood and “tumbled into a gap in art history. While there’s no shortage of representations of mothers with their children, Henrot could find few of mothers on their own. The mother is “never dissociated from the gaze that turns her into an object or attribute” (New York Times Gift Link)
Want to chat, comment, question, compliment?
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:: GROSSE FATIGUE ::
We discovered Camille Henrot at the Modern Art Museum in Sydney when we saw what is probably the best bit of video art we’ve come across.
The piece, called Grosse Fatigue, is absolutely brilliant. It’s a post/modern mash up of creation myths from different cultures and presented as “an experience of density itself,” she frames this material in layered pop-up windows that continually open and close against the changing background of a computer desktop.”
It was so impactful that Faris ended up writing his Google Firestarters talk sort of around it (the link has a couple notes from it).
It’s not viewable online because the artist won’t allow it - she wants it to be viewed in a certain context, a controlled space and curated experience and she thinks the film is so dense in its delivery (lots going on) it doesn’t really work on a smaller screen - but you can see bits in this interview with the artist (you have to click apparently because it’s age-restricted?).
It is based on a “Google Search” and is about stories, colonial anthropology and how it looted the world, and humanity, and being so very tired in the face of a constant cacophony of ‘information’.
If we can ever be of help to you, even outside of a formal engagement, please don’t hesitate to let us know.
rockON,
faris & rosie | your friends over at geniussteals.co
(still want more? @faris is still “tweeting” while @rosieyakob prefers instagram stories)
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It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.
Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. We have a distributed team ourselves, an accounting team is based in Tennessee where our company is registered, our admin extraordinaire is based in Playa del Carmen, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.
Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)