Just like almost everyone with a soul, a partial mind, and a heart, I am aghast at the crumbling into a fascist pile of the country I was born in… and semi-paralyzed on the “what to do”. As mostly, a release is creating something, a visual statement, expression brimming with angry sarcasm.
How literally organizations created for the betterment of society, history, is being literally, e.g. the Arlington National Cemetery web site for non white, non male soldiers ERASED, the Najavo Code Talkers ERASED (and then un-erased, I hope the Skinwalkers got into souls of the deleters). By what right hallucinated as a Constitutional power is history deleted?
I began imagining a Statue of Liberty where the statue is gone. I started with a creative commons search for images and found this one on the (?) Goodfon Free Wallpaper site credited to Vitya_maly, buried there in Russian are terms of service that indicate its open to reuse. Off to Photoshop I go.
Since I keep hearing about the power of this Generative AI magic, I gave the Generative AI features a try, making a selection around Lady Liberty withy enough blue sky to sample, left the prompt field blank, presssed Generate and waited to be wowed. Mostly I got remade weird versions of the statue. Then I tried putting “erase” in the prompt, and got more mangled statues and then a green flag.
Eff this. What a waste of time.
I go to my long tried and trued means of remix, using the Photoshop clone stamp tool to overlay the statue with. sky. It came out quite well (for more of the lifeless look, I even erased a few birds)
I went through some iterations of adding things. I thought about a wooden sign with words painted like “Gone Fishing” or “Closed for Business”. I thought of putting a sign at the base like “Future Home of T**** Tower” Nah. I even went and made a version with a vintage “Greetings From America” postcard.
I decided I was trying to hard to state the message, that it was best understated. Let someone figure out and think about what was erased. I uploaded to flickr, and while at it, made another one based on an image of the closeup of the Constitution thats in the National Archives (while that agency exists)
I had a few more ideas in the wings, Arlington Cemetery, the Liberty Bell, any or all of the monuments on the National Mall in DC, so I have set up a Erased America flickr album for maybe more.
Then the unexpected happened… my Without Liberty remix got picked up my Flickr Explore! There’s always a sign when my mentions pick up since I usually get maybe one comment a week. Now it’s full of comments, and in less than 24 hours up to 3000 views.
Okay I am self-tooting my own horn, but it is always a lovely surprise to get one of these. I never expect it, its just a happy accident.
And this seems odd as a choice, as I do have some stunning sunset photos. Thats the fun of Explore, you really never know why it happens. But it does feel weird since its not a photo, but an image remixed from someone else’s photos (hence I always attribute them in my captions) (and I aim to base my remixes off of openly licensed ones, dont you?)
Awwwwww, thank you flickr Explore!
Before writing this I was inspired to make one more… especially this national erasure coming from Captain Bone Spurs.
This is not my only action just my means of expression and a little dose of self-sanity. I get none of this from typing in a box and seeing what the magic toaster pops out. I make my own visual art, damnit.
Got other ideas for what might work in this series? I take requests!
Featured Image: Screenshot of my Erased America Flickr Album with the first three “pieces” of erasure. Since they are all CC0… figure it out.
Gosh, Alan, these images are very affecting. The plinth gave ironic smile and a prompt to think of what I’d put there … but the empty constiution took a moment to sink in … and what it We The People morphs to We The (insert expletive that describes Them) …
Thank you as ever for sharing your visual thoughts and concerns. They are shared.
Do I say thank you for doing this, Alan? Seems odd. But I am grateful that you found a way into art to show protest and shared it here, with us. I, too, am angry and unmoored at times about what to do to push back — so I engage in public protest, write my representatives (and go to Town Meetings), argue with my right-leaning friends, and write protest songs (for all the good they do. But it helps me channel anger, at least) https://dogtraxwrites.com/music/protest-song-hoping-and-praying-like-hell/
Kevin
“The terms of use are in Russian.” Lovely.
The green flag is really bizarre. Your request was straightforward, erase. It’s like the flag is symbolizing that something used to be there. We use flags to declare our presence. Maybe this is a flag that declares the absence of presence.
And congrats on the Explore. Flickr is fun like that isn’t it? You never quite know when something would hit Explore, and then, poof, it happens.
I’m not very good with the Photoshop AI to know how it generates. I have used only in a few cases to extend backgrounds on the edges of images.
Yeah, the fun of Explore is not knowing a thing about it nor expecting. I’ve been lucky to have more than my share.
If you want some peek into bizarreness, the forums of people complaining about not being explored or trying to game it is a bit fascinating for human behavior https://www.flickr.com/groups/inexplore/discuss/72157668110273703