Iconographic pollution

On Saturday morning 13.4. I visited MUDAM (Museum of Modern Art) in Luxembourg City. I was intrigued by Bert Theis's (1952-2016) retrospective exhibition Building Philosophy - Cultivating Utopia. Theis was trained as a painter, but his ouvre consists of spatial design, sculpture, collage, installations, and documentation. He initiated platforms and built pavilions to battle against iconographic pollution, produced by society of the spectacle (Guy Debord).

* What is the society of the spectacle?

R E S E A R C H _ Q U E S T I O N S

SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE is a theory coined by French Situationist artist Guy Deboard. He argued that life is replaced by representations of real life. Images mediate relationships between people, and the images per se are not the Spectacle. Mass communication, consumerism, capitalism and commodity fetishism all lead to cultural homogenisation and alienation. However, he argues that this is not a destination: Spectacle can be overcome. Deboard proposes a revolution, that will put an end to the Spectacle.

Living > Having > Appearing

In my opinion, Deboard's writings sound like media theory. For me, society of the spectacle hasn't gone anywhere. It's alive an well, and even accelerated due to social media platforms and ever-growing networks (Internet).

* How does the concept of Society of the Spectacle connect to Theis' idea of iconographic pollution?

* How can I connect the idea of iconographic pollution (Bert Theis) and Youtube Poop (YTP)? Is there a connection? What is the connection between these two?

YTP videos are pollution in a way that they dont serve a higher purpose, other than entertainment, and they are considered as shit. They dont make sense.

YTP videos "pollute" our minds: they distract, and bring little value to life - comparing to educational videos, for example. However, one can value humour and entertainment, so then YTPs become valuable.

These videos poke fun on material reality, especially pop-culture. Iconographic pollution refers to advertisenments, art, and any form of figurative (and non-figurative?) image-creation. Images are bad, because they mediate the relationships between people (according to my interpretation of Guy Debord's text). Images are not the Spectacle, but defenitely contribute to it.

We see images every day, now propably more than never. Thanks to social media, ads on the streets, ads on Youtube videos, art, tv...
We create, share images. We take active approach to image-making, by taking photographs and drawing fan art and practicing video-editing software. We engage in image-culture by liking, sharing, commenting, creating.

Thuis was educated as a painter. Early on in his career, he abandoned ideas of figurative depiction. Instead, he initiated platforms to discuss ideas.

He bought small ad spaces from different magazines, urging people not to contribute to iconographic pollution.

By ICONOGRAPHIC POLLUTION he meant figurative painting and image-making.

Bert Theis - Building Philosophy
brochure

I made notes after visiting the expo as part of my learning process

Click image to watch interview with Enrico Lungi, curator of Thuis's retrospective

* How does YTP create fiction?

Fiction something that didnt happen.

YTP makers use poopisms, different editing techniques, to create parallel realities, or fiction. Or fantasy, which becomes entertainment.

That fiction/fantasy becomes real in Youtube, when shared with others. In the comment section people transcribe funny moments, sharing likes and replying to other comments.

WHAT?
Youtube poop videos are remixed-collage edited videos on youtube. Remixers use existing content, such as Disney/movies, cartoons and video games,
To create (often) short videos, with bizarre/crazy/humorous results.

The aim of these videos is to entertain, but often YTPs take a dark turn.

(Some people consider YTP videos as first video memes)

The definition is very loose, and in YTP community widely debates which videos are considered as YTPs and which are not. I’m going to discuss them in its wider definition.

AIM, GOAL, PURPOSE (WHY)
The purpose is to entertain, to make people laugh
To annoy, to confuse

HISTORY
The first YTP dates back to 2006.

Even though this form of entertainment is more than 10 years old, it seems alive and well. The peak of this "trend" was around 2010-2012.

Usually YTP don’t get many views, and it speaks to specific group of people, with a certain kind of humour. This makes it a niche editing subculture.

SOURCE MATERIAL
The adventures of Super Mario bros 3 cartoon
The super Mario bros show
Zelda CD-i
The adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog
Billy Mayes infomercials
Lazytown
King of the hill

Other materials:
Yu gi oh
Spiderman movies
Disney movies
Michael Rosen
The fresh prince of bel-air

in a way, the word Poop is misleading. Despite its name, YTPs have nothing to do with human or animal fecies, nor does it contain so/called bathroom humour. “It just means that the stuff you see is a load of shit.” (Youtubepoop.fandom)

REFLECTION

Maybe YTPs are considered shit because they are pointless? They don't serve a higher purpose, there is no coherent vision what YTPs are aimed to achieve (other than entertaining or annoying).

Often YTP videos mix different source materials, mixing video games, tv shows, anime, cartoons. This way, overlap in realities is created > alternative universes even. For example, on the left you see an image sequence (screenshots), where the Prince of Bel-Air is mixed with My Little Ponies and KFC.

YTPs create fiction by combining already-existing fictions (The fresh prince of bel-air, My Little Ponies) with facts (KFC) from the material reality.

These creations are then streamed on Youtube, shared and liked.

The original story is taken despite copyright laws and a new story is made using poopisms (techniques).

YTP creators use existing material to create alternative narratives, which are bizarre and funny.

I feel like my Paradise Ranch video didnt reflect the idea of YTP, even though I thought it would. I guess I could re-make the video in the spirit of YTP. However, then I'd make fun of the subject, contribute to myth-making. That is interesting, yes.

I think YTPs, like many memes, reflect todays world: interconnected, yet complex, and we try to come up with bizarre stories to distract ourselves from the complexity. There is so much going on the world, so maybe YTPs are there to lighten the mood.