The Astounding Problem of Andrew Novick

Currently on exhibition at The Lab gallery in Colorado:

"The Astounding Problem of Andrew Novick features the overwhelming and unusual collections of an eccentric individual who does not consider himself an artist. In total, Andrew Novick estimates he has over a hundred collections: Barbie dolls of every variety, Chihuahua figurines, clown paintings, anything related to teeth or braces. The truth is he has far more things than will or can ever be organized into a “collection.” Inside his home and in his rented storage space he has stacks, piles and boxes of answering machine cassette tapes full of incoming phone messages, more answering machine cassette tapes with recordings of recording almost every conversation he has ever had with a telemarketer, jars ripe with formaldehyde-free dead animals, uncommon foods and more.

Andrew Novick’s ambiguous status as a collector/artist/hoarder is not just about his unique personality. It tells us something about our time. He is a product of the DIY generation and indie culture. This generation believes a creative life is passion and entertainment; something you share with your friends over beers, not necessarily your profession. Though he would never put it this way, he is a legacy of the 1960s belief that “everyone is an artist.” His pursuits are an outgrowth of the diffusion of the definition of artist over the last 40 years.

Finally -- crucially -- he is also a consumer, a wholly modern person, who buys and stores shit just like the rest of us. The astounding problem of Andrew Novick is not his problem. It is ours."

A SELECTION OF ANDREW'S STUFF

The Bob Newhart Ticket Stub 2003
Jar of Cereal Dust - 10 Years of "Work"
Chihuahua Cookie Jar
Clown Sake Set
Li'l Fawn - Plush
Chihuahua Drawing (Print)
Chihuahua Munny by Dea
Mr. Mouthy Mouth
Huge Stack of Games
Goose Head in Jar
Manequin Head with Braces
Glittery Orange Marshmallow Fish Bait
Meat Markers
Red Fawn Statue
Wood Meat Ball Mold
Porcelain Coffee Pot
Fawn Salt&Pepper Shakers
Flocked Fawn

» video tour of exhibition with Andrew Novick

» view photo album of (lots of but not all of) Andrew's stuff

» view photo album of opening night

» audio clips from telemarketer conversations 1 2 3 4 5

» see a list of all of Andrew's stuff

Keynesian Beauty Contest

A particularly apropos application of game theory by renowned economist Keynes:

A Keynesian beauty contest is a concept developed by John Maynard Keynes and introduced in Chapter 12 of his work, General Theory of Employment Interest and Money (1936), to explain price fluctuations in equity markets. Keynes described the action of rational agents in a market using an analogy based on a fictional newspaper contest, in which entrants are asked to choose a set of six faces from photographs of women that were the "most beautiful". Those who picked the most popular face are then eligible for a prize.

A naïve strategy would be to choose the six faces that, in the opinion of the entrant, are the most beautiful. A more sophisticated contest entrant, wishing to maximize his chances of winning a prize, would think about what the majority perception of beauty is, and then make a selection based on some inference from his knowledge of public perceptions. This can be carried one step further to take into account the fact that other entrants would also be making their decision based on knowledge of public perceptions. Thus the strategy can be extended to the next order, and the next, and so on, at each level attempting to predict the eventual outcome of the process based on the reasoning of other rational agents.

“It is not a case of choosing those [faces] which, to the best of one’s judgment, are really the prettiest, nor even those which average opinion genuinely thinks the prettiest. We have reached the third degree where we devote our intelligences to anticipating what average opinion expects the average opinion to be. And there are some, I believe, who practise the fourth, fifth and higher degrees.” (Keynes, General Theory of Employment Interest and Money, 1936).

Keynes believed that similar behavior was at work within the stock market. This would have people pricing shares not based on what they thought their fundamental value was, but rather based on what they think everyone else thinks their value was, or what everybody else would predict the average assessment of value was.

Grease meets pest

Black Lips channel their 1960's pork pie plumber bum garage revivalist herion-sheik trash influences shamelessly and to great effect on their new ELPMAH (Extended Long Play Music Album for Humans...c'mon you knew that). Less of what you'd expect from their previous bluesy indie-rock inflected beer spraying "flower punk" (their own *yuck* euphemism) and more of a succession of opiate-induced hot nods to the purveyors of good types of sound like The Kinks and Velvet Underground. Things happen with music when listening. Singer Alexander Cole pays tribute to the late great Joe Strummer in track 8, BBBJOT, hijacking Strummer's trademark proncouncement of the word "fail" (as in "Rude can't fay-all").
Speaking of that track, these are some of the lyrics:

It don't matter what they say
He cant be the Jack Johnson of the day
Big, black baby jesus on the way. C'mon!
The Jesus of today. C'mon!
Do it, do it today, big, black Jesus on the way.
It don't matter what they say.

Track 11, The Drop I Hold finds Cole dropping some slow-ass drug-addled white boy rhymes over a great lazy, west-coast rhythm with a 97.1 worthy-hook. Stylistically, this song stands on its tippy toes as it refreshingly creeps up on you past the dozen plus tracks of effortless fuzzed-out drug jams. So what the hell about all this? Well they lose the disorientingly euphoric experimental loops and drum triggers (which really helped set themselves apart from the scene of snore) and plug raw into tube amps. It's nothing new, but I love the Kinks and Velvet Undergound, so to get down with some New York contemporary shitpster-ish, 20-something, fun-loving boredom crashers who drop $$$$ to get the best worst guitar tones and devote their lives to singing out of key and tapping into the pot-hazy, sexy apathy of some of the best bands of the 20th century is a thing I'll do.

try it.