May 7, 2001 (NYT) News Analysis: To European Eyes, It's America the Ugly
By ROGER COHEN
BERLIN, May 6 — Before becoming president, George W. Bush seemed acutely aware of the need for a country as powerful as the United States to show restraint. "If we are an arrogant nation, they will resent us," he said. "If we're a humble nation, but strong, they'll welcome us."
The words appear to have been forgotten. A torrent of hostile articles in Europe has greeted Mr. Bush's first three months in office. Their chief theme has been the arrogance of what the German weekly Der Spiegel recently called "the snarling, ugly Americans."
On its Web site, the respected Munich daily Süddeutsche Zeitung lists seven articles summing up the themes of Mr. Bush's first 100 days. They are not unrepresentative of widespread European views.
The titles include: "Selling Weapons to Taiwan: Bush Throws His Weight Around in the Pacific"; "North Korea: Bush Irritates the Asians"; "World Court: No Support From United States"; "Iraq: Bombing Instead of Diplomacy"; and "Climate Agreement: The United States Abandons the Kyoto Protocol."
cont.
Dear Friends: American photographs of Men Together, 1840-1918
at the international center for photography; through 6/10
Take me to the river.......
"Bitstreams" Debuts at Whitney Museum
--New York, March 22, 1969 (AP)
In the future, technology will offer new marvels in our day-to-day lives. Liquid lead-filled pencils, hovercars, and wafer-thin TV screens are but a few of the items we will see in coming years. Now, in an exhibit at the Whitney Museum of Art, we can glimpse how science will change the art of the future, today. In "Bitstreams," curated by Lawrence Rinder, artists using computers, electronic cameras, oscillators, and other gadgets offer up a humming, flickering smorgasbord of newfangled art.
"It's fun," says Tommy Rettig, a junior high school student from P.S. 122, working the controls on John Klima's "ecosystm." "I can make the pterodactyls [extinct birdlike dinosaurs] fly up and down and all around." But Klima's work isn't all just fun and games: as the artist explains, it's "an animated representation of real-time global stock market fluctuations, currency volatility, and local weather conditions." Fortunately for Tommy, who justs wants to experience some new art, that brain-bending data can be switched off at the touch of a button!
In an adjacent room, Jim Campbell's pieces not only have great beauty, but they teach you something about optics and physics. In his programmed patterns of lights, figures can be discerned. "The subject can best be seen from straight on," according to the Museum's brochure: "Our eyes fill in 'missing' information between the lights." Other works also teach us about science. In Diana Thater's "Six Color Video Wall," NASA films of the sun, with solar storms and flares boiling like lava, are arbitrarily assigned six different colors.
The exhibit has been drawing record crowds, and director Maxwell Anderson predicts we'll see a lot more technological art. "The show's been very popular. People are genuinely curious to experience the ways science and technology are changing art. We have upcoming exhibits devoted to holography and kinetic art, and even a show of works based entirely on mathematics." Rinder agrees: "This is my first show here, but it's just the beginning of the Whitney's commitment to these exciting new developments in art." Move over, Rembrandt!
"Bitstreams" runs through June 10, 1969. Museum hours are Tuesdays through Sundays, 11:00 - 6:00 pm, with extended hours (til 9:00 pm) on Fridays. Call 1-877-WHITNEY for further information. Photo: "Against Shadows" by Juan Downey and Fred Pitts, 1968.
