Spencer Tunick - why do we continue to indulge him?

For those of you who don't know who Spencer Tunick take a look at this:

That's right, he's the photographer who photographs large numbers of naked people. Please, before reading on, realise that this post is just a pure and unadulterated rant.

HOW IS THIS ART? From the dawn of civilisation people have been taking their clothes off, we know that lots of people like doing it, look at naturism, it has a HUGE following. In his latest stunt (and that's what I'm going to call these things from now on) nearly 2000 people agreed to take their clothes off for him. Why are we encouraging this? Why are we allowing this American photographer to expose us to such horrors?

Everyone knows that there is good naked and bad naked and we don't need more bad naked, take a look at this:

It may be funny but honestly do these people need encouraging? I vote for NO!

I guess one thing that really bothers me about this Spencer Tunick guy is that as far as artists go, he's hardly challenging himself is he? Sat alone in his house he ponders what his next project might be and like a bolt of lightning from the hand of God he has an epiphany "More naked people". Gimme a fucking break, mix it up! Not only that but every time he pulls another stunt it gets an insane amount of media coverage, for what? Rehashing an old idea that wasn't even yours in the first place? Why don't you take your clothes off, look at yourself in the mirror, cross your eyes and squint really hard? Now that's a lot of bad naked.

I've got an idea for you Spencer, if you really are insistant on the naked theme why don't you get all these naked people together and get them to wear those novelty naked aprons!? That's fucked up and speaks to the human condition all at the same time. And if that's not art I don't know what is!

How the new MBAs compare to the old

Today I went into university to listen to a presentation by a management consultancy called Boxwood who were there to recruit. They pride themselves on their resource based view HR policies. They hire well rounded balanced individuals who are passionate, down to earth and ambitious (and now that I write it surely that's what every organisation aims for right?). Either way my point is they considered themselves different and it really seemed to permeate their culture and although I went in a skeptic I left buying what they were selling. Anyway, I networked a little bit, swapped business cards and am sending my CV off to them tomorrow.

Most of those who attended the presentation were this year's intake, about twenty or thirty in total and there were about ten from my year (who like me have finished and are looking for work). It was fascinating to see all the new fresh faces knowing what they were going to expect in the year to come, the trials and tribulations, the tears and the joy. We were worlds apart and nowhere was this more evident than in the questions that were directed to Boxwood.

At the beginning of the presentation one of the Boxwood directors asked the audience what they wanted out of the presentation, encouraging them to ask questions that they wanted answers to; one of the new intake put their hand up and asked "What can your company offer me as an MBA graduate?", I proceeded to choke on my own saliva and a few heads turned. I thought to myself in true New York mafioso style "The balls on this kid!!", here this guy was, on the cusp of a year of emotional and intellectual hardship and he'd already believed his own hype. The hype that befell many of us. Another future MBA asked "What is your unique market offering?", I chuckled to myself and thought "unique market offering my ass". I'm glad to see that a year of the MBA hasn't affected my cynicism.

But seriously, compare this to the kind of questions that my lot were asking, things like "Where do I apply?" and "What is the recruitment process?" and you get the idea. WE NEED FUCKING JOBS AND WILL BEND OVER BACKWARDS TO GET THEM!

xkcd tribute

I'm a fan of his stuff and then I had an idea:

Happy to do more if you enjoyed this one.

That's it, it's over, I'm done

That's right. I finished my project yesterday and the MBA for me is over.

Picture of me and my final project report:

I celebrated handing in my final report with a huge fry-up:

Lost count of the days...

What manner of nocturnal beast have I become? My soul drained, my mind in meltdown. If I keep this up much longer I will surely perish.

Just... a few.... more.... words... and

IM FINISHED!!!!!!

HOME STRAIGHT BABY!

I'm handing this report in within the next few hours and I'm working through the night to get it in one day early. Ok ok, it's not the one week early that I had hoped for but seriously, who gives a fuck?

Get ready for a celebratory blog post later! Woo!

5 days and counting...

PANIC PANIC SHEER BLIND ABSOLUTE FUCKING PANIC!!!!!

6 days and counting...

This write-up is getting old fast. But literally one week from today I'll be free of this and have a whole new set of things to deal with, job stuff basically. It's at times like this that I wonder, who in their right mind would employ me!?

7 days and counting...

I promised I'd be productive today and I'd like to think I was, I upped the number of pages in the report by ten today, mind you it was by increasing the size of the body text from 11 to 12. =/

8 days and counting...

Why am I lazy at this critical point in the project?! That is typical me, I've given myself a few days buffer so I'm not rushing to finish but in the back of my mind I'm thinking I've got all this time to play with.

No good at all, I'll be ultra productive tomorrow. I promise.

9 days and counting...

I got a reasonable amount of work done today but for reasons that I can't really mention I am behind on the deadline I set for myself.

But whatever happens this baby is getting handed in by the deadline!

10 days and counting...

The hand in date for our final projects is the 12th September, just ten full days away. Completing the final report is a way off yet so I'm going to need every one of these 10 days to get it delivered on time. I mean, just consider how long it is going to take to proof read 70 pages of report.

Picture says a thousand words, but just one will do.