The Frontier

Triumvirate

ABOUT CONSTRUCTED PERFECTION

Constructed Perfection The world as presented to you is an illusion. From the moment you awaken you live in a world where the most mundane of your activities are prescribed and faceted as part of a larger system. The world as understood by you is theater. An elaborate and choreographed performance of players with yourself in the starring role. By nature of this synthesis you are not bound, but directed. This is not a dystopian manifesto, the universe holds abundant possibilities. The world as imagined by you is reality; now make it. info@constructedperfection.com New York City

Welcome Back Surrealism

As time progresses and we begin to reevaluate ourselves, our civilization, and our place in the world the collective psyche has changed focus. In the midst of a paradigm shift the true essence of 21st century reality is emerging as we shed the preconceptions of old and discard the antiquated in favor of progress. Surrealistic expression has been on the rise and it remains a gauge by which we can monitor the collective psyche's movement into a higher plane - a consciousness that is more intelligent, thoughtful, and full of dreams. These times are not easy for many people, especially for Americans. Seven years of war, eight years of a tyrannical president, and now a financial crisis, people have begun to look for meaning in their lives. They begin to look for meaning which cannot be bought and purpose which cannot be taught. We have begun to look into our dreams - into the unspoken depths of our consciousness hoping for an answer or at the very least a respite from the harsh realities. We are quickly becoming dreamers and idealists the likes of which has not been seen since the Victorian Age. These attitudes will be extremely beneficial to the human condition as the assortment of contemporary technology allows us to express ourselves in ways that were once not possible. The Dali: Painting and Film exhibition at MoMa summer 2008 was extremely successful with much attention paid to Dali's video works in particular. Previously unknown to many, Dali's video productions provided another medium through which the public could experience his vision and in our increasingly video oriented culture this exhibition served as a harbinger for video-surrealism. Watch more Crackle videos on AOL Video Dali in New York, 1965 One of the more interesting works of late is the music video for Bjork - Wanderlust which debuted in the Spring of 2008. Its production encompasses the dynamacy and obscurity which is trademark of surrealism, as well as a dreamlike and absurd progression of events. The animation paired with the instrumentation of entrancing horns is extremely successful at pulling the viewer into this reality. Bjork - Wanderlust, 2008 Music, movement, and most importantly format and duration of video-surrealism is what makes it completely unique from its grandfather movement. It is important to realize that surrealism is an attitude, not a throwback. It is sharing a dream, sharing unspoken desire and it is a rejection of the ironic and trivial in favor of deep meaning, texture, and content.

Middle Class Art Movement

Now that a new reality has set in, and increasing numbers people find themselves struggling many have found themselves dismounted from their former middle class status. It is this downward shift that will foster a new twist in the art world the likes of which has not been seen for decades in the United States. Gone are the days when over-inflated contemporary art was the cash cow for galleries. The presumptuous and impetuous, largely meaningless works of art parlay an idea of a marketable commodity into a cultural niche jam packed with groupies, press coverage, and buyers. That allure has ended. American contemporary art had lost is meaning because there was no struggle that needed to be expressed, only apathy and complacency. The recent 1980s obsession is a perfect example of pure regurgitation - in many ways an effort to literally recreate the image of how something was marketed. You can see those themes in the current “art” of late. This is a byproduct of the relative tranquility in American society over the past twenty or so years. The deeply divided events and attitudes of the 1960s and 1970s and the innovations of the 1980s have aged with those who created them. We simply just haven’t had major social upheavals which are expressed in an artistic way. There were fringe elements related to the war on terror and the bush administration, and various other causes from the 1990s but they paled in comparison to the mobilized and focused movement of previous generations. In the past decade the advances in technological culture has allowed individuals to export themselves to the world. Effectively in using techniques akin to miniature marketing campaign for their personal lives. Specific items chosen for display to the public gives the illusion of substance and meaning. In a collage images, songs, clippings, desires and attitudes a person has been able to craft an identity - apocryphal or not - using technology as the medium to transmit this ideal persona. This dodging of reality, the side-step from the truth had become a social attitude and it also manifested itself in contemporary art - an identity to be marketed. The new art movement will be born out of the most devastating idea to hit America in ages - a retrograde motion in status and opportunity for the middle class. This art will based on the perceived attitudes about what the middle class was supposed to be and represent, its expectations and opportunities either lost or placed askew - temporarily or permanently. It will be unique in expressing the middle class perspective and the current struggle set amid a backdrop of commodities that have either slipped out of grasp or have lost meaning. And most importantly it will be set amid a backdrop of a cultural wasteland centered around consumption, excess, and discontinuity. Eschewing the most meaningless archetypes one should expect these artistic manifestations to be straightforward and simple in their presentation but carrying with them a poignant and loaded message. Born out of frustration and the desire for efficiency and meaning this art movement from the middle-class will be some of the most clear and focused art that we have seen in recent years.

Obama as Catalyst

With inauguration day tomorrow there is a sigh of relief among many Americans as we put an end to the Bush era and start anew with a different president with fresh ideas. In our collective anointing of Barack Obama many people still fail to realize how much work there is to be done and how slow progress will be. Barack Obama will merely be a catalyst for things to come. It is unlikely that all of his goals will be achieved in his first term, and should he prove himself a capable leader it is still unlikely that all of his goals will be achieved by the end of his second term. Obama’s job is to begin a legacy of American national duty and global awareness. There have been many comparisons to an Obama administration being a reflection of the Clinton years. Yes, while in Clinton’s second term the United States prospered beyond any previous measure, Bill Clinton did not inherit a deepening recession - seemingly on its way into a depression - two wars, and a nation divided so deeply only our nations crumbling infrastructure shows fractures more severe. No, Obama’s potential for two terms will not be anything like the Clinton years. However, we must not lose that sense of American optimism that has defined this nation through all of its tough times. It is true that the endurance of the United States is connected to its ability to accept change and to reinvent itself for the moment at hand. Obama must be steady and wise while carving out this new path. Obama’s first order of business is to unleash a hefty $850 billion dollar stimulus package, this has been received with some criticism from both the Republican and Democratic side - and rightly so. Viewing this through the eyes of a pragmatic independent, there must be strict oversight to ensure that these monies are funneled into the appropriate channels to begin to reinvent the entire way we think about the United States and interact with the United States, and these visions must be bold. There is often a comparison drawn with President Kennedy when imagining the first term of Obama. While it is similar with regard to the fresh face, let us not fall prey to nostalgic fantasies from a time whose framework cannot possibly translate to the problems we have at hand. Obama is a new man, and he is his own man. Though it is true Obama has the power to inspire Americans from all walks of life - as did Kennedy - many of Kenndy’s most iconic statements were carried out by other leaders. This is why the next 3 elections are extremely important. If Obama performs well in his first term it will be imperative to re-elect him to a second term. But after he is out of office we must ensure that the trajectory of sound American democracy is maintained through the elections of 2016 and 2020. If things are on a positive route and either republican special interests or neoconservative ideologies reemerge, or if the Democratic party begins an internal war the political damage will be irreparable and the United States will not be able to persist as a world leader, and its borders will be threatened by outside powers. Jimmy Carter is a classic example of a homegrown face of the middle-class who ascended into the highest office in the nation. His failure was less because of his naivety on certain issues and more a cause of the high expectations for him and the sour economic climate of the late 1970s his administration inherited. So let us not treat Obama as a Christ-like figure. Let us not treat Obama as a new Lincoln, a new Roosevelt, or a new Kennedy. Let us treat him as a practical and rational leader, and let us walk along with him though these times, holding him accountable, asking questions, and most importantly remembering that the United States is a democracy and Obama works for us. If America is successful at being more involved with government and the daily functions of our society, and if Obama is a true and adept leader his legacy will catalyze a new era for American identity and purpose. That is the hope we must not lose. If Obama accomplishes few goals then he must be replaced.

Open Source Government

The emerging world is a multi-polar world drawing influence from the United States, the European Union, Russia, and burgeoning economies like Brazil, China, and India. These intermingling spheres of influence will cause tensions but there will be an increase of perspectives from different places. This is why collaboration and communication is crucial in this new world. Once the powerful nations of this planet realize that our common interests trump our national interests, and that being a citizen of the world is just as important and meaningful as ones allegiance to his or her nation we can usher in an era where we can look beyond petty struggles and really and truly begin to find solutions to the worlds problems. As a new paradigm for global leadership and regulation begins to form there will be an air of protectionism from many nations who put their trust into the capitalism behind globalization. While this is an understandable and inherently conservative attitude, we must not miss the opportunity to expand global collaboration in order to harness cross cultural, philosophical, and educational partnerships. One of the great strengths of the United States is the global collective of minds that exists within its borders. We are no longer a world of isolated nations, but integrated nation states whose common interests outweigh the perceived differences between them. When engaging in grand collaborative enterprises at the global scale there will need to be a framework to hold all of the elements together. This can include government defense departments, universities, hospitals, manufacturing firms, and the list continues.What is interesting about this framework is that it will require some level of global oversight. Now immediately, warning bells chime at the idea of global government, but the question is, how do we avoid it? Short of a catastrophic turn of events that would plunge us into world war three, we will keep moving forward as a world more integrated than ever before. One way to avoid over-arching global government is to embrace the ideas of open-source government. A system much like open-source software where users, or in this case citizens and politicians, can collaboratively add into the mix things like transparency, monetary policy, etc. Individual governments can then exchange with one another effectively discussing the pros and cons of one idea versus another effectively forging collaborative bonds between multiple sovereign states with the goal of equal exchange rather than capital gain. Open-source government, in a sense, at the government level, is a form of government communism. This is not to be confused with social communism and Marxian ideologies, but rather the collection of global government minds in an open forum for discussion - a community. On the world stage this would be a global assembly of governments with no over-arching power structure, just a simple forum. Each government will be treated as an equal in these discussions, there will be no legislation drawn, no policies signed, only the flow of ideas and philosophies in a purely global discussion. This forum of course would differentiate itself from the flaccid United Nations by not engaging in military operations but rather to produce a purely academic, intellectual, and practical outcomes that effect the fundamentals of society. Talking among one another in an academic pretext will quickly reveal how similar all the peoples of the world are at a fundamental level and that our petty differences are not large enough to warrant war and strife. Greed will always factor itself into the picture, but within the proper framework the negative affects of greed can be absorbed into the larger social structure and this is best accomplished with in-depth discussion. Many of the world leaders fail to see how small the world has become. The United States especially likes to treat dissenting nations as arbiters of evil, while the actions of the United States can be seen in the same light. When in reality a dissenting nation is less like a far flung territory and more like neighboring community. Maintaining favorable terms with ones neighbors is sometimes difficult, but it is also essential - and essential for the well being of humanity.

America's Child

In American society we can stay children for quite a long time. In this society adults can exist in perpetual childhood. This is the most evident in the Baby Boom generation up through the currently 20-somethings. One of the main reasons American society is beginning to break-down, erode, fail - call it what you will - is because the framework that is in place is essentially allowing adults to stay in a child-like or adolescent state almost indefinitely. Paradoxically, this is the by-product of the success of the society. Such a paradox conjures images of science fiction settings set in the future where an indigenous population is a complacent lot of adult-children. Imagining the Eloi in HG Wells novel The Time Machine, this complacency is offset by the brainwashing and control placed in the hands of the Morlocks who control the society from beneath the ground. To draw a parallel with reality and the present-day, as Americans continue to live like children we become more receptive to authoritative and dictatorial regimes - think child and parent. This paradox begs the question, is democracy sustainable? Considering the variables of economics and culture it is apparent how America is the oldest republic on the planet, but the most frightening prospect is whether or not we can maintain this republic given our disconnection to our democratic roots and the struggles that bore this republic into existence. This insulating childhood makes us unable to grasp the ebb and flow and change to which other parts of the world are now more attuned. This is why members of many other societies are much more pragmatic about their daily outlook and their place in the world at large. However, the argument does hold that Europe is now headed down the same path as the United States in the wake of the growing European Union. The pursuit of happiness, the American Dream, the desire to have all your wants fulfilled puts you in perpetual childhood, therefore dampening your ability to make really firm judgment calls. That is why all of our architecture and the most purely American elements of our society are cartoon-like. From the newest suburban towns, to banking terminals - kitchen appliances, to the current lack luster American contemporary art. (if you really want to see into the mind of a child, look there). The over-protectiveness of many safety laws and the over-regulation of public space and its use further compounds the mindset of a child-like nation. This is not to say that the aforementioned American ideals are bad, but they are extremely naive. The 1990s can be seen as a time when America was the most purely American as it ever was. Of course, this nation is a nation of the world, with all cultures merged in some capacity, but the core elements, the school system, popular culture, and food all reflect a decade where America was the only superpower. In a time of SuperSoakers, Gruge Rock, economic surpluses and the advent of the internet, a dream and an ideal was realized for many people. America will never have it quite the same again - that was America’s peak, a time when our culture was exported to all corners of the globe transforming many societies from within. A decade later, with a new world on our plate America’s adult-children have a new reality to face and they must mature fast. Does that mean some innocence and exuberance will be lost? Most definitely yes, but it does not mean we will loose our republic and the integrity of democracy. However the warning lingers that such integrity is fast slipping away and there is much needed work to restore many rights and to scale back elements of the Federal Government. There will no doubt be a 1990s retro-vintage pop culture binge. After witnessing the last vacuous binge of the 1980s it’s extremely clear how unproductive regurgitation is. And that stylistic references to the past should not be mistaken as an excuse to literally resurrect the dead. After all, when you have the mind of a child it becomes hard to see the ridiculousness of such exercises in futility. If America wants to live on, we must reinvigorate ourselves and draw new connections to the world and in our own society. America always changes, but we must grow up fast to ensure that our rights are not stripped of us as we slip closer toward an authoritarian government. If we remain bold, educated, and aware our light shall live on, if not, we will dim and America will become a grave threat to the world. A dark America will be a very dangerous place. Children are always afraid of the dark.

Indebted by Technology

Technology is the staple of any modern age and its applications have consequences deeply rooted in society. In the past ten years the technology of the debit card has allowed tens of thousands of individuals to pay for goods and services effortlessly. It is the ease and the speed with which one can debit a bank account that has removed the attentiveness formerly required toward ones bank account, and many have fallen prey to this trap. What makes this phenomenon interesting is its link to the American fascination with speed and seamlessness. In the midst of any new paradigm there are bound to be hiccups, and in the case of the debit card the move to internet and paperless banking and tap-and-go payment over the past decade has promulgated the insatiable need for rampant consumption. The debit card is habit forming, and riddled with the denial endemic to any addiction. As the economy worsens with each passing week, much emphasis has been placed upon consumers' careless use of credit cards. At this time the average American household credit card debt is roughly ten thousand dollars. Though lines of credit are different than the funds in ones bank account, the looming problem is inextricably linked by the habit of paying for daily goods with a plastic card. Many individuals with rolling credit card debt can only pay the minimum monthly fee because such individuals do not have adequate savings to pay off large sums of the debt. This problem is further compounded by the perceived need to purchase other technologies. We have become familiar with the black hole of technology consumerism - think of Best Buy - and how the desire to keep personal technologies up-to-date has become a frequent and expensive habit. New flat panel televisions are quickly replacing the old cathode ray tube found in most homes, new game systems, digital cameras, software updates, and growing monopolies such as BluRay have consumers asking questions equivalent to "VHS or Beta." The Apple Computer cult following is a prime example of the gravitational pull for people to purchase new items and stay current. The most fashionable of products, the promised seamlessness of the Apple regime requires the use of the most current software and often the use of the most current hardware. Compounded with a shallow minded attitude about status and image it becomes easy to swipe your plastic card and walk out satisfied with your new technology. A technology that will be near obsolete in a number of years. Apple has made it so easy to spend while at their stores you often find yourself in a state of euphoria while making the transaction amid the crisp minimalist interior with friendly staff wielding handheld check-outs. If you don't have enough money or a decent credit line, Apple offers its Juniper credit service at the push of a button. Not to be a bully toward Apple, they are merely the best example of a brilliant business model. But it is a business model that is representative of the type of temptations in rampant American consumerism that has burned a hole in our wallets. Our technologies have advanced faster than our society is ready to adapt. To overcome this shift in spending practice which will be one of the hallmarks of the first half of the twenty-first century we must first get a grasp of the new nature of money and how the term "cash" will fit into our twenty-first century lexicon. As the world markets continue to implode we shall have a better idea of what "having money" means relative to ones income and what the nature of cash, currency, credit, and exchange will be once the ashes are cleared and the dust settles. There will be some technologies in this new age they we will not be able to live without, and those technologies come with a cost. Of course not everyone is careless with his or her lack of money, but those people are obviously in the minority.

The Investment Train

Capitalism will still work for you as long as you maintain a practical outlook of the future economic horizon. The focus should be on steady long-term investments rooted in local industries and skilled labor. Your investments should be in trains. The renaissance of America's once iconic, but now century's old transportation network has become more important in this age of individualism than ever before. As GM, Ford, and Chrysler began ripping up street car lines in the 1930s and passenger rail lines in the subsequent post war years, the paradigm of American independent transportation is now being up heaved. Despite the fluctuating gas prices - at the moment in 3 year lows - there is a general dissatisfaction with American suburban life as it relates to the commuter. This dissatisfaction is not only endemic in the suburbs, but across the entirety of the United States. There are a few regions in the U.S. where rail transit stands above the rest; most notable the Seattle-Portland region and the New York City Metropolitan Area along with the Bos-Wash Metropolis. Good examples yes, but even they can be improved. There are also new rail projects that have emerged recently, for instance the California High Speed Rail Authority has proposed a 225 mph train that will link Sacramento, San Fransisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. California High Speed Rail from Constructed Perfection on Vimeo. Even freight rail is a wise investment. Norfolk Southern has seen steady gains over the past five years and it continues to expand and diversify its service while conducting environmentally friendly business. As the United States begins to evolve into its 21st century urban form the landscape is rife with investment opportunities. Proof of this opportune time can be seen in the past reinventions of the American urban form and the countless millionaires and billionaires it has created. Compare the agricultural America of the 18th Century with the industrial America of the 19th century, with the post-industrial and rampant suburban America of the 20th Century. Each of these manifestations has reinvigorated the American economy and the American "dream" so-to-speak; as the American dream = happiness = living comfortably = needing $$$, therefore finding sound and lucrative long term investments is one of the most American acts anyone can participate in. Just cite the Carnegies, Vanderbilts, and Rockefellers. If we blend our love for individualism with the grand investment schemes of old we should have a particularly vibrant 21st century economy built on the backs of an ever diverse American population - not on debt and foreign investment. A few key things to look for are the expansion or creation of new municipal rail transit, intercity regional transit, and new Trans-Atlantic commuter rails. These new models coupled with suburban and urban infill development (to densify) can ease the strains of commuting, energy, and help to reconnect Americans to the idea that they live in a community where it's acceptable to sit beside a stranger and have a pleasant conversation. America is already quite connected in the virtual world, but once we as a nation begin to reconnect with each other in the physical world the accumulation of communities built around high-speed rail hubs, and neighborhoods interlinked with efficient and clean rail - both below ground and above - will become America's new love affair, and that will bring in staggering returns for those who had the foresight to invest in these infrastructures early. Imagine an America where most Americans find riding mass transit as natural as driving their car, and America with transportation options, a truly multi-modal society where a journey across our vast land is not only point A to point B, but where a journey can also be an adventure. The practical, economical, psychological, and entertainment value of rail transit will undoubtedly keep it profitable.