Archive of Journalism Casualties

What's a Journalism Casualty?

A visual "micro blog", that is part virtual artist studio, part RSS feed of news and/or trending topics, part triage & emergency "treatment" of the wounded, & part blind date. A nice way for me to start the day by following the right brain, while the left brain's still waiting for the caffeine to kick in.

A work of art, resulting from the assembly of two or more disparate images, in whole or in part. (for reference, see also "exquisite corpse") The composite image is then embedded with "clickable links" so as to render it a multi-part "mini-portal" (see also "image map") to articles of interest or other sources of information. [Journalism Casualties usually are made of 3 sections, linking to 3 items, but occasionally there may be more.]

Prepping these things is a kind of triage. I surf the web, looking at current items, news stories, trending topics, etc. I take note of imagery, like symptoms. I make the piece, which often feels like stitching up the wounded in some field hospital somewhere. The combination of items I use is based solely on the aesthetics, but the juxtaposition afterward has become why I continue to do them. I am intrigued by their encapsulation of time as well. Human existence is measured in thought. One of those thoughts is time, measured in days, and other units. Looking at these weeks or days later, I get a sense of that feeling one gets looking at old newspapers/magazines years after their original publication, a sense that is linked to one's mortality somehow, culling through quotidian "markers" of forgotten portions of a trip. Thus enters "memento mori", a latin phrase that translates as "remember you will die". Increasingly, this work as a whole, a series, "identifies" itself to me as "memento mori". Strangely, in my adopted daily language of italian, one would think as close to latin as it gets, they do not, as we do in english, use the word "memento" as any synonym for souvenir, keepsake, etc. But, since we do in english, and the images serve well as porters of little "valigette", I cannot think of them without the phrase.

Why the name, "Journalism Casualty"? Who is the "Casualty", and why? Well, it's complicated, but in general, the "casualty" can be any one or combination of:

- a story or item buried by the news cycle;
- a story or item that is helping bury the news cycle, exhausting itself of any validity in the process;
- the readers/viewers, made a casualty by a brutal, vaccuous or otherwise annoying news cycle;
- the image I make as a whole when it is finished, like a little frankenstein's monster or a victim of war, all stitched up and limping along... and, returning again to "memento mori", what better, if unnerving at times, reminder of our mortality than the unexpected meeting with someone with obvious and serious wounds...

Note that the links embedded in these images were to current news items at the time they were initially published, and may no longer be appropriately correlated to their original destination.

©All rights reserved.

may 30, 2011


viet_snakes
helplessness
memorial_day


may 29, 2011


salvos
srebrenica
hotel_boom


may 26, 2011


asteroid_trip
teen_archer
sister_stripper


may 25, 2011


geeks
neurons
china_thirst


may 24, 2011


puritanage
brooklyn_bridge
fleas


may 20, 2011


hypnosis
spinal_recovery
bald_eagles


may 19, 2011


maid_tesifies
coffee_prostate
koalas


may 18, 2011
Please note that here there is a 4th clickable part, sending birthday greets to the folks at The Urban Times.


ut_birthday
crowd_funding
co2_cuts
israel_reach_out


may 17, 2011


infocation
cavaliere
hair


may 16, 2011


hawking
beijing_palace
weiwei


may 15, 2011 [Special Sunday edition

previously only published at The Urban Times


family_day
chardonnay_set
no_war_day


may 13, 2011


empire
beauty
queen


may 12, 2011


lorca_quake
killing_bees
gelato_fail


may 11, 2011


butts_end
nukes_fail
sydney_peace


may 10, 2011


immigration
heavy_metal_kills
robotics


may 09, 2011


tigers
f_murdoch
miss_river


may 06, 2011


china_money
airships
derby


may 05, 2011


geronimo
plagiarism
midwives


may 04, 2011


detroit_target
nonstory
firefighters


may 03, 2011


japanbots
videosama
twitter_osama


may 02, 2011
Please note that the image for Monday May 02, 2011 is a "Special Edition" - for various reasons, including:
1) ...it breaks with the traditional "3-piece" construction -- That is, in addition to the 3 regular clickable portions (head, body, legs), there is an additional, 4th clickable element (that I'm hoping will be obvious and easy enough to locate);
2) ...I've constructed it drawing on items from the weekend, rather than just that day.
Enjoy... but as always, mind the sharp edges...


ny_obl
hamas_talk
world_work
gas


april 29, 2011


eu_bull
endeavor
dance


april 28, 2011


fatah_hamas
tactical_move
tornadoes


april 27, 2011


women_advance_degrees
eu_borders
china_climate


april 26, 2011


guernica
chernobyl
audobon


april 25, 2011


liberazione
murrow
wikileaks


april 22, 2011


earthday
pregnant_project
tillman


april 21, 2011


roma
palestine
fiat


april 20, 2011


sun_dog_painting
420_infamy
bp


april 19, 2011


april_19
brewer
s_and_p


april 18, 2011


darrow
tax_day_moved
secessionbull


april 15, 2011


leonardo
jackier
vittorio


april 14, 2011


fordtheater
hood
apes


april 13, 2011


apollo13
seizetheday
gagavision


april 12, 2011


japnobyl
copeland
gagarin


april 11, 2011


fcat
deltas
warmacine


march 31, 2011


bunsen
cesar
schiavo


march 30, 2011


walmart
chavez
annex


march 29, 2011


us_fail
solare
fb_dc


march 28, 2011


greens
neil
nycobra


march 27, 2011


mies
radiation
tarantino


march 26, 2011


lost
syria
wildcats


march 25, 2011


silvio_dance
habemus_papam
blue_devil


march 24, 2011


houdini
gaza
liz


march 23, 2011


meteorology_day
bad_water_children
polycephilybia


march 22, 2011


abu_again
mona
iraq_shadow


march 21, 2011


threat
maestro
nucleare


march 20, 2011


twins
bones
bedfellows


march 18, 2011


cavalli
Qtaps
heroes


march 17, 2011


stpat
perpcat
garibaldi



march 16, 2011


snow
iodide
dogg


march 15, 2011


fired
exposurerisk
alliswell


march 11, 2011


tsunami
ncaa
khan



march 10, 2011


atl
coffeecrisis
wisconsin



march 9, 2011


lib
notorious

anonymous