Setting everything else aside, that's a pretty crappy piece of art.

[hedgehog]

I mean, a plastic board with wires hanging off it,featuring a set of LEDs in a star pattern, scotch taped to a sweat shirt?

[JitterbugPerfume]

1. she was seeking attention

and she got it

[pnwmom]

10. It was lights in the shape of a star. She was advertising her name -- STAR. n/t

[KittyWampus]

32. Advertising=Seeking Attention

[LisaL]

55. Most of us somehow manage to go around without our names

in lights attached to our t-shirts.

[TwilightGardener]

2. My glittery macaroni mosaics glued onto paper plates were better art than that.

[hedgehog]

6. Now we're talking.

A lot of geniuses may be eccentric, but being eccentric is not proof you're a genius!

[Hissyspit]

20. No, they weren't. n/t

[TwilightGardener]

21. Yuh-huh. (sticking tongue out at you)

[spoony]

28. Finest response I've ever seen here

Though you COULD have chewed up some food before sticking your tongue out for maximum effect :P

[Nailzberg]

3. Hey, what you call crappy art, I call

A BOMB!!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!!

[piesRsquare]

12. A BOMB?!?!?! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

Oh...you were kidding. Terribly sorry. Carry on!

:evilgrin:

[HCE SuiGeneris]

4. Have you read about the incident?

JFC! Her name is Star. It was designed for career day.

[Mz Pip]

15. Career Day?

And the career would be what?? Suicide bomber?

Geez, for someone so smart, this was a real shit-for-brains idea.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[KittyWampus]

33. I think it's clever, though a bit raw and very unpolished. I applaud her creativity BUT

deduct the gold star for overall lack of cultural awareness when wearing that outside MIT.

[havocmom]

5. Crappy art or crappy attempt at getting some attention and blaming it on art?

My money is on the latter.

We seriously need to attend to mental health care in this country.

[hedgehog]

8. As a certifiably mentally ill person, I resent being compared

to Star!

[havocmom]

31. There are degrees and different infirmaties

;)

I have benefited from mental health care also. More people should give it a try. It's enriching if done well. Three shrinks told me I was "VERY SANE" but I still learned a lot from my time with them.

:hug:

[pnwmom]

13. Her name is STAR. The device had lights in the shape of a star.

It was just like wearing a name tag, and it was entirely appropriate for the Career Day event she had designed it for.

Unfortunately, it didn't belong in the airport the next day.

Except for lacking some common sense, I think her mind is in good shape -- no sign of any mental illness in reports about her.

[mitchum]

49. She is not mentally ill, but I suspect Asperger's Syndrome

many of the indicators are there

[Hissyspit]

18. She's 19 years old!!!

Good lord. What's with all the freeper-like judgmentalism here?

I had an effin' humongous "Styx" belt buckle when I was her age! I didn't have any sense either.

And art is about exploration and experimentation with ideas.

Jeez.

[havocmom]

29. Sorry, a 19 year old should show less egocentric behavior

and more cultural savvy.

A two year old, I will cut slack for, but at 19, she has been around enough to have a bit of judgment about WIRES LIGHTS AIRPORTS, unless she is in a condition that she is a ward of the state and under constant supervision.

[MindPilot]

39. I guess those people who got thrown out of campaign events

for wearing anti-war tee-shirts should've shown a little more "cultural sensitivity"?

Sorry, but conformity to the authoritarian police state is not a manifestation of "cultural savvy". Not even close.

[havocmom]

43. Dissent is a bit different than electronics

Guess logic isn't taught anymore

There are lots of events where you can't take a cell phone. Electronics can be a weapon. Damned few tee shirts with just a slogan can be used similarly.

Not seeing the difference could be because of all the straw being tossed about.

[MindPilot]

47. Yeah those circuit boards are really dangereous...

Did you know solder has LEAD in it?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!

[havocmom]

52. Hard to set off C4 with a slogan

Wires... now THAT'S different.

Honest to pete, this isn't discourse, it is fucking blindness

[KittyWampus]

34. Okay, a Styx belt buckle is just unforgivable. :-) But I like your comments about art

Art is Creativity. It is sacred, IMO.

And I mean that.

It's a good part of how we transcend the mundane and develop.

More use of our Imaginations is a good thing.

Though coupling the use of that Imagination along with a bit of Reason would be nice.

[SaveAmerica]

65. I can't believe you admit that on this public forum! And I can't believe how

out of control this is. From all accounts I heard when this came out, I thought there was some deranged person with something authentically bomb looking that had been arrested. This is the little lite-brite under the bridge episode part II.

I was picking someone up from the airport recently and stood watching at the 'liquid collection and cavity search station' as people unpacked everything to go through the Jetson's equipment. I thought to myself that it is official; the terrorists have won.

You hear that America? Scared yet? GEORGE BUSH AND DICK CHENEY ARE WINNING!


(Just kidding you about your belt buckle)

[mrreowwr_kittty]

7. Thank you!

I couldn't figure out was was artistic about it either. And it's reported that she wore it for several days, because she was so proud of it. :wtf:

[-..__...]

9. I could shit in Dixe cup and call it art...

doesn't make it good art, but guaranteed there's someone out there gullible enough to buy it.

[Hissyspit]

19. She never said it was good art. She said it was her art.

The ignorance on this board of the importance and the value and the function of creativity and imagination and expression for individuals and for culture, among supposedly enlighted humanist progressives astounds me.

And she's only 19 years old.

[piesRsquare]

24. "Only" 19 years old?

Gimme a break.

"Napster" was created by a 19-year-old. The "Wordpress" blog server(?) was created by a 20-year-old. "Netscape" was created by a 22-year-old.

Here's some other art:

By Elizabeth Argot, Age 14:



*****
By Karmen Gaines, Age 13:



*****
By Hannah Leathers, Age 15:



*****
By Timothy Malko, Age 18:



*****
"Only 19 years old" my butt. A little flashing star is artistic immaturity at best.

[Hissyspit]

25. Um, she's not an art major.

And by the way, I'm a college art professor.

All art doesn't have to look like the examples you provided. Plenty of contemporary artists are working in digital and other technologiess. Sculptors use all sorts of found functioning and non-functioning materials. The idea that sculpture can be found objects, interactive works, light and sound has been conventionalized for at least the past 50 years.

Yes, immaturity. I said she was only 19 years old - I meant that mainly in reference to her judgment in wearing it into the airport, but also in reference to her discovery and excitement that she can combine her interest in technology with her identity and fashion.

But god forbid Americans be encouraged to be creative and unconventional.

[piesRsquare]

26. Yes, I know about the variety of artistic media

I live in Silicon Valley; I know plenty about technology and art. I have designed and taught classes on mathematical art and my father has been doing fractal design since the 80's.

The examples I posted were found with an easy Google search and were used to simply illustrate my point about skill and maturity in artistic concept and design in relation to age of the artist. In my opinion, Star Simpson's "star" was not art, but rather a cutesy-poo, elementary craft "project". I would expect more from an electrical engineering major who claims to be an "artist".

"Only 19 years old" in terms of her judgment in wearing it into the airport doesn't fly with me either. At 19, I knew very well about how to behave in an airport. This girl has flown before. If a 19-year-old doesn't have enough maturity to make sound judgment as to proper behavior in an airport, maybe we should reconsider allowing 19-year-olds to vote, own firearms, take out loans, etc.

Is it really so much to "demand" that people THINK nowadays? People are laying-into the cops, but obviously they DID think, as they didn't shoot her. Why is it so much to ask that people--such as Star Simpson and Andrew Meyer--THINK before acting?

[KittyWampus]

35. #1. You need to source those amazing pix. #2. It's awful to disparage someone's creativity

Art doesn't have to be "good" or even marketable.

All it has to be is an expression of someone's creativity.

It's the Journey and Awareness and not the final product.

This is a great discussion though.

People can never discuss Art too much, IMO.

It's what reaches other people. Where intellectual arguments cannot.

[havocmom]

45. LOL yeah, but walk through an airport with a dixie cup of poop

Am guessing it will be a learning experience AND become a hot topic on DU

[pnwmom]

11. I agree. Only another techie, which I'm not, could see that as art. n/t

[MindPilot]

14. She's an EE major...

Wonder if the students over in the art department could build a working circuit board?

[Reterr]

22. LOL-thanks

:thumbsup:

[madrchsod]

16. it`s tech art and it does`t have to be pretty ...

they are tech geeks who basically live and breathe making things that are basically absurd yet do have some function. these are the people who someday will develop something that you will be using. jesus if we think these people are somehow at fault for what happened we are in a lot more trouble than we think. these people and those like them are the canary in the cage.

[madrchsod]

17. delete

[Reterr]

23. To echo another poster upthread-how many art majors could build a working circuit board?

Personally, I thought it was awesome. I find all the comments about how stupid this girl was amusing.

[WilliamPitt]

27. She walked into the airport where the Tower planes originated

with something that 99% of cops wouldn't recognize attached to her clothes, something with a circuitboard and wires and putty that looks like plastique...

...into an airport...

Sorry.

She can make circuitboard art. With putty!

Groovy. That and a buck 25 won't get you coffee at Starbucks...or a real job. But it can come pretty goddam close to getting you killed by a hail of submachinegun bullets inside shit-ass Terminal C of shit-ass Logan Airport, killed next to a sad Dunkin' Donuts kiosk serving burned coffee, a crappy news stand that's about as big as the trunk of my car, and the abandoned space where AmericaWest's two gates used to be.

Hell of a shit-ass place to die. For nothing. For "art."

I couldn't make circuit-board art. She can. Good on her.

But she's pretty fucking stupid anyway.

She should join the Navy and go work on Aegis destroyer circuitboards.

Unless she's had enough of guns for one lifetime.

*think before entering airport*

Hm. OK.

:eyes:

[ourbluenation]

30. THANK YOU! n/t

[MindPilot]

36. Ohh bugga-bugga!!

Smart people are really scary!!! :scared:

God I'm sick of this let's-pick-on-the-smart-kid attitude and I'm frankly a little surprised to see so much of it on DU. If you're smart you not only must endure the mocking of the people who claim to be the arbiters of "common sense", but you are also expected to lead your life while catering to the lowest common denominator of the dumb.

Just because some cop is too stupid to recognize a harmless electronic device, doesn't mean everyone has to adjust down to that level of authoritarian fearmongering.

[Reterr]

63. This is the country that put Bush into power-we are proudly anti-intellectual

That is what some of the "common sense" comments remind me of. This is a smart kid, regardless of whether she made a mistake. She is taking what is apparently one of the harder undergrad courses at MIT (course VI). I am not saying that what she did was necessarily the smartest thing, but to call someone who is probably pretty smart "stupid", based on one thing they did when they were under 20.

As for not being able to make money, I know a lot of scientists and postdocs, who make chump change, compared to your average MBA major, but are certainly a lot smarter (by many metrics). I have never associated the ability to make money with necessarily being particularly smart, though a lot of the people making a lot of money are pretty smart.

With the attitude we have in this country towards the hard sciences, math and engineering, I am not surprised that in grad school the majority of my class-mates were non-American. Eventually outsourcing will probably be the only way to get a decent engineer around here.

[Frank Cannon]

40. Fuckin' A, Bubba

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

You said it.

[Joanie Baloney]

41. Maybe she will join the Navy

and join a lot of other smart, technologically advanced geeks who are protecting us. Maybe she will become an air traffic controller and keep Logan airport safe. Maybe she will become a teacher or maybe she'll join Code Pink.

Don't stifle the young woman's creativity. My 70 + year old mom got pulled over to secondary inspection at an airport BEFORE 9/11 because she had some avocados in her carry-on. They thought they were hand grenades. The airport staff has their rules - flashing colored lights worn as a brooch (as everyone knows) are the Number 1 sign of a terrorist.

Holy guacamole!

JB

[MindPilot]

44. And maybe she'll learn from this experience that her creativity and intelligence

are not much appreciated by anyone outside of the Engineering Department, simply decide it's not worth it, and spend her life trying to raise a half-dozen kids on minimum wage.

[Dorian Gray]

62. Yep!

She may be intelligent in that she can make such a thing. But it doesn't show emotional intelligence or street smahts (GO! Boston!) in wearing it to such a place that might actually worry people.

In other words, she's probably an airhead.

[IDemo]

48. That proto board looked like something a five year old created

Hope she's better with circuit board design software than she is with a breadboard..

[Canuckistanian]

53. Exactly. This was a "kit-level" project

I'm guessing it was a "light-chaser" -type project which have been around forever.

Probably similar to this -


Not a whole lot of sophistication to this, just some basic 74xxx logic devices, a regulator and some LEDs.

And it wasn't even a soldered device. Just a breadboard with taped-down wires. Ugly as hell.

If she wore THIS on Career day, I sure wouldn't hire her.

[mitchum]

51. Hell, I'm an English major who built working circuit boards at the age of 8

[SoCalDem]

37. My stodgy neighbor outdid her one year for Halloween

This was a buttoned down Bob Newhartesque little milquetoast guy.. They had to host the neighbohood halloween party that year, and his wife made him the costume..

a raincoat, black socks & wingtips, a wig (not worn on his head wink-wink) and a strategically attached Smoked kielbasa..

needless to say, he won first place :) :rofl:

[MindPilot]

42. A halloween flasher costume...with a kielbasa dick!!

Now THAT'S creativity! Original too! Way to stick it to the smart kid!!!

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[Fierce]

38. Yup. Just like Andrew Meyer is a crap-ass writer.

If you can't get attention for being good...

[mitchum]

46. Thank you! It wasn't even art, but just a puerile attempt to shill for herself

[porphyrian]

50. And when I was that age, people drew band logos on their jackets with Sharpies.

She called it art because there wasn't anything else to call it, not because it was her submission to the Louvre.

[LisaL]

54. I don't think it's a very impressive device either, wtf it is.

Especially considering the student is supposed to be a genius.

[Ripley]

56. Wow, so now she is mentally ill and a bad artist and an attention whore

So is there some special list of "approved artmaking" that I need to know about as an artist?

Should I be tasered then given electric shock treatment in a psyche ward if I wear freaky clothes and accessories in public?

Gee, am I just seeking attention if I step outside the "approved" mold for American dress and behavior?

Does this remind you of anything?

[LisaL]

58. If you think you could benefit from an electric shock

treatment in a psych ward, go for it.

[Ripley]

59. Oooh, a veiled threat!

Such a lovely response to all of my questions.

[LisaL]

60. It's not a threat, but merely a suggestion.

[Lex]

57. So? That is completely and utterly beside the point.

nt

[LisaL]

61. Who decides what the point is?

[Lex]

64. Ironically, that is also beside the point.

nt

[LanternWaste]

66. I was going to hit the bus terminal

I was going to hit the bus terminal while carrying a hair-dryer with flashing lights all over it, and wear it a holster covered with pink, fuzzy tery cloth.

She beat me to it.