“Recycle Your Ideas”
Digital photos on vinyl
Miguel Cortez
2011

Recycling is used to describe a series of activities that includes collecting recyclable materials that would otherwise be considered waste, sorting and processing recyclables into raw materials and manufacturing the raw materials into new products. One example is recycling plastic bottles to make pipes. Artists use this process all the time. Some come up with an idea and create work using a certain style/media and repeat this for a long time to please his/her commercial gallery/collectors. While others may gather old ideas, twist and turn them, throw them up in the air and some new concept pops up.

This has been an ongoing project of mixed media artworks dealing with the concept of “recycling” that began in 2006. I am taking this concept and creating multi-media works, such as digital photos, computer drawings, Flash animation, business cards, and bumper stickers. The 2 prints being shown here were shot in November/December 2010 around Pilsen. I have a series of stickers and go around and place them on public objects and then document the process. These 2 photographs will be shown at Cobalt Studio in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood in January 2011. For more info and images from this ongoing project go to: http://recycle-ideas.blogspot.com/

Quien te esta mirando?
(Who is watching you?)
surveillance camera, internet web cam feed
Miguel Cortez
2010

“It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself—anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face… was itself a punishable offense.”
- George Orwell, 1984, Book 1, Chapter 5

Forms of Surveillance have existed for centuries now from the “slave passes” that allowed slave owners to keep track and control the movements of their slaves who more than likely did not know how to read or write. Enslaved people who traveled from one place to another were supposed to carry a pass signed by their owner. Those without such a pass could be arrested, jailed, and detained as a runaway. Yet the slave pass system was sometimes subverted by the rare slaves who could write, such as Frederick Douglass. These literate slaves could create their own passes and might thus gain freedom for themselves and other slaves.

In the 1920s, government surveillance spread to political radicals, especially workers trying to organize union activity. J. Edgar Hoover headed this government surveillance unit which would later become the FBI. As the 20th century advanced, computer technology proved a powerful enhancement to the regime of surveillance. This allowed most devices and databases to be monitored and evaluated, including automobiles, Your car can be tracked by GPS, and your spending habits can be seen by accessing your credit card records. Internet and email are monitored in the workplace and cameras are just about everywhere recording your every move.

This was shown during 18th st. Pilsen Open Studios 2010 @ Cobart Art Studio. This was also shown at Ben Russell Gallery in 2009 and you can read a review of that show here: http://miguelcortez.wordpress.com/2010/03/18/%C2%BFquien-te-esta-mirando-who-is-watching-you/

Google finishes my sentences.
Digital print on vinyl
2010

Google rolled out a new feature earlier this month to its search engine. From their site: “As you start to type your search terms, Google Instant automatically shows results for a popular search that begins with those letters. If you don’t see the results you want, just keep typing and the results will dynamically update.” So it shows you popular searches as you type and will also show you racist and stereotypical results? What does this say about our society if these are the most popular search terms?

Untitled 1-4
Acrylic on Canvas
24″ x 24″ each
Miguel Cortez
2010

Portrait of Martha Gonzalez
Digital Print
16″ x 20″
2010

“Wall”
cellphone camera digital print on vinyl
2010
Shown at NEXT Art Fair, 2010

Step 2: WITH A PAPER OR CLOTH TOWEL, WIPE THE AREA CLEAN.

Step 3: WIPE THOROUGHLY

Step 4: SCRUB IF NECESSARY

Step 5: PAPER SHOULD BE CLEAN OF IDEAS.

Step 6: DISPOSE OF IT PROPERLY.