During WWII the United States Military starting issuing “Blue Discharges.”
A Blue Discharge/Blue Slip was named because of the color paper it was printed on. These slips were used exclusively for dishonorably discharging soldiers accused of being homosexual. Once discharged, a serviceman could NOT receive any government benefits for his service in the armed forces and could be REFUSED employment by anyone.
The government hired psychologists to find “the homosexual” recruits. When soldiers signed up for the service, they would be asked a series of questions with (code) words that were thought to highlight homosexual behavior. It is projected that for every one LGBTQ* individual who was detained, ten passed. By the third year of World War II, the United States Government told psychologists to stop screening. Every physical body was needed for deployment.
Andy Warhol famously said the oft repeated “in the future everybody will have 15 minutes of fame.” If he were alive today he would see that vision as reality television. With the help of digital technology everybody now is able to broadcast themselves further blurring the line between what’s artificial and real. Thyme the herb contains thymol, which has antiseptic properties in addition to imparting beautiful flavor to a juice.
1 bartlett pear
1 honeycrisp apple
10 sprigs of fresh thyme
step 1. in a juicer process pomegranate, pear and apple.
step 2. pour juice into jar with airtight lid. add fresh thyme. let macerate in refridgerator for a couple hours then serve.
Photographer Zak Arcander on Butterflies, Raves, and Being Alive
What defines an American perspective today? What does an American look like and more importantly how does an American look? Our society privileges the self, it is a culture that valorizes consumption and idealizes “self actualization”. In short, we live in a society that dictates humans as agents of desire. It is from within this infrastructure that we struggle to create and foster communities. In a self-centered social order, where do we come together and what do we gather around? Although there may not be one succinct answer, all of us are looking for it. If there is a common subject within Zak Arctander’s images, it is that of the pursuant gaze, a subject in a relentless search for the often intangible object of its desire. I sat down with Zak to talk about butterflies and being alive.
VICE: Tell me a little about your background.
Zak Arctander: I grew up in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, a place called Arlington Heights. I made skateboard videos throughout high school. My parents and my sister are all artists.
How did skateboarding videos lead you to the work you make now?
When I was filming/photographing skateboarding it was pretty similar to how I work now. The street was the stage for the drama; I was freezing and framing action. What is different now is I’m not so closely collaborating with the people I am photographing. They are mostly strangers that I encounter briefly.
It is clear from the images that your subjects are being captured in moments of telling inbetween-ness: not a decisive moment, but the fugue state between. There is a darkness that pervades the images, a darkness that seems to be located in relation to human desires. Are you ever disturbed by the images you create?
Disturbed isn’t a word that ever really crosses my mind. I have felt shaken. I definitely think about desire and how everyone is reaching for something outside of themselves. It sounds sort of ridiculous but when I consider what I’m after I still turn to Delillo’s phrase “magic and dread.”