I took a test when I was really young, I think in pre-school. Back in the 70’s they were always testing us for one thing or another. Among other optical illusion, this image was on the page, with the caption: “Which line is longer?”
I got it wrong. In fact, I got just about every question wrong on that test. All the other kids were a little older and wise to these kinds of visual puzzles and figured most of it out. I remember a couple kids and the moderator sitting around trying to explain to me why the two lines were the same size and I couldn’t get it. Couldn’t see it. Besides scarring me for life with mindfucks (another byproduct of the 70’s), it also began a fascination of the visual world. I remember later on spending hours watching a pencil refract as it entered a glass of water.
These are the words to the famous Apple ad, featuring the likes of Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King, Ghandi, Picasso and many other famous rule-breakers:
“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
I’m reminded of it while I’m reading today’s story of Shepard Fairey getting arrested for tagging. Certainly, he’s a bit of a misfit. Definitely not fond of rules. But it got me thinking. How do we distinguish between “good” rule-breaking and “bad?” At what point is trouble-making just trouble-making. Remember during the election when Jill Greenberg shot John McCain for the cover of The Atlantic and then manipulated some outtakes to create some much less flattering shots of him for her own anti-McCain campaign? She was called a “disgrace to her profession” by the very magazine that hired her. Certainly she’s a round peg in a square hole. Is what she did good or bad? What about Fairey? Lofty questions.
