Ian Bunn | Political & Popular Culture Arts

Peter Hoffmann the American former Washington and foreign correspondent for a major business/technology news service has published an article on Project Syndicate titled ‘The Hydrogen Solution’ in which he states “Around the world, governments and businesses are constantly being called upon to make big investments in solar, wind, and geothermal energy, as well as biofuels. But, in the United States, unlike in Europe and Asia, discussion of hydrogen energy and fuel cells as systemic, game-changing technologies is largely absent. That needs to change: these clean, renewable energy sources promise not only zero-emission baseload power, but also a zero-emission fuel for cars and trucks, the biggest polluters of them all. By now, many have heard about plans by big carmakers – including Honda, Toyota, and Hyundai – to launch hydrogen fuel-cell cars commercially around 2015. Daimler, Ford, and Nissan plan to launch such cars around 2017. Germany plans to build at least 50 hydrogen fueling stations by 2015 as the start of a countrywide network. Japan and Korea have announced similar plans. But a bigger, largely unreported, message is that some European countries, especially Germany, have launched projects that combine renewables like solar and wind with hydrogen for energy storage, implying clean, zero-emission, stable power grids that require no coal, oil, or nuclear power. Indeed, the bottom line of a new study by two American researchers, Willett Kempton and Cory Budischak, is that the combination of renewables and hydrogen storage could fully power a large electricity grid by 2030 at costs comparable to those today. Kempton and Budischak designed a computer model for wind, solar, and storage to meet demand for one-fifth of the US grid. The results buck “the conventional wisdom that renewable energy is too unreliable and expensive,” says Kempton.”

Inspired by Peter Hoffmann, Project Syndicate ow.ly/kBbQa Image source hydrogenambassadors ow.ly/kBbHO

Anatole Kaletsky the British journalist and economist named Newspaper Commentator of the Year in the BBC’s What the Papers Say awards, and has twice received the British Press Award for Specialist Writer of the Year, has published an article on Reuters titled ‘The age of austerity is ending’ stating “Whisper it softly, but the age of government austerity is ending. It may seem an odd week to say this, what with the U.S. government preparing for indiscriminate budget cuts, a new fiscal crisis apparently brewing in Europe after the Italian election and David Cameron promising to “go further and faster in reducing the deficit” after the downgrade of Britain’s credit. But politics is sometimes a looking-glass world, in which things are the opposite of what they seem. …in Italy, Britain and the rest of Europe, this week’s events should help convince politicians and voters that efforts to reduce government borrowing, whether through public spending cuts or through tax hikes, are both politically suicidal and economically counterproductive. In Italy, and therefore the entire euro zone, this shift is now almost certain. After the clear majority voted for politicians explicitly campaigning against austerity and what they presented as German economic bullying, further budget cuts or labor reforms in Italy are now off the agenda, if only because they would be literally impossible to implement. If Angela Merkel demands further budget cuts, tax hikes or labor reforms as a condition for supporting Italy’s membership of the euro, a majority of voters have given an unequivocal clear answer: Basta, enough is enough. Most Italians would rather leave the euro than accept any further austerity – and if Italy left the euro, total breakup of the single currency would follow with an inevitability that might not apply if the country exiting were Greece, Portugal or even Spain. …Things may not look that way just yet, but the age of fiscal austerity should soon be over.”

Inspired by Anatole Kaletsky, Reuters ow.ly/iuA5T Image source Twitter ow.ly/iuz0F

Martin Khor the 61 year old Malaysian journalist and economist, is the Executive Director of the South Centre (an intergovernmental organisation of developing countries based in Switzerland), has published an article on the IPS News Service titled ‘Debt Crises, a Damocles Sword’. Khor states “The issue of foreign debt has made a major comeback due to the crisis in Europe, in which many countries had to seek big bailouts to keep them from defaulting on their loan payments. Before this, debt crises have been associated with African and Latin American countries. …European countries, notably Germany, insisted that private creditors share the burden of resolving the Greek crisis. They had to take a “haircut” of about half, meaning that they would be repaid only half the amount they were owed. It is increasingly clear that bailouts – where new loans are given to indebted countries to enable them to keep paying their old loans in full – are not enough and may be counterproductive, when the countries are facing a problem of insolvency and not just a temporary lack of liquidity. The restructuring of some of Greece’s debt that was owed to private creditors is an example of what needs to be done. However, the ad hoc restructuring undertaken in the Greek case is not enough. A more systematic framework needs to be made available to countries on the verge of debt default, with principles agreed to internationally. In the absence of this, unilateral debt restructuring will probably be messy, as when a country is forced by desperate circumstances to declare a default and propose its own debt restructuring, which may or may not succeed in getting its creditors to agree to the terms. …Though the debt crisis now has Europe as its epicentre, many developing countries may soon also be facing the same predicament.”

Inspired by Martin Khor, IPS News ow.ly/hLSP6 Image source iisd ow.ly/hLSOn

As biofuel demand grows so do hunger pangs (January 17 2013)Elisabeth Rosenthal the American medical doctor specializing in epidemic disease, scientific and environmental matters has published an article in the New York Times titled ‘As Biofuel Demand Grows, So Do Guatemala’s Hunger Pangs’. Rosenthal states “In the tiny tortillerias of this city [Guatemala City], people complain ceaselessly about the high price of corn. Just three years ago, one quetzal — about 15 cents — bought eight tortillas; today it buys only four. And eggs have tripled in price because chickens eat corn feed. …Recent laws in the United States and Europe that mandate the increasing use of biofuel in cars have had far-flung ripple effects, economists say, as land once devoted to growing food for humans is now sometimes more profitably used for churning out vehicle fuel. In a globalized world, the expansion of the biofuels industry has contributed to spikes in food prices and a shortage of land for food-based agriculture in poor corners of Asia, Africa and Latin America because the raw material is grown wherever it is cheapest. …With its corn-based diet and proximity to the United States, Central America has long been vulnerable to economic riptides related to the United States’ corn policy. Now that the United States is using 40 percent of its crop to make biofuel, it is not surprising that tortilla prices have doubled in Guatemala, which imports nearly half of its corn. At the same time, Guatemala’s lush land, owned by a handful of families, has proved ideal for producing raw materials for biofuels. Suchitepéquez Province, a major corn-producing region five years ago, is now carpeted with sugar cane and African palm. …Roughly 50 percent of the nation’s children are chronically malnourished, the fourth-highest rate in the world, according to the United Nations.”

Inspired by Elisabeth Rosenthal, New York Times ow.ly/gKkg3 Image source Twitter ow.ly/gKkeF

Mark Weisbrot the American economist, columnist and co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) has published an article on Aljazeera titled ‘Learning the wrong lessons from Latvia’ referring to Europe’s use of the Baltic state’s austerity programmes as an example. In the article Weisbrot states “Latvia, a Baltic country of 2.2 million that most people could not find on a map, has suddenly garnered attention from economists involved in the debate over the future of Europe and the global economy. …This is terrible, because if there’s one simple lesson that most of the world – if not the European authorities – seems to be learning from the prolonged crisis in Europe, it is that fiscal tightening is not the proper response to a recession. …Latvia lost about a quarter of its national income. Unemployment rose from 5.3 per cent to more than 20 per cent of the labour force and, …under-employment peaked at more than 30 per cent. Official unemployment remains at more than 15 per cent today, even after the economy finally grew by 5.5 per cent last year, and about 10 per cent of the labour force has left the country. …the bottom line is that no country with three times the unemployment rate that it had before the world recession, and Latvia’s huge income losses, should be considered even a qualified success story. It would be a shame if these unwarranted conclusions from Latvia’s experience were to help prolong the unnecessary suffering in the eurozone.”

Inspired by Aljazeera http://ow.ly/cf9jQ image source Twitter ow.ly/cf9h3

Quarter of Spain's population unemployed (May 3rd 2012)

Matthew “Matt” O’Brien the USA author and journalist has published an article in The Atlantic citing ‘Spain Is Doomed: Why Austerity Is Destroying Europe’. In the article O’Brien states “Nearly a quarter of Spain’s population is unemployed. Half of its youth are out of work. And it’s only going to get worse. Spain is supposed to trim its deficit by some 5.5 percent of GDP over the next two years. That’s not a recipe for growth. Just ask the IMF, which downgraded its projections for Spain’s economy back in January. What matters for a nation is its GDP. That’s a country’s equivalent of personal income. If Spain’s GDP is set to fall for the foreseeable future — and it is — then who would want to lend to Spain? The markets gave their answer — practically nobody! — and ECB was forced to fill the void by giving Eurobanks free money to then invest in sovereign debt. Yields came down. European policymakers declared “Mission Accomplished.” …Rather than consider the possibility that the economy might work differently than they think, they have settled on a simple message: The beatings will continue. Unfortunately, morale will continue to not improve. Eventually, you have to think leaders in Europe’s beat-up countries will begin to wonder if life might be better outside the euro zone.”

Inspired by The Atlantic http://ow.ly/awRxF image source Business Insider http://ow.ly/awRvH

Enhanced a feeling of group stigmatization (April 6th 2012)

Jonathan Laurence the US associate professor of Political Science has published an article on Aljazeera discussing Europe’s alienation of Muslims through laws restricting Islamic symbols that fuel political distrust. Laurence states “As Muslims and non-Muslims despair about the prospect of long-term Islamic integration in 21st century Europe, disagreement over the urgency and necessity to restrict Islamic symbols in the public sphere – from clothing to architecture and food – is at the origin of a potentially grave misunderstanding. Religion is not the primary factor of identity for most European Muslims, but the current atmosphere has enhanced a feeling of group stigmatisation and a shared sense of injustice where previously few bonds existed. This has fed a growing confrontation, foreshadowed in two competing narratives of victimisation dividing Muslims from non-Muslims in Europe, which continue to gain strength… There is the growing danger that the modest accomplishments of religious integration will be undone before Muslims’ incorporation has taken place. Europe’s Muslims increasingly perceive the sum total of public debate about them as simple religious persecution – an uncanny admixture of the political distrust that drove the Kulturkampf and the religious resentment that fuelled traditional anti-Semitism.”

Inspired by Jonathan Laurence http://ow.ly/9O6ID image source NYC French Consulate http://ow.ly/9O6HY

Zones of pain and pleasure near and far (March 15th)

Maurice Benayoun the 54 year old Algerian born French new-media artist and theorist whose recent works comprise large-scale urban installations and interactive exhibitions “hopes his recent work will in fact aid and engage the Occupy Wall Street movement, which he says is still more potent in the U.S. than in Europe — though not for long” according to Michael Kurcfeld in his recent article published on Huffington Post. Benayoun arrives in Manhattan to unveil the latest in an ongoing multimedia series called “The Mechanics of Emotion” — a 15-part opus which grew out of the idea that the Internet is the world’s nervous system, and that messages sent between users crossed “zones of pain and pleasure” near and far. Using various analytic and graphic tools in his ever-evolving tech arsenal, he set out to map the world’s emotions. In one part, he created a series of “frozen feelings” — machine-made sculptures of digitally carved disks in various materials. Each disk bore a topographic pattern that corresponded to real-time Web data which inventoried emotional states in the 3,200 biggest cities on the planet, by tracking word clusters …”

Inspired by Michael Kurcfeld http://ow.ly/9v94d image source MoBen http://ow.ly/9v8Zx

Many people applauded our youthful idealism (February 2nd)

Peter Albert David Singer the 65 year old Australian philosopher and professor of Bioethics specializing in applied ethics has released an article on Aljazeera applauding the ending of battery cages in Europe for the keeping of fowls. Singer likened the achievement to the Arab Spring, stating “The end of the battery cage in Europe is a less dramatic development than the Arab Spring, but, like that popular uprising, it began with a small group of thoughtful and committed people… In the early 1970s, when the modern animal liberation movement began, no major organisation was campaigning against the battery cage… It took a concerted effort… to stir the RSPCA from its complacency towards the battery cage and other forms of intensive animal rearing… hens kept in cages so small… hens could never walk around freely, or lay eggs in a nest… Many people applauded our youthful idealism, but told us that we had no hope of ever changing a major industry. They were wrong… On the first day of 2012, keeping hens in such cages became illegal.”

Inspired by Peter Singer http://ow.ly/8JkSu image source Joel Travis Sage http://ow.ly/8JkVW

Children of a backlash against globalization (December 10th)

Dani Rodrik the 54 year old Turkish economist and US Harvard University professor has lamented Europe’s potential next nightmare, a step toward the extreme right in the event of a chaotic eurozone breakup. Rodrik states in an article published on Aljazeera, “Today, the question is no longer whether politics will become more populist and less internationalist; it is whether the consequences of that shift can be managed without turning ugly … The nightmare scenario would also be a 1930s-style victory for political extremism. Fascism, Nazism, and communism were children of a backlash against globalization … feeding on the anxieties of groups that felt disenfranchised and threatened by expanding market forces and cosmopolitan elites … The challenge is to develop a new political narrative emphasizing national interests and values without overtones of nativism and xenophobia. If centrist elites do not prove themselves up to the task, those of the far right will gladly fill the vacuum, minus the moderation.

Inspired by Dani Rodrik http://ow.ly/7G8us image source twitter http://ow.ly/7G8yf

Marriage between capitalism and democracy is over (November 10th)

Slavoj Žižek the 62 year old Slovenian philosopher and critical theorist has expressed concern for the future of western democratic capitalist societies. In an interview with Al Jazeera’s Tom Ackerman, Žižek analyses the contemporary mini revolutions taking place with the Arab Spring, the Occupy Wall Street movement, and the dissention in Europe with austerity issues. Žižek who is internationally recognized for his critical examination of both capitalism and socialism, states the “system [global financial and political] has lost its self-evidence, its automatic legitimacy, and now the field is open … What I’m afraid of is with this capitalism with Asian values, we get a capitalism much more efficient and dynamic than our western capitalism. But I don’t share the hope of my liberal friends – give them ten years, [and there will be] another Tiananmen Square demonstration – no, the marriage between capitalism and democracy is over.”

Inspired by Tom Ackerman http://ow.ly/7dfoJ image source Andy Miah http://ow.ly/7dfQO

Tougher on member states budgets (May 21st)

My work is about iconic people, places and events of our day.  Recorded visually through daily compilations of manipulated digital images, posted online and disseminated via online media and social networks. The works are diaristic in nature that metaphorically record a spectators experience of the contemporary digital age.  The resulting work intentionally has a painterly aesthetic acknowledging my historical painting practice.

Adapting Pop Arts notion of mass media imagery into a context of the contemporary digital age, the work draws on a myriad points of reference. Utilizing fractured images to provide an allusion to the digital noise pounding away daily into our sub consciousness.  The work diverges from the traditional Pop Art notion of a pronounced repetition of a consumer icon, instead this work focuses on the deluge of contemporary digital content. The compilation of the fragmented imagery is vividly distractive, not unlike cable surfing or a jaunt through Times Square.

The work is premised on the basis that Pop art in its beginnings, freeze-framed what consumers of popular culture experienced into iconic visual abstractions. With the advent of the techno age, visual information circulates in such quantities, so rapidly and exponentially, that to comprehend a fraction of it all becomes a kind of production process in itself.  Hence this work considers fragmented elements of Pop Culture through an artistic and conceptual exploration of specific people and events of the day.

The works are presented as individual pieces printed with Archival-Inks on 308g Cottonrag-paper, along with A3 sized bound monthly editions, and monthly looped video compilations.
www.ianbunn.com