Strange Exam Paper Illustration - What Do You See?

reply to post by ProfEmeritus


Actually an image search on google shows it on the retort website with a copyright of 2001

retort.brentley.com...

edit: For some reason it's not accessible through the sight archive though.

Ok after 14 pages there are still a few things that just weird me out about this. And yes I understand it was produced post911. But it seems to mix 30s style dress, in the shoe styles and cuffed worn jeans, with 60s style JFK haircut. Also the way the boys right hand is pictured. Ive seen many people mimic that pose to mean limpwristed... Implying someone was a homosexual. The simian features of the girl are also strange to me. I draw no conclusions, just the things that unsettle me a bit. And kids really did use knives and xactos at one time. It hasnt always been a nation where we tried to keep the kids from using simple tools for their intended purposes.

Originally posted by ProfEmeritus

And as you can see the date on the blog post that features that image is August 12th, 2011.

reply to post by MsVen

 

Yes, but that was not the first time it was posted, AS I STATED. I was not able to find the first time it was posted, but I was able to find it posted in a Parenting Magazine in the 2003 timeframe.
I never said anything about the original OP picture. I was responding to posters that questioned where and how the Toy Loan Block Picture came into being.

Apologies, I did not mean allude that you had implied anything at all about either of the images. I simply quoted your post because it included the doctored pic and the link to the Toy Loan blog post.

reply to post by budro


Few are, and even more are too occupied with their lives to even attempt to notice. They sure find some time for American Idol or Desperate Housewives though eh? ~SheopleNation

Originally posted by GeistMelange
reply to post by ProfEmeritus

 

Actually an image search on google shows it on the retort website with a copyright of 2001

retort.brentley.com...

Yes that is correct. The original artwork by Ben Frost was first published in Retort magazine in Oct 2001. That issue is archived at Pandora here. Select 'Extras', then 'A NEW PAINTING BY BEN FROST'.

I'm sure Ben is very pleased with the renewed interest in this piece, and the emotional/psychological reactions/analysis his artwork has evoked.

Well I see a kid wearing Red, white and blue, getting ready to fly his airplane into his sisters twin towers. I also notice a ball with pentagon shapes on it. Letters partially spelling wag the dog, while she holds up the letter A for Arabs. Nice touch with the box cutter and the belief that the world would be one if the ole USA was out of the way. They depicted that with the paper cut-out of people holding hands.

Pretty pathetic. I am going to go back and look at your sources now see what they say, I didn't want them forming my opinion. Good post.

reply to post by GeistMelange


So it was Frost's original work? I stand corrected again Sir. I think I will go back to not taking the word of every poster who I assumed did their homework.

Question is, when in 2001? ~SheopleNation

What a find! I'm just in awe of how and why this was used. Sociology eh? Well, until I went and read the article in detail, I was thinking sinister things too...but not now. This is brilliant, not sinister, once the source and context is appreciated.....

There is something in that picture for every disorder or societal type to identify themselves with. What people see or don't see says a lot, I'll bet. From the pink color and limp wrist the article talks about for feminine qualities to the boy to the obvious 9/11 references. What if someone wasn't thinking 9/11 though? SO much more and so many other ways to read things.

Talk about a swiss army knife of a picture for reading how a person views things and their own personal experience and bias the answers suggest. Absolutely brilliant...as long as I'm not the one on the 'test taker' side of it.

reply to post by ElOsoDurmiendo


American Kids never used razor blade based cutters (box cutters, sheet rock cutters or whatever) my friend. I just asked my Grandmother who is 89 years old. She said they used regular scissors though, not dull bladed grade school scissors like most of us grew up with. ~SheopleNation

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000Talk about a swiss army knife of a picture

"Swiss Army knife" ? That was good. I might put that inside my arsenal for future debates. Nice. ~SheopleNation

reply to post by SheopleNation


MsVen answered that question, I'm afraid.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Some day someone will make the definitive slip-up though and when they do some conspiracy minded individual will catch it.

Originally posted by SheopleNation
reply to post by GeistMelange

 

So it was Frost's original work? I stand corrected again Sir. I think I will go back to not taking the word of every poster who I assumed did their homework.

Question is, when in 2001? ~SheopleNation

edit on 15-2-2012 by SheopleNation because: TypO

Yes it was Frost's original work. First published by Retort Magazine in October 2001 - the issue is archived at Pandora, here.

Surley this has been done in Jest...

i mean unless 9/11 was playing on the artists mind...

i mean, armagedon, pentagons, towers, plane, people lying on the ground, boxcutter/knife the kid dressed in american colours...

is this some kind of under handed physcological test to see if someone is a conspiracy nut or if they take picture at face value?

tooo many vairables for it not to be deliberate.

OK SO NO ONE HAS ANSWERED MY QUESTION PROBABLY BECAUSE THERE IS NO GOOD ANSWER

WHY??????? would anyone go through the trouble of making this picture the way it is with all these symbolical refrences and such. WHY WHY WHY???? WHAT possible purpose could it serve???


Could it possibly be that its just a picture, and happens to contain items that make you think of 9/11 purely on coincidence? No that can't be theres no such thing as coincidence anymore. Behind every little action that is made, there has to be this intent and purpose behind it, even if it doesn't pan out for 50 years.

reply to post by MsVen


His work does seem to be designed to evoke an emotional response. His style is visually pleasing and at the same time psychologically interesting.

Actually an image search on google shows it on the retort website with a copyright of 2001

reply to post by GeistMelange

Yes, although I did a search on the picture with the "Toy Loan" blocks, I found a Word Press site where it was, which powers Retort. I've been trying to find the first time that the picture was modified to the "Toy Loan" blocks. I does seem like the Armageddon block picture was first, for several reasons, not the least of which is the extra blocks which have no letters on it. One would think that if the "Toy Loan' was the original, it would only have 7 blocks in the ad, not 10.
I did find a rather interesting picture of Ben Frost's from 1999, which has a boy and a girl, a plane, and an obvious drug prep in the picture. The children are of the same genre as the OP picture, and the plane is very similar.
Here is the link to the picture:

www.scienzepostmoderne.org...

There is


*** NOTHING ***

subliminal or mysterious about this picture, in fact all the elements were put in intentionally.

The image is actually named hxxp:// .brentley.com/retort/RETORT/graphics/armageddon_ben_frost.large.gif

And the page has the title "Ben Frost Armageddon".

No one would depict kids playing with a box-cutter etc.. either.

Originally posted by Raivan31
Well the blocks spell Armageddon, there is a red white and blue clothed child in charge of the plane, a string of faceless people on the ground and a discarded box cutter... anything else?

Oh yes, behind the girl constructing 'Armageddon' there is a pentagon.... what else..hmmm..

edit on 15-2-2012 by Raivan31 because: (no reason given)

Oh and the blocks are in the shape of two towers.... is pink and blue the national colours of somewhere or maybe the colours of some organization or something?

Is it significant that the box cutter is next to and pointing at the cut-out, faceless people? like they could be anyone, anyone at all and it's not relevant because all they are are patsy's anyhow?

edit on 15-2-2012 by Raivan31 because: (no reason given)

But not just faceless people they are headless people.

WHY??????? would anyone go through the trouble of making this picture the way it is with all these symbolical refrences and such.

reply to post by andersensrm

Look at my post right above this, and you'll see this is not the first time Frost did this.

Okay now we've cleared up who and when .... WHY was it included in a SOCIOLOGY test?

Was the intention to test the sociology students abilities to interpret subliminal messages beyond those that are suggested to them (as the test questions only allude to gender stereotypes)?? A covert psychological analysis?

Or was it's inclusion innocent --- the shear laziness of the test creator searching "children playing" in Goggle Images, and demonstrating they are not necessarily all that well trained in the subject they are supposedly teaching??