predicate, ink.

Speaking for Animals II

2011-03-10T07:44:00.000-08:00

Here at predicate, ink., we've often employed the joking tagline "tees & totes that speak for themselves." And my last post was about what it means that those tees & totes so frequently prevent the animals depicted on them from "speaking for themselves."

Some reading I did this week has added a new dimension to that discussion of the relationship between nature, images, and language. Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison, two historians of science, have written a pretty great book called Objectivity. The book attempts to parse apart and write a history for the various meanings that the word "objectivity" has taken on today. In a related article, they say that the fantasy of nature "speaking for itself" was a potent one for late 19th century science and its concept of objectivity, which encouraged scientists to abstain from acts of interpretation. Anthropomorphism, as a "subspecies of interpretation," proved a threat to that scientific system:

'Let nature speak for itself' became the watchword of a new brand of scientific objectivity that emerged in the latter half of the nineteenth century. At issue was not only accuracy but morality as well: the all-too-human scientists must, as a matter of duty, restrain themselves from imposing their hopes, expectations, generalizations, aesthetics, even ordinary language on the image of nature...[O]bjectivity is a morality of prohibitions rather than exhortations...Among those prohibitions are bans against projection and anthropomorphism, against the insertion of hopes and fears into images of and facts about nature."

According to Daston & Galison, the image was understood at this moment as capable of allowing phenomena to "speak for themselves." Language, on the other hand, was seen as projective, inherently interpretative; scientists dreamed, they say, of a "wordless science."

So "speaking for animals," on top of everything else, challenges the morality of 19th century science. Our seahorse breaks every rule and prohibition listed in the quote above. It anthropomorphizes, it pins hopes for a different social order onto the image of the seahorse, and it uses language to do the pinning. Is this also its appeal?

Creatures & Names: Speaking for Animals

2011-03-01T09:46:00.000-08:00

Because I recently did my Swiss friend Daniel the honor of writing a story about him in German for my German class, he decided to do me the honor of introducing me to two stuffed animals that he and Monika made. I hereby introduce you -- with a little help from Daniel -- to "Das Tier" and "Max."

As adorable as they are, though, I think the e-mail introduction that came with them is even better. My favorite sentence is in bold. According to Daniel:

since you sent me your great story about our trip to Salzburg (or in Englisch the Salt-castle) I send you two of our dolls. The first one is called "das Tier" (the animal) and has no other name. It is happy with the name (which is not a name) but it is not aware what a name is. But that doesn't matter. We do not know what kind of animal it is therefore we are also quite satisfied with its name. The animal is made by Monika. The other one is, as you might see, a mouse and the mouse is called Max. I created Max when I was sick and not able to do anything else but Max says that sounds like he was an accident. That's why I say that I created Max during my phase of high inspiration and that he is the best thing that I ever produced. But Max was not happy that he should be a thing, and he is certainly right, he's not. He is the finest creature on earth!

Because we care deeply at predicate, ink. about the relationship between creatures and language, I couldn't resist sharing these fabulous guys and their fabulous little text. (He's totally predicate, ink. guest blogger material, right?) Perhaps there is something particularly (culturally) Swiss about this concern: Hans Arp -- an artist who plays a major role in my dissertation, and who spent most of his life living and working in Switzerland -- seems to have been fairly obsessed with the relationship between "things" or "creatures" and their names or classifications.

Much of his work, as I see it, is made in an attempt to understand how it is that an artist can create an object that can pass as a creature or, in his words, "organism." And naming is a big part of this. Arp once wrote about himself (in third person) that he "wanted immediate and direct production, like a stone breaking away from a cliff, a bud bursting, an animal reproducing…he wanted animalesque objects…he wanted a new body among us which would suffice unto itself…" And in works like his 7 Arpaden (1923) series, he gives these creaturely forms proper names, like "Mustache Hat" (Schnurrhut) or "The Navel Bottle" (Die Nabelflasche). The series explores the way that images and names work together, even need each other, in order to create a "creature."

predicate, ink. has always explored the work that a caption can do to a drawing. And drawings of animals seem particularly vulnerable to the work of the caption. What I began to realize as I made the drawings is how frequently we use language in order to use animals. I say this more philosophically than veganistically: We attribute qualities to animals by way of subject-predicate phrases ("Guinea pigs are blobs." "Boobies are birds.") And furthermore, we attribute intention to them ("Salamanders like cupcakes.") In our most blatant act of mascot-poaching, we've even asserted that the male seahorse's unusual parenting behaviors have something to do with that animal's political convictions. What I've always found pretty fascinating is that my drawings and my captions are usually made of the same "stuff" - squiggly black line. And yet somehow one always holds so much sway over the other.

From medieval bestiaries to Eric Carle to LOLcats, moralizing or anthropomorphizing those behaviors of animals that science holds to be instinctive -- but which, for humans, are matters of choice -- has held unmistakable appeal. (As this company's CFO has been known to say, "What's so hilarious about LOLcats is that it reveals cats to be the sleazy, slimy creatures, conspiring against us, we always suspected them to be." Tell me that is not a profound statement.)

Some would say this is because humans have some kind of hubristic impulse to speak on behalf of speechless animals, in order to pad their sense of species-dominance or something, etc. etc. (Indeed, I know at least one friend and predicate, ink. reader who once expressed his strong feelings on this subject to me in the course of a long debate over Mexican dinner.) Forget the plow or the spear, language is a major technology by which we are able to harness the animal (and the artwork) for human use, for better or for worse. This use of animals might be self-serving (as my friend argued), but is it really so unethical? Feminist and postcolonialist scholars have worried, mostly in the 90s, about "speaking for others" (see Spivak and Alcoff), but there does seem to be a major material difference when the thing couldn't possibly speak for itself.

Indeed, there is a kind of "speaking for others" done by the animist imagination that is also the place where the arts of puppeteering and animation begin. It is also a huge part of 'twee' culture today. (Just take a peek around etsy and you'll encounter tons of shops that treat their objects like creatures with full-fledged personalities being put up for adoption, much in the spirit of Daniel's little e-mail.)

I suppose it's the apparent passivity of certain (grammatical) subjects -- animals and art objects alike -- that make them particularly amenable to the predicate statement. Which is also what's so apt about now putting these drawings onto babies: drawings that speak for the doubly speechless (not just animals, but cartoon ones), to be worn by the speechless (and illiterate) baby.

There's an interview I heard on NPR a few years ago with Robert Smigel that touched on this quite brilliantly. Smigel is the creator of Triumph the Insult Dog, the scat-obsessed Rottweiler puppet made famous on Conan O'Brian who now appears alongside similarly depraved "Anipals" on Smigel's show TV Funhouse. I've actually never seen the show, but Smigel's answer when Terry Gross asks him about his interest in mixing real animals with puppet animals on his show is pretty hilarious and has stuck with me. It speaks to that unbridgeable distance, or irresolvable incongruity, between human and animal consciousness -- not so much as a philosophical quandary or ethical question but as an infinitely tappable source for comedy. He says:

I love the idea that you can manipulate live animals into a really funny bit and they have no idea why it's funny, why they're there. That just adds a layer of joy to the whole experience to me. And you know we make it very clear and we make a real point of not making the animals actually do anything. Like, in the cockfight [scene], for example, there's a bunch of animals in the audience. But if you look in the background, a lot of them are asleep even though we have cheering noises. A lot of them are just lying down, have no interest in what's going on. And, like, on the one hand there's, like, a practical joke element to it that we're playing on the live animals -- that we're making them appear to be doing things. But on the other hand... I also enjoy the joke the animals are having on the show by expressing no interest in what's going on, even though we're presumably trying to make them appear to be extras. They're above it, they have better things to think about than pretending to enjoy a cockfight.

I guess there's something slightly perverse about Smigel's quote (as there is about his humor in general), but I like the way it takes to be an open question who actually has the upper hand in this situation. Obliviousness is what makes the animal subject to our exploitations of it for comedy; but it is also what makes that human activity so irrelevant to it.

It's this same absurdity that Daniels' sentence highlights so wonderfully: It is happy with the name (which is not a name) but it is not aware what a name is.

predicate squab spotted in nature?

2011-02-20T10:19:00.000-08:00

See it here.

predicate post: The seahorse has arrived in Australia!

2011-02-06T13:10:00.000-08:00

We've received word from Simon C. of Melbourne that the seahorse has landed safely halfway around the world in Australia! Simon says:

Nice to know I can walk around Melbourne, Australia and let others
know that gender is an oppressive construct we need to move past lulz.

Cheers!

Glad to know you're fighting the good fight with a lulz and a cheers. Aren't those Australians the charmingest? Send your feedback to tessa@predicateink.com

"babies can't read" items now available

2011-02-06T13:06:00.000-08:00

The onesies and infant tees are here and available for purchase! Get yours now at www.predicateink.com or predicateink.etsy.com.

ANNOUNCING predicate, ink.'s new "babies can't read" line of infant apparel!

2011-01-20T11:31:00.001-08:00

At long last, the predicate, ink. creatures will be catering to the age group that appears to have drawn them. At the end of next week, we'll be premiering our new "babies can't read" line of infant onesies and lap tees, for the no-nonsense infant(s) in your life. We're sending four designs to print, all of which will be available as onesies in 6mo, 12mo, and 18mo sizes, or lap tees for the 18-month-olds for $24 each. Here's the menu:

- Nigel duck on banana yellow [preview at left]
- "i ain't no lady" ladybug on gray or organic natural
- "boobies are birds" on organic natural
- "narwhals exist" on white or organic natural

Reserve yours now! Write tessa@predicateink.com

NEW website! and NEW items coming soon.

2010-12-23T17:34:00.001-08:00

We've launched a new and improved predicate, ink. website with a new, more colorful look. Check it out here. You can still order predicate, ink. merchandise there, but now you can also go there to browse the complete predicate, ink. drawings.

Also in the works at long last -- predicate, ink. infant onesies! Keep your eyes peeled -- we'll be launching them in 2011.

Feminist Gifting

2010-12-13T23:28:00.000-08:00

etsy shop TEEvolve has created an incredible guide to Feminist Gifts Under $25, featuring our very own seahorse tote! Check it out. After placing your seahorse order, you can purchase a pair of anatomically correct undies for you or your loved one [left]. Now that's a stocking stuffer.

Kakapo-rn

2009-10-10T22:17:00.000-07:00

I don't even know where to start with this. First off, how is it that this fat, flightless green parrot exists in New Zealeand and no one has yet informed me of it? It is so wonderfully dumb and trusting and fantastical and exhibits such endearingly unapologetically extinction-prone behavior in this scene that how could we not throw everything down right now and commit our lives to saving it from that fate? And we thought we'd seen the last of the dodos...

From the BBC's Last Chance to See

A Spot O' Literature

2009-10-06T06:56:00.000-07:00

"Things duplicate themselves in Tlön. They tend at the same time to efface themselves, to lose their detail when people forget them. The classic example is that of a stone threshhold which lasted as long as it was visited by a beggar, and which faded from sight on his death. Occasionally a few birds, a horse perhaps, have saved the ruins of an amphitheater."

- Jorge Luis Borges, "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbius Tertius," in Fictions

An Otter for Pooh!

2009-10-05T07:01:00.000-07:00

Whether this should have been done or not - and you can read the article for a taste of that debate - I think we can all agree that there is never any harm in the addition of an otter. To anything.

(Except maybe an insipid rebranding which instills nostalgia simply in order to carve out new opportunities to profit from crossmarketing to FAO Schwartz et al. Debate below.)

predicate post: Seahorse Spotting

2009-09-05T14:23:00.000-07:00

One reader, seahorse-toter, and predicate informant reports that she has been detecting increasing seahorse activity on New York City streets:

I saw someone else with the sea horse bag on the street the other day...its spreading!!!!!

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Thanks for your careful surveillance, Caitlin S.! Keep your wits about you...

Send your spottings to tessa@predicateink.com

I Love This Debate

2009-09-05T14:00:00.000-07:00

I love that, last week, there was some mini AP ticker story on this giving the basic facts -- that Ikea had changed its font from Futura to Verdana and that some marginal sect of population that cared about typography was up in arms about it, yadda yadda, Ikea corporate wasn't really too concerned -- but that now, a week later, it has grown into a big enough issue to warrant this entire piece in the arts section analyzing the consequences - business, political, and otherwise - of the Ikea font change.

It makes me feel that there is hope yet for our society.

Refreshing Essay on Semenya (by my neighbor)!

2009-08-28T11:10:00.001-07:00

Check out this essay in the Times by East Lansing neighbor and friend Alice Dreger! Even before I noticed the essay's byline, I found it a refreshing antidote to the uncritical news reports I had been reading about Caster Semenya, the 18-year-old world champion runner from South Africa whose gender has recently come under "suspicion" and scrutiny by the I.A.A.F. All of these articles (with the exception of maybe this one) left the notion of "gender testing" pretty much uninterrogated as their authors simply listed off the frighteningly long number of "-ists" who would have to examine the athlete in order to perform one (a gynecologist, a psychologist, an endocrinologist, a geneticist...)

Dreger, on the other hand, asserts something that I was surprised to find no article in the mainstream media had yet: "The fact is, sex is messy." And she manages to take a critical stance on the "gender testing" brouhaha without doing what I would probably do (that is, rail and whine that "this is so f*&$ing ridiculous!") Instead, she coolly and expertly points out that the outcome of any such "gender test" will depend on on how all those "-ists" listed above choose to weigh the many forms of sexual data they collect. As Dreger puts it, "Science can and will inform their decision, but they are going to have to decide which of the dozens of characteristics of sex matter to them."

We could do with more public intellectuals like Dreger -- who are able to write knowledgeably in many media and for many types of readers, without sacrificing the criticality or complexity of their arguments!

Also, no matter what Dreger says about gametes, Mermaids don't exist. And I can vouch for the existence of that "big ol' rainbow flag"!

predicate post: Sea Life & Feminism

2009-08-23T14:16:00.001-07:00

Sarah A. of Reading, MA recently sent us the following dispatch upon hearing that her seahorse tote was in the mail:

Thank you! I'm beyond excited. That tote is brilliant. Feminism, sea
life, eco friendly materials. What more could you ask for!

Sent from my iPhone

What more could you ask for, Sarah A.? Sending out orders is fun, but hearing back makes it even better. So thanks!

Don't bottle your enthusiasm. Send it to tessa@predicateink.com

Fabulous Indonesian Ornate Fruit Dove

2009-08-23T14:02:00.000-07:00

read about it at nationalgeographic.com

And, my god, did you know there are about 50 species of fruit dove (all with fabulous names)?

PSWAG Dons Predicate Swag!

2009-08-21T12:40:00.000-07:00

photo by Sally Davidson

These are just some of the happy 2009 certificate graduates of Princeton's Program in the Study of Women & Gender showing off their hard-earned seahorse totes! For the last few years, the program has been giving the totes as graduation gifts to their departing seniors on Class Day. We think it's a great idea. And we haven't spoken to the seahorse about it, but we guess that he is quite happy to toil under the weight of volumes of Butler, de Beauvoir, Irigaray, and Woolf...

Thanks to the Program for their continued support (and for putting up with the liberties I took above with that acronym!)

(what's swag, ya say?)

predicate, ink. on Etsy

2009-08-18T17:51:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a rather internetty week. First a post about being "wisted" and now we've been... "etsied"?

Whatever the verb may be, there is now an official predicate, ink. etsy shop (in progess) in addition to the good old predicateink.com online store. Same prices and shipping apply. Mostly it should be a good way to get the products out there and to link up with other people in the "handicraft internet community." One important difference from the predicate website, however, is that the etsy shop has been set up to take orders from anywhere in the world, in any currency.

If you're an etsy user, visit the shop and give us a <3!

Wisted!

2009-08-18T00:00:00.000-07:00

I am pleased to report that a photo of Rachel posing with her seahorse tote taken about three years ago has managed to wind its way through the intertubes via flickr and been "wisted" by a certain "llamaniac" at the social shopping website wists.com!

The wist is here, where you can also get links for sharing or embedding it in your own blog or site.

Wist away!

photo by dorywithserifs

On Not Being Julie Powell.

2009-08-13T10:54:00.001-07:00

So I saw Julie/Julia. And besides reminding me of what a crush I have on Merryl Streep , and notifying me that Amy Adams has copied my summer haircut... it made me feel like a really shit blogger!

Why do I not stick to a routine? Why do I not have dedicated readers sending me specialty foods by mail daily? Why are literary agents not filling up my answering machine with book deals? Why did I not move to Long Island City when it was really cheap!?

Needless to say, we do things a little differently around here. We post when we got things and time to post.

And all this is by way of saying -- we've got things and time (sort of) to post! So keep your auriculars tuned for posts on:

- Squab-raising at the predicate, ink. headquarters - with photos!
- 2009 grads of Princeton's Program in the Study of Women & Gender *officially* reject conventional gender roles.
- and We've been "wist"-ed!

No one here but us servantless American bloggers...

I Love This Exhibit!

2009-01-26T13:14:00.000-08:00

The Windland Smith Nature's Best Photography Awards Exhibition is back at DC's Museum of Natural History!

I saw last year's edition and it was awesome. It's a small exhibit, so it doesn't require much time or tire out your feet, and it is absolutely rewarding. The photos are much more beautiful in person than can be conveyed online -- they're typically large, beautifully lit, and not to mention cute. And if you're into photography, the wall texts share all the technical info you'd need to take a similar photo yourself (in case you, you know, end up on an iceberg with a stack of sea otters in similar lighting conditions...) So if you're in DC or nearby, the show's up at Natural History (on the mall at 10th & Constitution; 10:00am-5:30pm daily) until May 3, 2009.

Plane Literally "Downed"!

2009-01-21T22:11:00.000-08:00

Speaking of the attribution of agency to animals using language...

Several people have noticed in recent days that the notion that the US Airways plane that went down in the Hudson River last week after being "struck by" a bird (or, variously, due to a "double bird strike") was, well, kind of like putting the emPHAsis on the wrong sylLAble, as my dad would say.

I first heard the observation from Hadley (a great proponent of animal rights and expert linguist). But then the news was all over it. The NYTimes' new blog, "Room For Debate" got some of their standby bird lovers to defend mother nature against this slander.

And then Eddie Izzard had some things to say about the matter (as blogged by Andrew Sullivan. Yes, in a fuzzy yellow cat hat.)

So I have to assume that when CNN reports tonight that "Investigators find feather, other evidence on downed plane," the pun is intended....?

Silkscreened Animals With Captions... for Obama

2009-01-21T18:48:00.000-08:00

You might have heard that there's a new President of DC as of yesterday.

And as we strolled down 16th St toward the White House to observe the pandemonium, we managed to keep a firm hold on our wallets (excepting that $1-suggested-donation-"FREE" hot chocolate...) before the sea of Obama merch temptation that flowed before our eyes...

But then we saw this:

And I thought, now that's a cause worth gettin' behind.

And here I am showing it off and celebrating our new pres by doing my best American Apparel model impression.

I think it was made by this guy (?)

predicate, ink. Photo Shoot, Or: How To Rock A Nigel Bag

2009-01-16T19:05:00.000-08:00

starring Rachel.

Step 1: Find a red-brick abandoned building. The old Wonderbread/Hostess factory by DC's Shaw metro will do just fine. If you live in Brooklyn, this should be even easier.

Step 2: Grab that Nigel bag out the closet! Place bag handle over shoulder as demonstrated above. (Advanced: If you would like Nigel to face the direction you're facing, hang bag from right shoulder; if you would like him to face backward, hang bag from left shoulder.)

"The Seahorse Rejects Conventional Gender Roles...But He Might Not If He Saw How Pretty You Are."

2009-01-15T19:18:00.000-08:00

Okay, which one of you ladies was it? Totin' your seahorse tote round the UWS and lookin' so cute as to risk causing well-intentioned seahorses to abandon their own professed political positions? Shame on you!

Anonymous "m4w" of Harlem/Morningside clearly was not rejecting conventional gender roles when he encountered you and decided to post the following on craigslist's missed connections:

Seahorses reject conventional gender roles - m4w (Harlem / Morningside)

Reply to: pers-994455494@craigslist.org ^[?]
Date: 2009-01-15, 6:17PM EST

(as per the aphorism in your tote bag). But I wonder if they have had the chance of feeling hypnotized by your eyes -as I still am under their spell.

He also clearly does not reject conventional pickup lines.

What we like about Mr. "m4w" is that he has elevated the seahorse caption to the level of an "aphorism" and he uses phrases like "as per." This is flattering for us, not to mention it probably means that he has some sort of degree which makes him worthy of taking home to Scarsdale. The potential risk is of course that he is a 39-year-old unwashed advanced PhD student who lurks daily at the back of the Hungarian Pastry Shop looking for girls with clever tote bags to prey upon. Be wary, friend, you could be just one of many. But our official position is that you should give this fella a chance. He clearly has good taste!

A MILLION THANKS to the brilliant, beautiful, and multi-talented Kathleen Reckling for spotting this while perusing the missed connections before bed, as per her ritual. I would guess that she was the pretty-eyed culprit here if I didn't know she owns a Nigel bag and ladybug tee instead!

A Predicational Moment from Our Friend... Martin Heidegger

2009-01-11T14:58:00.000-08:00

Turns out that graduate school is hard. Harder than all of predicate, ink.'s CFOs, CEOs, economical masterminds and board of trustees could have ever possibly calculated or projected. As a result, I have neglected this blog sorely. (And I never made it to the Babar show... shoot!)

But to reassure you that I continue to have predicate-thoughts in my heart and on my mind as I trudge through the academic wilderness, I would like to share with you this peculiar and clearly unguarded moment I came across in Martin Heidegger's "The Origin of the Work of Art" when this author appears to have thrown all pretensions to writing serious philosophy to the wind and allows himself instead to float aimlessly down the (squiggly blobby) road of predicational ridiculousness. Heidegger:

"According to current opinion, this definition of the thingness of the thing as the substance with its accidents seems to correspond to our natural outlook on things. No wonder that the current attitude toward things--our way of addressing ourselves to things and speaking about them--has adapted itself to this common view of the thing. A simple propositional statement consists of the subject, which is the Latin translation, hence already a reinterpretation, of hupokeimenon and the predicate, in which the thing's traits are stated of it. Who would have the temerity to assail these simple fundamental relations between between thing and statement, between sentence structure and thing-structure? Nevertheless we must ask: Is the structure of a simple propositional statement (the combination of subject and predicate) the mirror image of the structure of the thing (of the union of substance with accidents)? Or could it be that even the structure of the thing as thus envisaged is a projection of the framework of the sentence?"

Why are you looking at me like that? I told you the internet is serious from the get-go.

I expect a well-polished, well-articulated 20-30 page response by Tuesday, kthx.

Babar: One of Our Favorite Naïvely Drawn Politicized Animals

2008-09-22T08:22:00.000-07:00

The Babar show I mentioned last spring is now up at the Morgan Library through January 4 and, while I haven't been to see it yet (though be assured I will!), you can read this review in the Times about it for now. It draws attention to some of the political questions raised by the Babar books, particularly in relation to French colonialism, and introduces some revisions offered in the show's catalog to the increasingly popular understanding of the Babar books as celebratory of colonialism -- that perhaps de Brunhoff was self-consicously satirizing French colonial culture and imagination.

Either way, I find the projection of politics onto cartoonish animal depictions --whatever those politics may be in Babar (and I don't have a conclusive opinion yet) -- very interesting. The author of the Times review is astute to bring up the importance of the mode of allegory, as well as the curious mixing of human and animal explored and enjoyed by the books, for which he offers a highly suggestive historical/political explanation: "As the ’30s progressed, it had to have been less clear what the divisions were between the animal and the human, or what civilization itself could hope for."

More once I've seen the show!

There's Nothing Better

2008-07-23T09:10:00.000-07:00

by Rachel and Tessa

You thought I was joking when I said we were communing with bowlegged goats in the Vermont Hills. Well I wasn't.

<--- Thesis: Goats have great personalities!

There is a great big orchard near the predicate ranch in Perkinsville, VT called Wellwood Orchards. They own all the land in sight and grow apples in the fall and berries in the summer that you can pick yerself. Check out the lovely berry specimens at right, hand-picked by yours trulies (and mom!).

After you're done picking your berries at Wellwood, you can enter the Best Petting Zoo In The World. And trust me, I've been to a lot of petting zoos.

This one costs 50 cents, which is actually top cents for a petting zoo when you could go for free at your local zoo. We hear ya. But those 50 cents go toward the nurturing of one idyllic, beautiful, healthy-looking group of animals for you to cuddle for as long as you want, and some really skittish bunnies which will not let you pet them under Any Circum-
stances.

In addition to goats and bunnies, there are also calves at this petting zoo whose eyes are bigger than all four of their stomachs! They will MELT you.

And inside this Petting Zoo is a Bunny Town where you can watch the bunnies going about their daily activities, like Sheriff Goodbunny here, asleep on the job.

There are also about 1 million roosters, some of whom have 8 toes on each foot, and some VERY exotic chickens and other birds. Every 3 minutes, all the roosters get very much frantic about something, all at the same time, and start roostering and crowing and chasing each other around in circles. This is intimidating. But it keeps you on your toes as you pet.

HOWever, the two young alpine goats are the highlight of this petting zoo. They are incredibly inquisitive and very physical. They put their snouts in your face, try to untie your shoes (and succeed) and then they lick your legs and try to eat your shorts. They sniff your camera and rub their noses on your pants. They work very well as a team, one distracting your face while the other focuses on your shoelace, remaining somehow simultaneously totally annoying and extremely loveable. They nuzzled Rachel so hard that this happened:

And they do all of this with the straightest and frankest of Y-shaped goat faces,

like it is their job and not their hobby.

And it wasn't only Sheriff Goodbunny and the goats who took their duties seriously. Ms. Chicken took calf-guarding, which we all know is the mandated duty of any adult chicken (!?), very seriously . She was incredibly possessive. When we tried to pet them calves, she pecked at our arms!

And here she is all up in our grill, giving us the stink eye:

Lucky for us, she soon lost interest and strutted off, giving us a chance to scratch the calves' fuzzy cowlicked heads and make several minutes of sustained eye contact with their big brown eyes.

But the overarching philosophical point here is this: goats are great people. We like them even more now than when we met this little dude at the Ingham County Fair petting zoo in 2004. He was very small and very wobbly and served as the true inspiration for this drawing.

Goats have chutzpah! They are full-contact animals who don't take no for an answer. They have no respect or regard for personal space, personal property, or fences for that matter. And we like that in an animal. They are true intellectuals, curious about everything that enters their visual field, and they indiscriminately get their snouts into EVERYTHING. The contradiction between their appearance and their egos is ridiculous: they're gawky and awkward, knobby kneed and bony with silly floppy ears (and bowed legs, if you're lucky) but nonetheless pushy, stubborn, strong-willed, and kind of pleasantly full of themselves.

Goats for president!

Eric Carle Has a Seahorse

2008-07-20T13:33:00.000-07:00

It may look like I'm on vacation, but in fact we're getting a lot of predicate homework done up here above the Mason-Dixon line!

The first of these (many) accomplishments involved a visit to the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, tucked pleasantly into an apple orchard on the grounds of Hampshire College in Amherst, MA.

I once asserted in an art history paper (on a topic that needed some livening) that one's first priority when arriving at a museum should be to head for the restroom. Well, when you've woken up before dawn to ride 4.5 hours on the (sketchy!) Greyhound bus and caffeinated yourself accordingly, this truism turns out to be truer than ever. And I must say, not only was there NO line in the Eric Carle Museum's restroom, but the visit was well worth prioritizing!

And so, we begin our journey with a toilet shot -- cause, look how cute the tiles are! They're showing the musem's colorful bathroom tiles, each featuring an animal from Carle's book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" They were adorable.

And à propos too -- because the exhibition of Carle's work on view at the museum was dedicated to the "Brown Bear" images. And as it turns out, "Brown Bear"-- a book less familiar to me growing up than, say, Carle's "Very Hungry Caterpillar" or "Mixed Up Chameleon" -- is perhaps one of the most predicational of Carle's books.

The book, written by Bill Martin Jr. and illustrated by Carle, introduces a series of colorful illustrated animals, shown in succession, and each of which floats against its own stark white background. Sound familiar? And of course, each animal has textual accompaniment -- the book introduces each animal in turn by addressing it by name and color -- "Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?" The page turns between animals are facilitated by each animal's response. "I see a red bird looking at me," Brown Bear responds, so you turn the page to have the beautiful red bird revealed to you.

A lot of Carle's books, especially "Brown Bear," remind me of bestiaries, books in which a series of animals are depicted and accompanied by stories or poems about their characteristics and behaviors in order to allegorically imply lessons in human behavior. The tradition can be traced back to antiquity, but a number of modern artists took it up too. My favorites are Touluse-Lautrec's "Histoires Naturelles" (right) of 1899 and Picasso's "Histoire Naturelle" of 1942 (left).

Carle's books always use the qualities of animals to tell kids stories about human behavior -- we all grew up with his hard-working spider, the late-blooming cricket who can't find his voice, and especially the chameleon in identity crisis. And books like "Brown Bear," as this exhibition showed, display not only Carle's virtuosity at rendering all the animals of the world using only tissue paper and paint but test the kid's ability to bend her mind around the likes of a purple cat, a blue horse, and other such oddities.

Major highlight: Upon visiting the (amazing, comprehensive) book store at the museum, we learned that one of Carle's more recent animal heroes is a Seahorse Who Rejects Conventional Gender Roles! Carle's "Mister Seahorse" is the story of a father seahorse who floats through the ocean, carrying Mrs. Seahorse's eggs in the pouch on his belly (rejecting conventional gender roles and all) and all the other dedicated father fishies he meets along the way. It also includes the racy seahorse-mating/egg transfer scene at right.

Deal is, predicate, ink. likes this museum. It strikes a great balance between art museum and kid's museum making it, like children's books themselves, a great thing for adults and kids to do together. They treat the works in their collection -- which includes the work not just of Carle but of a number of important illustrators -- as art to be preserved, exhibited, and historicized, but they also have a highly educational mission and they definitely cater to the young'uns. Perhaps the best part is the art studio where you can make your own tissue paper collages and other art projects with the guidance of nice hippie kids from the surrounded 5 colleges. We were definitely the biggest kids in there and they didn't even bat an eyelash.

Brookland FM and Other Great Things

2008-07-19T17:04:00.000-07:00

Well, Tessa's on vacation, communing with bowlegged goats and picture book art in the Vermont hills. But Oren's going it alone this weekend at Brookland, with more delicious whole-wheat apple tartlets, quinoa-flax banana bread, lovely linzer tortes, and some NEW whole-wheat blueberry tartlets and watercress-mushroom quichelets! Even the Vermont cows are lickin' their lips!

As usual it's:

Historic Brookland Farmers' Market
Sunday, July 19th, 10pm-2pm
12th & Newton NE, a short walk from the Brookland metro stop on the red line

And stay tuned for dispatches from Vermont on:

- The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art.
- The Wellwood Orchards' Petting Zoo and Bunny Town, 50¢ per person.

Back at Brookland this Sunday

2008-07-05T18:15:00.000-07:00

HAPPY 4th of JULY!

We'll be wearing our American flag pins and sellin' apple tartlets about the size of our patriotism at the Brookland Farmer's Market tomorrow, along with multigrain Linzer tortes, everyone's favorite quinoa-flax banana bread and, of course, the predicate, ink. collection.

WHERE: Historic Brookland
Farmer's Market, 12th & Newton
NE, Washington, DC 20017

2 blocks from the Brookland/CUA
stop on the red line (map)

WHEN: 10am - 2pm, Sunday, July 6th

Hope to see you there!

Sloth spam.

2008-06-18T10:29:00.001-07:00

An author of the Bits blog on the Times' website discusses spam today, in particular the spammers' method of putting blatant insults in e-mail subject lines in order to get readers to click. He labels the phenomenon "Pride Spam" and hilariously and astutely points out that "Spammers have long riffed off the seven deadly sins to get us to open unsolicited messages. Lust (Paris Hilton spam), greed (Nigerian spam) and sloth (work-from-home spam) have all been thoroughly exploited."

It occurs to me that this insult-spam could been seen as a beautiful literalization of the way most mainsteram, bigtime, corporate advertising functions, albeit in more indirect ways -- i.e. by making the viewer/consumer feel insecure about his/her current identity in order to sell him/her the constituent objects of a new (or slightly different) identity. To put it more broadly, the corporate model of advertising seeks to conjure up some sensation of lack in its viewer in order to stimulate him/her to a consumer action that, the ad suggests however subtly, will fill this void or supplement this lack.

Now, given that predicate drawings, whether consciously or unconsciously, engage advertising culture at a number of levels -- in their employment of text and image; by the fact that they are computer-generated; in their use of tagline-esque declarative sentences; their bold assertions about the Way Things Are and the identity of their "spokesmodels"; by the fact that a number of them are printed onto objects that typically carry advertising (tee shirts and promotional tote bags); and in their uncanny tendency, once printed onto fashion commodities, to advertise themselves -- we might consider our own little sloth in the context of the "sloth spam" the Bits blogger discusses.

So in this context, what do we think the sloth drawing is doing? Is the sloth tee shirt just some kind of wearable "sloth spam" that makes you feel bad about yourself in order to sell you....itself??

Discuss!

In other news (and speaking of advertising), we were plugged! Old friend and neighbor Terry Brock surprised us with a whole entry devoted to the predicate, ink. blog on his own blog, "Dirt." Terry digs holes in the ground and finds things in them for a living... how cool is that?

Answer: Kleenex Makes a Very Good Hat

2008-06-13T19:24:00.000-07:00

Oh my lord, we have been busy busy busy! We’ve been racking our brains for about two weeks now, here at predicate, ink., ever since the New York Times' Style section posed the urgent question: “What’s a Girl to Wear?”. Lucky for us, the Times provides enlightenment: Reva ballerina flats ($95), or an orange sleeveless shift with printed white lace pattern and stitched ruffles ($120).

These designer duds are modeled by Eloise's supposed "modern day counterparts," who include the tiny blond in the yellow eyelet coat stomping her foot at the bellhop, the Jackie O miniature ordering room service from the hallway rotary phone, the pre-tweens on the gilded ottoman, shooting flirty looks at the be-suited little boys on the opposite ottoman (and wearing dresses by designer "Single Girl"-- because little girls should always be identified by their relationship status) and, most appallingly, the seductively pigeon-toed toddler sticking her chest out and wearing a coy come-hither glance and a rawther short dress, who poses beneath the famed portrait of Eloise that hangs at the Plaza Hotel in New York. In a narrative about contemporary little-girl fashion in which Eloise is supposedly fundamental, Eloise hovers pathetically in the background as some sort of unsubstantiated and ironically failed strain of the argument.

Here is what we love: ducks in raincoats. Here's what we hate: makeup for 6 year olds.

The fact is that the New York Times evokes Eloise, our favorite little iconoclast with a dog named Weenie, to sell really expensive snotty clothes that Eloise would never wear. Or at least never keep clean. To be honest, Times, we continue to be pretty baffled by your daily quest to maintain status as purveyor of the liberal-hip while simultaneously advertising stuff to the Madison Ave set. And to declare your next-big-phenomenon (which you just made up) by appropriating a convention-fighting character as the image paradigm for a photo shoot of conventional girlyness? Seriously??

Eloise, for those who don't know, is the 6-year old force of nature pictured at left who inhabits the Plaza hotel with a nanny and some quirktastic animals in the ubercool Kay Thompson children’s books of the 1950s. As you can see, she is enamored neither of “pastel frills” nor “clean silouhettes”. She’s got a pot belly and messy hair and unbuckled shoes and she pours water down the mail chute! The WHOLE POINT of Eloise, if we may be so bold, is that she is a precocious young girl who lives in a structured, fancy grown-up world, and who consistently interrupts that world by mimicking-- and thereby parodying-- its adult rituals. In a world that tries to make her into a little adult, she uses her egg cups (and her kleenex!) as a hat, draws on the hotel walls, and stages safari expeditions to formal Plaza dinner parties. Eloise's MO is to amuse herself in a world without traditional playmates, and the Eloise books value playing within (and thus interrupting) the system that seeks to oppress little girls precisely through the imperative of clean silhouettes. The girls in the Style section slideshow, however, are asked to sell designer clothing by molding their bodies into a picture of upper-class sexuality that is based on female submission -- with coyness, combed hair, and a hefty dose of bashful flirtation. Nowhere is this contrast more obvious than in the picture of the little girl (above) standing under the Eloise painting. There is irony in seeing Eloise -- her assertive hand-on-hip stance, childish pudge, and direct gaze -- juxtaposed with the pouty JonBenet lookalike below. Ohhhhhh, it just makes us tired, tired, tired.

I must remark at this point that Eloise has clearly had a strong graphic influence on the predicate, ink zeitgeist (I would know, since I grew up fighting over Eloise books with predicate, ink.'s creator) When Eloise skibbles down the stairs, the text often skibbles diagonally across the page. Eloise is an expert at the pithy statement of absurd fact ("Toe shoes make very good ears") and she smartly makes herself both subject and predicate in her oft repeated "I am Eloise. I am six". And the ANIMALS. Those genderless, quirky, anthropomorphized pets of hers; Skipperdee, the melodramatic turtle who eats raisins, and Weenie, the pug who wears sunglasses. Which leads me to ponder: why do we not have a turtle?!

I’m getting off track. My point is that the Times is making us get cross and develop a rash. Where Eloise puts her toe shoes on her ears, the girls of the Style section wear $95 ballet flats on their feet. Where Eloise sklanks around with an untucked shirt and goggles, adjusting the hotel thermometers, the NYT shows us a little girl with a ballerina bun, trying ever so hard to look like a lady.

Well. I think you'll have to find another paradigm, NYTimes. 'Cause Eloise ain’t no lady.

Market Update.

2008-06-12T10:04:00.000-07:00

We marketed! It was the Hottest Day Ever, but we survived, and actually had a good time doing it.

Big thanks to those who stopped by, kept us company, brought us water, did LSAT prep under our shelter and, most heroically, helped us carry the stuff back home in 105 degree humidity. And thanks to Connie for taking some really nice photos, including the lovely one at right.

Unless there is rain this Sunday (and you know how we feel about rain), we will be at...

The Historic Brookland Farmer's Market (click), where you can fill your new predicate bag with all sorts of fresh produce.

WHERE: 12th & Newton NE, right near the Brookland-CUA metro stop on the red line. Map.
WHEN: Sunday, June 15. 10am-2pm

There may or may not be Dodo Bird Bakery goods this time, as the dodo bird may have to spend his Saturday saving the Economy from going Extinct rahhhther than baking. But there will be predicate. And, in the mean time, you can marvel at the packaging.

Shocking.

2008-06-11T11:24:00.000-07:00

"According to a 2006 New York Times story by Natalie Angier, 'Studies suggest that cute images stimulate the same pleasure centers of the brain aroused by sex, a good meal or psychoactive drugs like cocaine.' "

Except for the above award-winning quote and corresponding observation of the cuteness/porn relationship (which it still does not explore with proper rigor), this article is basically wrong about everything. Read it! And discuss.

Birds are Political.

2008-06-10T06:59:00.000-07:00

There are people besides me who believe that animal symbolism can save the world.

THIS SATURDAY: predicate, ink. @ DC Western Market

2008-06-05T10:18:00.000-07:00

We're kicking off a summer of street-vending with the brand new white pop-up tent this Saturday, June 7, at Western Market in Adams Morgan. Here's the scoop.

WHAT: predicate, ink. at the DC Western Market
seahorse totes, Nigel totes, conflict/resolution totes,

ladybug tees, sloth tees
AND Oren, selling his amazing whole-grain baked goods!

WHEN: This Saturday, June 7th (and a number of
Saturdays to come, TBA)
12 noon to dark (8-8:30ish)

WHERE: 18th St. in front of the Marie Reed Learning
Center (the one w/ the tennis courts),
between Kalorama and California, in Adams Morgan.

Visit http://www.dcwesternmarket.com/ for more info about this lesser-known cousin of Eastern Market.

Hope to see you there!

Ohhhh nooooooes...

2008-06-04T17:49:00.000-07:00

they be stealin meh capshuns!!

This is so exciting!

2008-06-02T13:49:00.000-07:00

Carol Vogel's Inside Art column today alerted me to this very exciting exhibit opening at the Morgan in September. The Babars most of us grew up with were in English typeface, but the original French books had handwritten cursive to go along with their colorful drawings. Because handwriting and animals simply belong together. And the French know that because they possess some kind of intuitive cultural understanding of creaturely cuteness, as made evident here. (Also note at left how Babar has never been a particular fan of snowy days!) The article is below.

Image courtesy of Flickr's Miss Pompon (a great artist in her own right!)

BABAR: THE EXHIBITION

In 2005 the Morgan Library & Museum acquired Jean de Brunhoff’s manuscript and illustrations for “The Story of Babar the Little Elephant,” originally published in French in 1931, and the illustrations for “Babar’s Cousin: That Rascal Arthur,” by his son, Laurent, published in French in 1946. Although the Morgan has one of the greatest collections of illustrated children’s books, until then it had not owned any Babar classics.

This fall the Morgan will devote several of its galleries to about 175 Babar works, including manuscript drafts, sketches and watercolors for those two books. Computer touch screens will display digital images of works that are too fragile to be displayed for long periods of time.

“The show will be about Babar and the creation of children’s books, but also about the creative process,” William M. Griswold, director of the Morgan, said of the show, “Drawing Babar: Early Drafts and Watercolors,” which will be on view from Sept. 19 through Jan. 4.

Among the exhibits will be Jean de Brunhoff’s maquette for “Histoire de Babar,” an illustrated booklet that he made while creating the series’s first book to get a sense of how it would ultimately look. Because it is made of folded sheets filled with drawing and text on both sides, only a portion of the booklet can be shown at one time, but visitors will be able to see all 54 pages digitally.

Although Mr. Griswold described “Drawing Babar” as an exhibition for adults, the Morgan plans to offer educational programs for children, teaching tools and family activities associated with the show. “We want to strike the right balance,” he said.

Weeee're BLOGGIN!

2008-05-29T15:02:00.001-07:00

For five years now, predicate, ink. has been in the business of stamping predicates onto pre-existing subjects. The formula has been as follows: we start with a salamander (subject); we draw it and we say WHAT (predicate) it IS or LIKES (verb), following that simple yet beautiful sentence construction, that foundational structure of the English language, that sentence form without which we could not even make sentences: Subject-Verb-Predicate.

And so: Salamanders like cupcakes. Rats are squooshy. And The seahorse rejects conventional gender roles. Some of these statements are predicated upon Facts Observable in Nature. Others of these statements are predicated upon absolutely nothing.

Most of them fall somewhere in between.

So, we've scrawled squiggly predicates onto seahorses; we've typed predicates onto ducks; we've predicated about the most unlikely of creatures -- from boobies to mermaids to narwhals; and we've printed it all (some of it) onto bags and tee-shirts; and we've typed it all ploddingly but surely onto an amateurish single-page (read: AWESOME) website (www.predicateink.com/) where you can't do much, but you can, in fact, BUY STUFF.

But the time has come for predicate, ink. -- in line with its institutional and ideological belief (as set forth in the predicate, ink. Mission Statement) that it shall place text where-so-ever it sees fit and culturally relevant to do so -- to place its textual stamp upon a new subject. This time it's the internet and: the internet is serious.

It's the predicate text you've always known; it's predicate text as you've never known it before. It's news, it's ideas, it's new drawings and old drawings; it's where to buy the stuff, it's how to buy it, it's how to wear it, it's predications on all we see fit and culturally relevant. It's news you can trust, it's multimedia features, it's smell-o-vision, it's firsthand accounts of the animals themselves as told to guest writers from the New. York. Times (Metro Section!) -- hell, we're not quite sure what it is yet!

But it's going to be serious. And you are going to want to be part of it (by reading and commenting!)

It's predicate text, only scrollable.