Lecture 2

The second lecture was Steve Lambert’s.  He began by having everyone close their eyes and imagine having a superpower, and what they would do with that power.  He said he would return to this later and started talking about his work.  He has a very strong sense of humor that clearly manifests itself in his work, such as in his first project that he talked about in which he drove around with a marquee sign and took pictures of it in unusual places.  This, for him, was more of a way to have fun than to make serious art.  Not all of his art is so lighthearted though.  The fake newspaper that he worked on with the Yes Men was a political statement against the Iraq war.  The papers were distributed in a way that if a person picked one up without prior knowledge, they would probably believe it at first, and many did as shown in a video.  The newspapers has probably attracted more widespread attention than any of his other projects because of the absurdity and realistic presentation.  Another project of his that was a big part of his lecture was his capitalism sign.  A billboard that says ‘Does capitalism work for you?’ prompts people to push either a yes or no button.  A video showed people’s reactions to and reasons for choosing an answer.  This was yet another political statement that seemed to want to make people question their relationship with the government and the problems it may cause, even though there isn’t really anything they can do about it.  Finally, he returned to the superpowers question that he started off with.  He said that his superpower was art, and that it gives him the ability to influence people’s thoughts.  His work definitely seems like it has the intent to change people’s minds on certain topics and the potential to do so.