CABINET a Quarterly of Art and Culture Issue 17 Laughter Us $10 Canada $15 Uk £6
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a quarterly of art and culture Issue 17 LAUGHTER CABINET US $10 canada $15 uK £6 inside this issue sPRING-A-DINGTIMe 2005 Sasha Archibald • Mats Bigert • Robert Bowen • Steven Brower • Paul Chan • Simon Critchley • Brian Dillon • Sean Dockray • Matt Freedman • Daniel Heller-Roazen • Jim Holt • Edward Jessen • Colin Jones • Jeffrey Kastner • H. Lan Thao Lam • Robert J. Lang • Jesse Lerner • Jennifer Liese • Lana Lin • Paul Lukas • Marco Maggi • Brian McMullen • Joe Milutis • Geoffrey O’Brien • Michael Rakowitz • Steve Rowell • David Serlin • Maud Skoog Brandin • Christopher Turner • Kazys Varnelis • Lawrence Weiner • Margaret Wertheim • Fiona Whitton • Slavoj Zizek cabinet Cabinet is a non-profit 501 (c) (3) magazine published by Immaterial Incorporated. 181 Wyckoff Street Contributions to Cabinet are fully tax-deductible. Our survival is dependent on Brooklyn NY 11217 USA such contributions; please consider supporting us at whatever level you can. tel + 1 718 222 8434 Donations of $25 or more will be acknowledged in the next possible issue. Dona- fax + 1 718 222 3700 tions above $250 will be acknowledged for four issues. Checks should be made email [email protected] out to “Cabinet.” Please mark the envelope “There, there.” www.cabinetmagazine.org Cabinet wishes to thank the following visionary foundations and individuals Spring 2005, issue 17 for their support of our activities during 2005. Additionally, we will forever be indebted to the extraordinary contribution of the Flora Family Foundation from Editor-in-chief Sina Najafi 1999 to 2004; without their generous support, this publication would not exist. Senior editor Jeffrey Kastner Thanks also to the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for their two-year Editors Jennifer Liese, Christopher Turner grant of 2003-2004. We would also like to acknowledge that as of the next Managing editor & graphic designer Brian McMullen issue Cabinet will be operating out of an office in DUMBO, Brooklyn generously UK editor Brian Dillon donated by David Walentas/Two Trees. Editors-at-large Saul Anton, Naomi Ben-Shahar, Mats Bigert, Brian Conley, Christoph Cox, Jesse Lerner, Frances Richard, David Serlin, Debra Singer, $15,000 Margaret Sundell, Allen S. 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Cabinet is available worldwide as a book (with ISBN) through D.A.P./ Distributed Art Publishers, 155 Sixth Avenue, 2nd floor, New York, NY 10013 Tel: + 1 212 627 1999, Fax: + 1 212 627 9484, Email: [email protected] Cabinet is also available in Europe and elsewhere through Central Books, London. Email: [email protected] Submissions See www.cabinetmagazine.org or email [email protected]. Contents © 2005 Immaterial Incorporated and the authors and artists. All rights in the magazine reserved by Immaterial Incorporated, and rights in the works contained herein reserved by their owners. Fair users are of course free to do their The photograph on page 4 was taken by OK Hyun Anh. thing; we’ve been known to use fairly ourselves. Any other unauthorized reproduc- tion of any material here is a no-no. The views published here are not necessarily Cover: photo Werner Wolff, ca. early 1960s. those of the writers and artists, let alone the slaphappy editors of Cabinet. Back cover: “The Last Laugh” by Brian McMullen. COLUMNS MAIN 7 ColorS / GrAY 19 BLOCKInG ALL lAnES GEOFFREY O’BRIEN Sean DOckray, Steve ROwell & Fiona Whitton Nowhere all over the place Sig-Alerts, detection loops, and the management of traffic 8 inGESTION / DON’T SlICE THE HAM TOO THIn 27 CEnTrIPETAl CITY JEFFREY KASTNER KAZYS VARNELIS Fred Harvey and the prehistory of fast food The myth of the network 12 InVEnTORY / Regalia 34 THE ArTIST AS VOLCANO PAUL LUKAS JESSE LERNER The decline and fall of a ribbon empire The seismic imagination of Dr. Atl 15 LEFToVErS / ASHES To DIAMONDS 39 THE MATHEMATICS oF PAPEr FOLDInG: TOM VANDERBILT An InTErVIEW WITH ROBErT lAnG Turning grandma into a Treasured Family Heirloom™ MARGARET WERThEIM Adventures in computational origami 44 hoW To make Your oWn squArE-based origami BuD 46 ArTIST PROJECT: THE TED TURNEr COLLECTION— REPORT FROM THE BATTlEFIElD (PAPEr ON uCCELLO) MARcO MAGGI 51 Do NOT MInGlE ONE HuMAn FEElInG JOE MILUTIS Jenny Lind and the mysteries of protophonographic notation 56 H & Co. DANIEL HELLER-ROAZEN The fate of aitch 61 ArTIST PROJECT: return To sender Robert BOwEN 64 ArTIST PROJECT: EVEn THE TrEES WOULD lEAVE h. LAN ThAO & LANA LIN LAUGHTER AND 69 TEArS oF lAuGHTEr PostcarD: YourS sincerElY, CHRISTOPhER TURNER wastinG away Darwin and the indeterminacy of emotions MICHAEL RAKOwITZ 74 stimulI ElicitinG smilInG AnD lAughinG bookmarK:The Laff Box in chilDrEn at differEnT ages No longer near the subscription cards 76 ArTIST PROJECT: lAuGHTEr, InTERRUPTED (InTRODuCTION) 77 ArTIST PROJECT: lAuGHTEr, InTERRUPTED (RUEFUL) PAUL CHAN 78 VErY FUNNY: An InTErVIEW WITH SIMON CrITCHlEY BRIAN DILLON Toward a philosophical history of humor 82 THE PrACTITIONEr: An Interview with MAuD SKooG BrAndin MATS BIGERT Laughing without reason in Sweden 84 InFECTIOUS lAuGHTEr DAVID SERLIN Kuru as metaphor 86 ArTIST PROJECT: lAuGHTEr, InTERRUPTED (CRUEl) LAwRENcE WEINER 87 THE ArT oF lAuGHTEr JIM HOLT Three ways to be funny 91 ArTIST PROJECT: lAuGHTEr, InTERRUPTED (MAlICIOUS) MATT FREEDMAN 92 THE CHrISTIAn-HEGElIAn CoMEDY SLAVOJ ZIZEK “God is dead,“ and other classic one-liners 96 ArTIST PROJECT: lAuGHTEr, InTERRUPTED (PErVErSE) STEVEN BROwER 97 InCORRUPTIBlE TEETH, or, the FrEnch SmilE revolution cOLIN JONES Laughter and the birth of dentistry 101 wide at the BottoM, nArroW at the ToP Sasha ARchibald King Louis-Philippe and the pear 102 ArTIST PROJECT: Laughter scorES EDward jessen 103 no lAughinG matter JENNIFER LIESE A short, sad history of the smiley face This issue of Cabinet is dedicated to the memory of our friend and contributor Luis Miguel Suro May 12, 1972 – December 17, 2004 Contributors Sasha Archibald is associate editor of Cabinet and a Helena Rubenstein Joe Milutis is a writer, media artist, and Assistant Professor of Art at Curatorial Fellow in the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. the University of South Carolina. His book, Ether: The Nothing that Connects Everything, is forthcoming from University of Minnesota Press in October Robert Bowen is a New York-based artist and designer who teaches in the 2005. MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media Department at the School of Visual Arts. His exhibition “Return to Sender: Virtual Postcards from Impossible Geoffrey O’Brien is the author of many books of prose and poetry, including Places” is on view at MF Adams Gallery in Brooklyn until mid-April 2005. The Phantom Empire, The Browser’s Ecstasy, and, most, recently, Sonata for Jukebox (Counterpoint) and Red Sky Café (Salt). He is editor-in-chief of Steven Brower is an artist based in New York. The Library of America and lives in New York City. Paul Chan is an artist who lives in New York. Michael Rakowitz is an artist living in New York. A solo exhibition of his work will open this April at Lombard-Freid Fine Arts in New York City and his work will Simon Critchley is professor of philosophy at the New School for Social also be featured in “SAFE: Design Takes On Risk” at the Museum of Modern Art, Research, New York and at the University of Essex.