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You Don’t Have to Make Enemies to Make Powerful Cartoons

By | March 10, 2015

“Where do you get your ideas?”
“Can you tell us about cartoons you’ve had censored?”
“Is there a line you won’t cross?”
And more recently: “Don’t you wish American satirists could take more liberties like the French?”
Nowadays, people seem to assume that practicing the craft of political cartooning is an incredibly delicate balancing act akin to handling unexploded cluster bombs, a constant exercise in repression and frustration.
I …

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A Cartoon Is a Deadly Weapon

By | March 7, 2015

Cartoons make us laugh. But they can also make us feel anger and powerlessness, fear and loathing. In early January, Al-Qaeda gunmen unleashed a brutal attack on the offices of the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo in retaliation for cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad.
This wasn’t the first time Charlie Hebdo had been targeted, and other 21st-century cartoonists have faced similar threats. Cartoons have played a …

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What Happens When Stem Cell Science and Performance Art Collide?

By | February 11, 2015

In 2007, the Australian performance artist Stelarc started growing an extra ear on his left arm through a series of operations that are still ongoing. The ear is actually made up of his own stem cells woven into a biodegradable frame. Eventually a Bluetooth device will be inserted and Stelarc will be able to hear and communicate through it.
Stelarc’s work focuses on body enhancement, exploring …

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