good old fashioned art beat-up

The world section of the New Zealand herald online today prominently features an art beat-up that conforms to the genre well...

• Eye catching heading: Check - "Swedish train vandalised as part of thesis"
• Lack of information: Check
• Little analysis: Check - "Maybe it was abstract impressionism"
• Use of ridicule and omission to demean a project: Check
  

I don't know enough about this event (due to lack of information) to form an opinion on the merit or otherwise of this student's art work. My point is it's frustrating to see the mainstream media avoid adding to meaningful discussion of the contemporary art stories they feature, instead finding company for ignorance in ridicule. The Barrs have regularly discussed this genre of reporting on their blog overthenet. See their post here about a recent 'my kid could make that' stunt that 60 minutes tried to sucker Enjoy into participating in.

(posted by Paula)
Image: masked man from pitofhorror dot com