The artist will photocopy three trillion one-dollar-bill images. Three trillion is an arbitrary number that just happens to be the current estimated total cost in dollars (just to the U.S.) of a recent military invasion and occupation of at best questionable merit in a small middle eastern country, but be that as it may....
The artist will then tape these images together end-to-end. The artist may then, if he wishes, request that NASA run the string to the moon and back six hundred times.-- globaltourniquet, Mar 13 2008 Money As Art http://en.wikipedia...Burn_a_Million_QuidJimmy Cauty & Bill Drummond, in their guise as the KLF, famously burnt (or at least claimed that they had burnt) £1million pounds. [DrBob, Mar 14 2008] I wouldn't mind seeing the warmongers in the white house forced to eat these images.-- ldischler, Mar 13 2008 That wouldn't be an art project, though, [ldischler] - it would be a "punish those who do X"-- globaltourniquet, Mar 13 2008 Yes, but I wouldn't mind.-- ldischler, Mar 13 2008 That's about $10,000 per person and about $20,000 per employed person, by the way.-- Zimmy, Mar 13 2008 Isn't it supposed to last a hundred years? Isn't that what McCain wants? If he gets his way, three trillion will be nothing.-- ldischler, Mar 13 2008 Think again, think McCain. (current frozen vegetable advertisement in our part of the world.)-- 4whom, Mar 13 2008 Another odd thing to think about is the list of countries that have a smaller GDP than the 0.5 trillion per year spent:
Aw, heck, There are 166 of them. It's easier to list the countries not on that list...
The US, Japan, Germany, China, France, the UK, Italy, Canada, Spain, Brazil, Russia, S. Korea, India, Mexico, Australia, the Netherlands, and Turkey.-- Zimmy, Mar 13 2008 I'm surprised that UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Iran are not included in that list. In Dubai alone almost 20% of all the tower cranes in the world are engaged in construction on a totally massive scale.-- xenzag, Mar 13 2008 I saw S. Arabia listed at 309,778,000,000 & UAE at 129,702,000,000.
half a trillion a year is equal to the GDP of 94 countries w/ the smalles GDP's. For the fun of it:
Kribiati, Sao Tome & Principe, Marshall Islands, Palau, Tonga, Micronesia, Dominica, Guinea-Bissau, Solomen Islands, East Timor, Vanuatu, Comoros, Samoa, St Vincent & The Grenadines, St Kitts & Nevis, Gambia, Grenada, Liberia, Seychelles, Djibouti, Burundi, Guyana, St Lucia, Maldives, Bhutan, Antiqua & Barbuda, Eritrea, Cape Verde, Belize, Sierra Leone, Lesotho, C.A.R., Suriname, Togo, Malawi, Montenegro, Rwanda, Swaziland, Mauritania, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Fiji, Barbados, Moldova, Guinea, Laos, Niger, West Bank & Gaza, Genin, Haiti, Zimbabwe, Nicaragua, Madagascar, Malta, Papau New Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Macedonai, Namibia, Brunei Darussalam, Armenia, Mauritius, Chad, Cambodia, R of Congo, Georgia, Mozambique, Nepal, Afghanistan, P.R. of Congo, Eq. Guinea, Senegal, Paraguay, Albania, Honduras, Uganda, Gabon, Botswana, Turkmenistan, Jamaica, Zambia, Bolivia, Bosnia & Hezegovina, Tanzania, Ghana, Bahrain, Ethiopia, Jordon, Macau - PRC, Cypres, Iceland, Estonia, Panama, & Uzbekistan.
Just imagine how many more friends the US would have if they matched all these countries GDP for 5 years on the requirement that they build infrastructure with the donation instead of invading Iraq.-- Zimmy, Mar 13 2008 let's let the coldongers eat them too.-- daseva, Mar 13 2008 While I think protest by art form is very laudable, 3 trillion copies is 1.5 million reams or so of copy paper, pushing this well beyond the limits of possibility for even the most hardened artist.
How about 3 trillion grains of sand? I think you could fit that into something that could circulate the art museums of the country, and still inspire awe when people mentally transformed the grains of sand into dollar bills.-- DrCurry, Mar 14 2008 That's no good. You can't tape sand.-- Amos Kito, Mar 14 2008 Yeah, but shovelling 3 trillion grains of sand is going to take rather less time than sticky-taping 3 trillion pieces of paper.-- DrCurry, Mar 14 2008 Yes, true, [PhysicianOfIndianSpice]. But the project itself as written, even including the six hundred trips to the moon and back, would still constitute a more sensible use of the funds it would require than what we are artfully protesting (and its exorbitant cost)...
("exorbitant": spell checked OK! What do you know!)-- globaltourniquet, Mar 14 2008 3 trillion grains of typical sand would fill a box about 1.5 metres on a side.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 14 2008 [MB], it's hard to decide if that would be appropriately impactful to the average Amurrican-- globaltourniquet, Mar 14 2008 That would depend on the height, and on whether you removed the sand from the box first.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 14 2008 //it's JUST an art project// why use the word "just"? This infers that art projects are of less value. Despite these reservations +-- xenzag, Mar 14 2008 It's JUST an art project, as opposed to a perceived solution for any current social problem.-- globaltourniquet, Mar 14 2008 History teaches that to stop powerfull people, the less powerfull must act en masse. No private or artisitic protest is effective unless it is backed by a mob. Later history values the art and rhetoric of revolution while at the time it was borne on the points of well worn pitchforks.-- WcW, Mar 14 2008 History also teaches that powerful people can only really be stopped by people who can spell powerful.-- globaltourniquet, Mar 14 2008 As a Quaker and as a young person my ears bleed at the mention of symbolic protest. When I want to protest at the local recruiting center everybody politely bows out explaining that they already have comfortable, safe, and individualistic ways to protest.-- WcW, Mar 14 2008 //As a Quaker and as a young person my ears bleed at the mention of sybolic protest.//
You need to be more tolerant. Sybolic protest (named, as I guess you know, for Sybolis of Frenum) has a long tradition, and was a potent political force over a period of several centuries. Sybolis himself, of course, was tortured and killed as a result of the protests he organised, but stuck to his principals to the end. I really don't see how this conflicts with Quakerism, or indeed any form of cereal worship.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 14 2008 mmmm... Cereal....-- globaltourniquet, Mar 14 2008 Maybe you need to find some more militant quakers, [WcW].-- pertinax, Mar 15 2008 picks up gun and starts shaking-- xenzag, Mar 15 2008 Yes, and what now of the Sybolic cause? All those years of archaic struggle and now all that remains is the rubble of a once great empire. I will never again join a Sybolic effort to overthrow tyranny.-- WcW, Mar 15 2008 You are wrong, WC. The Sybolics were not destroyed, their spirit was not broken, and their faith was not eroded, even though their cities were razed to the ground, their womenfolk stampeded, and their livestock raped.
After the Great Repression of 1512, a few Sybolics did indeed renounce their faith. Some even turned traitor, informing on their former friends and colleagues, which lead to the Great Purge of 1514, the Great Resurgence of 1515, the Greater Purge of 1516, and the Cautious Wait of 1517.
However, the movement remained strong amongst land-owners and artisans, who adapted their rituals to take place in near-silence, by virtue of elaborate mimes, hindered only by the need to conduct their rituals in total darkness.
Throughout the ages, the Sybolics remained a dark but potent force throughout most of Europe, quietly biding their time until a more tolerant world evolved. Only after the second world war, with peace reigning through choice or through necessity, did the Sybolics start seeking to regain their position as the dominant power shaping all aspects of public, private and commercial life.
The Sybolics, proud though they are of their long heritage, realized that they would need to find a new name if old fears and resentments were not to be reawakened. The organisation now flourishes throughout the Western world, and even has influence in the East, under it's new name - the Health and Safety Executive.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 15 2008 random, halfbakery