I will offer this without comment. See the rest of the dummies, who are not in police custody, at the Public School blog.

One of the prints is dark and heroic, obviously the work of Allied propagandists. “A IS FOR VICTORY” it playfully proclaims. This is Moss at his finest – bold graphics, serious inspiration and a wry sense of humor. But this poster’s evil twin is the apparent handiwork of an Axis artist, who has turned the Captain’s mighty shield into an arrow-pierced target. As for its Nazi-style lettering, in German no less, it’s downright creepy...

“I tend to prefer things with a really strong idea,” Moss says, “things that are concept-focused. I kind of like the work to be functional, so it needs to be as simple as possible.” Moss has employed this hard-working-minimalist approach throughout his brief career; the 24-year-old graduated in 2008 from the University of Birmingham in England, where he studied literature. “Design was a hobby that took off,” he explains.

Can you elaborate on some features or elements of what you describe of as being "conceptually psychedelic?"

Johnson: I think the main thing is the idea that in psychedelic experience, people start thinking about their own perceptions. They don't take their perceptions for granted, but they start thinking about how our perceptions work and how interesting it is the way we think about the world, so we think about our thinking.

CNN: Are you suggesting that you have to be stoned or high to create art or appreciate modern art?

Johnson: No, I don't think being high or stoned makes anybody more creative. If it did, there would be a lot of stoners out there making great art... I don't think you have to be high to look at it.

I think what it does do, I think any work of art encourages you to imagine your way into a state of consciousness that may not be your normal state, so you kind of suspend disbelief and allow yourself to be imaginatively seduced into a different way of relating to the world so that you study things more carefully, you think about how things are affecting you.

"How the drugs of the 60s changed art" (CNN)

The sister of artist and dissident Ai Weiwei says that during his time in jail, Ai was not tortured and received food and his medications regularly. But he was kept in a tiny cell, 6 cell tiles wide in either direction, and under conditions that amounted to psychological pressure. When he paced inside that tiny cell, she said, he was followed by two guards, who accompanied him everywhere, all the time. From a Washington Post interview:

"The room light was on 24 hours every day," she said. "The only furniture in the room was a bed. Except for the bed, there was nothing else in the room, no chair, no desk. They didn't offer Ai anything-- no book, no newspaper, no TV, no radio, not even a piece of paper or a pen."

Gao said the two guards watched him constantly, never speaking; the officers changed shifts every three hours.

"They stared at him without ever moving their eyes," she said, adding that they stood close by even while he used the toilet. "And when he took a shower, they just stood right next to him, even though they were getting totally wet.

"Can you imagine the feeling of having four eyes always on you, no matter what you do?" Gao said. "If you lie down and go to sleep, they just stand at the side of the bed and look at you without a blink of the eye. When he had a walk in the room, they also followed him. These measures were designed to destroy people's minds," she said.

Photographer and Boing Boing reader Mario Landivar has a wonderful set of photos from his native Bolivia, but none so Boingy as this one, here: a fantastically funky house in the town of El Alto. Makes more sense in the context of so much indigenous color. I love this languid shot of Lake Titicaca. More great shots in his feed, here. Thanks for sharing them in the Boing Boing Flickr Pool, Mario!

This statement, purportedly Rupert Murdoch's forthcoming apology for crimes committed at one of his London newspapers, is doing the rounds on Twitter. It's not terribly convincing! It reads to me kind of like this:

Read the rest