There's a movement under foot. It's a blend of art and toys and it's struck a chord with toy collectors and art lovers alike. It's Urban Vinyl and this is a brief history for those who'd like to learn a little more about this art movement in the making.
First, to understand Urban Vinyl, one must throw aside their conventional ideas of what makes a great toy. Sure, design of the piece plays a big part in the making of both. But the big difference is that Urban Vinyl is original from the start. This is true art, not a replication of another form. For example, more than likely, you base how much you like your Gonzo action figure on how much it looks like the actual Gonzo. In order to appreciate Urban Vinyl you enjoy it for what it is. There are no preconceived notions because what the piece is; is all it is, man. Also, things like articulation aren't as important because the Vinyl isn't always made to be played with. Yes, I know you play with your Skeletor. We all do. [Ed note: Shake it more than twice and you're playing with it.] But Urban Vinyl is created with art sensibilities in mind, so sculpt and design are the most important ingredients. Now I'm not saying that people like the Four Horsemen aren't amazing craftsmen. They are. But what they are doing is giving us their take on an already designed character. This is original to a point, but Urban Vinyl is original all the way to its core.
So how did the plastic move from the pegs to the pedestals? It all starts in Hong Kong with a man named Michael Lau. It was the late nineties and Lau was showing paintings in galleries and working in advertising. He was employed by a music group named Anidoze to create the cover art for an upcoming album. Instead of a 2-D design he created an original action figure and photographed it. He had been making original figures for a while for friends and family, and decided to create one for the cover, showing a broader audience his style. It received a very warm response and led to the first official Urban Vinyl line, The Gardeners. These were 12 inch vinyl figures that represented a modern positive lifestyle. No violence or drugs, but tattooed, pierced, and wearing clothes that the urbanites were wearing at the time.
Unknown (2014). Glossary of Art Terms. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/glossary#w. [Last Accessed 28 April 2014].
Some of these animations add visuals when a complex idea is being described, such as the idea of the ‘lemon dance” or the ‘rubber room’ in New York. Guggenheim also takes the idea of tenure and uses these techniques to twist tenure into somethi...
Galaxy Toys has a long history of providing high quality, space toys to children. George Jepson and his wife opened the company in 1956 after George created a spaceship for his son Rusty, who was obsessed with going to the moon. A partnership with manufacturer, Jack Mercury, enabled the company to meet the demand for their space related toys. The company developed fundamental toy-making principles focused on making well-constructed, high quality toys. The company began to sell toys nationally and their toy line quickly gained popularity with children.
Imagine what life would be like if we could find a cure to cancer in babies, or toddlers. With “Designer Babies”, doctors have found a way to do just that. Doctors do not have the technology yet, but they know how to edit genes in a newborn or unborn baby. In the near future, there’s a possibility the baby’s intelligence could be raised, along with the lifespan of the designer baby. Designer babies should be put out to public because it could reduce genetic disorders, increase the baby’s life span, and prevent diseases.
Artists continued to create art from found objects through a minor movement known as Neo Dada of the late fifties. Robert Rauschenberg as well as Jasper Johns helped revive some of the ideas that rose from Dada, but placed more emphasis on the art produced rather than o...
In 1960, Jean Tinguely created his most well-known performance piece, “Homage to New York.” The work was unique in that was a live self-destructive sculpture in front of an audience at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Twenty-three feet long and twenty-seven feet high, the piece was composed of bicycle wheels, motors, a piano, an addressograph, a go-cart, a bathtub, and other cast-off objects. More or less the piece could be easily misconstrued from a pile of junk. During its brief 27-minute operation, a meteorological trial balloon inflated and burst, colored smoke was discharged, paintings were made and destroyed, and bottles crashed to the ground. A player piano, metal drums, a radio broadcast, a recording of the artist explaining his
Toy stores are perfect places for a sociologist to use their sociological imagination. Gendering and racism is thought to be something that is socially constructed as opposed to biologically constructed. Gendering starts during infancy, and around 2 years old children start to internalize these gender differences. I argue that children’s toys help socialize children into gender specific roles. Toy stores, like Target and Toys R Us help us understand what types of toys help to gender children. I will explain how the toys in the toy aisles differ and compare. Not all toys are either male or female, some toys are gender neutral.
Designer babies are good because allows parents to give their child a better shot at a healthy lifestyle.It is a better chance the child will succeed in life. They can choose which gender they want.
What if the world can be free of all genetic diseases? What if a mother did not have to go through the pain of saying goodbye to her family because she is going to die from cancer? What if a daughter could avoid getting bullied because she had Autism? What if a friend did not have to go through the heartache of wanting a child but knowing she could not without passing on a genetic disease? What if the struggles could end? Would it not be a better life? One must think it sounds like a dream that cannot be reached. However, that dream can be a reality right now. The solution is in the human genes. Modifying the human genome can create a future full of humans that are genetically disease free, in other words, creating designer babies. Performing such an operation is a good thing and should be made officially legal everywhere in the United States.
Imagine a girl; beautiful with green eyes and brown hair, intelligent, athletic, and perfect. Now imagine that beautiful intelligent and athletic girl with a horrible personality; mean and hateful. That is the capability of genes. The idea of the use of Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis to adorn and embellish embryos is completely not acceptable. Humans shouldn’t be genetically engineered because designing babies gives the concept of the ideal and perfect baby when humans shouldn’t be perfect. We could use PGD (Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis) to prevent diseases but not to make embryos prettier and smarter. There are many reasons why Designer Babies aren’t a welcome factor in this word like the fact PGD could save lives of children and provide them with healthy lives but we choose to use it for other preposterous purposes. Another rationale is that it is ethically wrong. What’s also horrible about this problem is that there are testing done on animals and crops. The practice of genetically engineering babies should stop because we should use Pre-implantation Genetic diagnosis to help babies live longer and prevent diseases from occurring and not to beautify them and choose their characteristics.
This research question for this study consisted of wanting to know the preschooler’s views on gender related games and toys. The hypothesis consisted of stating that this study was focusing on whether gender specifically age and sex had an impact on views of toys and games. The research was done due the fact that there is so much information on how early boys and girls distinguish between their sex along with the roles they should follow. The literature discusses how boys tend to play in a more open environment, more rough and with their sex as to where females play in more enclosed spaces, their own sex and more gentle (Oncu & Unluer, 2012). The main gap found within this literature is that the researchers are mainly focusing on the age and sex and if they correlate with their views on games and toys.
The concept of designer babies is a highly disputed topic. Some say that it is mainly beneficial because it can enhance and cure, but some would say otherwise because they see it as unethical and ultimately causing problems within society. Most parents would want the best for their child, so ‘improving’ them or ‘making them better’ makes sense. Which school a child goes to and which hobbies they take part in can be choices that a parent makes, which in turn hopefully makes the child’s life better. Genetic engineering could become a common practice and be another choice for parents to make, but is it just going too far?
Parents all have the tendency to want what is best for their children so that they can be in a perfect condition. Designer babies have become a popular topic today. Even though designer babies can be used to create a parent’s perfect child, many still have concerns. Designer babies can have both negative and positive effects; however, reports have only showed them having negative effects on our society. Doctors all believe that designing a baby can not only put the baby at risk, however, also our future society. The process of creating designer babies has not yet been reassured, which have only left doctors and others afraid of going through with this process. Designing a baby may seem easy, however the effects that these babies will bring, can only harm our society.
The horizon of gene technology broadens everyday along with the imagination of every human being. Designer babies, a rather amusing as well as a controversial field in science, could one day change the living world. The term ‘designer babies’ is used by people like journalists. A more scientific term would be ‘genetically modified babies’. Designing babies is actually more of a general term as this covers lots of different areas within.
Wham, bang, hay-ya! Those were probably the kinds of sounds you might have heard if you passed by my room as a child. All of those greatly preformed sound effects came from none other than myself, unless I had a friends help who was of course only allowed to be the villain in whichever toys we were playing. I guess this interests me now because I can realize as an adult just how much watching certain shows, having certain toys, and playing certain games have had a part in shaping the person I am today.