12.14.2005
Ugation: Holiday Scam or Artsy Subterfuge?
Art or just artsy? Real creativity or just a gag?
It’s called ugation, a neologism created from the term ugly creation. But don’t tell someone that if you’re giving such an item as a Christmas or birthday gift. And make sure to use the artsy pronunciation, yoo-gae-shen. After all, you don’t want the recipient of your ugated gift to find out that you’re a cheap bastard.
Cheap is a key word. So is haste. Ugation is a combination of inexpensive or free objects quickly thrown together without much second thought.
Walk through a craft store and pay attention to what’s on sale. There’s a block of green Styrofoam at a low price. Find some cheesy plastic flowers, jam them into that block, and then spray Silly String all over. If it looks like real art, you’ve failed. If it looks like pretentious arty crap – congratulations! It’s a successful ugation.
All you have to do to come up with a connoisseur’s spiel. With the above example, you could say it represents the plastic phoniness of commercialism, the Silly String representing the symbolic web that traps all consumers under the capitalistic system. Then make sure to put a $100 price tag on it. It’s “Art,” ain’t it?
# posted by Stan Spire @ 4:21 AM 
