The other Tom Cruz
March 30th, 2009
Joseph del Pesco recently invited me to participate in Artists Space’s Webcast, a curatorial initiative for making internet- and computer-based cultural content. For this, he invites artists, designers and other curators to participate in two kinds of platforms: one is Typecast, in which new typefaces are commissioned and made available for free (there are five to date, including a beautiful design by Mungo Thompson); the second one is the self-explanatory Youtube Commentary, for which voice-overs are made for videos drawn from this ever-growing online collection. My contribution was in this latter platform. I selected a video clip from P.T. Anderson’s Magnolia, and took it as an excuse to speak about Tom Cruise, as a scene to reflect on fan culture, and simply as a moment to consider degrees of insanity, all of which are embedded on Youtube.
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This is fantastic. It is a wonderful musing on the rise and fall of one of Americas most loved and simultaneously hated actors. Tom Cruise is a split personality, split by fame, exposure and public scrutiny. When Mann and you ask the question, “Do we care” the answer must unfortunately be emphatically, “yes”. We care too much; for falling from grace might be more engaging than the rise.