www.nathangibbs.com

I have recently stumbled upon a wonderful website: www.nathangibbs.com. Nathan Gibbs is a producer and artist who creates meaningful projects that explore color and culture in America. Two of his projects that I found to be extremely cool are:

1. "Crayola Monologues (2003) uses the crayon as a human metaphor for exploring color and identity in the United States. This animated video features crayons expressing how color hierarchies have shaped their lives. These crayons live in a world much like our own, complete with prejudice, class boundaries, social hierarchies and those who fall between the lines. Crayola Monologues also reveals the politics behind Crayola label changes, and gives a voice to the previously unheard perspective of crayons."



2. "Race Cube (2003) remodels the classic Rubik’s Cube with a racial twist. Rather than the abstract color separation of the original, the Race Cube poses a more concrete challenge: aligning images of people into categories based on race. Race Cube challenges not only the player’s ability to determine the race to which each face belongs, but also the fundamental assumption that distinct racial lines exist. Race Cube requires that subjects such as Tiger Woods be sorted in a binary paradigm, without any tolerance. Multiracial faces cannot sit simultaneously on multiple sides of the cube. The three dimensional grid structure of the cube represents the low tolerance, low-resolution construction of racial categories.At the same time Race Cube physically manifests the “problem” or puzzle of race, it also provides a solution. This perspective asserts that the cube is always in a constant state of solution. Race Cube maintains its ideal mixed state no matter how many adjustments one makes to the arrangement of the cube, regardless of the player’s attempts to solve the problem. This new solution views the biological notion of being mixed from a positive, rather than the traditionally negative, perspective. Validating diversity and the mixed state of racial representation today provides a platform for deconstructing biological myths about race."


Nathan, you rock!