Yoshua Okon's Octopus

From Hammer Museum: We were invited behind-the-scenes at the shoot for Yoshua Okon's latest video Octopus. The piece, shot on location at a Los Angeles Home Depot store, explores the relationships among Guatemalan day laborers who at home fought on opposite sides of the Guatemalan civil war, yet here in the U.S. are working side-by-side in their efforts to find employment. The work was produced during Okon's residency with the Hammer. He explains more about the work in this video. (Run time: 8 minutes) 


From Humor As Art: YOSHUA OKON talks about the HUMOR in his art piece OCTOPUS. This is a rare view into how an artist constructively uses HUMOR in art to convey messages. But not only that to stir up other emotions outside of laughter. FANTASTIC!!!!

Karl Stevens' Whatever - analyzed

This weeks strip of Stevens' Whatever has an excellent example of frame shifting in humor. Where the frame of what is happening takes a turn while in another frame. (literally in the panel and as a cognitive metaphor) This happens a lot in joke telling and metaphor.

Since Stevens starts the punchline at the beginning of the strip, the frame has to shift to the expected congruency, when it is not presented, the viewer rethinks the panel, then re-observes the strip. All of this is the cognition of the reader making congruent out of the incongruity setup within the narrative. This in itself can deliver a laugh.