The Smile Machine
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The Smile Machine
The Smile Machine is an art work created in 1992 by the artist Dick Turner[1]. The idea was later used without the artist's authorization for an advertising campaign during the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway in 1994. This led to a small international incident involving the Norwegian Embassy in Washington, D.C.[2]
History
The Smile Machine is an art work which consists of two plastic hooks (sustaining rods) connected by two lengths of elastic (the joy strap) which are held together by a plastic buckle (the calibration buckle). They come with The Thirty Points of Ideaism (not Idealism) a series of 30 precepts meant to be read while wearing The Smile Machine.[2]
After the Smile Machine was made, Turner then took out advertisements once a week in November 1992 in the Village Voice Newspaper[3].
The Smile Machine and the Lillehammer Winter Games
In December 1993 Turner discovered that the Norwegian Olympic Organizing Committee had begun to use the Smile Machine as part of its promotion effort for the Lillehammer Winter Olympic Games.[2] They had made 100,000 of them using their promotional budget of 120,000 dollars.[2] The Smile Machine appeared in both Newsweek[4] and Life Magazine[5] and was the subject of a presentation on NPR (National Public Radio)[6]. Turner was given no credit as its inventor.
Turner then contacted the Norwegian Embassy in Washington D.C. and threatened legal action. Turner was then interviewed by the Norwegian magazine VG where his claims were put before the Norwegian people[7]. Finally Press Counsellor Tore Tanum of the Norwegian Embassy publicly recognized Turner as the creator of the Smile Machine.[2]
The Smile Machine as Artwork
Each Smile Machine package included the Thirty Point of Ideaism, instructions for use and a sticker. The Thirty Points of Ideaism, a summary of the ideas upon which the Smile Machine was based, were meant to be read while wearing the Smile Machine.
The Thirty Points of Ideaism
1. All ideas exist at all times.
a) These ideas do not exist however in equal force at all times.
2. Ideas, in order to thrive, require the proper situation, circumstances.
a) Ideas have enabled people to survive.
3. An idea which thrives at one time may not have any effect at another time. Conversely, an idea lying dormant for years, even centuries, may finally emerge and find expression.
4. People will zealously maintain ideas which have lost their value due to stubbornness. Conversely, people will give up ideas due to lack of support even though the idea be meaningful.
a) It is difficult to recognize value and to develop an idea in an environment which does not identify the idea as real, existent.
5. Ideas are meaningful not because they give reasons for personality but because they expand the range of perception i.e. for more ideas.
6. Some ideas coexist with reality and will survive; others are possible variations which once worked through will be discarded – not without difficulty however.
7. People have the option to change their ideas and adapt to new intellectual climates.
a) Mental adaptation can and should occur many times in one’s life, the goal being a certain relationship between reality and experience.
b) This obviously is at odds with conventional notions of personality and its inherent scale of value.
c) Many people’s greatest fear is a future in which their ideas do not exist.
8. Thinking is ultimately related to not thinking just as –
9. Functioning is ultimately related to not functioning (self-control).
10. The capacity to do work and the logical extension of an idea are not surprising.
11. Selfish behavior is due to a lack of sophistication thus we pronounce its death-knell.
a) The question is what will die with it?
12. No idea is uninteresting, yet being interesting in itself is not sufficient reason to pursue/internalize an idea.
13. It is useful to develop a certain distance between oneself and ideas and objects because then their value is revealed.
14. The emotional/social frameworks of our lives make clear thought almost impossible.
15. Ideaism is an encouragement towards the perception of the symbolic content of everyday events.
16. The world in which ideas are expressed, circulated, sought out and developed is the world we live in.
17. Our world is an idea.
18. It is almost impossible to predict the latent idea potential in a person, group of persons or object, therefore –
19. All people should be encouraged/allowed to develop because this adds to the idea “Resources reservoir” and expands on our conception of reality.
20. Selfishness and hypocrisy of a few keep the ideas of most people from being realized – or even identified as ideas in the first place.
21. NO IDEA BELONGS TO ANYONE.
a) All ideas are in a multi-dimensional matrix of interaction.
22. Not everyone can have all ideas at all times but everyone can have room for new ideas.
a) Yet only if personality is not confused with ideas – thus there is nothing to displace.
23. Music is a flexible medium which exists within a certain framework.
24. This framework is as large or small as one’s familiarity with ideas; the history of ideas.
25. Functioning is important – it allows for the expression of ideas, making room for new ideas.
26. Old ideas are new ideas.
a) Ideas are developed through time.
27. Prayer: “Thanks that my personal experience is not taken for universal law.”
28. Censorship is anti-survival.
a) Ideas and survival are synonymous – thus, not to allow an idea interferes with the complete formulation of new ideas.
29. In place of Personality: we are challenged with the difficulty of experiencing ideational contexts.
30. A single object is revealed through extension, in time, in parts – this is the world: this is music: we are revealed similarly.
Addendum: The Map of Experience
What is the Object we see unfolding before us?
Other Appearances of the Smile Machine
Turner has used the Smile Machine during different performances such as "The Secular Miracle" at the Pompidou Center in 2005[8], "How to Make a Smile Machine" in Paris in 2013.
Turner made a "commercial" for the Smile Machine in 2014Watch on YouTube .
The Smile Machine also appeared in the film " Nature Morte avec des Oranges[9]" in 2016.
The artist Gerhard Haderer used the Smile Machine without authorization in a painting[10].
The Smile Machine was the subject of an article in Brain Magazine in Paris, France[11].
References
- ^ The Baltimore Sun, January 1, 1993 Today Section, Page 1
- ^ a b c d e Shapiro, Stephanie (February 7, 1994). "Inventor of the Smile Machine bares teeth in Olympic face-off". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved April 13, 2018.
- ^ Village Voice Newspaper Nov 24, 1992
- ^ Newsweek Magazine , Article "Brace Yourself" February 1994
- ^ Life Magazine February 1994 in the Almanac Section
- ^ NPR Morning Edition Thursday, December 9, 1993
- ^ Haavik, Svein Arne (January 17, 1994) "Smile Boylen Er Min" VG Magazine, Norway
- ^ Liberation (February 14, 2005) Paris, France classified ads page 30
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4897246/
- ^ https://www.boredpanda.com/satirical-illustrations-147/?utm_source=Notification+Email&utm_medium=Notification&utm_campaign=Comment+upvote#post-comments
- ^ http://www.brain-magazine.fr/article/brainorama/44635-Idee-de-cadeau-sympa-pour-un-proche-antipathique-la-smile-machine
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