[to do: think up weak "choppers" pun]

April 22, 2005 10:17 AM

Reclaiming the economic usefulness of the American worker as patriarch is a lot of weight for a little pizza cutter to bear. [via]
posted by Capn (21 comments total)

Those are some pretty cool looking pizza wheels.
posted by debralee at 10:27 AM on April 22, 2005

Did he get the grant for the pizza cutters or the total bullshit pseudo-intellectual tripe he prefaces the pizza cutters with?
posted by orthogonality at 10:34 AM on April 22, 2005

But how well do they cut pizza?
posted by ursus_comiter at 10:36 AM on April 22, 2005

Straddling the razor's edge that separates bullshit pseudo-intellectual tripe and PURE FUCKING GENIUS!
posted by naomi at 10:49 AM on April 22, 2005

Those are awesome pieces of work. I must take issue, however, with "The outlaw biker image is a break from the conformity that has taken over America since industrialization."

Maybe I'm just bitter from my punk rock roots, but the "outlaw biker image" seems to have constructed (or at least co-opted) as a consumer uniform at least as effectively as has any other image set. I really have a hard time seeing the local Harley store as a bulwark in the fight against industrial capitalism.

I do, however, agree completely with the artist's love for well made tools and useful things made beautiful. I love art that actually does stuff, so I don't think his whole preface is just tripe. Great post, thanks.
posted by freebird at 10:54 AM on April 22, 2005

I really have a hard time seeing the local Harley store as a bulwark in the fight against industrial capitalism.
The last time I was in a Harley Davidson store, they had Harley Davidson branded scented candles.
posted by Capn at 10:57 AM on April 22, 2005

My work investigates one of a kind objects and their role in a world based on mechanical reproduction.

I don't know what this says about me, but my first question was "where can I buy one?"
posted by pieisexactlythree at 11:04 AM on April 22, 2005

I really have a hard time seeing the local Harley store as a bulwark in the fight against industrial capitalism.

There's a Harley store around here whose radio ads I can't seem to hide from. The outlaw/renegade/spit-on-thy-grave music they use in the background? "Ride Like the Wind" by CHRISTOPHER CROSS!!!

You know those scenes in the movies where some poor schlub knocks over a whole line of bikes at a biker bar? Nowadays that schlub won't get chased 'cause the outlaw bikers are consoling each other with hugs and talking about their feelings. Pah.

The pizza cutters are cool though. Maybe he should've gotten a grant from the George Foreman Foundation. Some of them aren't exceedingly useful as pizza cutters, but if you want to go all outlaw/renegade/spit-on-thy-grave and don't have any Christopher Cross, you could really mess somebody up with these.
posted by Moondoggie at 11:16 AM on April 22, 2005

To me this project represents a frustration or disillusionment with modernism's embrace of mass production. This was a major part of the philosophy of the Bauhaus. In the words of its founder, Walter Gropius:

• most student should face the fact that their future should be involved primarily with industry and mass production rather than with individual craftsmanship

• the schools of design should, as the Bauhaus did, bring together the various arts of painting, architecture, theatre, photography, weaving, typography, etc., into a modern synthesis which disregards conventional distinctions between the "fine" and "applied" arts

• it is harder to design a first rate chair than to paint a second rate painting-and much more useful

• The Bauhaus does not pretend to be a crafts school; contact with industry is consciously sought...the old craft workshops will develop into industrial laboratories: from their experimentation will evolve standards for industrial production...
posted by pieisexactlythree at 11:18 AM on April 22, 2005

Maybe I'm just bitter from my punk rock roots, but the "outlaw biker image" seems to have constructed (or at least co-opted) as a consumer uniform at least as effectively as has any other image set. I really have a hard time seeing the local Harley store as a bulwark in the fight against industrial capitalism.

Outlaw Bikers, even, no espcially 1%er types, never saw themselves as "bulwark in the fight against industrial capitalism," I'd imagine. Hell, their raison d'etre is brand loyalty: the cult of Harley.
posted by jonmc at 11:23 AM on April 22, 2005

Agree with just about everything said here--as the son of a machinist (who finally retired from working in a factory when he was 85), I can totally appreciate the skill and design that goes into these things, but the whole "chopper ethos" is way overblown.

For me, though, the biggest issue is that I've got to question the practicality of these things. Even if they're "dishwasher-safe", they look like they'd be a bear to get clean, and even worse, they look like they'd get gunked up with toppings on any pizza more than 1/4" thick. (Can you imagine trying to clean out the gear teeth on the side of the cutting wheel on the "Phatboy"?)

After all the hoo-haw about "returning to the useful tool", it seems kind of a disappointment to make objects that are really only "useful" as fetish objects in a glass case.
posted by LairBob at 11:29 AM on April 22, 2005

...the Bauhaus did bring together the various arts of painting, architecture, theatre, photography, weaving, typography, etc., into a modern synthesis...

Which unfortunately looks like ass. Every time I read about the Bauhaus, I really dig the theory, but the execution just seems terrible, at least the architecture.

I could probably get with the perspective that an integrative approach is better than having everyone try to be an artistic John Henry, but it seems like if you're going to surrender the industrial urge, you could at least try to inject some beauty into the process. I just don't feel any kind of sublime synthesis in Bauhaus architecture.

Who are the Bauhaus's descendants? Is anyone doing cool industrial-synthesis stuff?
posted by rkent at 11:38 AM on April 22, 2005

I can totally appreciate the skill and design that goes into these things, but the whole "chopper ethos" is way overblown.

I've felt that way ever since Discovery Channel became the all-bike-building-all-the-time channel.

The upside to the Monster ______ phenomenon admittedly overplayed meme is that it does represent a new valuation of the hard work and skill of blue collar work, and ennobles those who excel at these crafts.

On preview, rkent, does this count?
posted by pieisexactlythree at 11:50 AM on April 22, 2005

On second thought, the most effective mass production / modern design delivery system would certainly be Ikea.
posted by pieisexactlythree at 11:54 AM on April 22, 2005

These are great. This reminds me of the thread about a week or so ago, the great industrial pictures accompanied by "American Consumer Culture" tripe. Why can't the work ever stand on its own? These guys could learn a lesson from Laurie Anderson who said something like "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture." Just show us your bitchin' one of a kind CNC machined andonized engine turned pizza wheels and let us figure it out.
posted by fixedgear at 12:34 PM on April 22, 2005

fixedgear, that is the nature of the art world. I remember a critic writing in the Times sunday magazine a few years ago on installation art: "just throw some objects in a room, say the word 'gender' and collect a paycheck."
posted by pieisexactlythree at 7:42 PM on April 22, 2005

also, fixedgear, Whoever it was who first said the Architecture quote, it wasn't Laurie Anderson.
posted by obloquy at 8:11 PM on April 22, 2005

Who are the Bauhaus's descendants?

Well, Peter Murphy went solo, and the others formed Love and Rockets...
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 8:12 PM on April 22, 2005

Artifice_Eternity: don't forget about Tones On Tail & Dalis Car!
posted by obloquy at 11:15 PM on April 22, 2005

rkent: the Bauhaus school has had, more than direct descendants, a larger influence on the evolution of design. Furniture and typography in particular.

The pizza cutter designs may stem from a part of the basic Bauhaus philosophy, but they certainly aren't Bauhaus descendants.

They are freaking awesome, and I want them. I say this as a student of metalsmithing and as a part-time pizza professional. I would endorse them on television.

(To continue the Bauhaus bit: all kinds of artists are still working around the ideas of craft-vs-industry, or craft-in-industry. Some of the folks at my school are particularly involved in designing production-scale slipcast ceramics, which are in the process of evolving from tableware to fetish objects. Kohler, the company that may very well have made your toilet, has a neat artist's residency program built around this.)
posted by medialyte at 11:26 PM on April 22, 2005

Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that I've had this Park Bicycle Tool Pizza Cutter for years. It's a highwheel bike, get it? I'm sure it's a little less expensive than the ones we're discussing.


posted by fixedgear at 3:00 AM on April 23, 2005