Credit: Chicago 2016
The “Sight Gag” is our weekly nod to the ironic and carnivalesque in a vibrant democratic public culture. We typically will not comment beyond offering an identifying label, leaving the images to “speak” for themselves as much as possible. Of course, we invite you to comment … and to send us images that you think capture the carnival of contemporary democratic public culture.
This image shows the city of Chicago as the host city for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games which unfortunately ended up not being chosen. I find it a little intriguing that Rio de Janeiro, Brazil not being a developed country, met the requirements that Tokyo, Madrid, and Chicago were not able to meet in order to host these games. Rio de Janeiro is a city with high crime rates, poverty, deteriorated social conditions, and with a bit of disorganization. This project was supported by President Barak Obama who ended up calling the president not Brazil to congratulate him. Hopefully these games will help Brazil improve its economy and attract millions of tourists and visitors to these games, which I look forward to see. I am excited about it because it will be the first Olympic Games ever to take place in South America.
This image looks to me like it represents popular culture in an era of postmodernism. It is obviously characterized by high technology and modernity since it does look like a first world country; in addition, it looks a bit futuristic to me since it looks like it was created by computer generation.