Monday 14 February 2011

Goodbye, Man in Motion

the dreadful Man in Motion sculpture
You know, my professional and personal lives have been so completely dismal over the past few weeks that I haven't had the energy to contribute anything to the Scottish Planning scene. I won't go into all of that for now as I'm determined to be positive. But just when I was feeling so down yesterday, I read the fantastic news that cliché artist Andy Scott's awful Man in Motion installation had been largely destroyed in a car accident. Isn't that great? By the way, I was very remiss in not crediting Delphwynd with taking the great wee photie on the right above - you can see more of his work here and thanks for letting me use it!

Now first of all, I hope no one was hurt in this incident. Police are still investigating so they haven't come out and said openly what everyone knows is the truth - that this was a deliberate piece of sabotage aimed at undermining the regeneration of Tullibody in Clakmannan- not the City of Dundee as I wrote earlier ( you see how stressed I am at the moment). I await confirmation of this with great interest and amusement. Of course it's ironic that Man in Motion should have been felled by a car - it just shows you that Clackmannan need to address the road safety agenda as well as all the other rubbish they spend money on.

I'll try to keep this brief because I'm still laughing. but I sincerely hope that this intervention was carried out deliberately by some nice wee middle class lady rather than by some drunken ned high on Buckfast in a stolen Vauxhall Nova. It's about time that good sensible people fought back at this patronising and ridiculous policy of providing Andy Scott with work whenever an area has been identified as a slum needing a good kick up the backside. See that rubbish Arria statue at Cumbernauld - it will be next. I hope it will be flattened by a thoughtful HGV driver.
the hideous Arria installation at Cumbernauld
The only cloud in this story is the prospect of Andy being brought in and paid a lot of money to repair the damage to his creation. Let sleeping sculptures lie I say. Down with public art!

And apologies to everyone for getting my geography so wrong - I am an idiot!

20 comments:

Delphwynd said...

You're pretty well off on your geography here; this sculpture is situated on the outskirts of Tullibody in Clackmannanshire and not in Dundee.

You're also not up to speed on your understanding of copyright law; the image on the right is licensed by me under a CC license -

Original Flickr Image

The version you seem to be using here is one taken from the BBC News website in which they attribute the photograph correctly to me.

I'm happy for you to use my image correctly under the terms of Creative Commons license (can't say anything about the image you've used here though), by linking back and attributing the image. Otherwise I'd respectfully ask you to remove it.

Frank said...

Crikey delphwind have a chill pill
Dave, missed you. Hope to see more FUN posts soon (take note of the concept delphwind).
It should be in Dundee but what matters is miserable man humour, which I love

I'm meeting with Keppies soon maybe, I'll say hi!

Unknown said...

ALways thought Town Planners were a law unto themselves....now it's been confirmed by te evidence before us! (i.e. Thinking destroying public art is funny, not knowing the difference between Dundee and Tullibody and ignoring copyright).

Not a blog I'll be coming back to thanks..

Anonymous said...

I see what Frank did there with the Delphwind. Hilarious. Not. Anyway, never mind the town planners being a law unto themselves, it's the 'socialist' stealing somebody else's work. Because that's what socialists are supposed to do isn't it? Naw.

Andy said...

I take it this blog is meant to be satiricle in its nature. and well done on that.I aplaud everyman who has the ability and he articulation skills to stick it to "the man" and show up the inadequecies of our social system.
But its just Damn impolite to steal another mans work and pass it of as your own while doing this.
A little bit of leg work on your part would also have let you known that the town where this art was destroyed is at least 50 miles away from dundee and is in a whole different COUNTY. If you were to acknowledge the true copyright holder of the images you have used you might be able to regain some respect here but until then it seems your integrity is as poor as your navigation skills (of google maps and the site you stole the images from. I make no apologies for this complaint and i ask how you would feel if I were to come into your home and steal a painting or a craft work that you created then displayed it publicly and tokk the credit it for it...now spit out your dummy and throw you toys out the pram, grow some balls and do the right thing.

Anonymous said...

Town planner, OK - just try to get at grip on the fact that Dundee is not at all the same place as Tullibody?

will said...

I think you need to:
a) realise facts are quite important
b) realise copyright is quite important
c) change your writing style from that of a 12 year old

Frank said...

Oh my!
Pedant town. I think it would be different if dave was making money out if this. But as it's just rubbish he can't be.

Graeme said...

Hi i wish people would look for the facts
I can confirm the car involved was mine and it was stolen by a drink driver so i doubt any sabotage as you put it.
I am the victim of this also but i am the one who has been left out of pocket and carless with no one willing to help so yes it is very annoying people saying it was an accident no sorry it wasnt an accident is dropping a jar of coffe in tescos not stealing a car and crashing it what you have to think is what would have happened if this fool had hit a person and not a meanless statue

Graeme said...

Hi Dave

I have read your article regarding the car which smashed into the man in motion i want to clarify the situation the car was a red citroen xsara 2001 model and it had been stolen by the man who destroyed the statue.

The car was/is my car and it was stolen 2 hours prior to the crash the driver was a 21 yold male and he was in court on several seperate offences regarding the theft of the car this has completly deismissed and not reported.

The most annoyingf thing is i am receiveing no help from anyone and in fact i feel i am treated like the criminal.

What has the world come to please could you update your article to represent the truth.

also the crash is no where near dundee

Delphwynd said...

My, this is FUN Fwank (sorry, cant' spell either). Thanks to your advice, I have now seen the light. You can go back to being Mr Thompson's mighty protector and sycophantic lap-dog now.

Parp-Parp.

Graeme - really sorry to hear this. I hope it's all sorted out soon for you

Delphwynd said...

Dave, thanks for updating your article and adding the link. Much appreciated.

Best of luck with everything.

Frank said...

I have to be honest and say I have been credited with an attempt at humour which was a lazy mistake so I'm sorry too.
I'm not daves lapdog anymore than you are. I do find his blog funny though. Have you read more than the post with your photo? I hope so because while I don't just like this kind of humour it is a great distraction from serious life to read the irregular and irreverant posts.
I do understand intellectual property rights but also support the free use of images where no profit is involved. ( my wife is an artist)
So while I support your right to have your work acknowledged I do feel there is some overzealousness here.
I've never met dave and have no real desire too but do think that as I find his posts fairly harmless and entertaining have the urge to encourage him as I now also have the urge to encourage you in bringing pleasure to people through your work. More power to your elbow.
As for planners? I work with them everyday and the all take themselves far to seriously, so it's nice to read the ramblings of one who can laugh at his own profession.

As for the victim here, I'm sure the bloke who made the statue is mightily pissed off but sympathy to the car owner who has been well and truly stuffed. Maybe the point is that the money for the statue should have been invested in tackling social issues rather than egos?

Delphwynd said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Delphwynd said...

At least you got credited Frank.

No, not overzealousness, it's the law.

But, for me at least, it's more about mutual respect than that. I have over 1800 pictures on Flickr that are all available under an 'Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Creative Commons license which means they can be used in blogs such as this, as long as the terms of the license are followed. That's all I asked. I wasn't being precious or pedantic about my work.

I hope that any time your wife's work is published on any of the billions of web pages out here or elsewhere that she is credited (If she signs all her artwork anyway that helps, not as easy or practical to do with a photo). If it wasn't I'm sure you would make every effort to ensure it was.

I work with lots of young people who believe that because 'it's on the internet, it must be free for me to take', and that's wrong. This isn't the forum to go into all that but it's wrong and a little education will help to ensure that people who produce any form of creative work (writers, artists, musicians, film-makers, etc) will continue to make the effort to do so. Even Andy Scott.

And yes, I have had a look through some of the other entries on here as well as some of the other comments posted by others and it would seem a lot of the attempts at humour are lost on others too. There are also a huge number of images pilfered from other uncredited sources which is against the terms and conditions of this site as well as a breach of copyright. But that's not for me to pick up on, I'm sure as this blog's reputation grows others will contact the writer also.

Anyway, thanks for the apology, I know how easily comments typed on a web page can be easily misconstrued and their original intention missed completely.

Dave Thompson said...

Dear Jon - yes you are right - I got it all wrong. Please come back

Dave T

Dave Thompson said...

Dear Andy

You are right - I've corrected my error and apologised to Dephwynd.

Best regards

Dave T

Dave Thompson said...

Dear Will

Yes I certainly made a mess of this and I apologise - I've sorted out the copyright and the geography. As for being 12 years old .....I wish I was.

All the best

Dave T

Wellwisher said...

You really screwed up this time, Dave. How could you think that Man in Traction was in Dundee? Desperate Dan is in Dundee and - unlike Andy Scott's piece of sculpted tin foil - it's one strong lump of metal. Believe me, I know. In the mid 1990s I drove into the newly pedestrianised city centre and had a go at taking out Dan. All that happened was that I wrote off a much loved Morris Ital, bought new by my late father and passed on to me. Plus 9 points on my licence, a £500 fine and a suspended sentence.If you look at the calf muscle on Dan's right leg you can just make out some faint marks, the only reminder of my principled guerilla action.

Dave Thompson said...

Dear Wellwisher

Thanks for this great story. Yes I did mess up really badly on Monday with that post. The Morris Ital was a great car wasn't it? It must have been a real heartbreak to write it off with all the sentimental value attached to it. I think you should have received some sort of dispensation from the authorities for your principled intervention.

Have a great weekend.

Dave T