[TOR] Thórarinn Ingi Jónsson, goodbye
Sep. 15th, 2008 11:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldThe story of art student Thórarinn Ingi Jónsson's placing a fake bomb in the Royal Ontario Museum last November on the night of an AIDS fundraiser, causing panic and an evacuation of the building, is over.
One poster in the![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
toronto community claimed that this punishment represented a diminished tolerance for artistic creativity. A commenter
Art student Thorarinn Ingi Jonsson has been given a conditional discharge and placed on probation for planting an object resembling a bomb outside the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.
Jonsson, an Icelandic citizen who was attending the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD), placed the object on Nov. 28, 2007 outside the building in downtown Toronto.This is a bird's-eye view of the Royal Ontario Museum in downtown Toronto. The museum had to be evacuated Nov. 28, 2007 after officials discovered a fake bomb outside the building.
Jonsson said he wanted people to think about where art is placed and how that changes their view of it. He described it as a conceptual art piece, using plastic, wood and glass and a video.
Instead, it triggered the evacuation of the building and caused the cancellation of a major fundraiser for the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research scheduled for that evening.
In his decision yesterday, Judge William Bassel declared it "a really stupid act, even for a young person," according to the Globe and Mail newspaper.
One poster in the
toronto community claimed that this punishment represented a diminished tolerance for artistic creativity. A commenter [Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<a http://www.stanford.edu/dept/hps/baudrillard/baudrillard_simulacra.html">') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.]
The story of art student <a href="http://rfmcdpei.livejournal.com/1400297.html">Thórarinn Ingi Jónsson</a>'s placing a fake bomb in the Royal Ontario Museum last November on the night of an AIDS fundraiser, causing panic and an evacuation of the building, is over.
<blockquote><i>Art student Thorarinn Ingi Jonsson has been given a conditional discharge and placed on probation for planting an object resembling a bomb outside the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.
Jonsson, an Icelandic citizen who was attending the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD), placed the object on Nov. 28, 2007 outside the building in downtown Toronto.This is a bird's-eye view of the Royal Ontario Museum in downtown Toronto. The museum had to be evacuated Nov. 28, 2007 after officials discovered a fake bomb outside the building.
Jonsson said he wanted people to think about where art is placed and how that changes their view of it. He described it as a conceptual art piece, using plastic, wood and glass and a video.
Instead, it triggered the evacuation of the building and caused the cancellation of a major fundraiser for the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research scheduled for that evening.
In his decision yesterday, Judge William Bassel declared it "a really stupid act, even for a young person," according to the Globe and Mail newspaper.</i></blockquote>
<a href="http://community.livejournal.com/toronto/7193633.html">One poster</a> in the <user site="livejournal.com" user="toronto"> community claimed that this punishment represented a diminished tolerance for artistic creativity. A commenter <a http://www.stanford.edu/dept/hps/baudrillard/baudrillard_simulacra.html"="http://www.stanford.edu/dept/hps/baudrillard/baudrillard_simulacra.html"">pointed out</a> an insight by Baudrillard, that it doesn't matter if you do an entirely fake bank robbery, "you won't succeed: the web of artificial signs will be inextricably mixed up with real elements (a police officer will really shoot on sight; a bank customer will faint and die of a heart attack; they will really turn the phoney ransom over to you). In brief, you will unwittingly find yourself immediately in the real, one of whose functions is precisely to devour every attempt at simulation, to reduce everything to some reality ..."</a>
<i>The Globe and Mail</i> <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080913.BOMB13/TPStory/National">reports</a> that "the judge felt a criminal conviction - which could seriously hinder Mr. Jonsson from travelling away from Iceland, a tiny country of 320,000 - was not necessary." Iceland is <a href="http://www.airport.is/english/menu/before_departure/passport_control/">a member</a> of the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Agreement">Schengen zone and <a href="http://cpcfpu.org.ua/en/projects/borders/papers/shengen/document_1">as this page points out</a>, the only people convicted of serious crimees prohibited from travelling about the Schengen zone are aliens, not citizens. Europe's a big continent--let him do his shtick in Riga or Madrid or Paris.</a>. (I'm sure that given Sarkozy's <a href="http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/17205">record with terrorists</a> that adventures in that last city would proceed interestingly.)
<blockquote><i>Art student Thorarinn Ingi Jonsson has been given a conditional discharge and placed on probation for planting an object resembling a bomb outside the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.
Jonsson, an Icelandic citizen who was attending the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD), placed the object on Nov. 28, 2007 outside the building in downtown Toronto.This is a bird's-eye view of the Royal Ontario Museum in downtown Toronto. The museum had to be evacuated Nov. 28, 2007 after officials discovered a fake bomb outside the building.
Jonsson said he wanted people to think about where art is placed and how that changes their view of it. He described it as a conceptual art piece, using plastic, wood and glass and a video.
Instead, it triggered the evacuation of the building and caused the cancellation of a major fundraiser for the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research scheduled for that evening.
In his decision yesterday, Judge William Bassel declared it "a really stupid act, even for a young person," according to the Globe and Mail newspaper.</i></blockquote>
<a href="http://community.livejournal.com/toronto/7193633.html">One poster</a> in the <user site="livejournal.com" user="toronto"> community claimed that this punishment represented a diminished tolerance for artistic creativity. A commenter <a http://www.stanford.edu/dept/hps/baudrillard/baudrillard_simulacra.html"="http://www.stanford.edu/dept/hps/baudrillard/baudrillard_simulacra.html"">pointed out</a> an insight by Baudrillard, that it doesn't matter if you do an entirely fake bank robbery, "you won't succeed: the web of artificial signs will be inextricably mixed up with real elements (a police officer will really shoot on sight; a bank customer will faint and die of a heart attack; they will really turn the phoney ransom over to you). In brief, you will unwittingly find yourself immediately in the real, one of whose functions is precisely to devour every attempt at simulation, to reduce everything to some reality ..."</a>
<i>The Globe and Mail</i> <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080913.BOMB13/TPStory/National">reports</a> that "the judge felt a criminal conviction - which could seriously hinder Mr. Jonsson from travelling away from Iceland, a tiny country of 320,000 - was not necessary." Iceland is <a href="http://www.airport.is/english/menu/before_departure/passport_control/">a member</a> of the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Agreement">Schengen zone and <a href="http://cpcfpu.org.ua/en/projects/borders/papers/shengen/document_1">as this page points out</a>, the only people convicted of serious crimees prohibited from travelling about the Schengen zone are aliens, not citizens. Europe's a big continent--let him do his shtick in Riga or Madrid or Paris.</a>. (I'm sure that given Sarkozy's <a href="http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/17205">record with terrorists</a> that adventures in that last city would proceed interestingly.)
