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It's not a bank robbery...

Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 1:02 am
by Lord Jim
it's "performance art"...

Yet more proof (as if any were needed) that one can be highly educated and also a complete idiot:
Former MIT Professor Charged in NYC Bank Robbery

Image

The things people (allegedly) do for art.

Joseph Gibbons, a filmmaker and former MIT art professor, has been charged with robbery after he allegedly filmed himself robbing a Capital One bank branch in New York City on December 31.[he needn't have gone to the trouble of filming; banks are more than happy to provide the camera work for this sort of artistic expression]

The New York Post reports that Gibbons, 61, presented a note to the teller at the bank’s Bowery Street branch and allegedly made off with about $1,000 in cash, all while holding a camcorder. Police arrested him on January 8.

As he awaited arraignment, Gibbons told a cellmate that he had been conducting research for a film, according to the Post. The “dazzled” cellmate told the paper: “It’s not a crime; it’s artwork.”

Gibbons is known for gaining inspiration from unconventional sources. In an interview with the art journal Big Red & Shiny, he discussed “the romantic idea of the artist getting involved in these kinds of activities as a kind of research.”

“These kinds of activities” included drug addiction and voyeurism. He told the journal:

“I just worried if I had enough problems within me that I could exploit. [seems like that was an unnecessary concern]So when I ran of my own—I started creating them—I made one or two films based on drug addiction. Before that it was voyeurism; I sort of discovered and cultivated a voyeurism in myself, so it started out being a theoretical film but it turned into a film exploring my own perversions.”

Gibbons’s MIT profile says his work is “characterized by a time-honored approach—that of the artist’s use of his own life as source material, a laboratory for self-observation and experimentation.”

After his stint at MIT ended in 2010, Gibbons began working as a video editor and consultant at Fugitive Productions,[my, how appropriate]according to his LinkedIn profile.

The Boston Herald reports that Gibbons pleaded not guilty to the charge at his arraignment Friday and was ordered held on $50,000 cash bail. He’ll be back in a New York City court for a pretrial hearing on April 14.

The Herald also reports that Gibbons is wanted in Providence for a similar robbery at a Citizens Bank in November. According to the Providence Journal, a “tall, thin white man who appeared to be in his early 50s” made off with $3,000 and told the teller “thank you, this is for the church.”
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/2015/ ... story.html

I liked this follow up comment:
I can't wait for his next movie.....He plays an inmate at Attica.

Re: It's not a bank robbery...

Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 1:14 am
by wesw
sociopath.....?

Re: It's not a bank robbery...

Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 2:19 pm
by Big RR
Taking a page from the pedophiles who download kiddie porn; "I was only doing research." Claimning it's "art" is a bit more novel, but not unprecedented.

Re: It's not a bank robbery...

Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 7:01 pm
by dgs49
To quote Dave Barry, "If I could do it, it isn't art."

Re: It's not a bank robbery...

Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 7:18 pm
by MajGenl.Meade
It's not so far off though. After all, most "art", whether purchased by governments or "performed" in galleries and theatres, is nothing short of daylight robbery.

Re: It's not a bank robbery...

Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 9:03 pm
by oldr_n_wsr
I'm waiting for him to "explore" his suicidal tendencies.

Re: It's not a bank robbery...

Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2015 6:43 pm
by Sue U
MajGenl.Meade wrote:It's not so far off though. After all, most "art", whether purchased by governments or "performed" in galleries and theatres, is nothing short of daylight robbery.
:lol: :lol: :lol: