Week 3.5 - Mashups (Thing #6)

Remember those vintage chi-chi-chi-Chia commercials from TV? Where you sprinkle the seeds onto a terra cotta figure, simply water, and wait for the green sprouts to grow? Well, while fooling around with Flickr's Colr Pickr I discovered a site where I can grow my own Chia Pet online! There are several photos of bald men, animals, landscapes, and more where you can use a paint function to sprinkle seeds wherever you wish onto the photo with a click of your mouse button... then wait a second or two and your seeds will germinate into bright green curly sprouts just like the real Chia Pet! At the site there's a link to submit your own photos to grow virtual Chia sprouts wherever you want. I didn't see any way to save your virtual Chia pet, but if you have a paint program you could probably do this to your own photos at home.

I spent a minute planting seeds in a mohawk and sat with hypnotic fascination watching the white spikes of hair transform into flourescent green wigglies. It made me wonder if its possible to burn out your brain cells with this kind of activity... I mean, think of the possibilities in regards to the so-called "war on drugs" and the economic ramifications of illegal drug smuggling and manufacturing. Who needs to indulge in expensive, actual controlled substances when you can trance out for free with virtual Chia Pets?! I think this mashup stuff has possibilities for changing the world as we know it and saving society from the tribulations of alcohol and drug abuse.

I have to admit though... I kinda wonder about the people who have time to create these wacky sites... are these student projects or are these lottery winners who have the luxury of time and means to afford to do whatever they want? Do grown ups have actual day jobs where they can sit around thinking up this kind of stuff? Is this a subversive tactic of the DEA (does the DEA even exist anymore?) to counterattack the hippie drug culture? Are these mashup hackers really employees of the pentagon, hired to entrench the masses and divert from the drug trade? Are there rows of cubicles in some underground Area 51 style compound with military hackers efficiently pecking away at their keyboards to reprogram society away from toxic substance addictions and toward these supposedly safe but mind numbing virtual sites? For that matter, what hidden messages are programmed into the Chia sprouts? Am I merely watching harmless green fuzz grow on the screen or are subliminal messages to drink more milk, consume more useless stuff, use my credit cards, or... heaven forbid, eat more vegetables, actually being programmed into my brain? Ack!