Snowy Fall

If you go far enough south, you can experience summer all over again.

This, for me, is not possible. However, I have a very good idea with an inverted cone and a weird sort of taper. So, first you start with the room idea and then you put a cone in it. This is point down. However, instead of starting the cone off pointing toward one corner or another, go ahead and place it smack in the middle of the room. However, the point veers off to the left right, or straight towards you, as though it means to jab/stab. The illusion might be accomplished by curves, but if it's a series of disjoint planes, that is fine as well. The idea is not something Pumpkin Jack, but rather Crocodile Alien Stronghold a la Jess.

So, GM is considering bankruptcy. I've also heard that GM is not going to consider bankruptcy. We have many things in place which were founded in a time of little restraint, and as always, a time which may have ignored sizable quantities in the future. Frankly, the future is sort of insignificant when it comes to status quo. Everyone is going to be better off anyway, so why should they have the same freedoms as the present generation.

Gary Becker types on this topic, here. I can't help but think that several of the companies that 'started it all,' with respect to automobile manufacture naturally should diminish in this time of sincere concern over the likely oil shortage of the future. Well, maybe we're more concerned about feeding money into the Middle East.

I was wondering how the characters might show up. This might be important in coming months, because there are at least three or four inevitable projects. Claude and Sans Eyes, adventures of the amazing Tobyman, A.lso H.igh S.chool, Life as an art student, and well, one hopes one day, dephcon.

*Hey, am I going to get a chance to talk on the blog?

Yeah, I think so, Toby.

*Yeah!!!!!! that's wonderful because I'm an anthropomorphic megasupersayanzord ninja spider-profes. .. .Ow!

I like the idea of imperatives from a seemingly impartial spokesperson. It would be impressive if one could achieve a monotone that over time builds up in your head, the way a clock seems to click much louder when you're in a room alone, trying to fall asleep, or the way a fluorescent lamp will begin to buzz as you sit under it practicing things. In this way, you achieve a varied effect over time-space because as people join in, they are less affected than those who came earlier, maybe even startled over slight tension in the space. This will couple with their own experience of the voice and may eventually cause an uncomfortable environment. It would also help if the speaker made it clear that "these are the rules," and that to be in the room/space, one must participate as all the others are doing. Even better would be some objective in participating. Something unimportant until you reach the room or step inside. Maybe the viewing of objects in the room, but you may only view them at certain times because of curtains, lights which turn off, or sliding shutters on windows.

Welcome to SoCa!

Response to "Issues with dichotomies. . ."

J.S. Bach is the most important composer of the Baroque era and possibly the most influential musical artist in history. He was not the star Handel was. He was not nearly as prolific as Telemann. He was considered the best organist around during his lifetime. His work was neither widely distributed nor highly regarded even in the years following his death. Without Felix Mendelssohn, the western world would have come to his work possibly much later.

"Thought is colored. Color is everything to thought. Thought is black, white and gray."

If we begin to look at things without delimiters,
languagewenoticeismorethanwordsandideasitisspacesand
pausesandwiththosepausescomesconsiderationratherthan
desperationforcefulnessneedyactionweneedthatpausethat space to make decisions to think discriminately, to give ideas their due time. We need the pauses and the punctuation and all of language for a society to function. Considering a society's needs takes deliberate discourse. Conversely, without a desire to form a multi-individual coalition, without a desire to develop social constructs, there would be no need to give spaces and punctuation to cries, shouts, advances and demonstrations. Just as Walker stated in a chat, "When two people use language, they are assuming a moralethic structure," I note that language and its pauses and spaces assumes a semblance of society, while society assumes that pauses and spaces be used in working with words and meaning. Society and language develop with the progress of time, but more importantly, the increased desire to develop order, to work together, however that unfolds.

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"How to REALLY Experience Sculpture" Tips from DeGordora Sculpture Park
1) Take notice of how others first respond when they look at this sculpture-whispers, gesutres, "sick" faces
2) Walk around the sculpture and look at all of its physical aspects-is it on the ground, ceiling, wall, is it tall, skinny, round, is it annoying, does it remind you of a penis
3) Look at the materials (particle board, car parts, milk cartons, crap from the artist's apartment, etc) the artist had to throw out and see how much junk they could stick together
4) Consider that this ubiquitous sculpture could be in any environment-here, there, anywhere!
5) Try to determine what excuse the artist gave for making the object-the title may or may not give you a clue
6) If others liked it and it's not too big, remember to bring it up in conversation at drinks, or recommend the piece to friends later if you are alone-now, move on from the sculpture before things get awkward

Happy Halloween!

Issues with dichotomies, Recent Readings, the lineage of Duchamp, and "How to Experience Sculpture"

I reject:

nature-----------------culture

but accept

               nature sub 1

                    ^

nature sub 2-----------------culture

9/14 Machiavelli

Agothocles of Sicilian was a son of a potter who worked his way up in the military.  He held a meeting with the senators and rich citizens to, seemingly, talk about the ongoing war.  Instead, his troops came in and killed everyone.  Oliverotto did something similar, but then he laid siege on the chief officers until they submitted. (He's talking about the different ways in which rulers rise to power.  Wealth, Family, and "Nefarious Acts" such as these two mentioned).

dictate, dictatorship, dictation, dictionary, diction, dict

Rondeau on Jasper Johns ("Jasper Johns: Gray")

Nauman on Johns: "I loved deKooning's work but Johns was the first artist to put some intellectual distance between himself and the physical act of making a painting." pg 33

Robert Morris: "Thought is not colored.  Color adds nothing to thought.  Thought is black, white and gray." pg33

Gray Matter

I am not positive I agree with Robert Morris' statement, but then again it makes sense that this came from him after you look at his work (above).  Rather, Morris just seems to be wary of color acting too much as some sort of sensationalist trigger.  

Likewise, Johns uses gray as taking a step away from a symbol (see the flag above).  He also did this in color, doing one flag on top of another, as a way to repeat an image, to essentially undermine the meaning of the image and image itself, as writers John Berger and Walter Benjamin both address.

There are "families of artists," a lineage of them or something close to it.  One of the most pertinent of these, I believe is one including Jasper Johns.  As I've said on this blog before (I think), Duchamp was doing his now famous work in the 19teens but no one was really paying attention.  It wasn't until after Abstract Expressionism had basically sold out to all ungodly hell or died out, that anyone knew of Duchamp besides a small minority.  He "quit" being an artist in an attempt to becoming a chess champion (though it appears he did indeed work, at the very least he DID work on a single piece over a time period of about 20 years).  This anyone that knew of Duchamp was Jasper Johns who was working in the 50s and 60s.  It really was because of Johns that Duchamp has whatever fame or credit he has today.  Interestingly enough, Johns (also Rauschenberg) was trying to wrestle with ideology (for lack of a better word that I can think of right now) of Abstract Expressionism.  Bruce Nauman was working during the same time as Johns, but Nauman (who admits barely anything-like influences in his work-Duchamp and Johns also talk about their work in vague terms, generally to designate a 'meaning' to a piece) admitted to Johns being an artist of interest.

"How to Experience Sculpture" Tips from DeCordora Sculpture Park

1) Take notice of how you first respond when you look at this sculpture-thoughts, feelings, and associations

2) Walk around the sculpture and look at all of its physical aspects-line, shape, form, color, texture, space, etc

3) Look at the materials (wood, metal, plastic, found objects, etc) the artist chose and see how they are skillfully put together

4) Consider the relationship this unique sculpture has with its environment-the immediate surroundings, the Park, and you the visitor

5) Try to determine the subject matter of the subject matter of the sculpture-the title may or may not give you a clue

6) Reflect on all of the things you have just experienced regarding the sculpture-now, formulate your own interpretation.

Reading Rousseau

Discourse on the origin of inequality by Rousseau (pg 46)

talking about "the savage man"

"The only evils he fears are pain and hunger.  I say pain and not death because an animal will never know what it is to die; and knowledge of death and its terrors is one of the first acquisitions that man has made in withdrawing from the animal condition."  Death then, according to Rousseau, is a sign of humanness, of society.  This reminds me of a few lines from a Bruce Nauman video, "Good Boy, Bad Boy."  The lines of importance are: "I don't want to die.  You don't to die.  We don't want to die.  THIS IS FEAR OF DEATH!"  

At what point did the creation of language become necessary, Rousseau asks.  He does ignore, however, the "evolution" (for lack of a better word) from communication (gestures, cries) to language?  This is odd because language evolves and always is so there is no "point at which..."

He sees also a conundrum: "for if men needed speech in order to learn to think, they had still a greater need for knowing how to think in order to discover the art of speaking" pg 49

and "which was the more necessary: an already formed society for the invention of languages, or an already invented language for the establishment of society" pg 51.  Unfortunately, I doubt this is a "which came first?  The chicken or the egg?" scenario.  Again, communication and society developed together most likely.  

--------

The statement "That is what he means, but that isn't what he's saying!"  But then, how do I know what he means if he does not mean what he says?

New Words

Thoughts in a text box

Think Outside the Box!

Think Inside the Box!

Think Without the Box--Who needs a box to think?

Think Beside the Box

Think On Top of the Box!

Talk from your soapbox

Thought in a Box (Schroedinger's cat-->Robert Morris' "Box with Sound of its own Making")

Boxes for Thinking

Socks for Drinking

Boxes: Box set, analog TV set, cardboard box, rooms, houses, brains, minds

The Thinker (on the shitter, shit for brains) vs Atlas

Looking thoughtful, looking bored. Apprx same position.

THESE COLORS DON'T RUN

DO THESE COLORS RUN?

RUN THESE COLORS!

Read-->red, dear

White--we hit, withe, with E

Blue--glue, cue, clue

"Aesthetics is something you can't recreate/reproduce in under 30 Minutes," thus aesthetics CAN be PROduced or CREated with in or over 30 minutes, and aesthetics CAN be REcreated or REproduced OVER 30 minutes.  This is to also then acknowledge that aesthetics CAN be reproduced/recreated, which then also necessitates that aesthetics is NOT a byproduct of originality or creativity.  Mass production can therefore be aesthetic.

Feed Me, Fuck me

DUCK DUCK DUCK GOOSE

JACK SACK MCQUACK HONK

"rearrange your face" -Devo

Avocado Land

by Thomas

Damien Hirst has another auction coming up September 15 and 16 in London. This time he is working directly with Sotheby's auction house rather than through his usual dealer, Jay Jopling, and his long term gallery, the Gagosian. Cheyenne Westphal, chairman of contemporary art for Sotheby’s Europe, says Mr Hirst will "often break the boundaries of how things can be done. This show will open up all kinds of questions. Are other artists going to take notice? I would think so.” He is expected to raise over 65 million pounds, benefiting charities of his choice.

Tight, together. Yay, auctions. As Damien Hirst put it, this is a “very democratic way to sell art." Just wonderful. Most of his pieces are in formaldehyde. He likes this medium. One of his pieces called "Bill and Shark," is based on a picture of Bill Gates with one of his shark pieces. It will benefit the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.


I realize that I have a little trouble rejecting Hollywood movies. However, I am seeing the trouble and the limitations of some genres, and in ways, Hollywood itself. The golden section is an excellent dramatic tool in many art forms, especially in something that takes hours to experience, as does a feature-length film. I enjoyed the cartoons you sent me, but I guess I get a little caught up in the fact that everyone is broad shouldered and very muscular. It looks funky when every grown man looks like he weighs between 200 and 330 pounds and can bench about 400. But I get what you are saying about the characterization of Joker. Why stop at Jack and Heath? The most recent film gets so caught up in the battle for Gotham's soul, that I lose track of it in the recapitulation and denouement.

I still want to shoot the scene with the dimly lit grocery store. I still want the kid with the tighter clothing and the potato chips to look innocent.

I have pieces in my mind that are not supposed to fit together. Maybe things shouldn't fit together so well as they do. Maybe things should make you uneasy without asking questions, without pressuring you to make a choice, to take a side. Maybe we reach a little more interesting note by getting rid of the choice, by taking away the options.

Maybe D.H. stops with the animals in formaldehyde stuff. Maybe he doesn't, and continues to push his boundaries about as far as I have been from Athens. Maybe he doesn't care that he's aggravating me.

I listened to a guy play clarinet the other day. He was really good. He's really talented for anyone, especially someone his age. Wow. Then I started noticing, that hey, there wasn't much to his playing. Yeah, he messed a few notes (though, his mess-ups sounded really nice for most player's on passages), but I don't think it was because he was taking chances on stuff. That's fine, though. You don't need to take chances.

Honestly, Damien Hirst is probably contributing economically to his world the most he possibly can. But is that the only responsibility of an artist? Is he challenging his audience. Forget about the status quo, forget about picking sides or offering options. Is he communicating something? Does it matter if an artist communicates?