life goes on
good weekend. lazy, in a good way. my previous funk seems to have passed, as they are wont to do. i wish it was possible to make that happen faster, but alas. nothing is fundamentally different, and i think there looms stressful living situations next month, but im going to try to keep my chin up anyway and keep one hand on the pile of accomplishments and one eye one the prize, while the rest takes care of now. i may have to grow some extra appendages.
today bob and mike and i discussed the coming revolution. my theory is that we will not create it, it will happen to us. it will not be pretty, but it will be inevitable. maybe not in our lifetimes, but probably within our [hypothetical] childrens. mike hopes to be in the ground when the shit goes down, but i dont know about that. bob thinks it will be an agrarian revolution, but i think she knows too many people with university degrees.
this all came up because i am realising that i am an artistic luddite. i am increasingly irritated by the cult of new media art. its not that i havent or wont make videos and the like. it is the bullshit ideology that one can use technology to question technology and the mcluhan circle-jerk of toronto that gets under my skin. i never go to interaccess. ignoring for a moment the inherent silliness of looking at art schools as an indicator of anything real in art, most positions advertised are for 'new media' or some variation. im not bemoaning the loss of some stodgy academic drawing and painting tradition, but it becomes somewhat alarming that everyone so happily jumps on the conceptual/video bandwagon, and that bad-drawing is the new black. just because we are artists doesnt mean that our consumption of resources chasing after the new cool technology is somehow more forgivable than joe and his video ipod and mytube account. i am highly skeptical of the internet and all that too. these things get sung as the new freedom of expression, communication, information, subversion, but they arent. a hammer can smash the state or it can smash your head in. build a house or break it. the tool is not its use.
i was dragged kicking and screaming into my previous video forays because it was the right tool for the job. i have other half-formed video and sound plans. some video totally rocks my socks. but media are not an end in themselves, and my current interest in drawing is at least somewhat a product of a desire for a more sensory connection with artistic media, and for simple materials.
maybe im just a dinosaur. its entirely possible. success as an artist within a society depends upon simultaneously pushing the boundaries of that society without ever actually collapsing them. to collapse them is to eliminate the structure that defines success, whereas to push at the edges more clearly defines and thus reinforces their existence and legitimacy. so success and social recognition are the reward for s/he who enables the perpetuation of the structure by being just edgy enough but not too far. if i am entirely uninterested in being a part of the things i abhor about capitalism and art markets and technology for its own sake, i exist too far outside of that framework and i will probably not succeed in within it. i will be marginal and forgotten. which sucks cause like most self-proclaimed artists with art degrees and all the bullshit, i want to be important and remembered. im just not willing to pay the cost, if it be that.
caveat: a lot of this is aimed at toronto art in particular. the rest of the world and the current state of artistic production as a whole is probably not as dire. id like to think that, anyway. unfortunately this is what i am exposed to most regularly until i either leave, or things improve. also, i am not trying to justify my own mediocrity (much), as i dont honestly believe i am any sort of genius in the best of worlds. its just a thing that makes it harder to keep going sometimes.
today bob and mike and i discussed the coming revolution. my theory is that we will not create it, it will happen to us. it will not be pretty, but it will be inevitable. maybe not in our lifetimes, but probably within our [hypothetical] childrens. mike hopes to be in the ground when the shit goes down, but i dont know about that. bob thinks it will be an agrarian revolution, but i think she knows too many people with university degrees.
this all came up because i am realising that i am an artistic luddite. i am increasingly irritated by the cult of new media art. its not that i havent or wont make videos and the like. it is the bullshit ideology that one can use technology to question technology and the mcluhan circle-jerk of toronto that gets under my skin. i never go to interaccess. ignoring for a moment the inherent silliness of looking at art schools as an indicator of anything real in art, most positions advertised are for 'new media' or some variation. im not bemoaning the loss of some stodgy academic drawing and painting tradition, but it becomes somewhat alarming that everyone so happily jumps on the conceptual/video bandwagon, and that bad-drawing is the new black. just because we are artists doesnt mean that our consumption of resources chasing after the new cool technology is somehow more forgivable than joe and his video ipod and mytube account. i am highly skeptical of the internet and all that too. these things get sung as the new freedom of expression, communication, information, subversion, but they arent. a hammer can smash the state or it can smash your head in. build a house or break it. the tool is not its use.
i was dragged kicking and screaming into my previous video forays because it was the right tool for the job. i have other half-formed video and sound plans. some video totally rocks my socks. but media are not an end in themselves, and my current interest in drawing is at least somewhat a product of a desire for a more sensory connection with artistic media, and for simple materials.
maybe im just a dinosaur. its entirely possible. success as an artist within a society depends upon simultaneously pushing the boundaries of that society without ever actually collapsing them. to collapse them is to eliminate the structure that defines success, whereas to push at the edges more clearly defines and thus reinforces their existence and legitimacy. so success and social recognition are the reward for s/he who enables the perpetuation of the structure by being just edgy enough but not too far. if i am entirely uninterested in being a part of the things i abhor about capitalism and art markets and technology for its own sake, i exist too far outside of that framework and i will probably not succeed in within it. i will be marginal and forgotten. which sucks cause like most self-proclaimed artists with art degrees and all the bullshit, i want to be important and remembered. im just not willing to pay the cost, if it be that.
caveat: a lot of this is aimed at toronto art in particular. the rest of the world and the current state of artistic production as a whole is probably not as dire. id like to think that, anyway. unfortunately this is what i am exposed to most regularly until i either leave, or things improve. also, i am not trying to justify my own mediocrity (much), as i dont honestly believe i am any sort of genius in the best of worlds. its just a thing that makes it harder to keep going sometimes.