I'm not sure which version of the Benjamin essay you have read, so my quotation may not match up exactly with your version. But there will be one like it in whatever version you have.
My question is, what do you make of Benjamin's statement that "All efforts to aestheticize politics culminate in one point. That one point is war"?
The version I find easiest to reference when speaking online is this one, where the same phrase is translated as "All efforts to render politics aesthetic culminate in one thing: war
( ... )
But how, according to Benjamin, can political messages have aura? Most people understand the part of the essay that says works of art have an aura because they are singular and unique. The aura consists of the experience of seeing the painting in its specific location in time and place. Aura is destroyed by mechanical reproduction, because the copies have no aura. A political message, on the other hand, was never meant to be unique in time and place, no? How can they have an aura if they are meant to be spread far and wide by their very nature?
If I can, I'd like to start this response with a description of one of Long's first walks, from Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art: A Sourcebook of Artists WritingsA Line Made By Walking - 1968
( ... )
Ok, I may have to do this in two parts, because this is the one book on my list that is *not* on my bookshelf. If I am unable to fully tackle this without the book, I'll have to revisit my answer tomorrow when I can get a copy from the library.
Ok. Why is it on my list? I picked this book up when I was working on an idea about things that were lost. Part of the work can be seen here if description is not enough. I had three different iterations of the idea, starting with empty photograph frames titled with the names of objects I had lost. I then made prints with a narrative text instead of an image, describing the experience of the loss, and the final work (linked above in digital form) was the performance and documentation of feeling that loss. This final project was executed as such: I entered the darkroom with a list of objects that I had lost. I put a sheet of photographic paper in the enlarger and turned on the timer/enlarger light and meditated on the first object on the list. When I experienced sadness, I turned off the light
( ... )
When I started my MFA, I was in a program that was interdisciplinary in approach (ostensibly) - and Celan was recommended to me as reading I should look into regarding the ideas I was putting into my work on loss, mourning, presence, and grief, and the artistic representations of such. While not all readers will approach poetry as such, I find that Celan's concepts and presentation (specifically in this translation, problematic as it is) help me to clarify and understand the ideas I am trying to work with, by enabling me to look at them from a different perspective. Perhaps it could also be looked at as theory employed, rather than simply "theory" - which I admit could be problematic. However, it is the book I turn to again and again, when I need to review an idea, or catch a fragment of emotion that I am not quite sure how to place.
That sounds like inspiration, not theory. Celan might indeed evoke loss impressively, but I don't understand how it relates to theory. What would unemployed theory look like?
I definitely wouldn't class it as inspiration, because of the way I use it. I do read Celan for enjoyment at times, but also for the development of the poems and the time within which he was writing. Much in the same way I look at Shimon Attie's work - it's less an inspiration and more a language for solving a problem.
As an example, this poem as translated in Glottal StopOn the rain soaked rutted road, silence
( ... )
Since Kat stole my question...knut_hamsonAugust 3 2010, 22:31:32 UTC
...and because I have claimed him as my own, I will ask about Derrida.
I haven't read this work, but as I understand it, in this work he discusses the impact of electronic media on our memory. Is this correct? If not, please correct me.
But if it is correct, could you please talk about what implications electronic media has for archives. Do electronic media increase what exists to be archived (say, emails on a hard drive), or will the archive disappear because these electronic media often have no physical embodiment? Does cyberspace eliminate the public/private distinction (because of the proliferation of identifying information) or expand it (given the chance to create an identity separate from our identity in the meatspace?
And just for the hell of it, weave Benjamin into your answer.
Re: Since Kat stole my question...chatnoireAugust 3 2010, 23:24:51 UTC
You are correct, in that he does discuss the impact of electronic media on our memory. He uses quite a bit of Judaism, mythology and psychoanalysis to set down the structure of his argument about what is coming to us with the advent of the "digital age
( ... )
Re: Since Kat stole my question...knut_hamsonAugust 3 2010, 23:31:37 UTC
OK, time to merge this with the performance art stuff.
Talk to me about archiving Long's walks. Obviously, we cannot archive the actual walks, so what does that say about the walks? Are they, by definition, non-archivable? What does this mean for the value of the art? You note elsewhere that "Many of the walks were documented, not just by photographs, but pen and paper, and construction of markers and land-art in the place where the walk was enacted." What, if any, value is there in archiving these artifacts?
Re: Since Kat stole my question...chatnoireAugust 4 2010, 00:32:17 UTC
There is value in merging these. Commercially, there is value, if you look at the work of Andy Goldsworthy. His books sell like hotcakes, his images are on calendars, and it's a true disconnect between the actual work he's doing and the product of the work - but art isn't always a money-making endeavor.
The performance artists of the 60s and 70s, along with the Fluxus artists were heavily into documentation of their work because of the nature of what they were doing - they were not *making* something that could be commodified on the market, and sold and resold. The image/document was part of the process the way that an artist's sketchbook is also part of the process. Something to look back on, review, and revisit.
It's also part of their story. When we talk about the value of archiving, we have to ask what the purpose would be to archive the work. There are a few other pieces I could use to reference this idea.
Comments 142
My question is, what do you make of Benjamin's statement that "All efforts to aestheticize politics culminate in one point. That one point is war"?
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
Ok. Why is it on my list? I picked this book up when I was working on an idea about things that were lost. Part of the work can be seen here if description is not enough. I had three different iterations of the idea, starting with empty photograph frames titled with the names of objects I had lost. I then made prints with a narrative text instead of an image, describing the experience of the loss, and the final work (linked above in digital form) was the performance and documentation of feeling that loss. This final project was executed as such: I entered the darkroom with a list of objects that I had lost. I put a sheet of photographic paper in the enlarger and turned on the timer/enlarger light and meditated on the first object on the list. When I experienced sadness, I turned off the light ( ... )
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
(The comment has been removed)
Reply
Reply
Reply
As an example, this poem as translated in Glottal StopOn the rain soaked rutted road, silence ( ... )
Reply
I haven't read this work, but as I understand it, in this work he discusses the impact of electronic media on our memory. Is this correct? If not, please correct me.
But if it is correct, could you please talk about what implications electronic media has for archives. Do electronic media increase what exists to be archived (say, emails on a hard drive), or will the archive disappear because these electronic media often have no physical embodiment? Does cyberspace eliminate the public/private distinction (because of the proliferation of identifying information) or expand it (given the chance to create an identity separate from our identity in the meatspace?
And just for the hell of it, weave Benjamin into your answer.
Reply
Reply
Talk to me about archiving Long's walks. Obviously, we cannot archive the actual walks, so what does that say about the walks? Are they, by definition, non-archivable? What does this mean for the value of the art? You note elsewhere that "Many of the walks were documented, not just by photographs, but pen and paper, and construction of markers and land-art in the place where the walk was enacted." What, if any, value is there in archiving these artifacts?
Reply
The performance artists of the 60s and 70s, along with the Fluxus artists were heavily into documentation of their work because of the nature of what they were doing - they were not *making* something that could be commodified on the market, and sold and resold. The image/document was part of the process the way that an artist's sketchbook is also part of the process. Something to look back on, review, and revisit.
It's also part of their story. When we talk about the value of archiving, we have to ask what the purpose would be to archive the work. There are a few other pieces I could use to reference this idea.
First, the Spiral Jetty by Robert Smithson (owned and preserved by the Dia Foundation) is a work that was both about the ( ... )
Reply
Leave a comment