PORTFOLIO (1)
Re: Digital Ponderings
on 12/18/02 9:17 AM, Pall Thayer at pall@fa.is wrote:
> once it's on the computer you're working with numbers
No, you are working with electrons. Numbers (0,1) are simply a translation
of the electronic activity that is taking place in a computer into
mathematical concepts that humans can negotiate.
You can make unplugged digital art purely with numbers, I suppose, if you do
all the math yourself by hand and draw it out on paper instead of using a
computer for its representation. Now THAT would be digital art in all its
purity! (No, wait. . . Aren't you still simply pushing electrons around? Oh
well.)
Conversely, you can make art with numbers that is in no way digital art. Mel
Bochner, for instance.
-m
> once it's on the computer you're working with numbers
No, you are working with electrons. Numbers (0,1) are simply a translation
of the electronic activity that is taking place in a computer into
mathematical concepts that humans can negotiate.
You can make unplugged digital art purely with numbers, I suppose, if you do
all the math yourself by hand and draw it out on paper instead of using a
computer for its representation. Now THAT would be digital art in all its
purity! (No, wait. . . Aren't you still simply pushing electrons around? Oh
well.)
Conversely, you can make art with numbers that is in no way digital art. Mel
Bochner, for instance.
-m
Re: art students, ya gotta love 'em
on 12/17/02 11:38 AM, Meta Pen at muserna@muserna.org wrote:
> I thought Serra's work mostly about fear and intimidation (heavy big, dark
> rusty slabs, deadly in some cases), in this case it's the fear factor
> level was like at 2. Instead of fear/intimidation, (the people downtown
> couldn't be bothered to be afraid of modern art), Serra uses deprivation
> of basic needs to rile-up the public. People just want to get to work,
> from here to there, much like the commuters at Union Square. Making this
> piece one of his failures.
This couldn't be more off the mark, in my view. Serra's work is indeed
intimidating, as is any large slab of heavy metal, but it is also
extraordinarily beautiful and creates a breathtaking experience for anybody
who traverses it and allows oneself to feel the changes of perception and
experience of the world it induces in one's body and mind.
As for people who just want to get to work and not have to deal with
obstructions along the way, screw them! They should learn to appreciate art
and nature and all the many other good reasons for bringing one's body and
being into the world, or else simply stay home. Tilted Arc was not Serra's
failure as a work of art so much as the failure of American politics and
culture and the corporate ethos to absorb a great, difficult work that
defied them all powerfully and authoritatively -- if ultimately
unsuccessfully, to the lasting shame of this still too-ignorant country.
On a related note, does anybody know the address where that big vertical
Serra sculpture is in San Francisco? (I think it is called Snoopy.) What
building is it in, please? I would REALLY appreciate a response!
Mark (mpalmer@jps.net)
> I thought Serra's work mostly about fear and intimidation (heavy big, dark
> rusty slabs, deadly in some cases), in this case it's the fear factor
> level was like at 2. Instead of fear/intimidation, (the people downtown
> couldn't be bothered to be afraid of modern art), Serra uses deprivation
> of basic needs to rile-up the public. People just want to get to work,
> from here to there, much like the commuters at Union Square. Making this
> piece one of his failures.
This couldn't be more off the mark, in my view. Serra's work is indeed
intimidating, as is any large slab of heavy metal, but it is also
extraordinarily beautiful and creates a breathtaking experience for anybody
who traverses it and allows oneself to feel the changes of perception and
experience of the world it induces in one's body and mind.
As for people who just want to get to work and not have to deal with
obstructions along the way, screw them! They should learn to appreciate art
and nature and all the many other good reasons for bringing one's body and
being into the world, or else simply stay home. Tilted Arc was not Serra's
failure as a work of art so much as the failure of American politics and
culture and the corporate ethos to absorb a great, difficult work that
defied them all powerfully and authoritatively -- if ultimately
unsuccessfully, to the lasting shame of this still too-ignorant country.
On a related note, does anybody know the address where that big vertical
Serra sculpture is in San Francisco? (I think it is called Snoopy.) What
building is it in, please? I would REALLY appreciate a response!
Mark (mpalmer@jps.net)
) vicious rumors (
- Lawrence Weiner sports a small dick
- Jenny Holzer has cooties
- Ed Ruscha suffers from manic depression
- Vito Acconci has bad B.O.
- Sol Lewitt is slowly losing his mind
.
.
.
- Jenny Holzer has cooties
- Ed Ruscha suffers from manic depression
- Vito Acconci has bad B.O.
- Sol Lewitt is slowly losing his mind
.
.
.
Re: Remember Crimes
> There was absolutely no request to "shut up" as you put it.
Ah, such a selective memory we have, don
Ah, such a selective memory we have, don
Re: Remember Crimes
> There was no attempt to bully him nor otherwise pursuade him to think
otherwise. It was a request
If you truly believe this, WK, then I suggest you go back and reread what
you wrote! It was no request you made but a blatant bullying demand to shut
up.
> you seem largely ignorant that other nations have crimes
Huh??? But I made exactly the OPPOSITE point, that ALL nations contain
backyards stuffed with crimes of various sorts! Where is your head?
> The USA's piss is but a gentle rain compared to the lethal brutality Russia
has been visiting on Chechnya for years and years.
Oh yeah? Tell that to the many thousands of murdered and tortured African
slaves, Native Americans, Vietnamese, etc. Besides, this is not a question
of degrees but of morality. Don't try and play some silly bean-counting game
with me!
> I have a long record of publishing criticisms of the USA that goes back
decades.
Yes, I am totally ignorant of your record on criticizing the US and frankly
don't care to read it if it is as poorly reasoned as your response to me has
been here. From your hyperbolic attack on AT, which is all I know you by,
you come across like a typical knee-jerk right-wing knucklehead. If there
are nuances to your position, then you should state them for those of us who
don't wish to do the background research behind every crass assertion that
crosses our paths. Oh, and here's a peep for you: Russia's assault against
Chechnya is ugly, vicious and brutal in the extreme. I will happily go as
far as you like in condemning it, as what is happening there offends me
deeply.
> Not a peep o f protest from the art's community of the West about that.
I gather from this strange non-sequiter that you think the art community is
afraid to criticize Russia because of some lingering sentiment for Soviet
Marxism or something? I don't get the logic behind this assertion. What do
Russia's atrocities in Chechnya have to do with the core of this debate?
> the Romani (Gypsy) people throughout Europe -- something you seem to want to
ignore and remain ignorant about.
I am not ignoring anything! There is absolutely nothing in my words that
would lead anybody to read me that way. This was the whole point of my
rebuttal to you. I wish to make ALL of history known, warts included. I have
no nationalistic agenda to promote, simply a desire to expose the truth and
to encourage a compassion for those who are suffering around the globe,
including the Roma, the Chechyans, and, yes, even Americans and Canadians if
need be.
> And IO have the right to point out the warts of Andrej T's homeland. Right?
Right?
Sa-right. Yes, absolutely. I never suggested otherwise. If you got the
facts, I'd like to see them myself.
As for telling anything to AT, I will let him learn the history of his
people the hard way, by waking up to it. Clearly there are some biases in
his position that I don't entirely support. My comments are not meant to
correct anybody's distortions of history -- which would be a herculean, if
not sisyphean, task -- but to encourage people to approach history with a
conscience and see the suffering inflicted upon innocents as deeply wrong
wherever it takes place, which is what I think AT's piece does to some
degree. I think we should encourage more pieces like his that express a
moral outrage over the crimes of nations, rather than tell people to shut up
about it because they don't happen to be from the country where the crimes
are taking place or some equally lame excuse.
-m
otherwise. It was a request
If you truly believe this, WK, then I suggest you go back and reread what
you wrote! It was no request you made but a blatant bullying demand to shut
up.
> you seem largely ignorant that other nations have crimes
Huh??? But I made exactly the OPPOSITE point, that ALL nations contain
backyards stuffed with crimes of various sorts! Where is your head?
> The USA's piss is but a gentle rain compared to the lethal brutality Russia
has been visiting on Chechnya for years and years.
Oh yeah? Tell that to the many thousands of murdered and tortured African
slaves, Native Americans, Vietnamese, etc. Besides, this is not a question
of degrees but of morality. Don't try and play some silly bean-counting game
with me!
> I have a long record of publishing criticisms of the USA that goes back
decades.
Yes, I am totally ignorant of your record on criticizing the US and frankly
don't care to read it if it is as poorly reasoned as your response to me has
been here. From your hyperbolic attack on AT, which is all I know you by,
you come across like a typical knee-jerk right-wing knucklehead. If there
are nuances to your position, then you should state them for those of us who
don't wish to do the background research behind every crass assertion that
crosses our paths. Oh, and here's a peep for you: Russia's assault against
Chechnya is ugly, vicious and brutal in the extreme. I will happily go as
far as you like in condemning it, as what is happening there offends me
deeply.
> Not a peep o f protest from the art's community of the West about that.
I gather from this strange non-sequiter that you think the art community is
afraid to criticize Russia because of some lingering sentiment for Soviet
Marxism or something? I don't get the logic behind this assertion. What do
Russia's atrocities in Chechnya have to do with the core of this debate?
> the Romani (Gypsy) people throughout Europe -- something you seem to want to
ignore and remain ignorant about.
I am not ignoring anything! There is absolutely nothing in my words that
would lead anybody to read me that way. This was the whole point of my
rebuttal to you. I wish to make ALL of history known, warts included. I have
no nationalistic agenda to promote, simply a desire to expose the truth and
to encourage a compassion for those who are suffering around the globe,
including the Roma, the Chechyans, and, yes, even Americans and Canadians if
need be.
> And IO have the right to point out the warts of Andrej T's homeland. Right?
Right?
Sa-right. Yes, absolutely. I never suggested otherwise. If you got the
facts, I'd like to see them myself.
As for telling anything to AT, I will let him learn the history of his
people the hard way, by waking up to it. Clearly there are some biases in
his position that I don't entirely support. My comments are not meant to
correct anybody's distortions of history -- which would be a herculean, if
not sisyphean, task -- but to encourage people to approach history with a
conscience and see the suffering inflicted upon innocents as deeply wrong
wherever it takes place, which is what I think AT's piece does to some
degree. I think we should encourage more pieces like his that express a
moral outrage over the crimes of nations, rather than tell people to shut up
about it because they don't happen to be from the country where the crimes
are taking place or some equally lame excuse.
-m