Michael Szpakowski
Since the beginning
Works in Harlow United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

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DISCUSSION

price


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February price

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DISCUSSION

price


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February price

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</body></html>

DISCUSSION

Re: Re: price


HI Eric
I'm of the let-one-hundred-flowers-bloom tendency on
this one. Funny - only in the world of newmedia (or
whatever) could a call for/project featuring self
portraits "belong" to someone :)
I appreciate the thought though & the implied shout
out for the project, indeed I strongly urge anyone on
this list who hasn't contributed to do so:

http://www.somedancersandmusicians.com/self_portraits/contribute.html

please read the guidelines *carefully* though
,although
I am totally prepared & happy for folk to outwit my
restrictions in some interesting way,

( see Patrick Lichty's marvellous conjunction of pixel
& bathroom tile:
http://www.somedancersandmusicians.com/self_portraits/patrick_lichty.html
)

I will quite however quite arbitrarily adjudicate on
this.
best wishes
michael

--- Eric Dymond <dymond@idirect.ca> wrote:

> It would be nice to think that your work (which
> predates the following by at least a year),
> imagining ourselves
>
http://www.somedancersandmusicians.com/self_portraits/index.html,
> inspired this new call for portraits:
>
http://www.ago.net/info/ago_exhibitions/exhibition_specific.cfm?IDB24
> you should get some credit!
> Eric
> +
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> +
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>

DISCUSSION

Re: isabelle dinoire


Hi Marisa
Whoa! :)
I did try to phrase my rather uncertain response to
the piece in as temperate a way as possible precisely
in order to avoid a polarised yes it is no it isn't
kind of thing.
Some responses:
<*Why is it artistically important to tell the truth?>
Of course there's no law that says it is but my
contention would be that art which in *some sense*
reflects the complex structure of reality is more
likely to interest me & take up my time & lead me to
recommend it to others as worthy of *their* time than
work that does not.
<*Why is it ethically important to tell the truth in
a work of art?>
I'm in favour of truth telling in general - of
striving to understand how & why things work the way
they do & then (in life , politics &c) stating this as
clearly & straightforwardly as possible & (in art)
creating work which *somehow* (begs a lot of questions
I know!) bears witness to or least does not
oversimplify tendentiously, or glibly, or cheaply,
what is going on.
<*How does this piece fail to tell the truth, in your
opinion? & *[How] does it lie?>
Well I *worry* that it doesn't tell the truth -I
*worry* that it ( & I'll put it more brutally than
Annie) feels like a cheap shot -*but* I'm not
sure..I'm genuinely interested & open to discussion on
it..

This is open to misunderstanding & I absolutely don't
want to raise the polemical temperature but I have a
similar problem with this rather nicely made miniature
that I do with 'Birth of a Nation' or 'Triumph of The
Will' -the *craply made* problem pieces are not in the
long run problem pieces... and of course I'm *not*,
absolutely *not* suggesting there is a similar degree
of moral doubt here as in those pieces, but it's the
combination of a very assured technique with the
problematic content that bothers me.(& I don't reject
*anything* in principle in art as far a content or
technique goes, *how* it's deployed is the interesting
question & this comes back to me to what I would call
artistic 'truth')

I'm going to pass on the rest of your questions
because I've set out my stall here I think as clearly
as I can.
I just wanted to address two more issues from other
bits of this discussion.
One. The remix thing. Well, Marisa, as you know,
nobody loves a remix as much has I do but, I do find
your analogy "remixing the face" a little strained -
I'm not sure that one can in any way read back worries
about this piece to attacks or concerns about or even
defense of remix culture from this rather artifical
rhetorical tactic..
Two. I *do* believe in truth -or at least that we can
approach the truth about things by the exercise of
observation & reason both scientifically ( & I include
history &c. here) and artistically.
I think this probably does underlie some of our
differences? What do you think? :)
best
michael
--- Marisa Olson <marisa@rhizome.org> wrote:

> > > http://dvblog.org/isabelle-dinoire
>
> > The music is great & the creation of a kind of
> 'arc of
> > suspense', of crafting an implied narrative out of
> the
> > source material is done with consummate skill.
>
> I agree. It was very engaging.
>
> > I can't help feeling that this piece, effective as
> it
> > is (& perhaps precisely because of this) somehow
> fails
> > in an artistically and ethically problematic way
> to
> > *tell the truth*...
>
> I find this to be an interesting point. Some
> questions...
>
> *Why is it artistically important to tell the truth?
> *Why is it ethically important to tell the truth in
> a work of art?
> *How does this piece fail to tell the truth, in your
> opinion?
> *[How] does it lie?
> *Is this simply a question of humane reference to
> human subjects or some
> larger point about the responsibility of art? (all
> art?)
> *Is this an expectation imposed on a work of art
> because of its use of
> "documentary" material?
> *Is the "reality" of the source material, itself,
> not true enough?
> *Or do you find this to be some sort of "double
> positive" (ie true footage
> plus true footage equals falsity..)?
> *Without implying that this piece tries to do so,
> but just jumping to the
> larger question, is it "artistically and ethically
> problematic" to draw
> from verite to escape from and/or parody reality?
>
> Sorry--I had to use at least one French word in this
> post. :)
>
> Marisa
>
>
> On 2/7/06, Michael Szpakowski <szpako@yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> > This is as well made as one would expect it to be.
> > The music is great & the creation of a kind of
> 'arc of
> > suspense', of crafting an implied narrative out of
> the
> > source material is done with consummate skill.
> > Why then do I feel so uncomfortable with it?
> > I think because it seems to impose a narrative
> from
> > particular fictional genres, horror, SF ( & here I
> > call as my witness the music, accomplished as it
> is,
> > and the synching of the final frames to the music,
> the
> > convulsive quality of it - & I don't think I am
> simply
> > projecting any personal squeamishness here) onto a
> > current event,the story of which moreover, even
> > allowing for the hype & distortion endemic to our
> > media, is clearly a complex web of tragedy,
> > resourcefulness, gratitude, ( oh -& a deep
> > strangeness, I don't deny)..
> > I can't help feeling that this piece, effective as
> it
> > is (& perhaps precisely because of this) somehow
> fails
> > in an artistically and ethically problematic way
> to
> > *tell the truth*...
> > michael
> >
> > --- abe linkoln <abe@linkoln.net> wrote:
> >
> > > http://dvblog.org/isabelle-dinoire
> > >
> > > +
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> > > out in the
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> > >
> >
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> >
>
>
>

DISCUSSION

Re: isabelle dinoire


This is as well made as one would expect it to be.
The music is great & the creation of a kind of 'arc of
suspense', of crafting an implied narrative out of the
source material is done with consummate skill.
Why then do I feel so uncomfortable with it?
I think because it seems to impose a narrative from
particular fictional genres, horror, SF ( & here I
call as my witness the music, accomplished as it is,
and the synching of the final frames to the music, the
convulsive quality of it - & I don't think I am simply
projecting any personal squeamishness here) onto a
current event,the story of which moreover, even
allowing for the hype & distortion endemic to our
media, is clearly a complex web of tragedy,
resourcefulness, gratitude, ( oh -& a deep
strangeness, I don't deny)..
I can't help feeling that this piece, effective as it
is (& perhaps precisely because of this) somehow fails
in an artistically and ethically problematic way to
*tell the truth*...
michael

--- abe linkoln <abe@linkoln.net> wrote:

> http://dvblog.org/isabelle-dinoire
>
> +
> -> post: list@rhizome.org
> -> questions: info@rhizome.org
> -> subscribe/unsubscribe:
> http://rhizome.org/preferences/subscribe.rhiz
> -> give: http://rhizome.org/support
> +
> Subscribers to Rhizome are subject to the terms set
> out in the
> Membership Agreement available online at
> http://rhizome.org/info/29.php
>