the difference between things

One of the proposed/expected outcomes of this class for us was to come out of it with an understanding of contemporary art practices, whilst developing on our previous semesters class, i certainly was able to do this. I found Caleb very erudite and edifying in his articulation and explanation of the core theorys of each lesson and he encouraged dialogue in class. I used Calebs readings and class as a starting point for my own research as was the point for us all. I particularly enjoyed Zizeks writings and his analogies, i found bourriaud convoluted and infallible, i found his Fordist approach on post Marxism and alienation important though, Laibach.....amazing, i found there satrical and parodical tactics effective as a vehcile to subvert and comment on popular culture. The inclusion of a class on Situationism was fantastic for those who didn't know about it and for me it gave me a new insight and developed my understanding even further, it did affirm for me the redundancy of some of Situationism's practices particularly the groupthink of situationism which was flawed very much like surrealism. The class has changed my feelings to art, it highlighted the importance for discourse and informed artists/practices, something which i will hopefully be able to articulate in my essay on tactile media... Peace out hombres!

the criteria for a psychopath?

When our existance is founded on growth, which is usually based upon destroying the very thing that sustains it, our enviroment, we, as a society will fall, as civilisations before us have fallen. Rectification, change, must be the answer to these problems. This is not only for the sake of preserving the natural beauty around us, but for preserving ourselves; when we sew our seeds of success, we unavoidably sew our seeds of failure. This is what i see enviromental artists commenting on, a relatively futile attempt by societies to put a halt, or even reverse our own natural behaviour, much like the recreation of the Lachlan Swamp in Centennial Park.
Reminiscent of "The Tragedy of the Commons" by Hardin; it is our democratic 'freedom' which completes the tragedy of the commons. This freedom is something that the western world has grown accustomed to; it perfectly represents the notion of an individual putting undue strain on an ecosystem for personal gain. Democratic change towards a sustainable, global development must be made by informed masses that understand the consequences of our global communities' way of life. I believe in the concept of Sustainable Development its a reasonable way for humanity to not only achieve never before seen standards of basic human rights such as Generational Equality, but also achieve an amount of ecological harmony that actually coincides with our present days societies 'needs' along with those 'needs' of future generations, which are equally as important.

http://www.aycc.org.au/
WHO's definition of a psychopath sounds like capitalism to me:
encompasses amoral, antisocial, asocial, psychopathic, and sociopathic personalities.

Art and Revolution Unite!

Papastergiadis article posited a restructalisation and rethinking on the posistion that imagery holds in a communitive world. He states that the warrior acts as an artist and in a transversal society the artist must become a warrior, this affirms what Raunig sees as the binary relationship of sedentary power and "schizophrenic lines of flight". The "porcelain factory' as Negri terms it relies on the latent but convoluted combination of imagery and thought, a metaphorical juncture in society thats crossroads are continuos yet respondent to the present social, and politicical issues.

'As for the line of flight, would it not be

entirely personal, the way in which an individual escapes on his or her own account, escapes

“responsibilities,” escapes the world, takes refuge in the desert, or else in art…? False impression.’

(Deleuze and Guattari 1988: 225)

What the hell is Laibach all about?

I want a passport!

By working in a group the Irwin collective is able to excavate and reiterate the past, through there 'retrogardism'.

The artwork/performance 'Black square on red square' is an example of this retrogardism at work, placing a reproduction of Malevich's Suprematist painting in Moscow's red square, thus giving it a new contextual meaning.

to me the mimesis of history evokes a dangerous state of reverie why? I don't mean dangerous as a bad thing, its important to revitalize and challenge the 'imaging consciousness' and this is what groups like the Irwin collective, NSK, and Laibach are doing. They use a range of tactics irony/parody as vehicles to subvert the system but most importantly as Zizek says ' to be really subversive you must take the system more seriously then it takes itself'

In interrogation machine Zizek writes of the 'inner voice' or the a hidden transgression, I took a Fruedian approach to this thinking perhaps this inner voice is somewhat like the psyches 'Id' something we all know is there but is kept in check in this case by an adherence to a set of unspoken rules, a societal pressure, as Zizek alludes to Jack Nicholson's famous line in a Few Goodmen " you cant handle the truth!" I guess this is the aim of a group like Laibach, to open our eyes.

I will leave you with another example in which the group IRWIN circumvents the traditional sense of a gallery through the creation of a micronation ' the NSK State in time'. I think it is a good example of The IRWIN collective, which is part of The Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK), which has had offices since 1992 in Athens and Dublin and most recently in Austria since August this year. Alexei Monroe describes this practice as "a conceptual form of identification for individuals from diverse nationalities" the concept of the fake passports is a good idea, but in practice has proved detrimental to many people, who have tried to actually use said passports, typically i am straying from the topic of conversation but i just thought it was a good example of art revealing the true inequalitys in the world, which is probably what they wanted to do, it just raises the question yet again (just like Tiravanija's work did) does art aiming to deal with social problems inevitably go unnoticed by the general public.

serious Serra.

‘the sense of alienation, and disaffection engendered by the inhman urban landscape of moderism could be rectified.' (Public Art: New directions, New York: Mc Graw- Hill, 1981.)

Am I a pessimistic philistine? or is it really possible for public art to subjugate the sense of alienation and disaffection of the postmodern condition.

social relations and embodied forms of dialogue

'We tried to transform the world in diverse ways now it is a matter of interpreting it' how do you personally answer the question 'what has come before and what will come after?' do you use some sort of structure some inherent dialogical understanding of ones relationship to self and culture.

Grant H. Kester's ' Conversation pieces' places a lot of importance on the empathy of society/culture, and promotes art as the platform for discursive elements of society to communicate. Perhaps the purpose of art then is to be a safe haven for ideas where it is possible to remove ingrained stigmas and predjudice.

bring back de gaulle!

"between the mass of information collected and the time and intelligence available to analyze it" ( Guy Debord, comments on the society of the spectacle. London: Verso, 1990, Thesis 30.

There is such immense amount of ideas and information on Situationism and its influences and because of this Situationism had the potential to lose its core principles, which were based upon the need for revolution and equality for everyone. The importance of the Situationists was not only confined to the artworld, there influential writings and ideas most famously helped to spur on the May 1968 riots in Paris, but also in a less obvious way they also managed to seep into collective consciousness of society through the very thing they despised consumerism which in essence is essential for any and all information to be communicated as it has to be consumed to be recognized and in the cyclical nature of the spectacle it is ultimately regurgitated, reinterpreted and critiqued by the next generation. By looking at the Situationists influence in popular culture it helps us to understand how they opposed and undermined capitalism in there time and why there ideas are still relevant to todays society.

'An art transcending art, Situationism is characterized by it invisibility, by its irreducible opposition to all forms of representation, of the spectacle" pg.286 ' Angels of purity' by Vincent Kauffman.

I recommend a book called lipstick traces by Griel Marcus.

a good image is always a social moment

Ashers installations contain a 'spectrum of sensory, affective, emotional, and psychological registers' the artworld is definitely not suffering from asphasia, thats for sure.

the semantic tone of the readings for this class all seemed to be approaching the subject of the institution but in different ways, the stuff on Asher seemed to be focused on the power of aesthetics to perhaps alter or challenge ones views on the institution.

Alexander Alberros reading was as the title suggested an analysis of the various factors and differing opinions on the Artist, Artworld, Art dealer, curator. There was a reference to the May 1968 riots in Paris, and also a quote from the 'Enrages' unofficial spokesman Rene Vienet. The 1968 riots relate well to the topic of the institution, as they where the catalyst of years of ideas and thought. Situationism detourned images in the 1960s all that is different in a relational work is the the detournement of a moment. A engineered intervention a fake moment.

Apocalypse never or now?

When did the Apocalypse happen? In the words of Philippe Parreno, 'I don't know, but it happened.'

Is it just me or does everybody else that watched 'Relational Art: is it an ism?' find that all the artists Ben Lewis interviewed came across as being generally apathetic to the whole notion of Relation aesthetics. Shouldn't they be concerned and worried that we live in an ever increasing world of displacement? I have no problem with this.... I guess they let there art speak for itself.

In 'Relational Art: is it an ism?' a short clip is shown of the collabatorive movie Vicinato II/2000 by Parreno/Holler/Gillick/Tiravanija/Gordon/Huyghe, where they talk about capitalism and democracy, and what they coin 'soft capitalism' the idea that people are suppressed by the modes of production, yet are placated into a sense of satisfaction or as Bourriaud says ' the illusion of an interactive democracy in more or less truncated channels of communication.' I think that this is a key element to understanding artists like Tiravanija, Parreno and Huyghe because there art aims to initiate a moment of interaction between people, in the age of post production. I will leave you with a quote from The Danish artist Micheal Elmgreen ' Real Minimalist works like you could climb some of the sculptures and like sit on it, it would be so much more groovy in art today'

check out this sculpture by Franz West its groovy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A2GUvPds88&feature=related

the diety, object and relations

I found that the article looked at the relationships of past art movements, such as Dada and Situationism, and established and reified the importance of the diety and the object to the art of the 1990s to now. An artist such as Franz West is a great example of this, as he uses all three aspects in his art, his Adaptives series of the 1970's, combined the object with the space it was in, as he wanted to interact and relate to his audience, also his series of sculptures like Lemur heads, elude to a primitive diety, like those of easter island, yet at the same time using materials such as metal and paper maiche to give the sculpture more of a contemporary and readymade aesthetic.
I think Situationism is so important to the subject of relational aesthetics, especially the area of unitary urbanism, and an artist such as Constant Nieuwenhuys, whose ideas on living in the city can be applied to the gallery space nowadays, especially his ideas of communication which he saw as the key to uniting and opening up space for conducive dialouge between people, and i think this influence can be seen in works by artists such as Franz West.
the reader also made me think of the Vienesse Actionists.... and there approach to the gallery and space, which incorporated the diety, object and interaction between artists. In the Actionists case it was a lack of respect for the diety and the object, or perhaps a radical questioning of it. My final thought is a story i once read about John Cage which makes me think about the importance of space and its relationship with artists. He could not afford to live in New York anymore and decided to head out into the then slums of New York, where he found the cheapest little loft he could, he pulled down the wall.... and behold he had a perfect veiw of New York.... the word spread and before long that area of New York was full of artists.