Sunday, May 14, 2006
I want to come back to Guy Debord; because more than any other figure I have talked about I think he is important to my interests.
The idea of 'the suppression of art', that like the Dadaists', the Situationists were concerned with, is important to an understanding of the relationship of politics and art. The Situationists were against the categorization of art and culture as separate activities from society, preferring instead to include them in everyday life. They saw this categorization as another expression of capitalism and the market. The Artist and The Audience can be seen as The Producer and The Consumer. Fundamentally the Situationists were against work - they saw work as a barrier restricting the natural and instinctive creativity of people. Everybody should be creative, everyone can create art.
There are elements to the Situationists aims that ring true and others that do not. I agree that the categorization of art and culture as separate to society is an expression of capitalism - art and culture can exist happily within society. Taking the same forms and being created from the same means of production as any other 'thing'. An art work is political simply because it exists within society, no attempt should be made to avoid this. The concept of the 'original' is to keep it separate from society. With the concept of the 'original' there is the baggage of the spiritual, religious object of divine importance.
I am unsure about the Situationists claim that everyone is instinctively creative and that work inhibits creativity. But haven't yet come to my own conclusion about this. ¶ 3:37 AM
The idea of 'the suppression of art', that like the Dadaists', the Situationists were concerned with, is important to an understanding of the relationship of politics and art. The Situationists were against the categorization of art and culture as separate activities from society, preferring instead to include them in everyday life. They saw this categorization as another expression of capitalism and the market. The Artist and The Audience can be seen as The Producer and The Consumer. Fundamentally the Situationists were against work - they saw work as a barrier restricting the natural and instinctive creativity of people. Everybody should be creative, everyone can create art.
There are elements to the Situationists aims that ring true and others that do not. I agree that the categorization of art and culture as separate to society is an expression of capitalism - art and culture can exist happily within society. Taking the same forms and being created from the same means of production as any other 'thing'. An art work is political simply because it exists within society, no attempt should be made to avoid this. The concept of the 'original' is to keep it separate from society. With the concept of the 'original' there is the baggage of the spiritual, religious object of divine importance.
I am unsure about the Situationists claim that everyone is instinctively creative and that work inhibits creativity. But haven't yet come to my own conclusion about this. ¶ 3:37 AM
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sophisticated, interesting and intellectually ambitious attempt to situate yourself in a left-wing intellectual (art)history... Good work - keep it up!
Note to go on all assessments from the teaching team:
As a group in general, your assignments this semester seem to evidence some really productive work, and we've enjoyed reading and marking them; because they were self-initiated projects, they had an urgency, relevance and dynamism which is usually lacking in work answering a pre-set and imposed 'syllabus'. There is a real sense of you all finding 'attachments' in the world of art, and starting to explore the implications of these, and of a growing sense of your own place within this world. It's not an easy task, or a short-term one (in fact, it's a life's work!), but we were impressed at the level of serious commitment to it.
Whatever your grade on this project, you should try to develop the work you have already done and keep it going over the years as a notebook, a place for thinking about new work and making contacts and links. The project has been to do with beginning to find a voice, a way of working and a habit of being out in the art world, alert in your studio, reading, writing as a matter of everyday business – you have all begun on this – so carry on!
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As a group in general, your assignments this semester seem to evidence some really productive work, and we've enjoyed reading and marking them; because they were self-initiated projects, they had an urgency, relevance and dynamism which is usually lacking in work answering a pre-set and imposed 'syllabus'. There is a real sense of you all finding 'attachments' in the world of art, and starting to explore the implications of these, and of a growing sense of your own place within this world. It's not an easy task, or a short-term one (in fact, it's a life's work!), but we were impressed at the level of serious commitment to it.
Whatever your grade on this project, you should try to develop the work you have already done and keep it going over the years as a notebook, a place for thinking about new work and making contacts and links. The project has been to do with beginning to find a voice, a way of working and a habit of being out in the art world, alert in your studio, reading, writing as a matter of everyday business – you have all begun on this – so carry on!
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