the fragility of Utopianism, Purity and Minimalism

[cecil touchon <touchon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Enjoying the microsound/minimalist discussion...
a couple of interesting comments were made...
one having to do with the fragility of Minimalist art due to its purity of
intention and purity of delivery
Yes, That is kind of like a pure canary yellow... the slightest touch of
anything else and it is ruined, unrecoverable but when pure so transparent,
so fragile! This is the ideal. It is like newness, the newness of a 300,000
dollar sportscar. You have to maintain its perfect newness or it doesn't
keep its since of awesomeness but in practice it is the thing that can never
quite be reached or once reached, can not be maintained in its totality.
But I think that the real fragility does not lay with the Minimalist work
but with the viewing public. I always felt that the minimalist works were
really about achieving a quiet mind and without that quiet mind, which the
minimalist work is intended to inspire, then it is not possible to
appreciate the work. The whole idea is to come to a point of highly
conscious receptivity. to be able to follow very subtle lines of thought and
perceive very subtle sensations which require, as a prerequisite, inner
quietude. This is where the fragility rests. Most do not wish to train
themselves in this quietude, this meditative state and are too impatient,
too restless to cultivate it.
So I do not think it is really about the style of the art; its very reduced
appearance that is the problem although it does ask for a context, an
architectural neutrality that can act as a proper frame in which the glow of
such works can be perceived.
I think where some went astray was to take the idea of the minimal and try
to take it to a technological perfection, a machine perfection but this only
lead to a dead emptiness which should quite correctly have been revolted
against. Human perfection is of another sort. It has an inherent living
quality about it that comes from the spirit, it reconciles the tragidy of
physical limitation with the quest for spiritual perfection. This is where
the idea of the heroic comes from. the flag on top of the mountain.
Overcoming limitation rather than succoming to it in our quest for artistic
excellence... that thing that gives satisfaction.
cecil
PS still time to submit a work for the sound art exhibit at the Ontological
Museum
http://ontomuse.com/exhibits.html deadline Jan 30