Re: power settings - thoughts

["dp" <dp@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> 
>> i would hate to feel that somewhere out there are some parameters
>> set by someone (talking about power issues) which alone determine
>> quality of art.
> 
> some early morning coffee-fueled thoughts: 
> 
> you can't escape this...trying to escape this raises a logical paradox...any
> time someone 'selects' one thing over another they are exercising their
> right or ability 'to choose' which is a form of power...and by selecting one
> object from many others the selector inadvertently shrouds the object in an
> aura that has a culturally perceived property of 'quality'...these
> 'selections' travel as cultural memes and influence others to make similar
> selections and hence form concentrations of objects/services, i.e., genres,
> email lists, record shops, etc 
> 
> an essay I read recently recounts an incident where the night janitor for an
> art gallery 'cleaned up a mess' that was actually a piece by Matthew Barney
> which was on exhibition...the janitor obviously didn't perceive the piece as
> containing any of the commonly known aesthetic signifiers that constitute a
> 'work of art'...he lacked the cultural knowledge pool which is used to map a
> set of signifiers to other signifiers... 
> 

oh, well history repeats itself. it happened with fountain (again!) by
duchamp (and right in that first exhibition!!) 

this gave him the idea of the replicas. 

so in my opinion, the janitor's bad doing, was a form of art.
(performance art?) 

he gave the possibility of putting more signifiers to his act than
it could have been previously thought of. 

 

and...it happened with some other artist as well recently...
(i can't remember the name) 

i think some artists look forward for something like that to happen
and set the conditions for it to have a high probability... 

(and i wouldn't be surprised to find out that they've paid the guy
an awful lot of money to throw the stuff away... most of this art
is garbage anyway, and they know it - whoops, that was personal...) 

 

> any record label, music shop, festival, magazine, concert venue, webzine,
> etc is a collection of choices made by those who hold the purse strings
> (power over both people and process via capital) and hence reflects a
> hierarchy of power or a power structure...any entity that is actively
> involved in exchanging money for a service or an object becomes a part of a
> larger power structure (economy)...so how does one break this loop? 
> 

something like .microsound and free web material can,
not on a personal level (that's a matter of tastes), but on a wider level. 

all that official aura and solemnity that magazines, critics and
"thinkers" tend to give to artworks is eluded. 

of course the money thing is unavoidable: there's always someone putting
money in something in order to let her/himself or others to use a
facility to express their ideas. 

but global communication has narrowed the gap: it's easier to post and
easier to find. you and your own money (earned in any way, not just being
in the art environment) are the engine which can drive you to a personal
research and enrichment. 

there will always be people who will find it necessary (either because
of lack of time, or out of conformity) to have guidelines set by
others, but today if one has the will, s/he can set their own perspective. 

 

> droplifting is one possible way to achieve a break in one area as it
> involves a minimal engagement with money and control/power structures...it
> feeds parasitically off of these structures by embedding itself into them
> for little or no cost and offering an unsolicited chance to choose... 
> 
 

agreed. one can say the same about the net, right? how many times
i've found myself on a site by chance... or someone posted something
and i had (all alone, with no pressure by anyone) my time and space
to value it on a personal level, not necessarily agreeing with the post... 

> I am reading James 'Postmodernism' in which he describes the concept of
> 'wrapping' one conceptual object around another...droplifting can possibly
> be described in this way as well... 
> 

mh. seems very interesting, where can i find more about this
embedding-wrapping thing? 

i cannot say if droplifting can fit in this scheme, but it defenitely
has to do with subversion of social structures. it's the paradox of
disinformation carrying more information that the official "information"
because it triggers curiosity (i always get this feeling when i re-read
fictions, by borges...) 

> speaking of which, I will put up the invite for the droplifting project this
> weekend... 
> 

and this sounds even more interesting: putting together the net and
the act of droplifting... (ethereal/material) 

 

 

 -l-@dp 

 

partial derivative of a point 

http://www.l-ll-l.org 

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