Re: [-empyre-] race, net-art, strategy

[<keith@blacknetart.com>]

"When I see this darker, unreasoning part of myself
represented within an artwork I recoil."












--- Ian Stevenson <audile@bigpond.com> wrote:
> Dear List,
> 
> I am glad I provoked some reasoned response.
> 
> Claudia wrote:
> >in my humble just blah blah blah ...
> 
> I guess perhaps you thought I was not being
> constructive in my response
> about evaluation and the potentialities of net art.
> I am quite serious about
> finding ways to objectively validate my aesthetic
> responses or at least to
> find ways to talk about them.
> 
> Keith wrote:
> >All art is political. Work which unconsciously or
> >carelessly engages with the political structures
> >around it is often bad and therefore boring.
> 
> I agree, and I would add to unconsciously and
> carelessly - over
> simplistically, although I have no specific examples
> to hand to back this up
> with.
> 
> >Perhaps it is a mistake for you to look for
> work(especially
> >about race) that makes you feel positively or work
> >which less than difficult.
> 
> Not "feel positively", I meant respond to positively
> in an evaluative sense.
> Difficult is often most challenging and therefore
> most rewarding.
> 
> >I certainly hope that anyone who considers
> themselves to be invested in
> >racism finds my work about race disturbing.
> 
> My point about being a racist (I don't know what you
> mean by "invested in
> racism") is that I am situated within power
> structures. To be racist is to
> be prejudiced, to pre-judge based on race alone. No
> matter how self aware I
> attempt to be in my engagement with the world, I
> still react to people and
> situations in a prejudiced way. I attempt not to act
> on this prejudice but
> it is there. It is part of who I am, which, although
> my identity evolves
> with experience, I attempt to be aware of.
> 
> When I see this darker, unreasoning part of myself
> represented within an
> artwork I recoil. This is a successful work, in my
> evaluation. On the other
> hand, when I see this complex relationship with my
> own identity represented
> in simplistic and bombastic terms, I do not respond
> positively to the work
> and I get the sense that it does not have much to
> offer me.
> 
> Danny wrote more about POV. This is what I am trying
> to offer those working
> in this field - an idea of what my POV as a white
> male is to works involving
> race politics. We should not just see these works as
> holding up mirrors to
> society but as mirrors to ourselves.
> 
> Damali wrote:
> >art isn't meant to make us feel any one particular
> emotion, or make
> >us think any one particular thing, but i do believe
> that art is made
> >to make us think and feel. if it doesn't get rid of
> it.
> 
> My sentiments exactly!
> 
> Thanks for your comments.
> 
> Ian S
> 
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