Robby - i tend to disagree with you, I think art does have the power to
change people's perception of things and give us a very complex
experience
of reality. Art can indeed be effective in the traditional art world.
But how do you measure effectivity?
I think one problem that stands in the way of having a serious
discourse in
the gallery/museum system is the 'branding' of the individual
artist/artist
group/ project and - along with it- the need for
"product"[artist=product]
consistency.
Take for example 'Fallen Fruit'; a project that was published in our
3rd
issue as one of the art projects
http://www.joaap.org/new3/index.php?page=viegeneretal
" FALLEN FRUIT began as an artist's project for The Journal of
Aesthetics
and Protest in Los Angeles; it was a mapping of all the 'public fruit'
in
our neighborhood in Los Angeles. We believe that fruit planted on
private
property which overhangs public space should be public property and
created this project to encourage people both to harvest and plant
public fruit. The project is a response to accelerating urbanization
and the loss of people's
capacity to produce their own foods, as well as issues around
grassroots
community activism, social welfare and social responsibility "
http://www.fallenfruit.org/
I wonder - what started out as a "confined" art project is now an art
collective/cultural machine driving its own advertisement campaign with
spin-off projects in NY, shwag, events etc.
I would argue that Fallen Fruit is an example of a project that is in
the
process of commodifing/branding itself; the question is -is this sort
of
production around the artwork an example of an"embodied" practice?
Or is it an example of an effective marketing strategy in order to
get the project into the Whitney Biennale? Or is this commodification
even necessary to be effective?
Robby wrote:
I am very skeptical that Art, and artists when articulated as
individual
practitioners, abstracted from a political, social, or cultural base,
can
have an actual effect here
and
While Fish Story is a solid and even innovative practice of
documentary
photography- it, like Sekula's practice- becomes a stand in for the
real in
the capitalist art marketplace, as he is bandied about as the last
standing Marxist in contemporary art
Ryan wrote
along the lines of Kenneth's questions, i'm also interested in the
engagement with criticality as an "embodied" practice (to use Brian's
phrase).
Ryan wrote
this is what i've seen as part of the journal's project (not to say
that for everyone else, of course). at some point, we have to evaluate
the state of embodiment. is the materialization of a given discourse
just producing books and conferences?
i've been thinking about de Certeau's use of "tactics" v
"strategy" in relation to the militaristic use of those concepts...
(thanks to a recent discussion with the center for tactical magic)
a lot of critically engaged practice has put much faith in the notion
of tactics as a reactionary form of practice, whether of the direct
action kind, or the unconscious everyday method of coping. but i'm
wondering if it's not important now to develop notions of strategy...
what would a "strategical media" look like?
this is what i've seen as part of the journal's project (not to say
that for everyone else, of course). at some point, we have to evaluate
the state of embodiment. is the materialization of a given discourse
just producing books and conferences? or is it interfacing with life
in
other ways? i certainly am not saying i know how to evaluate this (if
it's even possible) but it seems the questions would have to be
raised.
as to the question about where commodification (fetishism) is
happening... i think there are multiple ways that one could site that.
certainly the publishing system, and what's been called the
"academic-military-entertainment complex" on other lists recently...
best,
ryan
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