RE: [-empyre-] Is Modernity our Antiquity? fugue: Forward from Christiane Paul

[Christina McPhee <christina112@earthlink.net>]

From: <Christiane_Paul@whitney.org>
Date: March 10, 2006 1:47:34 PM PST
To: <empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
Subject: RE: [-empyre-] Is Modernity our Antiquity? fugue



First of all, I think it's only natural that our discussion regarding  
techne vs. concept has focused more on the formal, technological  
aspects -- given that our main topic this month is modernity. In  
another context, we might have concentrated more on the concept / art- 
historical canon aspect...

I'd like to return to some of Simon's comments:

Simon wrote:
"There is something about this ‘transformation’ (of ‘arch-modernist  
mindsets
’) that merits discussion. I think it was Brett, forgive me if I’m  
wrong,
who said that postmodernism is built on the foundations of modernism.
Christine has poked a little, deservedly, at the idea of Hegelian  
synthesis,
in the n-state. In both views there inheres the idea of  
transformation – a
redemption even of modernist assumptions. I think this archaeological
impulse, this restorative ‘moral’ and critical project – such,  
indeed, that
the question heading this discussion can be asked – may be promoted by
precisely the kind of spectacular mise-en-scene we see in Roger  
Beurgel’s
statement on modernity."

Interesting thought but I didn't intend to suggest that the ways in  
which modernist and postmodernist ideas inform our current n-state  
constitute a process of synthesis or 'restorative' approach or even  
redemption. I doubt that these ideas are synthesized, they coexist  
and cross-pollinate and at the same time create ruptures. I see the  
current state more as one of rupture than one of synthesis...

Pa Ubu: “Hornstrumpet! We shall not have succeeded in demolishing  
everything
unless we demolish the ruins as well. But the only way I can see of  
doing
that is to use them to put up a lot of fine, well-designed buildings.”

That's certainly one way to go ;) But I don't necessarily believe in  
demolishing ruins, sometimes they are a nice reminder of  
'heritage' (the downside being that the weight of history can become  
oppressive). Rome is one of the cities where ruins coexist -- which  
is both fascinating and eerie.

Simon wrote:
"Finally, a brief word regarding the n-state, an idea with its own
fascination; and I’d like to know more about its provenance; since,  
as well
as zipping up a certain bodybag – synthetic teeth mesh – it also  
iterates
management/bureaucratic themes of ‘technological progress and
infrastructural improvements’."

It certainly iterates ideas of progress and improvement but, at the  
same time, entails the critical engagement with the inherent flaws of  
these  ideas. Particularly in contemporary artistic practice that  
uses digital technologies and network structures, there is a lot of  
analysis of misguided concepts of progress and development of  
alternative models (for publishing / broadcasting models, free /  
alternative software, "community development" etc.)

Christiane