Re: [-empyre-] Prototyping

["G.H. Hovagimyan" <ghh@thing.net>]

On Aug 21, 2007, at 11:39 PM, Christy Dena wrote:

> Would other artists/curators be comfortable working in this  
> fashion? What do
> people think of this mimeses?

There are two salient issues in your discussion. One is using your  
hands to fashion something and the other is the exact reproduction of  
something visually (mimesis).

Using your hands to fashion something is primal. It is the beginning  
point for art. It is also the starting point of engineering. The  
difference between the two disciplines can be highlighted. Let me  
start with cave painting from 30,000 years ago. The ones in France  
were done by using a spray painting technique. The artists chewed up  
berries and then using a hollow reed, he would spit the paint. The  
images on the wall are are. The tools and techniques are  
engineering.  The learning how to use the tools are the process of  
physical learning. Something akin to a kinaesthetic learning  
process.   Trying to fashion something without using your hands  puts  
the creative process in the hands of an engineer or in this case it  
would be a logician who would figure out algorithm to describe the  
process in the physical world.  Within this rule set one can only  
operate as the programming dictates.  One cannot discover forms  
through the sense of touch. One cannot alter the programming with  
one's hands and movements. There is no intuition sense of the body.

Mimesis or fool-the-eye is the most simplistic notion of art.  the  
sensation is "gee that look so real I can't tell the difference from  
reality." Art history starts in the caves with glyphs and narratives.  
Mimetics is simply a trick.  Look at photography. Within the supposed  
trompe l'oeil of the camera lense there is a world of abstract ideas.  
The nature of art is to deal with these levels of ideas. Mimesis is  
once again a trick of engineering.