Re: [-empyre-] politics of critical fusion?

[saul ostrow <sostrow@gate.cia.edu>]

Maurice I would like definitions for some of the more significant  
terms that are being thrown around here -
What does one mean by critical action - does critical here refer to  
necessity  and does it assume a value system and that gives form and  
content such acts - I like the fact you refer to what you do as  
interrogation ( gathering information by submitting questions to  
another)  in that there is no pretense to objectivity  and it  
acknowledges that all is dependent on your ability to discern fact  
from fiction - both your own as well as that of the other

 as for you final statement "...at the limit of the expected  
explosion (of?), is the right place to play this role (of  
interrogator?) - I would be curious to see /hear the analysis this is  
based upon

Meanwhile Alice,
Self reflexivity, means to being inquisitive and curious about one's  
own motivations and means of analysis - for instance how do you or  
can you directly address perception (sensory intake) - seeming from  
your descriptions you address either cognition (how we make sense of  
that which we perceive) or how perception might be ordered  or  
influenced (both  being significant areas of research for cog sci) as  
such do you ask yourself how it is you precieve differently and how  
that has come about

To really look is to observe something in all its visually  
discernable aspects

Part of whar compelled me to ask my  question initially was the  
looseness of the language being used and the assumptions that these  
implied  - critical fusion - seemed like just another way to avoid  
the concept of praxis in which theory modifies practice and  
reciprocally practice modifies theory - theory always already be  
hypothetical

On Sep 23, 2007, at 9:06 AM, Alice Miceli wrote:

> > This could take pages and maybe my interpretation of your comment  
> > is not
> > right, but I really would like to express that there is a kind of  
> > critical
> > action that is more about contributing to interrogate the  
> > boundaries of our
> > social behaviour and our global environment and I strongly believe  
> > that what
> > I call “critical fusion”, just .
> > Maurice
>
> I would like to say that I very much agree with Maurice. I also  
> think that there are always risks in falling into a trap,  
> especially if artists sometimes end up in stiff and controlled  
> places previously assigned for them by the "economy of power they  
> seek to either address, expose or intervene".  So, of course, for  
> me at least, works should always be self-reflexive on that  
> question, and so many others as well. Being self-reflexive meaning  
> to be inquisitive and curious about the very own way a work itself  
> is created: by the way an image is generated, by the way a work  
> comes to being financially, by the way and where it is exhibited.  
> Something that strikes me as very essential in my practice is that  
> in making art, one directly addresses perception, how things in  
> life are perceived - modes of really looking at things. But what it  
> means to really look? What it is that you see beyond what is  
> deceivably shown to you by an “economy of power”, or merely beyond  
> common sense? That, for me, even if in a very small scale, can be a  
> subversive act.
>
>
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saul ostrow
Chair, Environmental Chairs Council
Chair, Visual Arts and Technologies
Head, Sculpture

sostrow@gate.cia.edu

EXPECT EVERYTHING / FEAR NOTHING