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

["maurice benayoun" <mb@benayoun.com>]

>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

That's it. Most of my work of the last, let's say 18 years, is about the
fact that I don't know the Truth but I really wonder about what is so wrong
that we should think together about.

>as for you final statement "...at the limit of the expected  
>explosion (of?), 

This refers to the metaphor of "critical mass" (of interrogation) and
"fusion" (nuclear metaphor)  of the symbolic (fiction, creation, message)
and the physical (reality, given facts, consensus). I have already developed
that aspect on the previous posts.

is the right place to play this role (of  
>interrogator?) - I would be curious to see /hear the analysis this is  
>based upon

Exactly! Sometime I'm just looking for the right place. And I expressed this
idea that after working on immersive situations (VR) the place that is
closer to my expectations in terms of questioning is out of the frame,
outside the gallery, inside the public space. 
I have to precise that this shouldn't be accepted as a dogma, otherwise it
would become more significant ("subversive" is too strong) to act in
institutional frames for a while like museums, galleries and so on, but this
won't happen.

>(...)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.

For me it tries to be just the opposite -of avoiding the concept of praxis.
This is applied praxis (if not too pleonastic). I always wondered about the
right place to have an impact on institutions that wouldn't be bringing some
new truth but creating some indiscernible Brownian motion coming from doubt
and revolt. 
What if given facts are only traces of our previous acts? And how can we
decide to shake the board to say something may be wrong. I already mentioned
some political acts, close to war, playing with media as the biggest weapons
of mass destruction. Fusion is already consumed. We shouldn't let other
people with obscure intentions (commercial, religious, obscurantist...) to
play alone. I'm talking a lot about "playing" and this would take more time
and lines to explain... with respect to Empyre readers... 
Maurice  

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



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