[-empyre-] Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit....

[davin heckman]

Terry!

That about sums me up....

I am committed to idle chatter...  a total windbag....  and not an old
one... hopefully, I have many years ahead of me.  In fact, if there is
one thing I aim to promote in my incessant rambling, it would be
idleness and inefficiency, in general, of all types.  (What do you
expect?  My dad was a bartender.  It put bread on our table.)

This is a big topic that Nick introduced this month.  I know I
struggled to understand what people were talking about and to put my
thoughts into words...  and even still, I only had time to focus on
things that were close to me.  (So I do appreciate people giving me a
good hard shake every once in a while!)

I suppose we're lucky that May is here to put an end to it.  At the
very least, maybe I helped some insomniacs catch up on their sleep.

Take care!

Davin

On Wed, Apr 29, 2009 at 4:45 PM, Terry Hargrave <terrida2 at mac.com> wrote:
> We're with Anna on this one.   does =empyre= mean Twitter meets talk radio?
>
> http://www.enotes.com/shakespeare-quotes/brevity-soul-wit
>
> Logo=rrhea :  the old bag of winds.  Polonius, in Hamlet.  "I will be brief"
> and then....zzzzzz's later..........
>
> Polonius:
> My liege, and madam, to expostulate
> What majesty should be, what duty is,
> What day is day, night night, and time is time,
> Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time;
> Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
> And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
> I will be brief. Your noble son is mad. . . .
>
> Hamlet Act 2, scene 2, 86–92
>
> Polonius, right-hand man of Hamlet's stepfather, King Claudius, has been
> employed to spy on the prince and report on his very odd behavior. As
> Polonius begins to deliver to the king and queen the results of his
> investigation, he embarks on this windy preface. Besides being nonsensical,
> his speech is self-contradictory: he wastes plenty of time denouncing the
> time wasted by rhetorical speechifying.
>
> "Brevity is the soul of wit" has become a standard English proverb; in the
> process, its context has been somewhat neglected. Polonius, though he has
> high opinions indeed of his "wit" (that is, acumen), is the least brief and
> one of the least "witty" characters in the play. Freud aptly referred to
> Polonius as "the old chatterbox" in Jokes and their Relation to the
> Unconscious.
>
> On Apr 29, 2009, at 11:02 AM, sdv at krokodile.co.uk wrote:
>
> anna,
>
> what does "Nonrepresentability is not a quality but an effect"  and "you
> can't attribute some 'thing' a nonontology!" mean ?
>
> Especially important give what an ontology is.
>
> steve
> Anna Munster wrote:
>
> Actually I am not calling for 'strategy'. I am not calling for
>
> anything deterministic like 'how artists should respond' or 'what
>
> someone on this list must do'!!! I am asking,instead, for
>
> thoughtfulness among some people on the discussion this month!!
>
> Thought, requires effort, it requires looking into things and all I am
>
> suggesting is that these things are already all around us and indeed
>
> have been for many years in the form of very interesting engagements
>
> between artists and (as Simon has also suggested) a long period/series
>
> of crises.
>
> ...and while I am fully cognisant of the military overtones of that
>
> word, I was simply using it  to collectively denote a diversity of
>
> practices that have an 'investigative' thoughtful and hopeful response
>
> at their core. Some of these practices are also tactical – in the
>
> sense of tactical media, tactical biopolitics and so forth. Many are
>
> not. Many rely on affect and sensation as their means and end, in
>
> which case they are nonrepresentational and are certainly not aimed at
>
> some determinant outcome ie representing the nonrepresented. Rather
>
> they set off or produce affective environments and sensations that
>
> might also provide space for thought. Others might use this 'strategy'
>
> as well as critique - Hito Steyerl's 'Lovely Andrea' at the last
>
> Documenta  for example...
>
> Nonrepresentability is not a quality but an effect, btw...you can't
>
> attribute some 'thing' a nonontology!!
>
> One thing I have learned from this month's discussion is that
>
> speculative reason and speculative capital have never been more in bed
>
> with each other. When thought takes the form of arrogant
>
> generalisations it performs in similar ways to speculative capital.
>
> Forever trying to hedge itself against its own precarity and
>
> inevitable collapse.
>
> Anna
>
>
> On 29/04/2009, at 8:14 AM, Michael Angelo Tata, PhD wrote:
>
> Or maybe what Anna is calling for is not strategy, which is primarily
>
> totalizaing and singular, but tactics, which are fragmented,
>
> dspersed, plural and framed in the absence of the God's-eye-view
>
> perspective without which there are no totals, only partial sums?  I
>
> am thinking again of Michel de Certeau.
>
> *******************************************
>
> *Michael Angelo Tata, PhD  347.776.1931-USA*
>
> *http://www.MichaelAngeloTata.com/* <http://www.michaelangelotata.com/>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:09:05 -0700
>
> From: editor at intertheory.org <mailto:editor at intertheory.org>
>
> To: empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au <mailto:empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
>
> Subject: Re: [-empyre-] Artists' responses to the so-called "crisis"
>
> dear anna...interesting comments, though I wonder if your
>
> representation of the non-representable is not a bit too theological
>
> for my taste? And transformation is such a magical enterprise...
>
> alchemically speaking, I do not suspect that attribution of a quality
>
> such as 'non-representabililty' adds or subtracts to the strategic
>
> authenticity or legitimacy of politics, responses or art, for that
>
> matter. Strategies, in other words, are always fatal...to their
>
> object, or to themselves. We all try to catch the falling the knife
>
> with each attempt at becoming, no?
>
> Nicholas Ruiz III, Ph.D
>
> Editor, Kritikos
>
> http://intertheory.org <http://intertheory.org/>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> *From:* Anna Munster <A.Munster at unsw.edu.au
>
> <mailto:A.Munster at unsw.edu.au>>
>
> *To:* soft_skinned_space <empyre at gamera.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>
> <mailto:empyre at gamera.cofa.unsw.edu.au>>
>
> *Sent:* Saturday, April 25, 2009 3:48:56 AM
>
> *Subject:* Re: [-empyre-] Artists' responses to the so-called "crisis"
>
> Sorry Nikos but as to your rhetorical 'no' below, I resoundingly
>
> reply NO WAY!!. There is a world of difference between responding
>
> (rather than reacting which is really what Joseph is talking about)
>
> to a social, economic and political crisis using aesthetic strategies
>
> and techniques vs. the 'arts' of finance, government or whatever
>
> other institution you want to aestheticise.
>
> (a la Benjamin et al).
>
> The examples that Nik and Marc are talking about (and also what Brian
>
> Holmes has been involved with) are emphatically not abut knee jerk
>
> response or reaction but are about using nonrepresentational
>
> aesthetic strategies - among a multitude of strategies which also
>
> include activist, semiotic, political, social and affective ones –
>
> to /transform/ subjective and collective situations. These are
>
> immanent, critical, positive and productive relationships with crisis
>
> ie they do not respond /to / crisis but rather work amid, through and
>
> via crisis to work with what might be transformative about crises.
>
> And these aesthetic strategies are absolutely everywhere both in and
>
> out of the 'art world' eg Critical Art Ensemble, Harwood and
>
> Mongrel,16Beaver, rebublicart project, The Senselab, eipcp, Make
>
> World, edu factory, The Thing, Serial Space (sydney -based for all
>
> you North Americans who need to get out more ;-)  etc etc etc. And
>
> these are just the artists/collectives/projects - there's also a
>
> wealth of brilliant art theory around this - try Hito Steyerl, Gerald
>
> Raunig, Brian Holmes, Matthew Fuller, Florian Schneider, Brian
>
> Massumi all the FLOSS+art etc etc etc
>
> There is NO relation between these kind of politics, responses and
>
> aesthetics and the 'art' of finance - except a relation of revulsion.
>
> On the other hand, if you want to find out about a really fantastic
>
> installation that engaged directly with the stock market and in fact
>
> used a gambling syndicate's money to trade stocks as part of the
>
> actual art work - have a look at Micheal Goldberg's documentation of
>
> his 2002 work 'Catch a Falling Knife'
>
> (http://www.michael-goldberg.com/main.html - go into Projects and
>
> select the title of the piece).
>
> Just another point I'd like to make about this month's discussion - I
>
> have found some of the posts scary and stupid in their absolute lack
>
> of knowledge about anything that is going on about contemporary art,
>
> aesthetic strategies and politics. I really think some people need to
>
> do a bit of preliminary research and investigation before they start
>
> sounding off about  how boring or naive the concept of aesthetically
>
> responding to crisis is,
>
> Best Anna
>
> On 24/04/2009, at 10:36 PM, Nicholas Ruiz III wrote:
>
>
>    nk...another aspect of interest is the way in which the financial
>
>    realm in itself is a creative act, and artful...with all of the
>
>    discussion revolving around the perception/reading parallax, I
>
>    wonder how people in the artistic/academic community may not
>
>    perceive/read financial creativity as art at all...I suspect such
>
>    financial activity is a form of art, which contains all of the
>
>    aspirations, triumphs and failures that any art project may
>
>    enable, no?
>
>    nikos
>
>    Nicholas Ruiz III, Ph.D
>
>    Editor, Kritikos
>
>    http://intertheory.org <http://intertheory.org/>
>
>
>
>
>    ----- Original Message ----
>
>    From: nick knouf <nak44 at cornell.edu <mailto:nak44 at cornell.edu>>
>
>    To: -empyre- <empyre at gamera.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>
>    <mailto:empyre at gamera.cofa.unsw.edu.au>>
>
>    Sent: Thursday, April 16, 2009 1:07:11 PM
>
>    Subject: [-empyre-] Artists' responses to the so-called "crisis"
>
>    Dear empyre,
>
>    It's strange that it's the 16th of the month (at least where I
>
>    am), yet
>
>    there has been little sustained discussion of present-day artistic
>
>    responses to this so-called financial "crisis"--one that exists in a
>
>    mythical realm of numbers-that-we-cannot-perceive, but that sadly has
>
>    very real impacts on people.  Responses by students, academics, and
>
>    activists have not been limited to the resignation of acceptance, nor
>
>    abstract theorizing in and of itself, but rather have taken, at
>
>    times,
>
>    forms of protest and occupation throughout the world, as well as
>
>    direct
>
>    actions against banking institutions.  (See, in particular the
>
>    story of
>
>    Enric Duran:
>
>    http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20090319182858556 and
>
>    http://17-s.info/en .)  How then might we understand these actions
>
>    within the context of our own theorizing activities?
>
>    This should reflect a special concern as to the impact of this
>
>    "crisis"
>
>    on academic and cultural institutions.  Indeed, the occupations and
>
>    protests at schools---NYU, the New School, University of Rochester,
>
>    institutions in Italy and France and Spain and...---suggest the deep
>
>    worry that many have regarding how the "crisis" might ultimately
>
>    move to
>
>    transform culture and learning into more and more reified situations
>
>    governed by numbers and the market.  (The Bologna process is
>
>    coming to
>
>    the
>
>    states: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/education/09educ.html .)
>
>    In response there have been discussions and interviews about how
>
>    we can
>
>    use this time of "crisis" to develop new models that exist in
>
>    parallel
>
>    to concurrent struggles to force governments to provide for the basic
>
>    needs of people.  (See in particular "Interviewing the Crisis":
>
>    http://www.interviewingthecrisis.org/ .)  How might we then
>
>    reconsider
>
>    actions and activities of the past and present and future---TAZs,
>
>    tactical media, pirate radio, and many, many, more---in light of
>
>    calls
>
>    for more standardization and more "accountability"?
>
>    And whither the academic institution?  Corporations have fairly free
>
>    reign in many departments at colleges and universities in the United
>
>    States.  Are we to expect even more of these so-called
>
>    "public-private
>
>    partnerships" in the future?  What is the role of the institution in
>
>    producing the people who created the "crisis" in the first place?
>
>     Who
>
>    will follow the links between the powerful actors in order to map
>
>    their
>
>    impact?
>
>    I present here a recent project of mine that is my own attempt to
>
>    face
>
>    some of these issues.  MAICgregator (http://maicgregator.org
>
>    <http://maicgregator.org/>) is a
>
>    Firefox extension that aggregates information about colleges and
>
>    universities embedded in the military-academic-industrial (MAIC)
>
>    complex. It searches government funding databases, private news
>
>    sources,
>
>    private press releases, and public information about trustees to
>
>    try and
>
>    produce a radical cartography of the modern university via the
>
>    replacement or overlay of this information on academic websites.
>
>    MAICgregator is available for download right now:
>
>    http://maicgregator.org/download .  If you want to see what
>
>    MAICgregator
>
>    does to a website without downloading it, you can look at some
>
>    screenshots: http://maicgregator.org/docs/screenshots .  This is its
>
>    first public release, so expect that things might not work properly.
>
>    I have written an extensive statement about MAICgregator that
>
>    tries to
>
>    contextualize it within discourses of net.art, the
>
>    military-academic-industrial complex, "data mining", and activist
>
>    artistic practices.  As the statement is rife with embedded links,
>
>    please read it online:
>
>    http://maicgregator.org/statement
>
>    I welcome any feedback or discussion that this might provoke; if you
>
>    want to e-mail the project authors directly, please e-mail info
>
>    --at--
>
>    maicgregator ---dot--- org.
>
>    http://maicgregator.org/
>
>    nick knouf
>
>    _______________________________________________
>
>    empyre forum
>
>    empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au <mailto:empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
>
>    http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>
>    _______________________________________________
>
>    empyre forum
>
>    empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au <mailto:empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
>
>    http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>
>
> A/Prof. Anna Munster
>
> Assistant Dean, Grant Support
>
> Acting Director Centre for Contemporary Art and Politics
>
> School of Art History and Art Education
>
> College of Fine Arts
>
> UNSW
>
> P.O. Box 259
>
> Paddington
>
> NSW 2021
>
> 612 9385 0741 (tel)
>
> 612 9385 0615(fax)
>
> a.munster at unsw.edu.au <mailto:a.munster at unsw.edu.au>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Windows Live™ Hotmail®:…more than just e-mail. Check it out.
>
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> _______________________________________________
>
> empyre forum
>
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au <mailto:empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
>
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>
> A/Prof. Anna Munster
>
> Assistant Dean, Grant Support
>
> Acting Director Centre for Contemporary Art and Politics
>
> School of Art History and Art Education
>
> College of Fine Arts
>
> UNSW
>
> P.O. Box 259
>
> Paddington
>
> NSW 2021
>
> 612 9385 0741 (tel)
>
> 612 9385 0615(fax)
>
> a.munster at unsw.edu.au <mailto:a.munster at unsw.edu.au>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
>
> empyre forum
>
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
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>