[-empyre-] self and others

[naxsmash]

by acts of faith, by love,

wherein we acknowledge one another's strangeness and contingency



>
> Without question, it is simultaneously dynamic, provocative,
> insightful and, at times, frustrating when what art is … and isn’t …
> are bandied about, professed and sanctioned by experts from
> disciplines from sociology, law, computer science, literature, etc.
> an art
> practice that streams itself as a “career path” within capitalistic
> economies and systems – such as the academy.
>
> I, too, find making art pure pleasure - incredibly so at times!  Much
> to my chagrin, I also realize that pleasure can sustain one only so
> much .
>
> So please forgive, and humor, my own naiveté to ask you all this
> question, how then does one negotiate and then reconcile these
> seemingly disparate tracks - pleasure and "professionalism" ?  This
> may ring particularly relevant in revisiting notions of complicity –
> as its been parried about during the past few weeks.
>
>
>
>
> On Jan 13, 2010, at 6:36 AM, Johanna Drucker wrote:
>
>> Nice turn to these exchanges. I also really appreciated Gabriela's
>> point and the follow-up by others.
>>
>> If we think of art as the act of form giving, we recognize that forms
>> partake of symbolic systems. As social creatures we
>> 'interpellate' (hideous theory word) shared symbolic systems (signs,
>> stories, genres, dance moves, rules of the game etc.). But of course
>> collectively and individually, we shift those symbol systems (for
>> better and worse--think of personal choice and fashion trends).
>>
>> I've fallen from my pure structuralist beliefs. I no longer think we
>> are only 'subjects.' Individualism may be a founding mythology of
>> western culture, absorbed in the most opportunistic ways into
>> contemporary consumer culture, but I think it has grounding. You are
>> not me, even though, to recap all the polit-theo-talk in Pogo's  
>> terms,
>> "We have met the enemy and he is us."  A great deal of cult studs
>> analysis comes to that.
>>
>> Life is short. One of the pressing questions is what does one want to
>> spend time on? The term "therapy" seems to carry a dismissive tone. I
>> find making art pure pleasure, but it is the pleasure of bringing
>> something into being, an act of making-as-knowing, that intensifies
>> awareness. I'm an awareness junky.
>>
>> Johanna
>> _______________________________________________
>> empyre forum
>> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>
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