[-empyre-] seeing yourself a prototype

christopher sullivan csulli at saic.edu
Sat Mar 20 10:34:19 EST 2010


coming to age as an artist in the land of postmadernism, the idea was that no
one is unique in thought or action, so nothing emanates from you, you are a
bounce from someone Else's throw. this notion went away, and I happily danced
on it's grave. and now I battle the New Media, open source , Internet community
academics,. who once again explain that ownership, or authorship is in some way
politically backwards. as "S" brings up. what is the commerce of open source
beyond the tenured faculty, and the vanity press, hobby artist? 
   Also isn't it possible that some people have vision, and a beautiful take on
the world? and not everyone has to be part of the creation of the spectacle.
When I see good work, I am very content and take my role as an anonymous
receptor, this is a fruitful place. If I see a moose in the forest, that is
enough, I do not have to have a beer with it, and scramble it's image through a
logarithm and do A live web stream.. also art is important, but now everything
has to be art. Other human activities, are as valuable, I am happy that my
doctor is a doctor and not an artist, I respect his work. 
In this land of open source, are restaurants also going to provide free food?
will my roof get fixed for free, by a roof fixing community? and yes, we
academics talking about this utopia will forgo our tenure, and pension plans
and share our ideas with everyone.  Chris


Quoting "sdv at krokodile.co.uk" <sdv at krokodile.co.uk>:

> cynthia/all
> 
> The logic of open-source seems to work in subsidized environment like 
> academia where they are paid for teaching and perhaps a little research 
> - but external to the academy how would an open-source artist survive ? 
> I can see how the economics of it would work in West, with a false 
> economics of scarcity and with rich patrons investing in art objects - 
> which rather obviously are not open-source objects, but still without 
> these how would the economics work ?
> 
> Is that it ? That the art academy supports artists, so that when the few 
> produce art objects for patrons, they in turn then support the 
> generation of ideas for the spectacle ?
>  
> Or is the model something else ?
> 
> s
> 
> 
> 
> As an open-source artist
> 
> On 18/03/2010 20:09, Cynthia Beth Rubin wrote:
> > Wow - I love the concept that we are all changing and that each of us
> > an ongoing prototype for the next generation of ourselves
> >
> > At the CAA session on Open Source (chaired by Patrick Lichty),
> > Michael Mandiberg gave a presentation arguing for giving away Design
> > ideas, for making practical design concepts  "Open Source," patent
> > free ideas to be shared among the industrious.  In his talk he
> > presented some Open Source Design ideas developed at Eyebeam.
> >
> > A member of the audience who identified herself as a graduate student
> > in Fine Arts at the Chicago Art Institute asked the question about
> > what it the equilivant of "Open Source Design" in the Fine Arts, and
> > how could Fine Arts students establish a Fine Arts Open Source
> > practice.   She left before I could respond with the thought that as
> > Fine Arts faculty members in art schools and art departments we are
> > always giving away our ideas, our sense of how art works, what it can
> > do, or what it might be in a certain situation. The very act of
> > engaging in a critique session is an "Open Source" exchange of ideas.
> > When students leave the room after a crit, they have no obligation to
> > cite their professors as the source of their ideas, they simply take
> > them and go.
> >
> > Of course in an academic setting Ideas are not completely free,
> > because students are paying tuition, and faculty members are being
> > paid.  We have a contractual agreement to share ideas, to be (nearly)
> > Open Source Fine Artists.
> >
> > If we are all prototypes, then as individuals outside of the academic
> > world,  we can share our Ideas as artists, as thinkers, as critics
> > without a contractual agreement.  But isn't that what we are doing
> > already in spaces such as this one - in discussion lists, in artist
> > meetings, even when we show work in progress to friends and colleagues?
> >
> > Now the question of second order prototyping as turning to others --
> > not sure that I am ready for that!  It sort of reminds me of my
> > teenage years going shopping for clothes with my mother, who somehow
> > poured me into dresses and pulled on one corner or another to make
> > them look like they fit, even when they remained uncomfortable.
> >
> >
> > Cynthia
> >
> > Cynthia Beth Rubin
> > http://CBRubin.net
> >
> >
> >
> > On Mar 18, 2010, at 11:50 AM, Julian Oliver wrote:
> >
> >    
> >> ..on Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 03:10:01PM -0000, Johannes Birringer wrote:
> >>      
> >>>>> Davin wrote:>>  At one point in time, discrete objects were
> >>>>> things that were considered prototypes that could be thrown into
> >>>>> an existing system and tested. Increasingly, it seems like the
> >>>>> prototypes are geared to test individual and collective
> >>>>> consciousness.  In other words, maybe we are the  prototypes?
> >>>>> Being tested so that we can be effectively processed, shrink-
> >>>>> wrapped, labeled, bought and sold>>
> >>>>>            
> >> Hmm, This statement from Davin confused me also. I thought it was
> >> fairly clear
> >> that any act of learning - or any 'attempt', which all action is at
> >> it's root -
> >> simultaneously produces the self as a prototype, even if only for
> >> the duration
> >> of that act. The very notion of a prototype assumes a platonic and
> >> eventuating
> >> objecthood, a finished thing. When are people ever so singularly
> >> resolved?
> >>
> >> Second order prototyping is the work of other people, especially
> >> aquaintances,
> >> marketeers and those that resource people.
> >>
> >> Beast,
> >>
> >> -- 
> >> Julian Oliver
> >> home: New Zealand
> >> based: Berlin, Germany
> >> currently: Berlin, Germany
> >> about: http://julianoliver.com
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> 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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> 


Christopher Sullivan
Dept. of Film/Video/New Media
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
112 so michigan
Chicago Ill 60603
csulli at saic.edu
312-345-3802


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