January 2010

Regarding the press copy for Boris Groys' upcoming lecture at SVA, "Everyone is an artist," as the blogger Atrios might say, "The Stupid! It burns me!!!"

Contemporary art has become a mass cultural practice. Millions of people create their own archives and present them to others. Artistic rights have begun to manifest themselves as general human rights. Joseph Beuys' famous maxim, "everyone is an artist" is no longer a prediction of a utopian future but rather an accurate description of the status quo.

For "artist" substitute "surgeon," "air traffic controller," "poet," "novelist," or "serialist composer" to get the full flavor for how bad this passage is. With instant censorship on YouTube and the destruction of federally-funded artist grants the climate for "artistic rights" remains as poor as it's ever been in the US. When we artists killed formal criticism in the '80s (which is not the same as "formalist" although the two overlapped) we made ourselves sitting geese for shaky shoulder-held missile launchers like Groys. Any other field would not tolerate this kind of loose, "happy talk" writing about what its practitioners do. Odd that the School of Visual Arts participates in its own de-certification in this way.

Concerning the Beuys quote, can't remember where this comes from but it's relevant: "There's a saying in Bali, 'no one is an artist,' which is to say everyone is." Well, the US is not Bali. Puritan roots are as embedded here as hookworm. Sharing your pics on Facebook does not make you polymorphously perverse. Or good.

Update: Attended the Groys lecture at SVA and his rap wasn't as bad as the press release (he has a sense of humor). He didn't say a word about "Artistic rights have begun to manifest themselves as general human rights" --who the heck wrote that? Notes on the lecture are here.

Update 2: Am now reading Groys' book Art Power. There is a chapter called "Equal Aesthetic Rights" but no statement in it as idiotic as ""Artistic rights have begun to manifest themselves as general human rights." "Equal aesthetic rights" is ironic: another term for what's been called "unibrow"--a mix or leveling of so-called high- and lowbrow. Will update again about this, but it's looking like Groys could sue SVA for making him sound like a dork.

Future Shock of the Month Award goes to disquiet.com for its post on Apple music apps and interface lag. Seems that the designers change the buttons as fast as consumers learn them. This complaint is by no means restricted to Apple, or even music production, for that matter. If you find a type of toothpaste you like (whitening + tartar control + sensitive gums + low radiation) the next time you go to buy a tube it will not be there and you will have to figure out whether "non-darkening + TartarGone + gum care + radiation free" will work just as well. Apparently there is a class in MBA school now called Consumer Anxiety and the Myth of Brand Loyalty.

In the software world the main rule is "If it ain't broke, fix the shit out of it." Thus constant useless "upgrades" keep the consumer rattled and plugged into the changing product specs.

It is possible to drop out of the rat race and just work with one program, as it ages into near-obsolescence and gives your music a wonderful "retro" vibe. Eventually the platform or operating system will change and then you will spend all your time buying and maintaining old computers, burrowing as anxiously into the past as your contemporaries are trying to catch up with the future. Or, you could buy a flute, but then fairly soon none of your peers will know any of the songs you are playing on it.

The New York Times on the wrong way and the right way to be a Modernist artist:

Roberta Smith on Kenneth Noland's refusal to change with the times:

In the 1960s, Color Field painting vied for dominance with Pop Art and Minimalism, ultimately losing the contest in terms of both critical stature and market share. Perhaps to his detriment, Mr. Noland was ardently loyal to his formalist principles.

Michael Kimmelman on Pierre Boulez's strength through accommodation:

[Daniel] Barenboim phrased it another way when we talked one recent afternoon: “What makes Pierre a towering modernistic figure is that he has managed in his life to move between revolutionary moments and evolutionary moments. When revolution was necessary, he was there, courageously, to lead it.

“But he is a great strategist. And he doesn’t overestimate himself. He is too intelligent to stick to beliefs or opinions when they are no longer necessary. I remember him coming to my concert in Paris once and being very disparaging about Bruckner. But then, 15 years later, there he was conducting Bruckner himself, not out of weakness but because his thinking evolved.”

Classic NY BS

Bought some winter boots a few years ago at West Side shoe store. Have been taking them back every year so for resoling/heeling.
The owner is nice, Ukrainian according to the Web.
The business went from being a shoe-store-with-repair to repair-only. Then he rented part of the shop to a watch repairman.
Although nice, the owner is hardly ever there and his employees are ball busters.
One of them, who also works the counter, is surly and argumentative. I left the boots with him Monday and asked for new heels and new laces.
He said fine, come back Wednesday, they'll be ready.
Wednesday, neither he nor the owner is there, just an even surlier older man in the back who works on the shoes.
The old man finds my boots, they have new heels but are missing laces. He says "What size you want? 38? 40?"
"I don't know, do you have the old laces so we can measure them?"
"No, here, you try 40."
Thinking 40 is too small I tear off the seal and thread one of the boots. "These are too small, see?" I say.
"You rip the seal, you have to pay for them."
"No I don't, where are my original laces? I'd like them back, they fit fine, just a little worn."
The old man doesn't understand my English so he calls the watch repair guy over to translate.
The watch repairman listens to the old man's tirade, then turns to me and says, "You can't rip the seal and not pay for the laces."
At this point I'm starting to, um, criticize their business practices. The old man gets on a cell phone and calls the owner, telling me he is "five minutes away."
The owner comes in, hands me a pair of 54 inch laces. I say "we had a little miscommunication about the laces."
"It's not the laces," he says, which I assume means his problems have nothing to do with me. That's for sure.