1. Even the archaic artist, who had an uncanny virtuosity found it necessary to create a group of intermediaries, monsters, hybrids, gods and demigods. The difference is that, since the archaic artist was living in a more practical society than ours, the urgency for transcendental experience was understood, and given an official status. As a consequence the human figure and other elements from the familiar world could be combined with, or participate as a whole in the enactment of the excesses which characterize this improbable hierarchy. With us the disguise must be complete. The familiar identity of things has to be pulverized in order to destroy the finite associations with which our society increasingly enshrouds every aspect of our environment.
Without monsters or gods, art cannot enact our drama: art's most profound moments express this frustration. When they were abandoned as untenable superstitions, art sank into melancholy. It became fond of the dark, and enveloped its objects in the nostalgic intimations of a half-lit world. For me the greatest achievements of the centuries in which the artist accepted the probable and familiar as his subjects were the pictures of the single human figure - alone in a moment of utter immobility.
But the solitary figure could not raise its limbs in a single gesture that might indicate its concern with the fact of mortality and an insatiable appetite for ubiquitous experience in face of this fact. Nor could the solitude be overcome. It could gather on beaches and streets and in parks only through confidence, and, with its companions, form a tableau vivant of human incommunicability.
I do not believe that there was ever a question of being abstract or representational. It is really a matter of ending this silence and solitude, of breathing and stretching one's arms again.
(from Mark Rothko's The Romantics Were Prompted)
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Sunday, March 29, 2009
1. Bob Dylan interview continued
If a young man considering a career in the arts wanted to meet a lot of women, would he be better off learning to paint or to play guitar?
Probably neither. If he had women on his mind, he might think about becoming a lawyer or a doctor.
Seriously?
Yeah, seriously. Maybe a private detective, but that would be the wrong motivation for any career.
If a young man considering a career in the arts wanted to meet a lot of women, would he be better off learning to paint or to play guitar?
Probably neither. If he had women on his mind, he might think about becoming a lawyer or a doctor.
Seriously?
Yeah, seriously. Maybe a private detective, but that would be the wrong motivation for any career.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
1. define:
[ME., a. Anglo-F. and OF. define-r to end, terminate, determine = Pr. definar; a Romanic parallel form to L. definire to end, terminate, bound (f. DE- I. 3 + finire to end, FINISH), whence It. definire, Sp. definir, Pr. and OF. defenir, definir. Definer, the common form in OF., is the only form given by Cotgr. 1611, and survives in Picard, but has been superseded in F. by définir, with adoption of the transferred senses of L. definire. In mod. English also define is in sense the representative of L. definire. A parallel form diffinire, with dis- (see DE- I. 6) is also found in Latin texts, and the forms diffiner, desfinir, diffinir (14-17th c.) in F.; thence the Eng. variants in deff-, diff-, dyff-.]
1. a. trans. To bring to an end. Also intr. To come to an end. Obs. rare.
b. To bring to an end (a controversy, etc.); to determine, decide, settle. Obs.
de- (I. 3):
3. Down to the bottom, completely; hence thoroughly on and on, away; also methodically, formally: as declamare to shout away, DECLAIM; declarare to make quite clear, DECLARE; denudare to strip quite bare, DENUDE; deplorare to weep as lost, DEPLORE; derelinquere to abandon completely, DERELICT; despoliare to spoil utterly, DESPOIL. b. To exhaustion, to the dregs: as decoquere to boil down or away, DECOCT; deliquescere to melt away, DELIQUESCE.
finite:
[ad. L. finit-us, pa. pple. of finire to put an end to, bound, limit, f. finis end, limit.]
Both define and finite tie back to 'to finish'.
[ME., a. Anglo-F. and OF. define-r to end, terminate, determine = Pr. definar; a Romanic parallel form to L. definire to end, terminate, bound (f. DE- I. 3 + finire to end, FINISH), whence It. definire, Sp. definir, Pr. and OF. defenir, definir. Definer, the common form in OF., is the only form given by Cotgr. 1611, and survives in Picard, but has been superseded in F. by définir, with adoption of the transferred senses of L. definire. In mod. English also define is in sense the representative of L. definire. A parallel form diffinire, with dis- (see DE- I. 6) is also found in Latin texts, and the forms diffiner, desfinir, diffinir (14-17th c.) in F.; thence the Eng. variants in deff-, diff-, dyff-.]
1. a. trans. To bring to an end. Also intr. To come to an end. Obs. rare.
b. To bring to an end (a controversy, etc.); to determine, decide, settle. Obs.
de- (I. 3):
3. Down to the bottom, completely; hence thoroughly on and on, away; also methodically, formally: as declamare to shout away, DECLAIM; declarare to make quite clear, DECLARE; denudare to strip quite bare, DENUDE; deplorare to weep as lost, DEPLORE; derelinquere to abandon completely, DERELICT; despoliare to spoil utterly, DESPOIL. b. To exhaustion, to the dregs: as decoquere to boil down or away, DECOCT; deliquescere to melt away, DELIQUESCE.
finite:
[ad. L. finit-us, pa. pple. of finire to put an end to, bound, limit, f. finis end, limit.]
Both define and finite tie back to 'to finish'.
1. desire:
[ME. a. OF. desire-r (earlier desidrer, desirrer) = Pr. desirar, It. desiare, disirare, Rom. type desirare:--L. desiderare to miss, long for, desire: see DESIDERATE v.]
desiderate:
trans. To desire with a sense of want or regret; to feel a desire or longing for; to feel the want of; to desire, want, miss.
[f. L. desiderat-, ppl. stem of desiderare to miss, long for, desire, f. de- (DE- I. 1, 2) + a radical also found in con-siderare, perhaps connected with sidus, sider- star, constellation; but the sense-history is unknown: cf. CONSIDER.]
consider:
[a. F. considérer (14th c. in Littré), ad. L. considerare to look at closely, examine, contemplate, f. con- + a radical (found also in de-siderare to miss, desire), according to Festus, derived from sidus, sider- star, constellation. The vb. might thus be originally a term of astrology or augury, but such a use is not known in the Lat. writers.]
de- (I. 1, 2):
I. As an etymological element. In the senses:
1. Down, down from, down to: as dependere to hang down, DEPEND (DEPENDENT, -ENCE, etc.); deponere to lay down, DEPONE, DEPOSE; deprimere to press down, DEPRESS; descendere to climb down, DESCEND; devorare to gulp down, DEVOUR. So of English formation, DEBREAK.
2. Off, away, aside: as declinare to turn aside, DECLINE; deducere to lead away, DEDUCE; defendere to ward off, DEFEND; deportare to carry off, DEPORT; designare to mark off, DESIGNATE; desistere to stand off, DESIST. b. Away from oneself: as delegare to make over, DELEGATE; deprecari to pray away, DEPRECATE.
(from OED)
To desire is, possibly, to come down from, off of, away from, or aside from the stars or constellation! - It's also related to 'to consider.'
[ME. a. OF. desire-r (earlier desidrer, desirrer) = Pr. desirar, It. desiare, disirare, Rom. type desirare:--L. desiderare to miss, long for, desire: see DESIDERATE v.]
desiderate:
trans. To desire with a sense of want or regret; to feel a desire or longing for; to feel the want of; to desire, want, miss.
[f. L. desiderat-, ppl. stem of desiderare to miss, long for, desire, f. de- (DE- I. 1, 2) + a radical also found in con-siderare, perhaps connected with sidus, sider- star, constellation; but the sense-history is unknown: cf. CONSIDER.]
consider:
[a. F. considérer (14th c. in Littré), ad. L. considerare to look at closely, examine, contemplate, f. con- + a radical (found also in de-siderare to miss, desire), according to Festus, derived from sidus, sider- star, constellation. The vb. might thus be originally a term of astrology or augury, but such a use is not known in the Lat. writers.]
de- (I. 1, 2):
I. As an etymological element. In the senses:
1. Down, down from, down to: as dependere to hang down, DEPEND (DEPENDENT, -ENCE, etc.); deponere to lay down, DEPONE, DEPOSE; deprimere to press down, DEPRESS; descendere to climb down, DESCEND; devorare to gulp down, DEVOUR. So of English formation, DEBREAK.
2. Off, away, aside: as declinare to turn aside, DECLINE; deducere to lead away, DEDUCE; defendere to ward off, DEFEND; deportare to carry off, DEPORT; designare to mark off, DESIGNATE; desistere to stand off, DESIST. b. Away from oneself: as delegare to make over, DELEGATE; deprecari to pray away, DEPRECATE.
(from OED)
To desire is, possibly, to come down from, off of, away from, or aside from the stars or constellation! - It's also related to 'to consider.'
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
1. Complete and utter madness fell upon him [Nietzsche] in 1888, but that his mind was crumbling when he wrote Ecce Homo is shown by the chapter-headings of this extraordinary autobiography: Why I am so Wise; Why I am so Clever; Why I write such Good Books; Why I am Destiny. Or the title of the book itself, in which he challenges comparison with Christ. It ends on a prophetic note, announcing the doom of Christian civilization. In the last blaze of an expiring mind he predicts that the comfortable belief in steady progress and the very structure of bourgeois society will crumble in a fury of ideological war.
"I contradict as has never been done before, and am nevertheless the opposite of a denying spirit. . . . I am a messenger of joy, such as there never was, I am conscious of a task so lofty that the very idea of it was lacking until now: only from my time onwards do hopes arise again. In every way I am necessarily also the man of destiny. For when truth enters into conflict with the lies of thousands of years, we shall have commotions, a convulsion of earthquakes, a confounding of mountain and valley, the like of which has never been dreamed of. The conception of politics then goes over wholly into a spiritual war, all the organizations of power in the old society are blown into the air---they all rest on lies: there will be wars such as there have never been on earth. . . . Have you understood me? Dionysus against the Crucified."
In December, 1888, Nietzsche wrote a series of letters to various friends which very naturally alarmed them. To Strindberg he wrote: "I have summoned a Council of Princes at Rome, I shall have the young Kaiser shot. . . . Nietzsche Caesar." To Jacob Burckhardt: "That was only a little joke, on account of which I overtook the tedium of having created a world. Now you are---thou art---our greatest teacher; for I, together with Ariadne, have only to be the golden balance of all things, we have in every part those who are above us. Dionysus." And to Cosima Wagner: "Ariadne, I love Thee. Dionysus."
Disorientation, euphoria, and delirium led to a dreadful climax in which he danced about the room and improvised on the piano, screaming that he was the successor of the dead God. A doctor attending him noted in his report: "The patient is generally excited, eats a great deal and is continually asking for food . . . maintains he is a famous man, is constantly asking for women."
From then on he ceased to be a person, he became a mere entry in a clinical case-book. At the mental hospital in Jena he declared: "My wife Cosima Wagner brought me here." He had reached the point-of-no-return.
In the last decade of his life he was no unhappy---except perhaps during occasional maniacal outbursts---but his mind vegetated in a vacancy which was like a ghastly travesty of the Nirvana he had once repudiated.
- from The Feast of Unreason, by Hector Hawton, pp 91-92
"I contradict as has never been done before, and am nevertheless the opposite of a denying spirit. . . . I am a messenger of joy, such as there never was, I am conscious of a task so lofty that the very idea of it was lacking until now: only from my time onwards do hopes arise again. In every way I am necessarily also the man of destiny. For when truth enters into conflict with the lies of thousands of years, we shall have commotions, a convulsion of earthquakes, a confounding of mountain and valley, the like of which has never been dreamed of. The conception of politics then goes over wholly into a spiritual war, all the organizations of power in the old society are blown into the air---they all rest on lies: there will be wars such as there have never been on earth. . . . Have you understood me? Dionysus against the Crucified."
In December, 1888, Nietzsche wrote a series of letters to various friends which very naturally alarmed them. To Strindberg he wrote: "I have summoned a Council of Princes at Rome, I shall have the young Kaiser shot. . . . Nietzsche Caesar." To Jacob Burckhardt: "That was only a little joke, on account of which I overtook the tedium of having created a world. Now you are---thou art---our greatest teacher; for I, together with Ariadne, have only to be the golden balance of all things, we have in every part those who are above us. Dionysus." And to Cosima Wagner: "Ariadne, I love Thee. Dionysus."
Disorientation, euphoria, and delirium led to a dreadful climax in which he danced about the room and improvised on the piano, screaming that he was the successor of the dead God. A doctor attending him noted in his report: "The patient is generally excited, eats a great deal and is continually asking for food . . . maintains he is a famous man, is constantly asking for women."
From then on he ceased to be a person, he became a mere entry in a clinical case-book. At the mental hospital in Jena he declared: "My wife Cosima Wagner brought me here." He had reached the point-of-no-return.
In the last decade of his life he was no unhappy---except perhaps during occasional maniacal outbursts---but his mind vegetated in a vacancy which was like a ghastly travesty of the Nirvana he had once repudiated.
- from The Feast of Unreason, by Hector Hawton, pp 91-92
Monday, March 23, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
1. Denis Rancourt article
A strange prof (physics!) from the University of Ottawa who may be fired for his strange teaching methods and his decision to give all of his students A's. He's an anarchist, environmental studies, physics prof.
His faculty website.
Wikipedia article.
Rancourt describes his approach of "academic squatting" in which he took an existing course and changed the curriculum, using student input, without the approval of the university. In the fall of 2005 Rancourt squatted a first year course entitled Physics and Environment (PHY 1703).
Following the conclusion of PHY 1703 at the end of 2005, Rancourt and student supporters campaigned to have the university approve a new Science faculty course that would be officially advertised as a pass/fail, student-directed course. This was, it seems, an Activism Course.
In reference to the 'climate change myth', and specifically Al Gore's film, Denis, on one of his blogs, writes:
One cannot control a monster by asking it not to shit as much. The monster is the problem, not the fact that it shits, no matter what colour the shit is.
A strange prof (physics!) from the University of Ottawa who may be fired for his strange teaching methods and his decision to give all of his students A's. He's an anarchist, environmental studies, physics prof.
His faculty website.
Wikipedia article.
Rancourt describes his approach of "academic squatting" in which he took an existing course and changed the curriculum, using student input, without the approval of the university. In the fall of 2005 Rancourt squatted a first year course entitled Physics and Environment (PHY 1703).
Following the conclusion of PHY 1703 at the end of 2005, Rancourt and student supporters campaigned to have the university approve a new Science faculty course that would be officially advertised as a pass/fail, student-directed course. This was, it seems, an Activism Course.
In reference to the 'climate change myth', and specifically Al Gore's film, Denis, on one of his blogs, writes:
One cannot control a monster by asking it not to shit as much. The monster is the problem, not the fact that it shits, no matter what colour the shit is.
Monday, March 16, 2009
1. New Dylan album coming out this year:
Bob Dylan interview
What do you mean by that?
There didn’t seem to be any general consensus among my listeners. Some people preferred my first period songs. Some, the second. Some, the Christian period. Some, the post Colombian. Some, the Pre-Raphaelite. Some people prefer my songs from the nineties. I see that my audience now doesn’t particular care what period the songs are from. They feel style and substance in a more visceral way and let it go at that. Images don’t hang anybody up. Like if there’s an astrologer with a criminal record in one of my songs it’s not going to make anybody wonder if the human race is doomed. Images are taken at face value and it kind of freed me up.
In what way?
Well for instance, if there are shadows and flowers and swampy ledges in a composition, that’s what they are in their essence. There’s no mystification. That’s one way I can explain it.
Like a locomotive, a pair of boots, a kiss or the rain?
Right. All those things are what they are. Or pieces of what they are. It’s the way you move them around that makes it work.
Bob Dylan interview
What do you mean by that?
There didn’t seem to be any general consensus among my listeners. Some people preferred my first period songs. Some, the second. Some, the Christian period. Some, the post Colombian. Some, the Pre-Raphaelite. Some people prefer my songs from the nineties. I see that my audience now doesn’t particular care what period the songs are from. They feel style and substance in a more visceral way and let it go at that. Images don’t hang anybody up. Like if there’s an astrologer with a criminal record in one of my songs it’s not going to make anybody wonder if the human race is doomed. Images are taken at face value and it kind of freed me up.
In what way?
Well for instance, if there are shadows and flowers and swampy ledges in a composition, that’s what they are in their essence. There’s no mystification. That’s one way I can explain it.
Like a locomotive, a pair of boots, a kiss or the rain?
Right. All those things are what they are. Or pieces of what they are. It’s the way you move them around that makes it work.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
1. What could I mean except that from this intellectual world in which we are swimming there must body forth a new world; but this new world can only be bodied forth in so far as it is conceived. And to conceive there must first be desire,... Desire is instinctual and holy: it is only through desire that we bring about the immaculate conception.
- Henry Miller's Hamlet, as quoted in Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Psychoanalysis by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari
- Henry Miller's Hamlet, as quoted in Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Psychoanalysis by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari
Thursday, March 5, 2009
1. Linguistically, the author is never more than the instance writing, just as I is nothing other than the instance saying I: language knows a 'subject', not a 'person', and this subject, empty outside of the very enunciation which defines it, suffices to make language 'hold together', suffices, that is to say, to exhaust it.
- Roland Barthes, The Death of the Author
- Roland Barthes, The Death of the Author
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
1. Someone said that Brecht wanted everybody to think alike. I want everybody to think alike. But Brecht wanted to do it through Communism, in a way. Russia is doing it under government. It's happening here all by itself without being under a strict government: so if it's working without trying, why can't it work without being Communist? Everybody looks alike and acts alike, and we're getting more and more that way.
I think everybody should be a machine.
- Andy Warhol, Art News interview, 1963
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
2. Unleashing a national offensive, spearheaded by the slogan "You Auto Buy," President Eisenhower in 1958 transformed consumer buying into an American duty.
- from Made In USA: An Americanization in Modern Art, The '50s & '60s, by Sidra Stitch
I think everybody should be a machine.
- Andy Warhol, Art News interview, 1963
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
2. Unleashing a national offensive, spearheaded by the slogan "You Auto Buy," President Eisenhower in 1958 transformed consumer buying into an American duty.
- from Made In USA: An Americanization in Modern Art, The '50s & '60s, by Sidra Stitch
Monday, March 2, 2009
1. I promised to post some art works by the crazy artist Yves Klein (1928-1962).
In this video (from a great site called Ubuweb - to which I've previously linked but never outright mentioned), you can see the process for his anthropometry. First, you'll see naked women models cover themselves in Klein blue (patented). Then, under his direction - as he wears his suit - they will rub themselves up against the canvas on the wall to create paintings as 'living paintbrushes'. All the while, the audible rendition of Klein's blue monochrome is performed by well-dressed musicians (though unfortunately this video has no sound). This rendition was one note, sustained for exactly 20 minutes, to be followed by 20 minutes of silence. You can watch a shorter version of the sound only subsequently performed in the video below.
Klein (from what little I know), a Rosicrucian, believed that blue was the gateway between the immaterial and material realms. His quest was proclaimed a spiritual one. Calling himself the Messenger of the Blue Void, he sought to surprise and uplift his audience.
Along with his paint anthropometry paintings (described above), he created anthropometries involving fire. This is also shown in the video. The naked women models are wet with water (and/or with paint), and pose against the canvas. They leave and then Klein, in suit, and with firefighter nearby spraying water, blasts a flamethrower at the canvas! The below is an example of one of these works. Note the 'aura' around the figure.
From here, the Yves Klein archives, you can see all sorts of his works.
In this video (from a great site called Ubuweb - to which I've previously linked but never outright mentioned), you can see the process for his anthropometry. First, you'll see naked women models cover themselves in Klein blue (patented). Then, under his direction - as he wears his suit - they will rub themselves up against the canvas on the wall to create paintings as 'living paintbrushes'. All the while, the audible rendition of Klein's blue monochrome is performed by well-dressed musicians (though unfortunately this video has no sound). This rendition was one note, sustained for exactly 20 minutes, to be followed by 20 minutes of silence. You can watch a shorter version of the sound only subsequently performed in the video below.
Klein (from what little I know), a Rosicrucian, believed that blue was the gateway between the immaterial and material realms. His quest was proclaimed a spiritual one. Calling himself the Messenger of the Blue Void, he sought to surprise and uplift his audience.
Along with his paint anthropometry paintings (described above), he created anthropometries involving fire. This is also shown in the video. The naked women models are wet with water (and/or with paint), and pose against the canvas. They leave and then Klein, in suit, and with firefighter nearby spraying water, blasts a flamethrower at the canvas! The below is an example of one of these works. Note the 'aura' around the figure.
From here, the Yves Klein archives, you can see all sorts of his works.
1. This post is merely to preserve the intro from the left frame, the intro that has been around for quite some time. It has shed from the left, and drifts like the rest of the wood on this web.
I don't argue what I believe - so I'm told - cloak & dagger, hiding hidden, eben. This blog seems that way, together with the other one (what we see as we spin past): a split of mind: one science, one silence?...hemispheres of thought trickling, what's left, what's right?.
I don't know where this'll go yet, like any disjointed scenery on the way past, like any yellow line.
Take it this way (if the missing is too much missed): this is a site of my stained glass, broken. This is the spider web of memories forming. These are my tears and these are my joys. Small parcels, each, but present nonetheless. I am the host introducing the guests.
Welcome.
I don't argue what I believe - so I'm told - cloak & dagger, hiding hidden, eben. This blog seems that way, together with the other one (what we see as we spin past): a split of mind: one science, one silence?...hemispheres of thought trickling, what's left, what's right?.
I don't know where this'll go yet, like any disjointed scenery on the way past, like any yellow line.
Take it this way (if the missing is too much missed): this is a site of my stained glass, broken. This is the spider web of memories forming. These are my tears and these are my joys. Small parcels, each, but present nonetheless. I am the host introducing the guests.
Welcome.
1. "The clear sense that you know you're in the homeward stretch is a very compelling component in writing," he says. "A lot of other things fall away that you hope would satisfy you like human life, and your work becomes a kind of haven, and you want to go there, and you're grateful when the time opens in such a way that you can actually sit down and work at your own work, because everything else somehow has failed.
"I'm speaking not just for myself," he continues. "Somehow, just in the nature of things, you know, the disappointments accumulate, and the obstacles multiply and you sense the destruction of your body, and your mind, and you feel here is the last arena — 'arena' is too big, the last boxing ring, or the last Ouija board, where you can examine some of the ideas that have intrigued you. That have seized you, really.
- Leonard Cohen, Globe and Mail interview, Feb 27, 2009
"I'm speaking not just for myself," he continues. "Somehow, just in the nature of things, you know, the disappointments accumulate, and the obstacles multiply and you sense the destruction of your body, and your mind, and you feel here is the last arena — 'arena' is too big, the last boxing ring, or the last Ouija board, where you can examine some of the ideas that have intrigued you. That have seized you, really.
- Leonard Cohen, Globe and Mail interview, Feb 27, 2009
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