Art Theory Summer Camp

two potentials for this summer

2011-01-08T05:30:00.000-08:00

Jane Bennett: Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things

Graham Harman: Prince of Networks: Bruno Latour and Metaphysics (this one may stretch the parameters of ATSC, but it may be of interest to us as a group or individually anyway)

Missing you! Looking forward to camp, if only to ease me back into the post-graduate school (!) world.

link to New Yorker Article

2010-09-01T19:00:00.000-07:00

Koch brothers war against Obama

interesting in view of our discussion tonight.......

Back to Bucky

2010-08-04T13:33:00.001-07:00

This is really late, but I just got around to our round-up of things we liked about Bucky, even if he is nuts:

1) It's not technology that saves us, it's the implementation of technology. The goal is "livery."
2) There is abundance. It is generous but finite. Abundance vs. limited resources and grasping for power.
3) We each create our own "omnihood." Omni is a big concept from the book; a sort of variation of act locally but try and affect the major systems and learn how they interact and how systems need plurality and dissension (part of his omni-vision is very naive).
4) Have a master plan.
5) Don't accept the words of experts; test things for yourself. Rely on direct experience/
6) Don't forget to do.
7) Don't forget the process (and documenting the process) is as important as the work.

Nef

When Merely Discussing Raises Hackles

2010-08-04T13:28:00.001-07:00

I read this today in one of my many email alerts, and it reminded me of Zizek's discussion of torture (page 50): below we have an open discussion AND a law about the limits of extra-judicial killing!

EXTRAJUDICIAL TARGETING OF AMERICANS CHALLENGED

Two civil liberties organizations said they will file a legal challenge against the government's suspected targeting for assassination of an American supporter of Al Qaeda, arguing that under the U.S. Constitution no citizen can be "deprived of life... without due process of law."

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights first filed suit against the Treasury Department, which said they needed a "license" in order to act on behalf of Anwar al-Awlaki, who has been designated as a terrorist. After the lawsuit was filed yesterday, the Treasury Department said the license to proceed would be granted.

Meanwhile, Rep. Dennis Kucinich and several House colleagues introduced legislation last week "to prohibit the extrajudicial killing of United States citizens."

"No United States citizen, regardless of location, can be 'deprived of life, liberty, property, without due process of law', as stated in Article XIV of the Constitution," their bill said.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said yesterday that the targeting of al-Awlaki was not done entirely without process. "There's a process in place that I'm not at liberty to discuss," he said.

"If... we think that direct action [against terrorists] will involve killing an American, we get specific permission to do that," then-DNI Dennis C. Blair told a House Intelligence Committee hearing (pdf) on February 3, 2010.

But the Kucinich bill said that "No one, including the President, may instruct a person acting within the scope of employment with the United States Government or an agent acting on behalf of the United States Government to engage in, or conspire to engage in, the extrajudicial killing of a United States citizen."

Zizek: The Reality of the Virtual (film)

2010-08-04T09:07:00.000-07:00

If you are a Netflix subscriber, you can enjoy this lecture given by the man himself in London, 2003.

The first 15 minutes or so are spent clarifying his understanding of Lacan's Imaginary, Symbolic, Real triad. I did not stay up late enough last night to watch all the way through to the end, but will finish the movie tonight.

Netflix has other documentaries on or including Zized available through the mail. You Chicagoans might want to plan a watching party!

TDR

p.s. awesome talk last night. thanks to all for persevering over the technology hurdles. we might all have a bit of the revolutionary in us, yet. Happy reading!

Agamben

2010-08-03T10:16:00.000-07:00

Hi campers,

I'm happily following up on our discussion from last week with a reference that came up. Around page 258 in Latour, we started to question the limits of his description of the law, and how well his case for the law's stability functions when applied to, for example, developments in European law leading up to WWII. We were looking at the section where he establishes that the difference between police and thugs depends on the entirety of the law (a fabric of sanctions and decrees makes the act of search and arrest legal rather than an act of thuggery -- there is a lot to unpack).

There is a footnote on Vichy in Latour, but not much else to contextualize what his conclusions here regarding the Council of State might say about systematic removal of civil rights, states of exception, and so on, which led me to mention Giorgio Agamben's Homo Sacer. 'Homo sacer' is a feature of Roman law, a person who can be killed but not sacrificed. It does take a book to sort out what that means, a paradox in which someone is excluded from the law and thereby included and identified under it -- in Roman law it applied to banishment, and today we would also talk about it in terms of stripping civil rights. Agamben looks at the early roots of these laws regarding the 'sacred man' and in particular at developments in European law leading up to WWII.

So if you finished Latour thinking, 'What about ..' -- this book may add to the conversation.

Happiness with a cup of tea and Zizek in hand to you all --
Annie

Lost Causes from Rio

2010-08-02T06:35:00.001-07:00

Hey campers. I am back online and looking forward to Tuesday at 8 (Chicago time/10 Rio time). I will read to about page 100. I figure we can give this book five weeks, as it is long and we did not choose a September book. As this book touches on just about every book and movie ever made, there are lots of connections to past readings. No doubt there will be lots to talk about. Viva la revolution (at least ones that pose deeply inspiring and motivating symbolic value to the world outside the brutality and specificity of violence-as proposed by Zizek)!

Tuesday,

Amber

Making the Law

2010-07-19T14:21:00.000-07:00

Bruno Latour is a curious spectrum shift from Bucky. While Fuller offers a (historically imaginative) totalizing world view, Latour give is a microscopic look at French Administrative law. He outlines the movement, the verbs of the place-where people stand, how chairs move, how the files rotate, the organization and shifts in the mailboxes and the redirection in conversation. Latour is the HOW of how power moves, whereas Fuller is a broad stroke why.

The contrast is startling, but...useful. The frustration at Fuller's obsessive need to fit every bit of everything into his call to throw one's self into the cause of humanity is matched by an underlying frustration that Latour seems to be purposefully obfuscating his position as an agent and collector of information. He simply states what he sees at movement, or like an active verb, instances of shift or change, but refuses (so far p. 175) to make any broad social or narrative assumptions based on his observations.

Latour's openness to observe an institution is remarkably refreshing. I just hope it is not like so many modern novels where the words just end, right in the middle of a some larger narrative left for the reader to interpret. And yet, that is so often how it really is.

Somewhere between grand narrative and hands off narrative could be a good spot for me.

Amber

And So Bucky

2010-07-19T14:09:00.000-07:00

So we all agreed Bucky deeply stumbled when it came to accuracy or implementation. Yet, we found a deeply generous spirit towards humanity that was intriguing enough to keep us reading.

Below are Annie Heckman's musing/notes (slightly abridged).

Over-emphasis on technology
Top-down approach

Convoluted
Self-aggrandizing

Gems throughout notes – marked with *
*Local information gatherer
*Problem-solver

Globally active – act local think global

Omni – absolute
Perhaps he overused this word, just a little, every other sentence or so? (AG comment)

Jane Jacobs/Direct articulated lens/Areas of city healthy/unhealthy
Fuller – work for all of humanity

Things that humans all share globally: gravity, sunlight, air
Resources generous but finite
*Posture of abundance and generosity
*Counteracting a fear of limited resources
Mother hen
20th century Ben Franklin

history of power
documenting history
owning things
*power of one
*local efforts
*apply yourself
*methodology of creating

art and design
research and development
burden of development on the individual in the art world
design process more closely follows collaborative practice in architecture
architects who don’t want doors in their offices because it slows down collaboration

*taking responsibility
*interest in honoring what the individual directly experiences as a source of data
*setting out personal principles
*personally developed way of life
credo
*consciously creating your own worldview independent of how you were raised

impressed with his ego
*believing that smaller things that happen along the way will be somehow important in the future/ once the process is realized
sometimes we might tend to labor away and downplay the importance of the backwork
*valuing background work enough to document it
*finding useful reminders of the relationships between thoughts and actions
*idea that the universe regenerates and that using this it is possible to recreate within the system

technology emphasis is a mistake
it’s not technology that saves us but the implementation of technology
weaponry livingry

*his way of figuring out how to get things done
*examining the process of invention

obsessive documentation
the idea that if you say it often enough it will be true

OMNI
All, every
Binaries
world game
World-wide energy grid
Dome – gravity
NPR piece about $2,000 sustainable living space for Haiti, inventor who wants it to be helpful

Colonialism
One person
Engineer
Creating new problems
Involving the whole neighborhood
Not being aware of the law of unintended consequences

The whole idea of having a world plan
Chris Rock bit about jobs vs. careers
*Influencing us to Find little things we can do to change things – why don’t I just do this?
*Open possibilities
burden of humanity
*allowing small things to be important to the whole
Marianne Williamson
Fear is that we’re powerful
Rebecca Solnit -- Hope in the Dark

Larry Kramer – having a plan, idea that there are people with awful intentions who have made careful plans and therefore it is your responsibility to make your own even if the idea of making a master plan seems in itself wrong
Relating the idea of master plan to efforts in US to further strip LGBTQ rights

Good intentions
Stepping back and seeing how much things have changed
Happier to live in 2010 than in 1927
Seeing the changes that have been made

Life work
*Having a cause - 1 thing that you care about deeply
too many things in the world for everyone to mind everything
*finding out what needs to be done that is more important than what we’re actually doing
what are you spending your time doing?

*Idea that if everybody worked on it, it would be better
Don’t forget to do, and not just think

DO-ing got complicated for Bucky
Dealing with unintended consequences
Awareness of the things that we’re working on

Tuesdays become Latour-days

2010-07-06T17:03:00.000-07:00

Good evening everyone.

Soon a Bucky re-cap will be posted. I just need to be in the same physical space for more than a few days.

So onto Latour and French Administrative law. If you like files and listening in on closed door conversations, this could be the text for you.

Still, every Tuesday at 8pm, Chicago time.

Amber

Our own critical path

2010-06-23T16:01:00.000-07:00

Ok, so we clearly don't want a technocracy or fascisms, but Bucky is right on a few things. The world is round and we understand there are finite resources, know-how and how-know are vital essential for change and we are stewards of the “spaceship earth”. From our discussions it is clear we think technology isn’t gonna save us and we want to allow for more cultural difference and bottom up development than Bucky. For this last bit of the book then, the question is - What is the critical path?

Critical Path, 30 years old, but quite topical...

2010-06-14T06:52:00.000-07:00

Bucky may have been a wild story teller and might have cherry-picked which historical events to highlight, but then again, this story in today's paper sounds like it came straight from his book.

Read the article here: U.S. Identifies Vast Riches of Minerals in Afghanistan

Next week 8pm Tuesday night

2010-06-10T19:46:00.000-07:00

Campers,

So, first of all, if you are online and want to join, please email me. I keep my email open for just such things. Tonight Melissa was online, but my Skype did not see her. Bad Skype! Glad you could join us, if late.

Readings:
Reading for Tuesday. June 15/100-178
Reading for Tuesday. June 22/179-252
Reading for Tuesday. June 29/253-346
Appendix I and II - as desired.

Tara was the most generous among us, allowing Bucky full license with history not as an "scientist-artist" but as a philosopher-bard. With varying degrees of latitude, we all seem to be finding some kind of sea legs on this ride of a book.

Happy reading,

Amber

Updated time this week: Thursday night 8pm

2010-06-07T12:51:00.001-07:00

Alrighty then, we are set for Thursday at 8pm, Chicago time. If you and I are not connected as Skype friends, send me your handle or friend me at amberginsburg.

Topic: The wild historic ride as provided by Bucky Fuller, through the middle of chapter 3, page 100 in my St. Martin's Press version.

Until very very soon,

Amber

Oh Shit

2010-06-06T17:35:00.000-07:00

Hey campers. You all know me. Well, I am about to be fully myself. I have double booked Tuesday. I have the final critique for my University of Chicago class on Tuesday from 6-10pm (potluck of course.) This timing is so out of the ordinary, I did not notice the boo-boo until this very moment.

So....let's do Wednesday night. Let me know if that is a conflict for anyone. If so, we will re-group and pick another time. So very many apologies for this lameness on our first date of the year.

All lameness on my part aside, what do you all think of Bucky. I think this book is a wild ride of assumptions, particularly about how the computer is going to save us and break down all cultural, political and natural barriers (remember de Certeau anyone?) and a curiously intriguing guide book fostering resource equality to all. Parts of the book read like Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror and reminds me of the ever repeating tropes in history, while other bits are pure fantasy. When is the last time anyone wrote dolphin and whales are descendants from humans holding their breath?

Unlike more dispassionate books, this wild ride is oddly inspiring.

Amber

And so it begins

2010-06-01T08:26:00.000-07:00

Dear Campers,

It is the first week of Camp and time for Buckminster Fuller's, Critical Path. The chapters to do not fall into tidy divisions for us, so let's read chapter 1, 2 and part of three up to about page 100, just over 1/4th, but a generous start.

Happy reading.

Amber

Initial Response to Critical Path

2010-05-30T22:24:00.000-07:00

Great googly mooglies, is Bucky Fuller wild, or what? And by wild, I'm not sure whether I mean brilliant and prescient, or just plumb insane.

Fundamental complimentarity... unity is plural and at a minimum 6-fold.
I love that what, "[He] is trying to discover is why God included humans in Universe." Nothing like setting lofty goals, eh?

To be nobody but yourself, to attempt as an individual what the traditional power structures could never accomplish....to become a "local universe information harvester and problem solver in support of eternally regenerative Universe." (I need to order new business cards!!)

On the one hand, he seems to think we're in big trouble if we've not realized his vision by 2000 (which clearly we have not). On the other, he encourages us that we, "will find the world responding to [our] earnest initiative." I am SOOO looking forward to spending the summer with a brilliant, crazy, cynical optimist!
What's jumping out at y'all?

Books for the summer

2010-05-26T04:55:00.000-07:00

Dear all,

These are the books for the summer of 2010!

Book One- June:
Buckminster Fuller, Critical Path

Book Two-July:
Bruno Latour, The Making of Law.
http://www.bruno-latour.fr/livres/MAKINGOFLAW-Foreword.pdf

Book Three-August:
Slavo Zizek, In Defense of Lost Causes

Possible summer titles

2010-03-22T11:05:00.000-07:00

I sent out an email with the following possibilities for summer reading. Additionally, suggestions from various campers are listed. In the next month we will vote on summer reading.

Bruno Latour, The Making of Law.
http://www.bruno-latour.fr/livres/MAKINGOFLAW-Foreword.pdf

Slavo Zizek, In Defense of Lost Causes OR
Zizek, Violence

http://books.google.com/books?id=KBIkPV0R14sC&printsec=frontcover&dq=violence+by+zizek&source=bl&ots=6OwuiVGnv3&sig=HfvFJcuFAZ0SPl7gsAeFmCwBpKA&hl=en&ei=wj2LS6PKLoKMNqH3rfcO&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBAQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=violence%20by%20zizek&f=false

Martha Nussbaum, Woman and Human Development (Capabilities theory)

http://books.google.com/books?id=9R69I--rpzUC&dq=Martha+Nussbaum+capabilites&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=cz6LS92EE5P4NduL2aUB&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CB4Q6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking
I am a partial Solnit fan, but think a walking focused book could be good. Suggestions?

Glenn Adamson, The Craft Reader

Buckminster Fuller, Critical Path

something by Walter Benjamin? (that you've not done already?)

Lewis Hyde: Trickster makes this world mischief myth and art

Nature of design
by David W. Orr
http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780195173680.do

Earth in mind: on education, environment, and the human prospect
by David W. Orr
http://books.google.com/books?id=Oy9IGO5ZdaUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=david+orr&source=bl&ots=QeS5wKAO23&sig=UtgcGww-6MfqYRmxF9hlKqSKXqg&hl=en&ei=2yaVS6z_I4esNvW0ncAH&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=13&ved=0CDIQ6AEwDA#v=onepage&q=&f=false

The Gift of Good Land
by Wendell Berry
http://books.google.com/books?id=rjRPPwAACAAJ&dq=the+gift+of+good+land&hl=en&ei=1iiVS53DBInKNdXj_JgN&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-thumbnail&resnum=1&ved=0CDcQ6wEwAA

Kinship to Mastery: Biophilia in Human Evolution and Developments
by Stephan R. Kellert
http://books.google.com/books?id=PkufpPphlz8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=building+for+life&source=gbs_similarbooks_s&cad=1#v=onepage&q=building%20for%20life&f=false

One Straw Revolution
by Masanobu Fukoka
http://books.google.com/books?id=9dVgPwAACAAJ&dq=one+straw+revolution&source=gbs_book_other_versions_r&cad=3

Why we Garden: Cultivating a sense of place
By Jim Nollman

http://books.google.com/books?id=_VbGL69Gnj0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Why+We+Garden:+Cultivating+a+Sense+of+Place&ei=mSuVS93ELJaWNYnEtNEM&cd=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false

The Language of Landscape
By Anne Whiston Spirn

http://books.google.com/books?id=pRyh6iVkWj8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Meaning+of+Gardens&source=gbs_similarbooks_s&cad=1#v=onepage&q=The%20Meaning%20of%20Gardens&f=false

Time to pick for summer

2010-03-03T12:32:00.000-08:00

Dear Campers and potential Campers.

Art Theory Summer Camp is just around the corner, which means it is time to select four books. Below is an initial list, but I am seeking suggestions. This summer will follow past summers- a book a month for June, July, August and September.

Bruno Latour, The Making of Law.
http://www.bruno-latour.fr/livres/MAKINGOFLAW-Foreword.pdf

Slavo Zizek, In Defense of Lost Causes OR
Zizek, Violence

http://books.google.com/books?id=KBIkPV0R14sC&printsec=frontcover&dq=violence+by+zizek&source=bl&ots=6OwuiVGnv3&sig=HfvFJcuFAZ0SPl7gsAeFmCwBpKA&hl=en&ei=wj2LS6PKLoKMNqH3rfcO&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBAQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=violence%20by%20zizek&f=false

Martha Nussbaum, Woman and Human Development (Capabilities theory)

http://books.google.com/books?id=9R69I--rpzUC&dq=Martha+Nussbaum+capabilites&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=cz6LS92EE5P4NduL2aUB&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CB4Q6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking
I am a partial Solnit fan, but think a walking focused book could be good. Suggestions?

Glenn Adamson, The Craft Reader

Art Theory Summer Camp, briefly described-

When: Weekly meetings (subject to change based on the schedules of participants)
Where: On skype
What: A book a month June-September
Who: Anyone interested and perhaps a friend

Shaping the future

2009-09-09T21:09:00.000-07:00

"We did not come to fear the future. We came here to shape it. I still believe we can act even when it's hard. I still believe we can replace acrimony with civility, and gridlock with progress. I still believe we can do great things, and that here and now we will meet history's test."

Barack Obama, speech to Congress, 9/9/09

Somehow this speaks to me as an artist striving to develop a meaningful practice in a way I don't think it could have before I became more familiar with Bruno Latour and Lewis Hyde, in particular.

Watch the entire speech online at Huffington Post

2009-08-30T21:54:00.000-07:00

Recently, I visited the Susan B. Anthony House in Rochester. As the docent told us a bit about Anthony’s background and work, I could not help but think about Bruno Latour and ANT. Raised a Quaker, she grew up in a community that differed from the mainstream in many ways, but particularly in that women had an equal voice, an equal vote in community decisions. Deeply concerned with the social issues of the day, fairly early on she devoted her life’s work to effecting social change. Lack of suffrage for women was not necessarily the greatest social ill in Anthony’s mind (that may have been slavery) but securing suffrage was the most likely way to influence change in many areas.
As our docent later told us how Anthony focused early on getting suffrage into the constitutions of territories applying for statehood, as opposed to simply lobbying Congress directly to change the law of the land, I could not shake the thought that Anthony had a firm grasp on the principles of agency. She certainly understood that law of the land might reflect the prevailing ‘panorama’ of the day, but also that the ink never truly dries on the Constitution, as long as ‘we the people’ actually exercise our own agency and don’t leave it all to ‘them in Congress.’

So where have you been this Summer when Jane Jacobs or Rebecca Solnit or our friend Bruno have tapped you on the shoulder to get your attention?

3/4 into Latour (or close)

2009-08-18T14:51:00.000-07:00

This is a reminder about the online meeting tonight at 8:30 (central) I will only have 30 minutes online, but the interview section is CLEAR, so we can progress faster. Interested folks can keep on going.

Watershed residency update: It is hot today, the sheep are nestled in the shade, and suddenly what seemed like a very long time to be away is just about over.

First week with Latour

2009-08-03T10:50:00.001-07:00

Howdy,

Just a reminder that we will be talking about the first 50 or so pages of Reassembling the Social. Good stuff. Hope you can get online tomorrow, Tuesday at 8:30 Central time.

Amber

Last week for Field Guide to Getting Lost

2009-07-27T05:31:00.000-07:00

Dear Campers,

This week is going to be online. I had imagined I could be in Nashville and at Backstory at the same time, but as I pack, I realize, I can only be in one place at one time. I am driving to Nashville with Katie Hargrave (known to a few of you) so we can look through the family photos of Betty Rymer. We will be exploring geography and identity, two themes in A Field Guide to Getting Lost.

I will hunt some internet down in Nashville and be on Skype at 8:30 Central time for the last Sonit week.

Happy getting lost.

Schedule for Field Guide

2009-07-09T05:12:00.000-07:00

Good morning,

Next Tuesday, the 14th, there will be no Art Theory meetings. All are invited to an opening at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago from 7-8 pm.

All agree this books is better read at the pace of a novel and not broken up into tidy week sections. Read Field Guide at whatever speed you wish and we will talk about the book on Tuesday, the 21st. At that point, if we want to extend the conversation one more week, we can. Or we can start Reassembling the Social a week early.

Happy reading.

Amber

2009-07-01T06:17:00.000-07:00

Good morning,

This is Rebecca Solnit week and we get to Get Lost. Read the first third for next Tuesday. As this is a short sweet book, we will read it in 3 sections. We will still call it the July book, as I need to miss Tuesday the 14th for an opening. If you are in the area, please come to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago between 7-8. The show continues through Sunday July 19th.

Happy reading.

Amber

2009-06-23T17:15:00.000-07:00

Evening all,

I have 2 request for an 8:30 Chicago time tonight. As this is the second week this time works better, let's make it permanent.

I will be on Skype at 8:25 (or so). If you want join us, locate amberginsburg (my user name) and I will then "friend you". I will make a conference call to all online at 8:30. If you don't get the call, call me directly and I will add you.

Amber

2009-06-19T07:17:00.000-07:00

Tara,

The article on Cairo is perfect. The density of the city does seem to support Jane Jacob's theories. Also, the deregulated commerce encourages boys with cotton candy and small tea stands. A middle ground, perhaps called easy or light regulation that encourages small, say cart sized, business would do wonders for our parks, bridges (like the one pictured in the article), and other open zones.

Thanks for posting.

Amber

Second Meeting-Tuesday

2009-06-15T08:07:00.000-07:00

Campers,

Next meeting times:

Face to Face: Tuesday, 10:30am, Backstory Cafe
Computer to Computer: Tuesday 8:30 (Chicago Time). Nef requested 30 minutes later, so she can get home from work. East Coasters, I hope this is not too late.

The first meeting on Jane Jacobs began by looking at one of the criteria she sites that promotes healthy neighborhoods:

"First, there must be a clear demarcation between public and private space. Public and private spaces cannot ooze into each other the way they typically do in suburban settings or in projects." Page 35 Vintage Press

From this many examples of positive city setting emerged. Over all, there was surprising agreement towards Ms. Jacobs theories. Essentially, we all wanted more of what she espouses, mixed use and a greater small individually owned businesses in our walking path that fostered pedestrian traffic at all times. Safe streets? Yes. More economic diversity? Yes. Sidewalks as places in their own right? Yes.

Her ideas are so simple and so clearly stated, it is really stunning they are not followed. She is empirical in her quest. What works, really works in the world around us and what can we learn from that? Her writing is a wonderful tour guide for walking the city.

The next section moves to broader topics than the city sidewalk.

Happy reading.

Amber

Book ONE SKYPE time

2009-06-02T18:46:00.000-07:00

Hey campers,

For book one, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Skype meetings will be Tuesdays at 8PM Central (aka Chicago) time. The first meeting will be June 9th.

If you are not familiar with Skype, the following should get you started.

1. Download Skype (it is free)
2. Pick a user name and set up an account
3. Search the contact list for amberginsburg
4. Add me to your contact list

When it is time for the conference, I will see you are online and call you from a conference line.

NOTE: There will be multiple people online. Please have headphones or the feedback is unkind. If you have the fancy kind with a speaker great (like they use for telemarketing), if not, regular ones will work.

Enjoy the first 1/4 of Jane Jacobs. I have started the reading and I am finding my walking and bike riding are more nuanced. I see a bit more of my neighborhood through Ms. Jacobs.

Amber

Here we go.

2009-05-27T23:14:00.000-07:00

Hey campers,

Sorry for the delay. No internet at the new house yet. Got a moment of pirate time, so here is the final vote:

The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs

A Field Guide to Getting Lost, Rebecca Solnit

Reassembling the Social, Bruno Latour

The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property, Lewis Hyde

The Solnit was actually the highest vote, but we can all pick up a copy of The Death and Life of Great American Cities just about anywhere. Since camp starts June 1, I wanted to make the first book an easy acquisition.

For those in Chicago, the first meeting will be TUESDAY June 9th, 10:30 AM at Backstory Cafe (6100 South Blackstone) We will discuss the first 1/4 of the book. If I could find my copy , rather than know it is just out of reach in one of the many many boxes scattered about, I would give you exact chapters. That is just something we can look forward to.

For those on Skype, let get together on Tuesday June 9th at 8pm (Chicago time). Or, find a friend near by and meet for tea and chats once a week. Post your questions or comments on the blog and folks will respond.

Happy reading and we will chat soon.

Time for the final vote on books

2009-05-21T12:27:00.000-07:00

So I usually make my picks in a nice quiet spot and announce the winners. This year there are too many good suggestion. I think a bit of voting is in order. Please vote on the five books listed below. The four with the highest rating will be the final choice. Rank by preference 1-4, 4 being the book you most desire to read. The vote closes Monday, May 25th. We will begin the first book June 1. That gives us a week to get the first book. It is a bit tight, but manageable. Happy choices.

The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property, Lewis Hyde

The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs

A Field Guide to Getting Lost, Rebecca Solnit

In Defense of Lost Causes, Slavo Zizek

Reassembling the Social, Bruno Latour

Art Theory Summer Camp-SUMMER READING SUGGESTION TIME

2009-01-12T07:15:00.000-08:00

Art Theory Summer Camp, while aspiring to run all year long, is destined to be a summer time activity.

Below are a list of possible readings for the summer. Now is an excellent time to propose books and voice preferences. We will choose 4.

The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property
Hyde, Lewis
The Quality of Life Nussbaum, Martha and Sen, Amartya
The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jacobs, Jane
A Field Guide to Getting Lost, Solnit, Rebecca
The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life Goffman, Erving
Conversation Pieces: Community and Communication in Modern Art Kester, Grant
Everyday Aesthetics Mandoki, Katva

Amber

Long time no post

2008-09-25T20:00:00.000-07:00

So, this summer, Camp Theory focused on Skype meetings and very little substantive commentary made it to the blog. The good news is that we have decided to extend summer creating more chances to read and chat and/or post.

From Bourdieu, the group decided to keep reading about gift economy. Our next book is:

The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property by Lewis Hyde.

Skype meeting announcement coming soon.

Outline of a Theory of Practice-Chapter 2

2008-08-17T08:24:00.000-07:00

The next Skype meeting will be Sunday, August 24th on chapter 2.

I read chapter one in two parts. During the first part, I was engaged and interested in Bourdieu’s critiques of the biases we bring to questions based on our profession or perspective. The questions an ethnographer asks, frames the nature of the answer. He also questions the answers. The answers may reflect an ideal rather then the lived experience.

I had a very hard time concentrating to the second half of the chapter. I kept hoping Bourdieu would give a hint as to why I should care about the specificity of his research and how he, outside of talking about (but not showing) statistical analysis and game theory, questioned his own biases.

New Chat Time

2008-08-13T10:53:00.000-07:00

Dear readers,

The next Skype meeting will be Sunday 10 AM, yes, that is the morning folks, Chicago time. We will talk about the first chapter of Outline of a Theory of Practice, as I had to cancel the last meeting.

It think it is interesting that this book has the typographical "look" of Agamben and address many of the issue of what is mean to being working "now" that Arendt poses. These books seem to know each other.

Amber

Last book of the summer

2008-08-07T13:13:00.000-07:00

Dear campers,

It is time for the last book of the summer. Outline of a Theory of Practice
by Pierre Bourdieu. We will Skype about the first chapter on Sunday 8 pm Chicago time.

Happy reading.

Amber

Finishing The Human Condition

2008-07-30T21:19:00.001-07:00

So, it is time to move on from the Human Condition. Monday, rather than Wednesday will be the last chat, 9pm Chicago time.

Tonight's conversation centered around the particular ways Arendt uses words like private and public and how easy it is to start substituting our modern understanding of these words. It took me some time to understand she is dealing with these words much more theoretically and in an isolated format. Her definitions from Greek and Roman debate have to do with ideal states of separation. She is, in many ways pointing out the blurring of the two and the dangers of not noticing this. Yet, I still often, even when reading this, blur them.

Happy reading.

reading time

2008-07-29T09:03:00.001-07:00

So, somehow in getting back to the States, I fell of the Arendt wagon. If you are free, let's talk about Action on Wednesday evening at 9pm Chicago time.

We will hold the final Skype meeting the following Wednesday, concluding this wonderful book. I find it odd The Human Condition is not quoted more, more widely discussed, and generally appreciated. I find everything I am reading relates back to Arendt. Not only that, her mixture of simple almost obvious intellectual structures combined with her views and detailed historical support provide a refreshing writing model. Usually, these components are separated, leaving overly diaristic, overly academic narrative, or complex and obtuse theoretical writing.

Basically, this is just a pleasure to read and think about as I go about my day.

Enjoy reading.

Amber

Action

2008-07-21T15:34:00.000-07:00

The conversation and music were wonderful on Sunday. Some questions that came up that we can consider include:

What is the relationship between violence and labor Arendt talks about in section 17, A Consumer's Society (page 129/130 in the second edition)?

What does Arendt mean when she talks about privacy and in particular how is the labor of the body the most private of the three types of work? Pg 121

We will read through ACTION and Skype on Friday at 6 PM Chicago time.

Enjoy.

Second Section of The Human Condition

2008-07-16T15:52:00.000-07:00

Campers,

I hope you are enjoying The Human Condition as much as I am. The next Skype meeting will be on Sunday at 8PM Chicago time. Please read the Labor and Work sections.

Agamben to Arendt

2008-07-13T14:07:00.000-07:00

The Human Condition is a nice companion to the State of Exception. Giorgio Agamben’s short book maintains a tight argument. He primarily uses Carl Schmidt’s legal writings and Roman law to uphold the idea that a political and legal no man’s land, the state of exception, where the leader of a constitutional state uses the law to suspend the law has been, if not constant since World War I, the default control strategy. The oddity between how clear and obvious his thesis appears in the introduction and how arcane most of his arguments seem pose a tension between the acutely politically and socially relevant and the seemingly obscure.

The first section of Hannah Arendt’s The Human Condition on the Realm of the Public and the Realm of Private act a model for the structure and use of early Western Philosophy as a basis for an argument. Where as Arendt’s arguments are broad and work within large categories, types labor, public and private, family and bureaucracy, her theories are supported by the very current, in relation to the publication of the book, or early thought. As she attempts to trace ideas from the past to the present, a logic emerges. The logic is debatable, but it is laid out. Agamben uses his examples as proofs and the writing style is more formal. At times, the two time frames, early law/politics and the current Patriot Act seem too distant. Arendt's more conversational tone seems to provide a model to fill the gap.

I look forward to the next conversation tonight at 8pm Chicago time.

Amber

Winding up of State of Excecption and beginning The Human Condition

2008-07-08T18:37:00.000-07:00

It is time for a new book, The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt. Read through the section on Public and Private Realms and we will have a Skype meeting on

Sunday night 8pm Chicago time.

We will wrap up State of Exception and open a discussion on the Human Condition.

Happy reading.

Amber

Questions for our Thursday 8pm (Chicago time) talk

2008-06-30T17:15:00.000-07:00

While reading this, I have come across very few moments when I want to argue face to face with the author. This is unusual in theory. One of the reasons I like reading theory is that is agitates my intellectual hackles. I am not finding this dynamic while this reading. Do other folks feel the same way? I am finding an easy and pleasant melding of Agamben’s ideas with my own. But I always do have questions and here are a few to consider for our chat on Thursday at 8 pm Chicago time.

1. Agamben is a professor of aesthetics. While this writing seems clear from the point of view of legal philosophy or politics, does it take on a different meaning when considered from the point of view of aesthetics?

2. Has anyone ever seen the Hebrew letter Aleph used as a footnote before? Also, as there are other letters in the Hebrew alphabet, why always Aleph?

3. Agamben’s thesis on the slide into an easy (and I suspect we are reading our way into a theory of a constant) state of exception since WWI seems remarkably obvious. Is this perspective simply obvious once state?

4. Being outside of law and legal theory, I like the precise textual and historical format of the book. For those who know the subject, is it overly simple?

I hope these questions are helpful. Feel free to post questions or bring your own the conversation.

Talk to you soon.

Amber

Next phone time

2008-06-29T02:18:00.000-07:00

The next phone time is Thursday night 8pm Chicago time. That is 9am Taipei time, so that works.

Can't wait to hear what questions you have.

Amber

Posted by Nef Mart

2008-06-29T02:16:00.000-07:00

This is in response to my reading of page 2 where the judiciary becomes the law and politics becomes living. I was asking if that extends to make living life inherently political?

Re: state of exception - I think what he means on the first page is that in the relation of laws to people, there is also a state of exception for the individual actor. For example, you can shoot someone in self defense, as the law against murder is suspended - but only to the point of necessity - you can't kill them unless you fear for your life. In emergencies - some of these "exceptions" are well documented in the law, but some are not so clear.

Nef

State of Exception

2008-06-26T18:49:00.000-07:00

First I want to thank Katie Hargrave for recommending this book. There are remarkable connections to these ideas and people close to me. My mom, Susan Mart, writes on the Patriot Act, and has made that her speciality yet did not know this writing. My husband Tom specializes in International Constitutional law and politics and did not know this writing. I appreciate how theory has a way of crossing disciplinary boundaries.

I cannot set a phone date for chapter 2 and 3 just yet, as my schedule is still fuzzy here in Taiwan. We are going to explore some nature here, but don't know which days we will be away from technology.

So, as we currently live in a state of exception, act and live, which Agamben proposes as political (top of page 2) and enjoy your acts of legal disobedience.

Amber

New book: State of Exception

2008-06-17T14:45:00.000-07:00

Hello,

Because I am in Darmstadt doing the K[ne(e){a}d] project, I am not going to hold a closing Skype conversation about the Archive and the Repertoire.

We begin State of Exception, by Giorgio Agamben today. Read the first quarter this week and post questions ad comments to this blog.

The next Skype conversation will be Monday the 23rd at 5pm Chicago Time. I cannot do it any later, as that is midnight in Germany.

Please post if you are going to join this call, as I will sleep if no one is in for this round.

This book should prove really interesting and quite different from a book on performance and hemispheric studies. Yet, I am sure there will be overlap. There always is.

Happy reading.

Amber

Reading for the week of June 9th -16th

2008-06-08T12:38:00.000-07:00

This is the final week for Diana Taylor's The Archive and The Repertoire. Either finish the book or find an interesting section. The next Skype discussion will be:

Wednesday, June 11th at 8:30 Chicago time.

Happy reading.

Amber

Reading for this week

2008-05-28T22:08:00.000-07:00

The reading for this week is:

Memory as Cultural Practice (I added this again)
La Raza Cosmetica
False Identification:Minority populations Mourn Diana
You are Here

Enjoy.

Amber

First conference call

2008-05-26T14:26:00.000-07:00

If you would like to join the first conference all today (Monday May 26th) at 6pm Chicago time, please join Skype. To do so:

1. Go the Skype site: www.skype.com
2. Download their application
3. Create a user name
4. Add me as a contact by clicking the small + on the bottom right of the pop-up screen
5. Look for amberginsburg (all lower case-all one word)
6.Add me to your contacts
7. Be on Skype at 6pm (Chicago time)

Hope to hear from you this week or sometime soon.

Amber

Why this book?

2008-05-23T07:56:00.000-07:00

A few people have asked me, "Why this book?" It might seem odd to choose a book on performance and hemispheric studies, as I know very little about performance and didn't even know the term hemispheric studies until I read the introduction.

My friend Katie Hargrave recommended the book to me some time ago. We both work inter-disciplinarily. Reading this book as a methodological model for inter-disciplinarity is easier NOT knowing the subject well. I appreciate the broad approach and expanse language Diana Taylor uses. She sees each subject in conversation with each other (pg.xvii). The way she asks questions of each appeals to my open-endedness.

I have been accused many time of having performance in my work. When Taylor writes- “Civic obedience, resistance, citizenship, gender, ethnicity, and sexual identity, for example, are rehearsed and performed daily in the public sphere.”- performance bleeds into critical spatial practice, history, and gender studies. Nice. I was at the train Metra station reading that sentence. The two platforms, divided by track, had benches facing one another. Suddenly I was performing reading for the folks opposite me while they were performing a variety of things, boredom, mating rituals, and a race politics, to name a few. I love the idea of public spaces as sites of performance where we both influence and are.

I tend to shy away from the diaristic. Not so with this reading. This entry in written in the first person as an experiment in directness. This writing, while deeply personal, still manages to appeal to broad interests. Another nice model.

Amber

2008-05-19T19:06:00.000-07:00

Hello Art Theory Summer Campers,

Today is the official opening of Art Theory Summer camp. Our first book is Diana Taylor’s The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas. There are 10 chapters in the book and we have four weeks allotted. The first reading is:

Introduction: Who, When, What, Why
1. Acts of Transfer
2. Scenarios of Discovery
3. Memory as Cultural Practice

Feel free to join in the conversation about the book as a whole or any article of interest. Participate as you are able.

Our first Skype meeting will be

Monday the 26th at 6pm.

If you are interested in this time-based dialogue, sign up for Skype prior to the meeting time. Skype is a free online commutation tool that allows for conference calls. If you have a headset, or headphones, conference calls are much easier to understand. http://www.skype.com/

Happy reading!

Amber

2008-05-06T16:43:00.000-07:00

Art Theory Summer Camp is about to begin again. Below is a list of summer readings, as well as a schedule. As an addition to the blog format, this year there will be weekly SKYPE meetings. I hope having “talk time” will allow for fluid and organic connections to take place that will complement the written format of the blog. Times for phone meeting will be regularized to meet the needs of this year's participants.

Order or reserve your books now for the summer and join the fun.

Book ONE:
The Archive and the Repertoire-Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas
Diana Taylor
May 19th –June 16th

Book TWO:
State of Exception
By Giorgio Agamben
June 17th-July 7th

Book THREE:
The Human Condition
Hannah Arendt
July 8th-August 4th
Human Condition

Book FOUR:
Outline of a Theory of Practice
by Pierre Bourdieu
Aug 5th-September 1st

Amber

2008-01-06T15:04:00.000-08:00

Collaborating

2007-10-24T10:43:00.000-07:00

Below is a link to a short, blunt, and sweet article on collaboration. I not only agree that the tensions inherent in collaboration moves the work and individual practice forward, there is a complex and wonderful freedom in ceding direct authorship. By giving up authorship, subject and content can predominate.

Against Competition
by Marc Fischer

http://aaaarg.org/against-competition

Data Vs. Information

2007-10-03T21:31:00.000-07:00

Micheal Whitelaw presents a mechanism to evaluate data art in the article Art Against Information-Case Studies in Data Practice. Looking to the source of the term data, Whitelaw, explores the difference between data and information. In science, data is raw knowledge and information is data framed in such a way as to provided some insight. By looking at the difference, Whitelaw criticizes data artists that present their work as data when selection preferences and display modes transform the data into information. This differentiations gives viewers a handy tool to begin an investigation of assumptions within this genre.

http://aaaarg.org/art-against-information-case-studies-in-data-practice

Memory

2007-09-24T19:36:00.000-07:00

I was recently introduced to the writings of Mary Carruthers. In the introduction to A Study of Memory in Medieval Culture she uses the specificity of the topic, the idea of memory in the Middle Ages, to touch on broader notions of the function of memory within culture. I like the use of the specific as a tool for looking at bigger pictures. Diana Taylor also used this mechanism nicely in The Archive and the Repertoire-Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas.

Carruthers describes the Middle Ages as a culture of the “memorial’ and contrasts that to our current understanding of memory as based in the “documentary.” This is an interesting way to look at modernity.

She sites various uses of the metaphor of memory as a wax tablet. I find this visually poetic and somehow currently relevant. The archival nature of wax (encaustic paintings endure) combined with how easilty it is transformed (just add pressure or heat) captures the elusive nature of memory.

While the introduction is wonderful, the body of the book becomes so overly specific I found it, well, dull. This is also true of one of my favorite pieces of writing- the introduction by Simon Schama to Landscape and Memory. I never could get through the book, but I have read and re-read the introduction. I would place this in a similar category.

The Archive and The Repertoire

2007-09-17T05:47:00.000-07:00

The Archive and the Repertoire-Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas, by Diana Taylor is an interesting and intriguingly problematic look how to create a body of knowledge around performance, which is inherently ephemeral. As a basis for inquiry, she looks to her personal experience and her study of "hemispheric" cultural difference. Frustrated by how Western culture defines norms, she looks at the tools of cultural studies to examine the difficulties of defining and documenting performance. The second section where she defines the archive and the repertoire is quite wonderful. The book shifts in scale from large issues to personal memory with ease. A case study of sorts, it is necessary to abstract some of the information, if you happen to be uninterested in the particular topic of examination. She provides excellent tools for looking at large picture issues.

The Archive and the Repertoire by Diana Taylor, Duke University Press.

The Theory of the Derive

2007-09-05T12:41:00.000-07:00

So, my chain of reading did not lead to my expected destination, but to The Theory of the Derive by Guy Deborg, 1958. Enjoy this wandering on wandering.

http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/2.derive.htm

Henri Lefebvre interview

2007-08-30T10:03:00.001-07:00

This week is a snippet of Situationists International history. Henri Lefebvre talks about his interactions with with Situationist in a 1983 interview by Kristin Ross. It is full of dichotomies with a healthy dose of utopian goals. For those interested, Henri Lefebvre wrote the famous Critique of Everyday Life, which is on my reading list. Expect a brief post next week on this reading.

http://www.notbored.org/lefebvre-interview.html

Sculpture in the Expanded Field

2007-08-18T21:00:00.000-07:00

Thursday postings have fallen a bit behind in the wake of a move. In an attempt to get back on track, below is a link to the classic Rosalind Krauss article Sculpture in the Expanded Field. This article had somehow escaped my time and attention. As always, Krauss writes with a clear argument and enough opinion to keep debate heated. Also, the diagrams are charming.

http://orchid.cs.uiuc.edu/people/adamczyk/pvss/readings.html

The Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson

2007-08-12T05:52:00.000-07:00

Rather than post, I recommend a book entitled Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson. This is a slim book based on the epic poem, Geryoneïs, as told by the sixth century poet Stesichorus. The main character is a red boy with wings who comes of age in a story set in a variety of times, told by a series of narrators, and in diverse stylistic modes. This is beautiful and jarring poem/tale. This book like the Jeanette Winterson novel, Written on the Body, I recently read, is a written compliment to theoretical ideas.

Note: I exchanged one of my possessions for Written on the Body when Nancy Nesbit came through Champaign Urbana and stopped at OPENSOURCE Art. She is engaged in a yearlong project, Exchange, where she is driving every one of her possessions across Canada, the United States, and Mexico and exchanging objects and stories along the way. The website is:

http://www.exchangeproject.ca/

Genealogy of Site Specificity. In One Place After Another: Site-Specific Art and Locational Identity

2007-07-28T18:57:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking about the difference between space and place, as that has come up in conversation repeatedly over the past week. In response to this nice serendipity, I am posting an article by Miwon Kwon entitled Genealogy of Site Specificity. In One Place After Another: Site-Specific Art and Locational Identity.

http://orchid.cs.uiuc.edu/people/adamczyk/pvss/readings.html

2007-07-09T14:11:00.000-07:00

Death of the Author

Below is a link to an article by Roland Barthes entitled Death of the Author. This article voices one of my current favorite notions: once something is written or made the author becomes tertiary to the reader and the continuum in which the work exists with other works. Making art is not about being an individual genius, but about participating.

http://aaaarg.org/roland-barthes-the-death-of-the-author

Vocabulary

2007-06-29T14:26:00.000-07:00

Below is a vocabulary list from the summer readings. If you would like to add to this list or post questions, I am happy to add you as an author. Just send me your email address as a comment or to my email at amberginsburg@gmail.com and I will add you as an authorized CampTheory user.

Aporia. 1. Rhetoric. the expression of a simulated or real doubt, as about where to begin or what to do or say.
2. Logic, Philosophy. a difficulty encountered in establishing the theoretical truth of a proposition, created by the presence of evidence both for and against it.
au·toch·tho·nous [aw-tok-thuh-nuhs] –adjective

1.	pertaining to autochthons; aboriginal; indigenous (opposed to heterochthonous).

Pathology.

a.	found in the part of the body in which it originates, as a cancerous lesion.

b.	found in a locality in which it originates, as an infectious disease.

3.	Psychology. of or pertaining to ideas that arise independently of the individual's own train of thought and seem instead to have some alien or external agency as their source.

4.	Geology. (of rocks, minerals, etc.) formed in the region where found.

B
Conterminous, a.
1. Having a common boundary, bordering upon (each other).
2. Meeting at their ends.
3.Coincident in their boundaries; exactly co-extensive

b. Exactly coextensive in time, range, sense, etc.
D
Egeliac 1. used in, suitable for, or resembling an elegy.
2. expressing sorrow or lamentation: elegiac strains.
3. Classical Prosody. noting a distich or couplet the first line of which is a dactylic hexameter and the second a pentameter, or a verse differing from the hexameter by suppression of the arsis or metrically unaccented part of the third and the sixth foot.
–noun
Epistemic: of or pertaining to knowledge or the conditions for acquiring it.
F
G
habent sua fata libelli:
Books have their Fate
het·er·on·o·mous
: subject to external controls and impositions
Botany. of or pertaining to monoclinous flowers of two or more kinds occurring on different individuals of the same species, the kinds differing in the relative length of stamens and pistils (opposed to homogonous).
Heuristic
1.serving to indicate or point out; stimulating interest as a means of furthering investigation.

2.	encouraging a person to learn, discover, understand, or solve problems on his or her own, as by experimenting, evaluating possible answers or solutions, or by trial and error: a heuristic teaching method.

3.	of, pertaining to, or based on experimentation, evaluation, or trial-and-error methods.

I
J
K
L
M
N
O
phys·i·og·no·my
1 : the art of discovering temperament and character from outward appearance
2 : the facial features held to show qualities of mind or character by their configuration or expression
3 : external aspect; also : inner character or quality revealed outwardly
polemical
1. a controversial argument, as one against some opinion, doctrine, etc.
2. a person who argues in opposition to another; controversialist.
–adjective
pukka \PUHK-uh\, adjective:
1. Authentic; genuine.
2. Good of its kind; first-class.
Q
R
S
Telos: the end term of a goal-directed process; esp., the Aristotelian final cause
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

Design and Crime by Hal Foster based on an article of the same name by Adolf Loos.

2007-06-29T11:53:00.000-07:00

The next online reading is Design and Crime, by Hal Foster, which is based on an article of the same name by Adolf Loos. A link to the reading is below.

http://aaaarg.org/hal-foster-design-and-crime

2007-06-26T10:53:00.000-07:00

“Fascism sees its salvation in giving these masses not their rights, but instead a chance to express themselves.” Page 14

Questions, in this asynchronistic format are a bit difficult. The questions either seem too huge- Does Benjamin believes that film, which presents a reality outside of a specific humanity, history or location, will be the undoing of religion? Or they seem too small-What does the sentence “When the age of mechanical preproduction separated art from its basis in cult, the semblance of its autonomy disappeared forever.” actually mean? I will take my small token, the chance to express myself, and pose a question. All questions great or small are welcome to this forum.

I would like to look across this reading at some themes about the body and ask a more generalized question about body, routine, and politics.

Benjamin speaks about the body in terms of film actors. The film displaces the actor from his audience, thereby severing any location or history. Walter Benjamin equates the original to location and history or space and context. He compares the original to reproductions in terms of value, cult value vs. exhibition value. On page 8, this displacement of the body is talked about in terms of an exile of the self.

The body is also discussed in terms of the eye. Mechanical reproduction focuses attentions on the eye, or sight. In the case of film, the eye of the cameraperson or editor is predominant. Great weight is given to the choice of the cameraperson through their eyes. In Marxist terms, this gives great power to the producer.

Toward the end of the article architecture enters into the discussion, as the oldest art form. Architecture becomes an ideal model on which to formulate the potential of art because it is perceived in a distracted state. This distraction, Benjamin argues, is inherent in reproduction. In the age of mechanical reproduction, we have all become distracted experts. On page 14, the use or appropriation of buildings happens in two ways, “by touch and by sight.” Touch and architecture meld into habit.

So- to my question. Benjamin both identifies the political power of reproduction to control, while at the same time, sees the tremendous potential for positive change. So where does the body figure into all of this? The body is the site of perception, but it is also the site on which we test or evaluate different modes of art or politics. Body and habit-touch and sight- politicizing art and aestheticizing politics. There are, in this writing, many different notions about how the body enters into these ideas. What do you think?

The First Reading of the Summer

2007-06-22T12:09:00.000-07:00

Our first reading is The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin. Below is a link to a an online pdf.

When posting a question, please give the page number and a small section of a sentence to help us find the exact quote.

Happy reading.

Amber

design.wishiewashie.com/HT5/WalterBenjaminTheWorkofArt.pdf

Welcome to Art Theory Summer Camp

2007-06-20T06:20:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Art Theory Summer Camp.

My hope is that this blog will function in two ways:

-For anyone who misses an OPENSOURCE meeting, we can communicate on this blog.

-For anyone wishing to join Art Theory Summer Camp, but can't come to meetings, this blog will be the forum for questioning and debate.

Happy reading.

Amber