Heiko Recktenwald writes:
>When fluxus began in the Cage class, they were some of the
>most avantgarde people of its time. Those who call themself
>"fluxus" today are not.
What does avantgarde mean, today? Who is avantgarde today? These are interesting
questions and I do not know how to approach them.
Don't hate me, but I have been reading an article about Online (Internet) Education in
a recent issue of the New York Times Sunday Magazine. There is quote from a professor
(my copy is at home) who is trying to get "top-notch" universities to let their
faculty lecture for his online ed company: to paraphrase-- the avant-garde (in art)
and capitalism as similar because they are both concerned with the "new."
I disagree with this statement, or at least with the superficial aspects of it. My
conception of the avant-garde is one of overturning established orders and ideologies,
which I guess could be considered "new," but it is a new mentality. Capitalism is
ALWAYS concerned with producing goods or services at a profit, and hasn't changed at
all. There is a drive for new goods and markets and a silly marketing spin on Internet
Business as "the New Economy" (tm), but it isn't.
Now the relation between art and capitalism can be scary: is the avant-garde in art
just the capitalist quest for new markets? Ack! I hope not. Maybe it has become that.
For me, if the avant-garde is "overturning established orders and ideologies," the one
it should be directed against is capitalism.
I'd be interested in thoughts/reactions on this topic.
-Josh Ronsen
http://www.nd.org/jronsen
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