Hey, Lots of great stuff here I had to put my bit in.
*Manifesto on Art / Fluxus Art Amusement by George Maciunas, 1965 -* *"ART* *To justify artist's professional,parasitic and elite status in society, he must demonstrate artist's indispensability and exclusiveness, he must demonstrate the dependability of audience upon him, he must demonstrate that no one but the artist can do art.* *Therefore, art must appear to be complex, pretentious, profound, serious, intellectual, inspired, skillful, significant, theatrical, It must appear to be caluable as commodity so as to provide the artist with an income. To raise its value (artist's income and patrons profit), art is made to appear rare, limited in quantity and therefore obtainable and accessible only to the social elite and institutions.* *FLUXUS ART-AMUSEMENT * *To establish artist's nonprofessional status in society, he must demonstrate artist's dispensability and inclusiveness, he must demonstrate the selfsufficiency of the audience, he must demonstrate that anything can be art and anyone can do it. * *Therefore, art-amusement must be simple, amusing, upretentious, concerned with insignificances, require no skill or countless rehersals, have no commodity or institutional value. The value of art-amusement must be lowered by making it unlimited, massproduced, obtainable by all and eventually produced by all. Fluxus art-amusement is the rear-guard without any pretention or urge to participate in the competition of "one-upmanship" with the avant-garde. It strives for the monostructural and nontheatrical qualities of simple natural event, a game or a gag. It is the fusion of Spikes Jones Vaudeville, gag, children's games and Duchamp."* Art historically the odd the new and experimental found support in the big cities, major cultural centers, London, New York, for example maybe because there was a concentrated population, with enough intelectual diversity to support it. But I think today many of the ideas we recognise emerging from art history such as conceptualism have themselves become globalised. The architecture and institutions that shape so much of the art world are largely relics of a culture which required concentrations of capital to support its existence. Today we dont need them so much. We can exhibit our work online and distribute it ourselves. But we still feel like recognition in that institiutional sphere is a marker of success and a guarantor of the security we as artists miss in our precarious lives. Ultimately I think it comes down to a question of what world you situate your practice in. Is it in the big centers, the big galleries, is this where you feel comfortable, where you see your work? When I look at art history you have to wonder who writes it? who put that artist there? In reality I think most artists today are drawing from a fine art culture which saw its birth in the big cultural centers but has now become global. We still seem to look toward those centers even though those places might be completely alien to us. I live in Belfast at the moment while in college, but I grew up in a village in the west of ireland which I will return to when I finsih college, this is where I come from, it nearly dosent make any sense that I should go to london or New york, of course they are great places for a visit, but it is a city mind set too. When I first started to put my work online, I wanted to get it out there, but now I think there is a lot to be said for the relationships we form in our local sphere too, online its easy to find like minded people, there is a bit more work to do in local relationships. Can there be a happy medium. Can the internet support more diverse local cultural ecosystems? A Contemorary Folk Art? Maybe? Has anyone read Tom Shermans essay Vernacular Video ? - http://mail.kein.org/pipermail/nettime-l/2008-November/001010.html I really like this essay so I responded with some of my own reflections - - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/film-in-the-age-of-vernacular-video-2/2008/12/29 Also Has anyone read 'The Gift' by Lewis Hyde? I just finished it and recommend it to anyone interested in exploring what are for many artists problematic dynamics between art and the market economy. here is a link to his website http://www.lewishyde.com/progress.html There are also some interesting video and audio of lectures hes given http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mediaberkman/category/people/lewis-hyde/ Ok have to stop ranting must go go go make videos :) Happy New Year Kev -- Kevin Flanagan Research Blog - http://www.kevflanagan.wordpress.com Video Blog - http://www.kevflanaganvideoartblog.wordpress.com Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevflanagan
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