Art has always had a difficult relationship with power. Its potential for corruption is nothing new (whether in religion or ideologies of various kinds - including capitalism). However, it is has become much harder to avoid the crap. There was a time (in the 70's and 80's) when artist run centres and experimental creative practices could be undertaken beneath the radar of the art world mainstream (and out of sight of most of society). What has happened since then is the mainstreaming of this activity, especially in the UK where such artists have become household names and celebrities appearing on TV talk shows and such-like. The present generation of younger artists have taken this as a model for how the contemporary artist should engage the public and now aspire to being more like pop musicians. This is a pervasive pornification of art, as with the rest of our society, and its inescapability is that is especially depressing.
best Simon On 7 Feb 2012, at 16:08, isabel brison wrote: > I agree with your portrait of the artworld, but hasn't it always been a bit > dodgy, ever since the days when art was almost exclusively religious > propaganda? > Not sure if the best way to deal with this is to drop the term "art" > completely, or to just carry on doing it and perhaps ignore the artworld. > After all, it's just an oversized commercial circuit. > > > On 7 February 2012 15:18, Simon Biggs <si...@littlepig.org.uk> wrote: > I can understand why some people don't want to call themselves artists, even > when they are. Mike Kelly, a very successful artist, was quoted as saying > that if he'd known art was going to become as corporatised as it has he would > never have chosen to be an artist (this quote has been viral on Twitter since > his recent death). I wonder what he would have chosen to be - or would he > have made up something new? This is what we need... > > People consider what I do as art and assume I'm an artist. However, like > Kelly and James, I became disillusioned with art and the art world a long > time ago - not because I've been given a hard time (quite the contrary) but > because I am disgusted at what seems to motivate many artists and the people > who engage (and run) art professionally. It's become a laundry for dodgy > money. Many artists, curators and cultural commentators are happy to join the > circus. It is sad. > > Due to this I now think of what I do as the "practice once known as art". A > programme I run, which is nominally in an art college (although for > administrative reasons it is located in an architecture department) > intentionally does not have the word art in its title (MSc by Research in > Interdisciplinary Creative Practices). This allows us to work in ways that a > course in our art department, with the expectation of producing artists to > work in the art world, would struggle to consider, bound by a pre-determined > framework of creative practice and engagement that is "art" as we now know > it. Again, it's sad (hope my colleagues in art aren't reading this) to see > students being primed as potential cannon-fodder for the art world. > > best > > Simon > > > On 7 Feb 2012, at 14:29, isabel brison wrote: > >> Hello, >> >> Just wondering why you choose not to call yourself an artist. Because the >> random stuff you post looks suspiciously like art to me... >> >> Isabel >> >> >> On 6 February 2012 15:04, James Morris <ja...@jwm-art.net> wrote: >> >> Hi, >> >> I recently noticed that facebook warns people about links to my website >> being malicious and surbl.org blacklists my domain name as associated >> with spam. >> >> From what I can tell, some email clients allow filtering of messages >> based upon these blacklists such as multi.surbl.org or ws.surbl.org and >> it is within these lists where my domain is listed in. Spam filters >> which use these lists scan the message _body_ and if a reference to a >> blacklisted domain is found then the message is regarded as spam. >> >> I'm rather disappointed about this and it's lead me to wonder if maybe >> something I've posted here is to blame. I know I've been argumentative >> at times and been reactionary to things I dislike but I hope that the >> actual work I've posted (not so much recent work) over the years has >> made up for it. >> >> The artist career thing for me never took off and academically the >> degree was as far as I got. Programming has become my focus and due to >> that I find little time for anything else. >> >> With that in mind I'm left making posts on the occasional inspired >> impulse. Hence the mobile-shot audio-clips and photographs from while >> I'm at (factory)work. Or screenshots of software I'm trying to develop. >> >> Seems like I'm producing less and less art. But does it have to be art >> to post here? I tend to focus on the "creativity" in the title to help >> me justify my posts here. I have a memory (real or imagined) of when I >> first subscribed of asked Marc if it was ok and he said 'for now'. >> >> The thing is I don't want to unsubscribe just because I'm not an artist >> any more, but the impulses to post *random*stuff* are likely to be >> around for a while... Unless people speak up to disuade me and give >> good reasons for why and etc.... >> >> James. >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> NetBehaviour mailing list >> NetBehaviour@netbehaviour.org >> http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour >> >> >> >> -- >> http://isabelbrison.blogspot.com/ >> _______________________________________________ >> NetBehaviour mailing list >> NetBehaviour@netbehaviour.org >> http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > > > Simon Biggs > si...@littlepig.org.uk http://www.littlepig.org.uk/ @SimonBiggsUK skype: > simonbiggsuk > > s.bi...@ed.ac.uk Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh > http://www.eca.ac.uk/circle/ http://www.elmcip.net/ > http://www.movingtargets.co.uk/ > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > NetBehaviour@netbehaviour.org > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > > > > -- > http://isabelbrison.blogspot.com/ > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > NetBehaviour@netbehaviour.org > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour Simon Biggs si...@littlepig.org.uk http://www.littlepig.org.uk/ @SimonBiggsUK skype: simonbiggsuk s.bi...@ed.ac.uk Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh http://www.eca.ac.uk/circle/ http://www.elmcip.net/ http://www.movingtargets.co.uk/
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