Sunday, March 28, 2010
post 9
The documentary on the origins of the hacker reminds me that even the most frivolous activity can develop into something momentous. "Phone Phreaking" for example may be the most inane activity I could imagine but that activity, with its foundation steeped in simple pranksterism, became the catalyst for the home computer. Its this kind of spirit that can be most difficult to appreciate when viewing from the outside. To labor for long hours to simply see what a piece of hardware can do for your amusement can seem like a means to no real end. Then again to find "an end" is something no one ever really hopes to attain but would rather explore the means. The same kind of idea could be said for the arts for it too seeks newer processes to reach unlikely conclusions. This spirit of simple enjoyment within the medium is what, I believe, will ultimately progress a given activity.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
post 8
John Cage takes out the esoteric nature commonly associated with art making to simply enjoy it on a very physical and cerebral level. His theory that anything can be art, or any sound in his case, takes a lot of the weight off of putting a grid on what kind of art one practices. Though I can see his beliefs about art do stem from very western beliefs of mimesis which I saw when he described art as "imitating art in her manner of being". To me the idea of taking oneself out of art helps to make it a more universally understood subject.
"The highest purpose is to have no purpose." is both startling and frightfully reflective on our current state of being as we, inhabitants of an image saturated culture, have come to wonder whether injecting more images or stuff into the world is really necessary. To be purposeless, to me, implies that no longer is there anything to hold on to. No more obligations. With the abandonment of attachments in the literal sense, perhaps people can achieve a newer state of awareness as we zoom out to face the world as a whole instead of microscopic parts.
"The highest purpose is to have no purpose." is both startling and frightfully reflective on our current state of being as we, inhabitants of an image saturated culture, have come to wonder whether injecting more images or stuff into the world is really necessary. To be purposeless, to me, implies that no longer is there anything to hold on to. No more obligations. With the abandonment of attachments in the literal sense, perhaps people can achieve a newer state of awareness as we zoom out to face the world as a whole instead of microscopic parts.
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