tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9918207.post114541371650244909..comments2023-06-01T16:38:52.121+02:00Comments on Weblog Keir Neuringer: Pre-concert Speech #2Keirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17380721582942127443noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9918207.post-1149198507881886992006-06-01T23:48:00.000+02:002006-06-01T23:48:00.000+02:00Absolutely right.Art is already vulnerable in the ...Absolutely right.<BR/><BR/>Art is already vulnerable in the way that counts - economically. To attract public funding, an artwork must not be expressly political or religious - in the Netherlands, anyway. (A quick view of the major public funding bodies' websites will confirm this). Private foundations have no such restrictions, of course..<BR/><BR/>Western artistic culture is intensely politicized. Projects which are chosen for (real) funding are generally chosen on their organizational merit. A producer (political officer of the media) looks at projects and chooses those which fit productional (political) strategies which have a successful precedent. <BR/><BR/>We are under occupation by the media. Art is not "culture", it is "culture and media". To make the artists the "eyes, ears and hands of the culture" is to make them media organs.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9918207.post-1149193728552466502006-06-01T22:28:00.000+02:002006-06-01T22:28:00.000+02:00"art must be vulnerable".. to be protected by a pr..."art must be vulnerable".. to be protected by a priviliged few?<BR/><BR/>Art is vulnerable in the way that counts - that is, economically. A situation like that of the Netherlands, where state subsidy is usually expressly denied to works which have an outspoken political (or religious) character, gives the artist only three options: sell objects with your artwork (advertising), sell organizational image through your artwork (public relations), or sell idea-constructs with perceived market value through your artwork (aesthetics). <BR/><BR/>A project may, for example, celebrate Indonesian culture, but it will never investigate the history of state intervention on the Indonesian archipelago. Texts by Mayakovsky may be read, but our ruling elite will never be seriously compared to the Soviets'.<BR/><BR/>Funding (private and public) is available for projects which have officially sanctioned political supervision. And these projects are chosen primarily for their ORGANIZATIONAL quality - the degree to which they conform to a successful organizational precedent. (If you're a producer checking out a project, you look for productional aspects that ensure success).<BR/><BR/>Does it make sense to you to consider infiltrating and subverting these organizations?<BR/><BR/>Great blog, by the way.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9918207.post-1145800701443698932006-04-23T15:58:00.000+02:002006-04-23T15:58:00.000+02:00Great stuff, Keir. Thanks for sharing.Great stuff, Keir. Thanks for sharing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9918207.post-1145701994307163132006-04-22T12:33:00.000+02:002006-04-22T12:33:00.000+02:00go on the Keir. Despite I love to read Vonnegut, i...go on the Keir. Despite I love to read Vonnegut, it used to stick in my craw he grumped a lot about the uselessness of art, said something like it helped the world as much as an icecream sundae would a dose of the clap. I´m not going to make any claims on how it can help "the" world because I don´t believe in the existence of one world, just an infinite number of our respective worlds, and I when I express myself through writing or painting or singing/playing, I feel healed.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9918207.post-1145692541256308842006-04-22T09:55:00.000+02:002006-04-22T09:55:00.000+02:00Morton Feldman was wrong. As for the "unspoken qua...Morton Feldman was wrong. <BR/><BR/>As for the "unspoken qualities" (quality = value, don't it?) of certain parameters of art, here's Shakespeare: "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." There is no "inherent hidden value" in space (for example) because space (or sound, or whatever) are constructs of the mind. Hamlet again: "I could be bound in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I had bad dreams."<BR/><BR/>Maurits, please read what I wrote. I have no trouble justifying myself as an artist. But if I was into the whole justifying thing--and considering your attitudes in the context of the severity of the crisis--I might have trouble justifying <I>you</I> as an artist.Keirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17380721582942127443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9918207.post-1145640181800868992006-04-21T19:23:00.000+02:002006-04-21T19:23:00.000+02:00Keir, i love your spirit.I am, however, not sure i...Keir, i love your spirit.<BR/>I am, however, not sure if i agree with you. The "great social significance" you speak of is a by-product of music as a carrier of messages, of social conditioning. In this context, it functions as a carrier of information other than what it inherently has to offer. Any other medium would equally suffice at bringing messages across. In this way, it's a FORMAT, nothing more. You also said; "To me, to suggest music is about sound would be like suggesting architecture is simply about space". This is assuming that there is no inherent value hidden in space, or sound, apart from social conditioning. To bombard sound, or space for that matter, with meaning, with value, you ignore the unspoken qualities hidden inside of it. <BR/><BR/>For art to truly be valuable, it has to remain vulnerable. Useless, perhaps. As soon as it is utilized for a specific purpose, as soon as it addresses a sense of meaning which is part of what we are MADE to agree on being meaningful, to also think in a speed wherein we are allowed or even forced to structure our thinking, we lose it.<BR/><BR/>Mortan Feldman said it best:<BR/><BR/>"Art in it's relation to life is nothing more than a glove turned inside out. It seems to have the same shapes and contours, but it can never be used for the same purpose. Art teaches nothing about life, just as life teaches us nothing about art".<BR/><BR/>I have the impression you have a hard time justifying your activities as an artist. Maybe if you let it be meaningless (and with meaning i mean an appointed subject), you'll descover it's intrinsic qualities. Isn't that the importance we really need to defend? To uncompromisingly volunteer oneself to be the eyes, ears, mouths, and hands of the culture? I'm not saying that art does not have any "social significance", it does. I just don't believe in the way you're going about to obtain it.<BR/><BR/>I do like your music, however, and wish you a lot of luck at your concert in Krakow.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9918207.post-1145630706769199872006-04-21T16:45:00.000+02:002006-04-21T16:45:00.000+02:00Michael: thanks for the Orwell. I'll post results ...Michael: thanks for the Orwell. I'll post results of the post-concert talk if there's anything good to report. The situation is such in Poland at the moment that many in the audience are likely to have adopted the T.I.N.A. ("there is no alternative") mode of thinking. But we'll see what we can provoke. Rafal Mazur, with whom I'll be playing, is not only an amazing bass player but also a student of philosophy and a first-rate haver-of-ideas. Zalujcie, wy anglo-jezyczni, ze nie mowi ani pisze po angielsku!Keirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17380721582942127443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9918207.post-1145514779263173982006-04-20T08:32:00.000+02:002006-04-20T08:32:00.000+02:00oops, i quoted it slightly wrong...here is exact.....oops, i quoted it slightly wrong...here is exact...<BR/><BR/>"The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude."<BR/><BR/>its from the essay "why i write" and i recommend it. here is a link and a bit more...<BR/><BR/>When I sit down to write a book, I do not say to myself, "I am going to produce a work of art." I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing. But I could not do the work of writing a book, or even a long magazine article, if it were not also an aesthetic experience. Anyone who cares to examine my work will see that even when it is downright propaganda it contains much that a full-time politician would consider irrelevant. I am not able, and do not want, completely to abandon the world view that I acquired in childhood. So long as I remain alive and well I shall continue to feel strongly about prose style, to love the surface of the earth, and to take a pleasure in solid objects and scraps of useless information.<BR/><BR/>http://tinyurl.com/kqpbgmichael the tubthumperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06230098214053507184noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9918207.post-1145514365048309122006-04-20T08:26:00.000+02:002006-04-20T08:26:00.000+02:00fabulous keir. again, i am going to have to use th...fabulous keir. <BR/><BR/>again, i am going to have to use the orwell quote...<BR/><BR/>"the opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is in itslef a political opinion"michael the tubthumperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06230098214053507184noreply@blogger.com