Simulations: Pages 13-23

This might be a bit of a stretch, but I basically think humans and human consciousness — whatever that is — are basically the best things in the universe. As far as I can tell, we are the only species that eats food as magnificently flavored as Takis, regularly cures cancer, has stepped foot on the moon, and has TV as genius as Tiger King. Ultimately, I think we are kind of special. 
Because of this, I believe the best way to think about the timeless philosophical question, "if a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound?" is, of course it does — it would just be so much better if a person was there to hear it. 
This is all a long-winded way for me to say that I am skeptical of Baudrillard's view of museumification. When something enters the dimension of the museum — or what might be described as humanities permanent zeitgeist — and is constantly being observed, considered, and cherished by humans, I think that thing stands to gain value, not lose it. For example, hundreds of undeveloped rolls of film, among other works, by photographer Vivian Maier were recently unearthed. One could argue that those rolls of film, now developed and placed in the museum, "ensures their extermination" but I just do not buy that. Honestly, it is probably because I am selfish, but god dammit, I like looking at her work, and if it were not for some sort of zeitgeist or museum, I would not have been exposed to it.

Anyways, here are some great images by Maier. Take em in before the get exterminated .








Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Yayoi

Image
Yayoi Kusama is one of those artists who is both deserving of their commercial success and seemingly unimpacted by it. According to artnet, she is the 3rd most expensive living female artist, and compared to other millionaire makers who produce pop-y, market friendly work, like Jeff Koons and Anish Kapoor, she is actually somewhat interesting. The most inspiring thing to me about Kusama is the way, or rather the amount, that she works. At 92, she still goes into the studio everyday and makes art with her own hands. At her level of success, she could work exclusively with an army of assistants and basically license out her aesthetic -- but she has not done that, because she is obsessed with material and pattern and form and color, not making fucking money. I want to be like her. I want to die at 95 with a camera in my hand and $7 in my bank account. I want to be so fucking worked up over making the world look weird that it gets in the way of my everyday life.       ...
Read more

Muddy Muddy Show

Image
The group project was a lot of fun and very exciting creative task! Normally, most of my artistic practice is just me. I spend a lot of time behind my computer screen or in the sculpture studio working by my own sad self. It was really eye opening to make art as a group and respond to people creatively. Putting those metal pieces on the wall with Chapin was sort of like a dance -- the two of us were able to work together to make one thing happen. It was also just such a stress reliever! I have gotten way to serious about basically everything in my life recently I think. It's all bills and doctors appointments and credit scores and attempts at "good art" with me these days. It felt SO SO good to rip up paper and draw on walls and act like a seven year old for a few hours.  Technically, seeing how to set up a scrim in a space like this and project video onto it was very useful. Pairing the work out video with the chanting totally changed the space, and playing ASMR in there...
Read more