[iDC] Re: Art
Malian Lahey
mlahey at artic.edu
Tue Dec 13 17:34:14 EST 2005
Quoting saul ostrow <sostrow at gate.cia.edu>:
>The resolution of this contradiction it
> has been suggested is in the belief that if the economic sphere turns
> us into animals, the cultural spheres task is to be the testing ground
> for those idealized practices intended to resolve this conflict.
>
> Cultures currency is our dis-satisfaction with the status quo and a
> desire for change rather than distraction, comfort or despair.
>Consequently, culture is circumscribed by the
> political consideration of conscience and the practical ones of
> exchange. The heroes of the epic struggle for our awareness and
> emancipation therefore come to be the intellectuals, who continue to
> negotiate the conventions of their own practices and the limitations of
> their forms. Though the effect of such challenges appears to be
> meaningless and impractical to the general populace we continue to
> believe that such critical practices can effectively challenge the
> legitimacy of Capital's power to transform anything and everything into
> a merely a sign by exposing its most venal nature.
>
> Saul Ostrow
> Dean,
> Visual Arts and Technologies Environment
> Chair of Painting
> The Cleveland Institute of Art
>
i believe the above statement to be an extremely good description of at least
part of the gordian knot we find ourselves bound by.
I have tended to see the entanglement described by Saul through the lens of
social darwinism, population ecology and evolutionary anthropology.
We desperately need a serious critique of social darwinism! I have attempted it
but I am sadly unprepared and this task may take me more than a year.
does anyone have a suggestion?
--
Malian Lahey
Muehlebachstrasse 30
8008 Zuerich
Switzerland
+41 0794 342 969
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