Paul Feyerabend wrote: “Anything goes”. Thereby, he was referring to the fact that the axioms of science have always been changing and that the history of science is the demonstration of how science itself is socially moderated. There are no ultimate axioms and science is always contemporary. The same applies to art. There are no criteria for the successful creation of art or its final definition.
But living today and thus being contemporary creates also the obligation of adressing contemporary issues. The meaning of art can be described as the sum of the issue’s relevance and the depth of its development. But we should rather say the meaning has been described in that way. Because we have no security that it will be described like this in the future and it will never be possible to calculate artistic relevance and meaning. The bare attempt to do so makes the result turn into a cheap copy. In accordance to “anything goes” the future of the axioms is uncertain. Looking for them may even become the only issue of art. What may seem troubling is also the center of freedom. There is no art per definitionem, neither is there an artist’s biography per definitionem. Everything is open all the time and undecided – in both ways.
Tag: werkzeug
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Notes #4
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Notes #3
The hand is considered to be the ultimate tool, because of its ablility to use all the other ones. Since humanity is really committed to make the body as well as the mind obsolete in everyday life the question of which tools we use becomes more and more relevant. Artistic practice itself is always confronted with this problem even though it is seldomly made explicit. Far too often artists ignore the technical side of their activity, thus unproportionally emphasising the expressive function of art. But the manner how something is said is as important and as political as what is actually said.
At the same time there is no clear answer, no right way of speaking. It is as valid to use antique methods and to perform a painting with bare hands on a wall as to make 3D prints out of AI generated data. The work can be considered successful as long as the tools used are reflected within the process and its result. Methodology can relate to the reported content.
Art and beauty are arbitrary. this cannot be ignored by artists for which reason they have to take a stance towards their arbitrariness and the arbitrariness of our relationship towards the world. In taking a stance they have to be clear and consequent – neither logical, nor conform. -
Notes #2
A phenomenological analysis of Europe – understood as a political idea – what would it consist of?
In spring, I have been taking photos on the German – French border next to Saarbrücken (Bliesbrück and Goldene Bremm to be precise). I walked around in the empty space between the two states, observing and recording. The border is invisible but it surely exists. It creates a unique type of space that is different from the two entities who are separated by the border itself. That means consequently that France and Germany aren’t touching each other but are rather separated by a broader border region. In this region, characteristics of the two states are distorted and mixed together in an unknown and unregulated manner. The region is an intermediary third that can be accessed from both sides as a subject of cognition. Speaking of borders therefore means speaking of a shared space and uncovering, within and through the own discurse, the individual perspective on that space.
Ithaka 