Re: <nettime> *anti art*

[rax@pop.thing.at (Robert Adrian)]

David Garcia wrote:

>Although they deal in a language as symbolic as art; "code", the hacker
>ethic revives the situationist proposal of an alternative type of
>creativity. A creativity which starts where art leaves off.
>It is normal everyday life that should be made passionate and rational
>and dramatic, not its reflection in the seperated world of art.

In a recent email Armin Medosch described his ideas for a forthcoming
edition of *Telepolis* concerning (among other things) "... how artists
are, in various ways, leaving the art system and connecting to other
areas of activity - but, while they no longer explicitly define their
work as art, they retain their identity as artists." (my translation)

I think Armin has got it just about right ... but I would decribe it as
"The Crisis of Professionalism" which the new digital technology is
creating in the traditional media. The "professional" artist (like
many other "media-professionals") finds her/himself in ever deeper
trouble as the mystique of production dissolves under pressure from
(for example) increasingly sophisticated desktop editing/production
systems.

>"Imagination should be applied directly to the transformation of reality
>itself not its symbols...this transformation should not be left in the
>hands of a small body of specialists but should be made by everyone".
>*Internationale Situationniste* 1958

I don't see any problem here. If the "specialist" is merging into the
"everyone" then the split between "reality" and its "symbols" becomes
as redundant so many other familiar dualisms.





---
#  distributed via nettime-l : no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime> is a closed moderated mailinglist for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: majordomo@icf.de and "info nettime" in the msg body
#  URL: http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/  contact: nettime-owner@icf.de