Art as Political vs Art as Individual, What is Protest? What is Vandalism?
It gets a little sticky in art statements when protest art is the object of “lesser” important protest artist mimicking Ai Weiwei’s breaking another artist’s work. Where is the line? Great discussion going on about the values involved in art as political vs art as individual;
http://gu.com/p/3mq2k
Who’s the vandal: Ai Weiwei 
or the man who smashed his Han urn?
An attack on the Chinese artist’s installation in Miami has been condemned as an act of vandalism. Why is smashing art only acceptable if an acclaimed global artist does it?
A “protest” at a Miami art museum raises some questions about what exactly art is, now.
On Sunday, a man called Maximo Caminero
Maximo Caminero Miami-Dade Police Department has smashed an artwork by Ai Weiwei, one of the most famous artists of this century and a hero to many for his defiance of the Chinese state. Cue appalled face. But this is not such a simple story. Caminero’s proclaimed motive – that the Perez Museum in Miami should be showing local, not global, art – is pretty daft (I didn’t know they had Ukip in Florida), but he has accidentally punched a massive hole in the logic of contemporary art.
……………
So – smashing art is interesting if an acclaimed global artist does it, and even if an art collector does it. But the guy who walks into a museum and smashes it is a vandal.
Could it be that smashing masterpieces is never interesting? That this illegal attack on art exposes the shallowness of the high end of contemporary art, where it’s cool to smash Han antiquities or doodle on Goya prints?
Ai Weiwei is courageous and eloquent but this incident and his response – for he has condemned the vandal – make me wonder about the rules of art right now. The reasons for condemning one destructive act and celebrating another don’t seem clear. Suddenly, the world’s most respected artist looks a bit conceptually fragile.
Go here for entire article; http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2014/feb/18/ai-weiwei-han-urn-smash-miami-art
Share this:
Worth Is Relative, Life vs Stuff
To be valuable that is what we want, that is the ageless refrain, to have meaning and worthiness.
Elementary Explanation = that which contributes to (Wholeness) Life opposed to accumulating The Elements (Stuff) of this Physical Earth.
Life vs Stuff
Organic vs Inorganic
Individual vs Group
Idea vs Automation
Painting vs Photoshop
Human Being vs History
Action vs Algorithm
House vs Gambler
Gravity vs Airplane
None of the Above vs Choice
Flesh and Blood vs Earth
Breath of Life vs Flesh and Blood
Life vs Stuff
Genesis 2: 7And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Share this:
Kitchen Appliance Spys, Who Wants This?!?
Sheesh!————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
I just hate being vindicated sometimes! My little tin foil hat has been laughed at for sooooo long that I’ve become inured to the oddness of knowing things which are rather inconvenient for most folks to believe about our “1984” style modern life.
Dishwasher
Smart TVs, smart fridges, smart washing machines? Disaster waiting to happen
Op-ed: Hardware companies are generally bad at writing software—and bad at updating it.
by Peter Bright – Jan 9 2014
[…]the “Internet of things” stands a really good chance of turning into the “Internet of unmaintained, insecure, and dangerously hackable things.”
These devices will inevitably be abandoned by their manufacturers, and the result will be lots of “smart” functionality—fridges that know what we buy and when, TVs that know what shows we watch—all connected to the Internet 24/7, all completely insecure.[…]
[…]A history of non-existent updates
Herein lies the problem, because if there’s one thing that companies like Samsung have demonstrated in the past, it’s a total unwillingness to provide a lifetime of software fixes and updates. Even smartphones, which are generally assumed to have a two-year lifecycle (with replacements driven by cheap or “free” contract-subsidized pricing), rarely receive updates for the full two years[…]
[…] First, I don’t think this kind of enforced, premature obsolescence is good[…]
[…]Second, not all devices are as trivial as TVs. Cars are increasingly computerized. They’re also really insecure in ways that unambiguously compromise safety.[…]
[…] I cannot fathom the appeal of smart fridges or washing machines). But a world of hundreds of millions of connected devices, all ignored and abandoned by their manufacturers, is not a healthy one.
As such, there are only two ways in which smart devices make sense. Manufacturers either need to commit to a lifetime of updates, or the devices need to be very cheap so they can be replaced every couple years.[…]
Welcome to the age of obsolescence and total exposure……
Share this:
Merry Christmas 2013 Happy New Year!
What a Year! Prayers and Wishes for 2014 to bring many blessings and rays of Light and Joy and Love
matermusearts 