Avant-garde, post-modernism and meaning
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Re: Avant-garde, post-modernism and meaning
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Re: Avant-garde, post-modernism and meaning
I like thisNo sense getting all twisted up when someone blows their dog whistle and we bark.
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Re: Avant-garde, post-modernism and meaning
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Re: Avant-garde, post-modernism and meaning
Fleetfootphil wrote:As the initial post on this tread aptly states, art has been harnassed and shackeled into service, to perform work that it was never intended to do before. Art is now supposed to solve social problems and shine lights on problems for mankind. It's supposed to be "cutting edge" and "avant garde". Is it fair to heap that kind of load on some people who just want to draw, paint and sculpt?
True, I have been emphasing social problems as the locus of meaning in works of art. This is only partly true. Art is also for expressing our hopes fears and passions. Art is going to take the place of religion as means of expression of our feeling, and vehicle for facing ethical problems.
I think there are always people who want to inject meaning into what they do, and others who want to do what they do because of the sensual satisfaction involved. It is true that there is sensual satisfaction in making artistic artefacts, and only the most dry old Calvinist would deny sensual satisfaction to artists or anyone else.
It is as fair to heap the responsibility to deal with avant garde and post modern upon artists as upon anyone else. Why should artists be excused this responsibiity, especially when artists are better skilled than anyone else to shoulder it?
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Re: Avant-garde, post-modernism and meaning
I'm not sure we should heap anything on anyone. There is no shortage of people (say politicians) who want to take on issues. I think that, for the most part, artists just make art. What they tell themselves they are saying or doing is often not what they actually achieve in their work. The meaning that comes out of looking at their work is brought by the viewer to the work, artists just provide triggers- of which they are often unaware themselves. On the other hand, there are activists who use "artistic" means, such as painting and photography, to generate response but not really to make art.
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Re: Avant-garde, post-modernism and meaning
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Re: Avant-garde, post-modernism and meaning
Who decides what are societal problems anyway? Are they a function of natural law? If we all shoulder everything, are we all socialists? Is being a socialist a bad thing? Is there an accepted way among artists to shoulder the responsibility of raising children? Do adults share responsibility for the distribution of education? Is education supposed to be equal for all or do some adults better educate some in their care than they do others? Is it possible to know about slaughter of innocents in a foreign land by militarists who get their support from taxes I pay and still be an adult?
I think I am involved, not by choice, in many things but I have no responsibilties in any of it. I am barely responsible for what I do. I belive that, as humans, we developed the illusion that we can control ourselves and other things. But we can't. We just watch as things happen.
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Re: Avant-garde, post-modernism and meaning
And has no illusions about his own capabilities.
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Re: Avant-garde, post-modernism and meaning
I think there are always people who want to inject meaning onto things that had none to begin with. There are lots of songs that became lovers' anthems, as well as others' anthems, that turn out to have been about dogs, Jesus, lesbianism, drugs. We don't know what we are talking about but we just keep on talking anyway. I read a birthday card the other day that said "a year older and one year closer to just making things up." Ain't that the truth?
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Re: Avant-garde, post-modernism and meaning
Not to be discouraged though!"a year older and one year closer to just making things up." Ain't that the truth
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Re: Avant-garde, post-modernism and meaning
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Re: Avant-garde, post-modernism and meaning
What I meant, Fleetfootphil, is I must try not to be discouraged even although I know that I invent narratives to suit my agendas. After all, it is good to know that one has this ordinary human fault, and can then do something about it."a year older and one year closer to just making things up." Ain't that the truth?
It is good thinking to to be able to see from others' perspectives.
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Re: Avant-garde, post-modernism and meaning
I love a good human fault.
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Art, that is what it is for . There is also art's function as medium for expression of communal values.How are we to think from others' perspectives when the only one we have is our own?
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Re: Avant-garde, post-modernism and meaning
Why do people think that that other discussion about fat and skinny women is okay here? Is it because the guy who uses a baby picture to identify himself dreamed it up and asked it? What illusions of reality are at play there? Illusions are not reality but living inside them is. The dang paradoxes are all over the place. , Are there separations between lines of inquiry in life? Who has a valid answer to any question?
Belinda: I appreciate knowing that you think about things. That is so much more satisfactory than reading "thoughts" of those who couldn't think themselves out of a copy/paste bag if their butts were ideas and they lit themslelves on fire. I reckon to be kicked out of here before long, but, in the meantime, I enjoy thinking about things with you and anyone else willing.
2023/2024 Philosophy Books of the Month
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