In a message dated 5/29/2002 9:05:50 PM Central Daylight Time,
joseph@electrichands.com writes:
> even to move your hand requires a
> decision, and a decision demonstrates a thought
But in Zen drawing the drawing doesn't matter and the point is not to be
thinking, deciding, choosing, any of that. Is that the basic difference
between Eastern and Western art?
Didn't Buckminster Fuller discuss that in "Decision and Complexity"? I
haven't read it lately but I know at the time it was published–right after
the controversial Bienniale of '73–people accused Fuller of having ties to
Skinner, hyper-dependence on determination and enlightenment. They were
driving at the value driver of the manufacture of enlightenment and gave 'er
a good go; I won't hold 'er agin' 'em.
The decision to choose, to select, and anoint is the decision. The rest of
it is non-decisional, and we have the brain science hot on tap to prove it
free and clear. Hey, I think the Smiths must have been copying T Rex a
little bit. Who's better? Not my business.
Ah, sweet decision. What on earth is more glutting or fleeting than a
gratifying decision; in fact you could say that Empire itself is built on a
fulcrum of decision or what we humans call "Art." Art, sweet Art. But EH
Gombrich says in his book that "there is no such thing as Art; there are only
Artists."
Which was the same idea as in War and Peace! It's a general tradition that
the artist is always outside of history. God damn witch doctors, they tell
ya that to make you buy paintings left and right.
Is Genius the Artist and 2000 the Art? I would say yes in that it has
infinite surface area, my G2K compositional meme "the dark pixel." See, in
3d the logomeme is a spherical surface area generated by a script of possible
moves by a knight. You can even go to 4D. My designers are working on this
type of scripting as we speak.
T Rex's "Electric Warrior"–bad or good album? I think it's pretty good.
Plus so many nettimers are emailing me offlist it's been great, really great.
I think it creates just the right buzz, the spin to get me that Walker
Award!
You do not have my permission to forward this to Rhizome or any other list.
Your friend,
Max Herman
++
Quoting Nmherman@aol.com:
> But in Zen drawing the drawing doesn't matter and the point is not to be
> thinking, deciding, choosing, any of that. Is that the basic difference
> between Eastern and Western art?
Trained thoughts into fingers or hands. Perhaps worse in many ways. What
happens when you don't like either East or West? Is there some South or North
bipolar I can work with?
What I have to do is get out of my head thoughts not related to the moment of
drawing - like "what will my audience thing", "what clever idea should I
express", "imagine the money I will make from selling this", "I can be
famous", "I will make her love me" etc.
–
Joseph Franklyn McElroy
Cor[porat]e [Per]form[ance] Art[ist]
In a message dated 5/30/2002 12:50:06 AM Central Daylight Time,
joseph@electrichands.com writes:
> Trained thoughts into fingers or hands.
For making idols and then worshipping them, breaking the very Second
Commandment.
>Perhaps worse in many ways.
Post-instrumental critical theory says it created the Matrix.
What
>
> happens when you don't like either East or West? Is there some South or
> North
> bipolar I can work with?
That's the same question of War and Peace, for me the main question of art.
Max Herman
++