Modern "Art" and Mental Illness
Drakejake
installers put up four blank walls and spotlights. A New York Times
commentator stated that this structure "suggest(s) the cruel Minimalist
reduction and dematerialization of art, and most specifically, perhaps, the
death of painting." I would describe this as the death of reason. First of
all, there is no such thing as minimalist reduction and dematerialization.
This phrase means nothing. Everything that exists is material; immaterial
things do not exist and can have no characteristics or value. Removing
paintings from a gallery and shining lights on the empty walls is not some sort
of work of art. It is the absence of art and therefore not art at all. It is
nothing, just like the nakedness of the proverbial credulous emperor is not
some kind of precious raiment visible only to the highly enlightened.
Nakedness is the absence of clothing. The absence of art is not art. Except,
perhaps, in the mind of a madman or a New York sophisticate. This is the sort
of madness that leads torturers to claim that mutilating living people is a
higher kind of love.
Jake Drake
Mark D Lew
reactionary. Just last night I was at a lecture by a successful
professional sculptor. He mentioned that when he was in school (ie,
about 15 years ago), any artist who wanted to be taken seriously as a
real artist had to do at least one major piece of that empty minimalist
stuff you describe, to prove his or her legitimacy as an artist.
Thankfully, he said, the art world has moved beyond that now. Sounds
to me like your New York artist and critic are still stuck in the
1980s.
By the way, I assume that you realize your comment...
> Everything that exists is material; immaterial
> things do not exist and can have no characteristics or value.
... is very radical. You are denying the existence of -- among other
things -- love, music, souls, God, happiness, hate, stupidity. None of
these are material things.
mdl
Drakejake
>
>> Everything that exists is material; immaterial
>> things do not exist and can have no characteristics or value.
>
>... is very radical. You are denying the existence of -- among other
>things -- love, music, souls, God, happiness, hate, stupidity. None of
>these are material things.
>
>mdl
>
Of course, I am radical. God, ghosts, spirits, sprites, etc., do not exist.
Music is obviously physical since it involves sound waves. Hate, love,
happiness, etc., are emotions and involve neurological and physiological
activity. The brain is an electro-chemical medium for collecting, preserving,
and manipulating information, in effect an organic computer. Our thoughts are
physical in this sense. No brain, no thoughts. Emotions are physical
reactions to things based on our perceptions and our values. Stupidity refers
to false beliefs, lack of knowledge, bad judgment, pointless or destructive
actions, etc., and all have a physical, material basis. There is only one
world, the one we see directly or indirectly with our ours eyes. Our senses
cannot perceive everything directly and so we need instruments such as
telescopes, microscopes, geiger counters, etc., to provide information on
things which are not directly within the range of our senses. Imaginary
worlds are merely ideas, not real places or things. For details, see the
writings of Ayn Rand.
Jake Drake
daniel f. tritter
it's hard to imagine anything more vile than the writings of ayn rand,
unless it was that monster herself ... and maybe howard hoodlum.
dft
REG
his next court appearance. But he doesn't have to try to hard.
"daniel f. tritter" <dtri...@bway.net> wrote in message
news:Kt-dnVx8CZZ...@bway.net...
Mark D Lew
<drak...@aol.com> wrote:
> Music is obviously physical since it involves sound waves.
The essence of music is that it has a conceptual significance which is
more than a sum of its sound waves. That's what it immaterial.
mdl
Drakejake
>more than a sum of its sound waves. That's what it immaterial.
>
>mdl
For human beings all knowedge is conceptual, but concepts are grounded in the
brain's chemistry. Even thoughts are atomic in the final analysis. The brain
holds information in electro-chemical circuits or data banks. Contra Plato and
the Idealists, concepts do not float in air in another dimension of Perfect
Forms. Concepts are the form in which human beings organize information about
the world, initially perceived through the (physical) senses. Music consists
of vibrations produced by physical entities and is experienced through the
physical mechanisms of hearing and thought and feeling. A great deal of
research is now going on to establish the relationships between what we feel
and think and structures and processes in the brain and nervous system. For
the record, I believe that humans have free will and are responsible for their
choices and actions, even though they are constructed of atoms and molecules.
I believe that determinism, the doctrine that human beings are puppets
manipulated by forces beyond their control, is self-contradictory.
Jake Drake
daniel f. tritter
dft
Man of One Name
>Music is obviously physical since it involves
> sound waves.
This, and an inexact number of other elements come into play, - with
unlimited diversity:
http://www.percepp.demon.co.uk/biomusic.htm
LT
Mark D Lew
<drak...@aol.com> wrote:
> For
> the record, I believe that humans have free will and are responsible for their
> choices and actions, even though they are constructed of atoms and molecules.
> I believe that determinism, the doctrine that human beings are puppets
> manipulated by forces beyond their control, is self-contradictory.
Aren't we all?
This free will that you believe humans have. Is it material?
mdl
Drakejake
>
>mdl
>
Absolutely. Otherwise it wouldn't exist.
JD