Write up a 350 to 500 word response to something you have read here:
http://www.artandwork.us/
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
mark and laurel's missing posts
Mark Edward Campos has left a new comment on your post "Boredom, Meaningless Work, and now?":
I read Walter de Maria's Meaningless Work and I get pissed off. I read it and my blood starts to boil. I start to get pissed thinking about how terribly art is misunderstood these days, how so often it's shoved away by perfectly intelligent individuals simply because it's inaccessible. I think about how this "meaningless" art thing is bullshit because the action is so far removed from the meaning. The action is completely arbitrary, since the act of making art becomes the art, and the result isn't just not important, it's completely excusable. And the irony here is that's exactly what the viewer has to see, has to try to interpret. It's this disconnect that ruins modern art and distances artists from so many perfectly beautiful people.
Then I think about Kracauer's definition of boredom, and it's close relation to what so many people come so close to achieving every day, it seems that these two things might be speaking to each other. And I find myself thinking of the Buddhists, and those who try to achieve enlightenment through the repetition of one mindless task. They perform very simple tasks for hours on end in an effort to both focus and unfocus their minds. All of a sudden these Monks are on to something.
And this leads me to thinking about myself, and about my “work ethic”. As an architecture student, I’m constantly being told to “manage my work hours” and to find a way to de-stress. It’s no small secret that the work load given to a typical architecture student far exceeds the number of daylight hours in the week. My life is a very loosely strung series of decisions of what night to choose to get my sleep. I am constantly faced with the decision to rest and to sacrifice satisfaction on a project, or to continue working and satisfy a creative curiosity. There is very little time for boredom in my life.
And I find myself considering this a very important lesson that I might need to teach myself very soon. What time in life is reserved for play? De Maria seems to suggest it can be found anywhere at anytime by anyone - and can be performed in any way or length so long as there is no product that is advantageous to anyone. I find myself kinda keen on that. I could use a non-product around me every once in a while. I think then.. if I really really need to do work without a product, and the product of that work is my happiness, am I stuck? If nothing else I find a little bit of glee to be stuck in a theoretical sort of purgatory.
I think also of Kracauer’s insistence of boredom by isolation, and my tiny little cube in the corner of studio. The number of times I open my mouth in a day can’t be that many. When I actually do work I speak very little, content with filling my sensory system with entirely inhuman dots and dashes of music, text, images projected through tens of thousands of liquid-filled crystals in a grey rectangle. I push down on bits of silicone to express myself. What a strange little world we inhabit.
Word count 546.
L.Planas has left a new comment on your post "Boredom, Meaningless Work, and now?":
The elusive concept of boredom, as defined by Siegfried Kracauer, is a necessary element of life. This empty counterbalance to work carries the human spirit through the moments between exercise and self-imposed distraction. To Kracauer, it is a pure state of mind that encourages unfettered development and speculation. From boredom comes emptiness. From emptiness comes an unresolved, yet satisfying sense of being.
However, Kracauer warns that attempting to amuse oneself in one’s boredom will eventually destroy that Zen like state. Distractions should be avoided at all costs, as they pervert the being and snuff out the “spark of the spirit” that pure boredom cultivates. Radio, movies, globalization, and other such meaningless distractions are the enemy of true boredom, as their ability to unconsciously drift into and dictate one’s subconscious destroys the spirit of boredom.
While Kracauer argues that boredom is the killer of progress, and that any action taken during this state is literally a waste of time, Walter de Maria argues that it provides a healthy form of exercise for the soul. De Maria says in his dissertation that this so-called “meaningless work” is an honest form of exercise. While it might not contribute to anything of importance, or lead to anything benefiting society, the mere exercise of directionless activity is what leads one to the state of nirvana-boredom as identified by Kracauer.
In these times, the driving need to constantly be busy, to constantly work and strive for achievement is a strong one. In our constantly moving, information-filled world, Internet and videogames have all but replaced radio and movies. They bring the wired nations of the world together as well, ramping up the level of “boredom-killing distraction” that Kracauer warns against in his essay. However, it is these very distractions that the people of today turn to whenever they feel “bored” as a way to relieve stress, or as a method of focused procrastination.
What category, then, does idly browsing the Internet while procrastinating fall into? Is it a distraction, like Kracauer’s denounced examples? Or is it “meaningless activity”, shallow but pure? It is true that idly clicking through sites such as Wikipedia or Youtube might have been started by a need to distract oneself from the stressful structure of a hyperbusy world. However, if one continues to aimlessly “wander” wherever their clicks take them, the mere action of browsing would fall under the category of meaningless activity. This in itself is a reflection of the very nature of boredom in our modern times—fueled by distraction, continued through an almost dérive-like nature.
Youtube links clicked while working on this dissertation: 14 http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
(434)
I read Walter de Maria's Meaningless Work and I get pissed off. I read it and my blood starts to boil. I start to get pissed thinking about how terribly art is misunderstood these days, how so often it's shoved away by perfectly intelligent individuals simply because it's inaccessible. I think about how this "meaningless" art thing is bullshit because the action is so far removed from the meaning. The action is completely arbitrary, since the act of making art becomes the art, and the result isn't just not important, it's completely excusable. And the irony here is that's exactly what the viewer has to see, has to try to interpret. It's this disconnect that ruins modern art and distances artists from so many perfectly beautiful people.
Then I think about Kracauer's definition of boredom, and it's close relation to what so many people come so close to achieving every day, it seems that these two things might be speaking to each other. And I find myself thinking of the Buddhists, and those who try to achieve enlightenment through the repetition of one mindless task. They perform very simple tasks for hours on end in an effort to both focus and unfocus their minds. All of a sudden these Monks are on to something.
And this leads me to thinking about myself, and about my “work ethic”. As an architecture student, I’m constantly being told to “manage my work hours” and to find a way to de-stress. It’s no small secret that the work load given to a typical architecture student far exceeds the number of daylight hours in the week. My life is a very loosely strung series of decisions of what night to choose to get my sleep. I am constantly faced with the decision to rest and to sacrifice satisfaction on a project, or to continue working and satisfy a creative curiosity. There is very little time for boredom in my life.
And I find myself considering this a very important lesson that I might need to teach myself very soon. What time in life is reserved for play? De Maria seems to suggest it can be found anywhere at anytime by anyone - and can be performed in any way or length so long as there is no product that is advantageous to anyone. I find myself kinda keen on that. I could use a non-product around me every once in a while. I think then.. if I really really need to do work without a product, and the product of that work is my happiness, am I stuck? If nothing else I find a little bit of glee to be stuck in a theoretical sort of purgatory.
I think also of Kracauer’s insistence of boredom by isolation, and my tiny little cube in the corner of studio. The number of times I open my mouth in a day can’t be that many. When I actually do work I speak very little, content with filling my sensory system with entirely inhuman dots and dashes of music, text, images projected through tens of thousands of liquid-filled crystals in a grey rectangle. I push down on bits of silicone to express myself. What a strange little world we inhabit.
Word count 546.
L.Planas has left a new comment on your post "Boredom, Meaningless Work, and now?":
The elusive concept of boredom, as defined by Siegfried Kracauer, is a necessary element of life. This empty counterbalance to work carries the human spirit through the moments between exercise and self-imposed distraction. To Kracauer, it is a pure state of mind that encourages unfettered development and speculation. From boredom comes emptiness. From emptiness comes an unresolved, yet satisfying sense of being.
However, Kracauer warns that attempting to amuse oneself in one’s boredom will eventually destroy that Zen like state. Distractions should be avoided at all costs, as they pervert the being and snuff out the “spark of the spirit” that pure boredom cultivates. Radio, movies, globalization, and other such meaningless distractions are the enemy of true boredom, as their ability to unconsciously drift into and dictate one’s subconscious destroys the spirit of boredom.
While Kracauer argues that boredom is the killer of progress, and that any action taken during this state is literally a waste of time, Walter de Maria argues that it provides a healthy form of exercise for the soul. De Maria says in his dissertation that this so-called “meaningless work” is an honest form of exercise. While it might not contribute to anything of importance, or lead to anything benefiting society, the mere exercise of directionless activity is what leads one to the state of nirvana-boredom as identified by Kracauer.
In these times, the driving need to constantly be busy, to constantly work and strive for achievement is a strong one. In our constantly moving, information-filled world, Internet and videogames have all but replaced radio and movies. They bring the wired nations of the world together as well, ramping up the level of “boredom-killing distraction” that Kracauer warns against in his essay. However, it is these very distractions that the people of today turn to whenever they feel “bored” as a way to relieve stress, or as a method of focused procrastination.
What category, then, does idly browsing the Internet while procrastinating fall into? Is it a distraction, like Kracauer’s denounced examples? Or is it “meaningless activity”, shallow but pure? It is true that idly clicking through sites such as Wikipedia or Youtube might have been started by a need to distract oneself from the stressful structure of a hyperbusy world. However, if one continues to aimlessly “wander” wherever their clicks take them, the mere action of browsing would fall under the category of meaningless activity. This in itself is a reflection of the very nature of boredom in our modern times—fueled by distraction, continued through an almost dérive-like nature.
Youtube links clicked while working on this dissertation: 14 http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
(434)
Don't Take Any Jobs and other links
Piece by Matthew Stadler we read in class:
http://fillip.ca/content/re-work-and-boredom
Essay he is referring to by Lorna Brown (on Lars Svendsen, A Philosophy of Boredom*):
http://fillip.ca/content/to-live-real-boredom-one-must-have-style
If you want to hear Lars Svendsen on Joseph Brodsky's extreme solution to boredom:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmi3B8H-_As
Very funny piece by Matthew Stadler, “Don’t Take Any Jobs,” on his attempt to use Mechanical Turk to finish an essay. (Don't get any ideas.)
http://fillip.ca/content/dont-take-any-jobs
http://fillip.ca/content/re-work-and-boredom
Essay he is referring to by Lorna Brown (on Lars Svendsen, A Philosophy of Boredom*):
http://fillip.ca/content/to-live-real-boredom-one-must-have-style
If you want to hear Lars Svendsen on Joseph Brodsky's extreme solution to boredom:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmi3B8H-_As
Very funny piece by Matthew Stadler, “Don’t Take Any Jobs,” on his attempt to use Mechanical Turk to finish an essay. (Don't get any ideas.)
http://fillip.ca/content/dont-take-any-jobs
final blog post due April 12 + your final essay due April 27th
For this week you will read two very different accounts of labor, an article by Matthew Crawford entitled, "The Case for Working with Your Hands" and an excerpt from an essay by Diedrich Diederichsen entitled "On Surplus Value," concerned with the value of art and shifts in cultural production. (Mehrwert means surplus value. Please look up any other terms you don't recognize.)
Your post for next week (due next Monday April 12 at 1:00 pm) needs to consider the differences between these two essays and raise any issues you see these writers neglecting, particularly around the specific kind of labor you feel you are being trained to do at CCA. This writing is intended to help you start thinking about the final essay for this course. Please also include a link to a "performance proletarian" (as Diederichsen would call it). Alex's links from last week are excellent examples. We will look at some of these links in class together next week.
The final illustrated essay will be an essay on labor. For this essay you will need to observe multiple modes of labor (including your own if you like). Rich description of these observations should serve as the foundation for reflecting thoughtfully on what work means today, and what it might mean in the future. (This is your chance to reflect on what we have read and discussed over the semester.) Think of this essay as your own version of the GAMES essay by McLuhan or the DEEP PLAY essay by Geertz, (except that your essay will be on DEEP WORK). This essay needs to be 1200 words (minimum)/ 1500 words (maximum) and should take visual or concrete form as something you have designed to be presented to the class on the last day of the semester. Start to think about it now. You need to write up a short (150 word) proposal for your essay that will be due Friday April 16 at 1:00 pm by email. Tell me what you plan to observe and which arguments/texts from the course you plan to take into consideration. If you have a design concept, you should also include a description in your proposal.
Your post for next week (due next Monday April 12 at 1:00 pm) needs to consider the differences between these two essays and raise any issues you see these writers neglecting, particularly around the specific kind of labor you feel you are being trained to do at CCA. This writing is intended to help you start thinking about the final essay for this course. Please also include a link to a "performance proletarian" (as Diederichsen would call it). Alex's links from last week are excellent examples. We will look at some of these links in class together next week.
The final illustrated essay will be an essay on labor. For this essay you will need to observe multiple modes of labor (including your own if you like). Rich description of these observations should serve as the foundation for reflecting thoughtfully on what work means today, and what it might mean in the future. (This is your chance to reflect on what we have read and discussed over the semester.) Think of this essay as your own version of the GAMES essay by McLuhan or the DEEP PLAY essay by Geertz, (except that your essay will be on DEEP WORK). This essay needs to be 1200 words (minimum)/ 1500 words (maximum) and should take visual or concrete form as something you have designed to be presented to the class on the last day of the semester. Start to think about it now. You need to write up a short (150 word) proposal for your essay that will be due Friday April 16 at 1:00 pm by email. Tell me what you plan to observe and which arguments/texts from the course you plan to take into consideration. If you have a design concept, you should also include a description in your proposal.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Without Meaning
Boredom and meaninglessness are such common feelings today that one tends to accept it and forget about it. We are blessed (or, more likely, cursed) with many bandaids for these feelings. They are not the kinds of bandaids which are infused with vitamin e or polysporin, nothing that will actually heal our boredom or lack of meaning, only hold it together and keep it out of the open air so we can forget about it a little while longer. These bandaids present themselves in the form of mp3 players, keeping our ears busy on the bus rides home, portable electronic games, sudoku puzzles, television shows laden with bright colors, loud noises and beautiful people interrupted by advertisements of shiny, delicious things. Don’t even get me started on the internet.
When one is alone and bored today, they are able to alert an alarming number of people (via status updates, tweets, blog posts) as to their condition. In a moment I can discover what someone is eating, where they are headed, what they are thinking of eating, or considering going. This information is meaningless and it is boring. It is only one more way for the writer of such posts to feel as though they are actually doing something, and interacting with others, and for the reader to distract themselves from their life by concentrating on that of another. With all of these things consistently at our fingertips the shutting off outside information and being alone with one's thoughts is increasingly becoming hard work.
Our distractions are boring, which is why we need so many of them. It is not unheard of for one to entertain themselves with multiple distractions at once. I am horrified when I find myself avoiding homework by watching free television shows on my computer of which I am distracting myself with a game of spider solitaire. Our bandaids do not engross us, they only tide us over, we are not alone enough to think, but not involved enough to feel satisfaction. We think we do not have time to move things from one box to another and back again as Walter De Maria suggests. We cannot imagine sitting alone at home, electronics off, blinds closed, and really get to know our sprit as purposed by Siegfried Kracauer. So what is the solution?
I propose that we eliminate the use of our ears and eyes. I am afraid that is the only way. If our ears and eyes are functioning there is no hope for us to turn off the world and spend quality time with ourselves. This could be accomplished using sound blocking head phones, or heavy duty ear muffs combined with a comfortable yet effective blind fold. In order for people to actually disrupt their senses for any period of time it would have to be made incredibly fashionable. The producers of said product will need to hire a fabulous marketing team. The objects should to be sleek, sexy and probably shiny. Several prominent celebrity endorsements are a must. This will ensure that people will buy the ear muffs and blind fold but to encourage people to actually use it is another problem. Maybe if there is a device that tracks how long each person has spent in seclusion and posts it to their facebook account so their friends can see. This will make it competitive, which is an excellent motivator. Of course it will be a trend, and it will run it’s course, and then we will need a new solution, but, for the time being, I believe this is the answer.
Word count 591
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Boredom, Meaningless Work, and now?
Read "Boredom" by Siegfried Kracauer (1924) and "Meaningless Work" by Walter de Maria (1960). Both writers make some kind of proposal. Both are quite clever and funny in ways specific to their own historical moment. Your assignment is to write a short proposal relevant to your own historical moment in a tone that corresponds to your experience and your generation's perception of work and play. This is a chance to continue to cultivate your own voice and particular sensibility (and wit) as a writer. This is an assignment about voice and observation. What you write should be posted to the blog NO LATER than Monday at 1:00 pm. Please take the time to read other people's posts as well. I'll be asking you about things you noticed the posts have in common (and perhaps how they differ as well). If you have any questions, I'm available by email. Don't wait until the last second to be in touch. Please include a word count. Meaningless Work is also about 500 words, so keep that piece in mind as a kind of model. (Your post can include images and links too. You can post it as a comment below or separately.) If you have any problem posting, please send me your piece by email. I will be happy to post it. Finally, it should go without saying, but this needs to be a polished piece of writing, not a first draft or an unthought stream of consciousness. DO EDIT before you post!
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