Contemporary Art Discourse discussion

Hi! My name is Peter and I'm the moderator for this group. I'm also a fine artist and student. Thought it might be nice for members to quickly introduce themselves. For instance, you might like to say if you are an artist, curator, historian, art student... what kind of art you're interested in, school you are attending, etc. Also, could include a link to your portfolio, blog or other website. None of this is required of course!

Hi Peter, thanks for the invitation. I may be sporadic and distracted, but I do read this stuff. I'm an independent curator, artist, and arts administrator based in the Pacific Northwest, and I'm especially interested in installation and time-based work, environmental art, and new media (and attendant ethical and IP issues).

Thanks for the invite! I'm also likely to be a bit scattered, but I'm in grad school right now, so this is probably an appropriate distraction. I'm in a fine arts program, but my undergraduate degree is in fibre/textiles, so I'm also really interested in craft.

Hey Anne and Lindsay, thanks for joining! Don't worry about being sporadic. The main goal of the group is just to provide a place where members can give and receive suggestions about any interesting reads on the topic. Kind of like a non-required reading list.

Hi Peter & co!
I'm Sigrun, I've studied contemporary western literature & aesthetic theory. I have been teaching art theory in an art school, and I have been working as a freelance art critic for 5 years. These days I have reduced my assigned work, prioritizing my own personal writing instead.
I'm just about to start working on a series of shorter essays, you can read about it here:
http://omstreifer.wordpress.com/2013/...
Looking forward to see what the rest of you are doing/writing/reading ...

Hi,
First off, this is a great idea Peter and thanks for inviting me.
I am an artist/writer currently living in the Boston area. I went to the Art Institute of Boston for a bit studying illustration and then later received a BFA from Alfred University in Western NY. I am planning to be applying to grad schools at the end of the year.

If anyone is trying to write a piece I'd gladly help steer them to things I have read that I believe apply to their topic.

My website is a real work in progress. But it can be found on my profile.

Cheers to this venture.

Peter,
Thanks for the invite. I'm currently a student of the liberal arts with a focus in urbanism. I am also a lover of art, especially contemporary/modern art in my spare time and always include theory and criticism books on my personal reading lists to sleep informed. I might not be the most knowledgable (or prolific) poster here but I'm quite eager to learn!

*keep

thanks again and nice to hear from everyone here. I'm an artist from Australia. I teach various units at various unis -- both art practice and art theory/history. I have a PhD in visual art from Edith Cowan University (2006) and I write the 'industry' news page in Art Monthly Australia for the state of Western Australia. I'm also founder and co-editor at Lethologica Press.

Hmmm it sounds here like I do a lot of things not art practice but making art is actually central to my life. See my websites on my profile.

Hello and thanks for the invite. I am sort of an anachronism in that I am a senior engineer and an artist also. I paint mostly with pastels, colored pencils and charcoal. Also recently got interested in art theory and history.

Hey Peter (and all others).

I go by Kayl, am graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in May, and currently working primarily in photography.

I am always looking for new literature, even pdfs about contemporary/modern art, so welcomed the invite to the group. Great idea, and good to hear from others all over the place.

My work can be seen at kaylparker.com

Can't wait to get started and hear from others about their lit inspired adventures.

-K

Hi all, and indeed, thanks for the invite.

I'm Al Matthews, I'm a software developer and a digital artist -- typically digital video and sound. It's worth noting that I wasn't always a digital person but rather, re-trained beginning in 2006.

My inbox has been full from various directions with invitations to buy http://primaryinformation.org/index.p... and I didn't know if anyone here might be a primary information subscriber, or spend time with Urbanomic stuff.

@Kayla at present moment you can find some not-unrelated pdfs here http://goo.gl/8cn20 , in case these are interesting.

Al

Kayla wrote: "Hey Peter (and all others).

I go by Kayl, am graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in May, and currently working primarily in photography.

I am always looking for new literat..."

Amazing work! I especially like artichoke, ranch chapter 1 and untitled still life thanks for sharing!

Kayl, I love the still life with poptarts and your self portraits that only include your hands. I also appreciate your installation shots.

I didn't even think to post my work. http://www.lindsayjoy.ca is my site, and I keep a blog at http://www.lindsayjoy.ca/blog

Hello All,
My name is Melissa and I am and Assistant Professor at CU Denver. I teach studio art, painting and drawing, and a particular course titled "Painting and Drawing Theory and Practice". I am always looking for new articles and discussion threads to get my students excited about studying theory and doing artistic research. You can view my work at: http://www.melissafurness.com
I look forward to future discussions!

Thanks for the positive feedback guys!

Art historian, completed my masters and pursuing the phd... Although my thesis was focused on Gauguin/Decadence and the fin-de-siècle, I also am the director of a contemporary/post-war art gallery. I love conceptual art and theory, so any essay or book recommendations are welcome! As well as emerging art/artists!

Hi thanks for the invite. I'm a practicing puppeteer and physical performer. I've got a master's in Performance Studies from NYU and have been excited about critical theory for some time now. Rosalind Krauss and Hal Foster were inspirational to me. And the puppet show i'm producing in May is inspired by Deleuze's "Cinema 1."

You all might be interested in the show i'm performing in now (am also assistant technical director). It's a huge abstract puppet show by Basil Twist set to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. Interesting both as contemporary art and for its relationship to the history of the Rite. http://www.basiltwist.com/riteofsprin...

Occasionally I write and post it here http://www.katebrehm.com/blog.html

What an exciting group of people to be around. Hello :) My name is Edi and I am an artist from Southern California, am queer and Latin@. Art Theory and Aesthetics weren't something I was able to study (class wise) in undergrad so I study it independently. I'd like to pursue an MA in Art Crit/Philosophy or a related field at some point. I hope our discourse can be productive and enlightening.

Kate wrote: "Hi thanks for the invite. I'm a practicing puppeteer and physical performer. I've got a master's in Performance Studies from NYU and have been excited about critical theory for some time now. Ro..."

@Kate the Rite show looks amazing. I confess to listening to my available recording of the ballet over and over. Thanks for this reference.

I don't suppose there's available commentary on one of the topics you mention, the relationship of the show to the initial production?

@Peter I think I'm unfamiliar with Goodreads group dynamics. Is there a preferred way to thread conversations?

Are there guidelines in this group for starting new threads?

@Edi hello, and welcome!

I wish there was some commentary. It is ripe to be written since we have finally finished creating the show.

hey Al i have to admit i'm not a goodreads veteran myself, but we can just make it up as we go. there are no guidelines at all for starting new threads. just go to discussions and start whatever you'd like. there are some general categories under which you can post your thread but if none are suitable you can always create a new one.

Hello everyone!
I'm just getting around to this whole goodreads thing even though I've had it for a while. I'm a recently graduated art history major from Allegheny College taking a year off to apply to graduate programs in contemporary art theory and to try to get my senior thesis published. I'm interested in abject, performance, installation and contemporary art. I mainly work with the theories of Georges Bataille and Julia Kristeva, but also use more contemporary writings from Hal Foster and Rosalind Krauss.

I'm always looking for recommendations of new theory/criticism. Currently looking to make my own blog and for an art related job during my year off so if anyone has suggestions on those I'll take them too!

Hi everyone!

It's hard to believe that it has been over two years since I began the Contemporary Art Discourse group, which to my surprise has amassed over 80 members! In these past two years I've managed to complete my MFA at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, fall in love a couple times, fall out of love a couple times and, perhaps most importantly, completely neglect my role here as moderator. Now that I've been released from the rigors of graduate school (and with MFA in hand) I'm ready to reignite (or at least rekindle if reignite seems too intimidating) Contemporary Art Discourse.

And I'll start by adding another book to the fire (proverbial, of course): Danto's "After the End of Art" which, among other things, discusses the plurality of contemporary art - a condition which, for us artists, can be at once the most liberating and, likewise frustrating under which to work. I.e. anything can be art! Except for that, that and that (also, that's been done and so has that)... But in any case, buckle up and read on! And please add some more book suggestions to the bookshelf! I know I'll be buying/downloading many of the unfamiliar texts listed there (especially now that I'm not being forced to read October every week).

Please let me know if you have any questions and I'll strive to be on top of things henceforth!

Welcome!!!!!!

Cheers.

Peter wrote: "Hi everyone!

It's hard to believe that it has been over two years since I began the Contemporary Art Discourse group, which to my surprise has amassed over 80 members! In these past two years I'v..."

In Atlanta, since I've likewise been pretty far, um, gone? .. there is discussion of Thacker, and something of Bakhtin as well. I've not attended anything in person but the relevant group is Murmur. Goodspeed you all.

@Peter -- is that how it's done ? -- may we simply undertake discussion of these books and free associate?

The only rule I can think of is that comments may be deleted by the community.

Al.

Anne wrote: "Hi Peter, thanks for the invitation. I may be sporadic and distracted, but I do read this stuff. I'm an independent curator, artist, and arts administrator based in the Pacific Northwest, and I'm e..."

Has this become a lawyerly issue yet, or is the discussion about what's legal in practice?

For example, I can no longer publicly display this piece [..] but this one is still available on the web since I've not attempted to re-encode it. Beggar's Banquet is whom asked for it to be removed.

Is this an ethical or a preservation (archival) issue?

https://vimeo.com/1302788

Al.

One supposes Danto relevant here.

For those unfamiliar, if any,

Damn you, Rosalind Krauss. I haven't yet read everything you've written, and I'm left with echolocation.

At least we can still Google (wikipedia) the thing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October...

Trivial question for those in the know,

was Horowitz ever an Octoberist? viz. the Art of the Deal http://press.princeton.edu/titles/103... .

Reminiscent of the neo-cons, frankly, but I'm jumping to conclusions. Perhaps it's just a homonym of some sort that kicks it about in meine braine.

Al.

James wrote: "Welcome!!!!!!"

!.!.!.!.!.

!!!!!!

Cheers.

Peter wrote: "Hi everyone!

It's hard to believe that it has been over two years since I began the Contemporary Art Discourse group, which to my surprise has amassed over 80 members! In these past two years I'v..."

Get to it sir! Everyone! Stroke!! I'm upcreek by now.

Lindsay wrote: "Thanks for the invite! I'm also likely to be a bit scattered, but I'm in grad school right now, so this is probably an appropriate distraction. I'm in a fine arts program, but my undergraduate degr..."

Please distinguish for me, craft from art. Is this a guild thing of which I'm not aware? Or is it simply a patronage system? No fibrous ghosts of de Medici to be had? Surely blankets are appreciated in other museums.

Al.

AJ

Great to hear from you! Whenever you're available you're appreciated. I find that cities are interesting. Academe does too. Even MIT, which has a fantastic arts programme last I checked. As does Carnegie Mellon -- which is less friendly to the digital arts by now however.

Viz somewhere on Twitter, whence I read about it. If really really lost on how to locate a particular unmentionable tweet about Carnegie Mellon, start here: https://twitter.com/almatthews , which no doubt sounds terribly self-promoting, but what I mean to point out is

1) Twitter is archived at Library of Congress. Every single tweet.
2) I maintain a half radical presence on twitter under my own name at great personal cost, so, caveat lector.

Al.


AJ wrote: "Peter,
Thanks for the invite. I'm currently a student of the liberal arts with a focus in urbanism. I am also a lover of art, especially contemporary/modern art in my spare time and always include..."

From there you probably have to go ahead and read the tweets from @anonymous. Try to find them from Twitter's search engine from within three to five days, prior, to date of this posting (Nov 13 2015) and report back, if you like. Otherwise hire someone on @code4lib.

Al.

I don't mean to be an ass. What Carnegie Mellon did, evidently, was turn in some students. Gatech does too.

Al.

Hi all, I am an artist (MA in photography from Royale College of Art, 2012). I work with performance art, photography, video, drawing and writing. I lived 12 years in London, England, 5 years Atlanta, USA and returned to Norway in 2020.

I have just started to explore Goodreads, in the wake of writing a book on art. I believe passionately in the potential of art, but find that it is regarded as frivolous by the general public. To me art can be used to explore the difficult questions we meet throughout life. But being an artist has in my experience been a disappointment. That is not to say that I have done amazing things and had great experiences. What I wish to say is that I believe society does not value and support art, instead it supports capital, statues and success.

In 2015 I started to ask my self, why do I create art, why do I continue to create art despite not being able to support my family from this endeavour, and why do I risk our well being for art?

The answers are explored in the book:

ARTHEMIST STATEMENT 2.6: Why create art that nobody asked for?

www.bjornveno.com