tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7424914094601435567.post349690819016868388..comments2023-03-21T03:24:56.533-07:00Comments on Thingly Affinities: On Technology and Contemporary Art (Arthur Whitman) Taney Ronigerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13624397685047300841noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7424914094601435567.post-26758506949270349472020-12-12T12:15:16.394-08:002020-12-12T12:15:16.394-08:00He does devote greater attention to painting PVA a...He does devote greater attention to painting PVA and elsewhere and as so could be said to “privilege” painting. Aside from what appears to be personal interest, it is clear that he takes painting to be a kind of foundation for more recent new and mixed- media forms. But he writes with sympathy about these too. arthurhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13407093986689029361noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7424914094601435567.post-45949486686744894422020-12-12T12:06:50.649-08:002020-12-12T12:06:50.649-08:00Crowther’s point, and my own, is not to privilege ...Crowther’s point, and my own, is not to privilege painting or even traditional materially embodied art (he has a lot to say about sculpture in that book and elsewhere) in general terms. Rather it is to investigate what is distinctive and valuable about all of the major visual arts forms/mediums. As he also argues in that book, digital art seems to maintain a capacity for expansive formal innovation that painting has exhausted.arthurhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13407093986689029361noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7424914094601435567.post-51164298513801238422020-12-12T11:58:49.160-08:002020-12-12T11:58:49.160-08:00I think it doesn’t matter too much, outside of the...I think it doesn’t matter too much, outside of these specialized debates, whether or not other animals make “art” or if art is a human adaptation. As Abram observes, in his wonderful little essay below, animal behavior is astounding—I’d add the “behavior” (sorry for all the scare quotes) of more primitive organisms is as well. Who cares if we apply a human-derived honorific or not? At the same time, what is wrong with considering human art from a “species centric” or indeed culturally specific perspective? I think there’s room here for all sorts of perspectives as long as one doesn’t lose sight of the big picture.arthurhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13407093986689029361noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7424914094601435567.post-16697377402761514342020-12-12T11:57:51.192-08:002020-12-12T11:57:51.192-08:00Arthur, as I'm sure you could have guessed fro...Arthur, as I'm sure you could have guessed from my most recent essay, I'm a big fan of materially embodied form ("its" rather than "bits," to bastardize a phrase of John Wheeler's). But I'm not at all sure why painting should be given priority here. Despite my formal training in the medium, and despite the fact that I'm usually identified as one of its practitioners, I've always been allergic to painting's superiority complex. (Indeed, if we're talking about our need to have a sensual relationship with matter, sculpture would seem the more likely candidate for privileged status!) All the same, I'm grateful to you for reminding me of Paul Crowther, whose writings about art and embodiment have been very influential to me. But to the larger point of your final paragraph: While I agree that material presences are more important in art than ever (to, as you say, offer a counterweight to our immersion in the digital), I think there's an enormous role in 21st century art for "it and bit" hybrids. The examples cited by Sarah in her most recent post are a case in point. This is art that uses the latest technologies to collaborate with other animal species for the betterment of our built environment. Like any other tool, technology can be both deleterious and a great boon. I'm always excited to see artists using digital technologies to create sensually alluring, complex, and multi-valently profound art (which is, admittedly, nowhere near always the case with digital projects).Taney Ronigerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13624397685047300841noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7424914094601435567.post-76010241295627382512020-12-12T11:46:50.085-08:002020-12-12T11:46:50.085-08:00This comment has been removed by the author.arthurhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13407093986689029361noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7424914094601435567.post-73979550965191252082020-12-12T09:43:09.006-08:002020-12-12T09:43:09.006-08:00I of course have great sympathy for her general th...I of course have great sympathy for her general thesis.arthurhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13407093986689029361noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7424914094601435567.post-10019596019372594212020-12-12T09:41:11.934-08:002020-12-12T09:41:11.934-08:00Disanayake claims art is uniquely human in her ear...Disanayake claims art is uniquely human in her earlier book, although a lot of what she says there suggests otherwise. I haven’t read Art and Intimacy (yet) Does she change her mind there?arthurhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13407093986689029361noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7424914094601435567.post-16086900773650287752020-12-12T09:16:29.012-08:002020-12-12T09:16:29.012-08:00I agree that Ellen Dissanayake's work is impor...I agree that Ellen Dissanayake's work is important to this conversation. Her most recent book, Art and Intimacy, that grew out of her work with the child psychobiologist, Colwyn Trevarthan, argues that art originated in and is an elaboration of acts of love and care and its cultural/biological role has always been to reinforce interpersonal and social bonds. When understood in this way, art is no longer a solely human enterprise. We are clearly not the only creatures whose very existence depends upon the mutual bonds of relationship and the continual reinforcement of those bonds. <br /><br />I agree too on your interpretation of McLuhan and would use the word atrophy to describe how unused organs of perception lose their strength from lack of use like muscles do. I have found the work of Jean Gebser very stimulating in terms of perceptual bias, some claim that McLuhan took many of his ideas from Gebser who anticipated his theories in germ by at least two decades. sarahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04137789841344667085noreply@blogger.com