diff options
author | grr <grr@lo2.org> | 2024-05-02 18:17:14 -0400 |
---|---|---|
committer | grr <grr@lo2.org> | 2024-05-02 18:17:14 -0400 |
commit | c14e19c8343f3f00944b9d50840501906c4ae2d7 (patch) | |
tree | f4674b41e3c507daa5bfb6d655317504e443eb00 /essays/art_or_brend.tex | |
parent | 0f35a25aeda5c8d0d740ccc0badc557cc9dcfc0a (diff) | |
download | blueprint-c14e19c8343f3f00944b9d50840501906c4ae2d7.tar.gz |
breaking more things into files
Diffstat (limited to 'essays/art_or_brend.tex')
-rw-r--r-- | essays/art_or_brend.tex | 141 |
1 files changed, 141 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/essays/art_or_brend.tex b/essays/art_or_brend.tex new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ef758d7 --- /dev/null +++ b/essays/art_or_brend.tex @@ -0,0 +1,141 @@ +\chapter{\textsc{Art} or \textsc{Brend}?} + +\begin{enumerate} +\item Perhaps the most diseased justification the artist can give of his profession +is to say that it is somehow scientific. LaMonte Young, Milton Babbitt, and +Stockhausen are exponents of this sort of justification. + +The law which relates the mass of a body to its velocity has predictive value +and is an outstanding scientific law. Is the work of art such a law? The +experiment which shows that the speed of light is independent of the motion +of its source is a measurement of a phenomenon crucial to the confirmation of +a scientific hypothesis; it is an outstanding scientific experiment. Is the work +of art such a measurement? The invention of the vacuum tube was an +outstanding technological advance. Is the work of art such a technological +advance? Differential geometry is a deductive analysis of abstract relations +and an outstanding mathematical theory. ts the work of art such an +analysis? + +The motives behind the "scientific" justification of art are utterly sinister. +Perhaps LaMonte Young is merely rationalizing because he wants an +academic job. But Babbitt is out to reduce music to a pedantic +pseudo-science. And Stockhausen, with his "scientific music", intends +nothing less than the suppression of the culture of "lower classes" and +"ower races." + +It is the creative personality himself who has the most reason to object to +the "scientific" justification of art. Again and again, the decisive step in +artistic development has come when an artist produces a work that shatters +all existing 'scientific' laws of art, and yet is more important to the +audience than all the works that "obey" the laws. + +\item The artist or entertainer cannot exist without urging his product on other +people. In fact, after developing his product, the artist goes out and tries to +win public acceptance for it, to advertise and promote it, to sell it, to force it +on people. If the public doesn't accept it at first, he is disappointed. He +doesn't drop it, but repeatedly urges the product on them. + +People have every reason, then, to ask the artist: Is your product good for +me even if I don't like or enjoy it? This question really lays art open. One of +the distinguishing features of art has always been that it is very difficult to +defend art without referring to people's liking or enjoying it. (Functions of +art such as making money or glorifying the social order are real enough, but +they are rarely cited in defense of art. Let us put them aside.) When one +artist shows his latest production to another, all he can usually ask is "Do +you like it?" Once the "scientific" justification of art is discredited, the +artist usually has to admit: If you don't like or enjoy my product, there's no +reason why you should "consume" it. + +There are exceptions. Art sometimes becomes the sole channel for political +dissent, the sole arena in which oppressive social relations can be +transcended. Even so, subjectivity of value remains a feature which +distinguishes art and entertainment from other activities. Thus art is +historically a leisure activity. + +\item But there is a fundamental contradiction here. Consider the object which +one person produces for the liking, the enjoyment of another. The value of +the object is supposed to be that you just like it. It supposedly has a value +which is entirely subjective and entirely within you, is a part of you. Yet---the +object can exist without you, is completely outside you, is not you or your +valuing, and has no inherent connection with you or your valuing. The +product is not personal to you. + +Such is the contradiction in much art and entertainment. it is unfortunate +that it has to be stated so abstractly, but the discussion is about something +so personal that there can be no interpersonal examples of it. Perhaps it will +help to say that in appreciating or consuming art, you are always aware that +it is not you, your valuing---yet your liking it, your valuing it is usually the +only thing that can justify it. + +In art and entertainment, objects are produced having no inherent +connection with people's liking, yet the artist expects the objects to find +their value in people's liking them. To be totally successful, the object would +have to give you an experience in which the object is as personal to you as +your valuing of it. Yet you remain aware that the object is another's +product, separable from your liking of it. The artist tries to "be oneself" for +other people, to "express oneself" for them. + +\item There are experiences for each person which accomplish what art and +entertainment fail to. The purpose of this essay is to make you aware of +these experiences, by comparing and contrasting them with art. I have +coined the term \term{brend} for these experiences. + +Consider all of your doings, what you already do. Exclude the gratifying of +physiological needs, physically harmful activities, and competitive activites. +Concentrate on spontaneous self-amusement or play. That is, concentrate on +everything you do just because you like it, because you just like it as you do +it. + +Actually, these doings should be referred to as your just-likings. In saying +that somebody likes an art exhibit, it is appropriate to distinguish the art +exhibit from his liking of it. But in the case of your just-likings, it is not +appropriate to distinguish the objects valued from your valuings, and the +single term that covers both should be used. When you write with a pencil, +you are rarely attentive to the fact that the pencil was produced by +somebody other than yourself. You can use something produced by +somebody else without thinking about it. In your just-likings, you never +notice that things are not produced by you. The essence of a just-liking is +that in it, you are not aware that the object you value is less personal to you +than your very valuing. + +These just-likings are your \term{brend.} Some of your dreams are brend; and +some children's play is brend (but formal children's games aren't). In a sense, +though, the attempt to give interpersonal examples of brend is futile, +because the end result is neutral things or actions, cut off from the valuing +which gives them their only significance; and because the end result suggests +that brend is a deliberate activity like carrying out orders. The only examples +for you are your just-likings, and you have to guess them by directly +applying the abstract definition. + +Even though brend is defined exclusively in terms of what you like, it is not +necessarily solitary. The definition simply recognizes that valuing is an act of +individuals; that to counterpose the likes of the community to the likes of +the individuals who make it up is an ideological deception. + +\item It is now possible to say that much art and entertainment are +pseudo-brend; that your brend is the total originality beyond art; that your +brend is the absolute self-expression and the absolute enjoyment beyond art. +Can brend, then, replace art, can it expand to fill the space now occupied by +art and entertainment? To ask this question is to ask when utopia will +arrive, when the barrier between work and leisure will be broken down, +when work will be abolished. Rather than holding out utopian promises, it is +better to give whoever can grasp it the realization that the experience +beyond art already occurs in his life---but is totally suppressed by the general +repressiveness of society. +\end{enumerate} + + +Note: The avant-garde artist may raise a final question. Can't art or +entertainment compensate for its impersonality by having sheer newness as a +value? Can't the very foreignness of the impersonal object be entertaining? +Doesn't this happen with Mock Risk Games, for example? The answer is +that entertainmental newness is also subjective. What is entertainingly +strange to one person is incomprehensible, annoying, or irrelevant to +another. The only difference between foreignness and other entertainment +values is that brend does not have more foreignness than conventional +entertainment does. + +As for objective newness, or the objective value of Mock Risk Games, these +issues are so difficult that I have been unable to reach final conclusions +about them. + |