notes.maRaihan

ReDefining Art

IS BAD ART ART ? IS BAD ART BAD?

Is Art (as we know it) a condition of History and thus is it going to pass? and What follows Art? And is it possible to imagine and practice it within the present political and economic context? If yes, what will take the place of Art? Will it be possible to make it a practice or even to imagine it within the present political and economic context?

In an age where everything and anything can potentially be considered art without any restrictions of medium, location or format, can (creative/artistic) expression be manifested through a real-life action, transaction or function as an intended method/medium to convey ideas which an artist is (commonly) able to convey through the conventional mediums of painting, sculpture, photography, installation art, video art, public art or relational aesthetics?


Exiting Art with Rashid Rana

# Do you imagine a world without Art? Is it possible?

EXERCISE # 1 

Based on the following two assumptions: 

Assumption A:  

Assume the following definitions 

art = practices from past that were not called art in their time but are now identified as such 

ART= last 200 (to 400) years where the practice of art becomes self-aware and thus serves its own function

Assumption B:  

Assume the following context 

Both ‘art’ and ‘ART’ are banned and not allowed to be exercised. And you are only allowed to carry out other real life actions; functions/transactions/interventions/events/activities  

Question: 

As an artist or creative practitioner, how would you deal with the above situation or reconcile with the idea of self-expression. Create a hypothetical situation for yourself in the backdrop of the above-mentioned hypothetical context; What will you do? Give an example?

——————–

If I explain my thought in three step it would be…

Step 01:

For an example we can relate the assumption to the society of North Korea where Kim-Jong-Un is the dictator and he announced that there will be no art /ART anymore. People can do anything but the art/ART. In this assumpted situation I will not involve in any kind of art/ART as defined by Kim-Jong-Un. But I will continue doing other activities as those activities are allowed. My point is that the way Kim-Jong-Un defines his art/ART is his way of defining art/ART. I have my own way of expression which might not be conflicting with Kim-Jong-Uns perception of art/ART

Step 02:

I think defining what is art/ART or what is not, often becomes the responsibility of the Institution/ Organisation/ Academy because they took that responsibility themselves. An individual can do something for his/her personal purpose/without any purpose or pleasure and that individual might not take the responsibility to define it his/her works as art/ART or an expression of predefined art/ART. 

Step 03:

As human being people should do whatever he want, it’s not necessary to be art/ART. If anybody want to define it’s art/ART or not it’s his matter/problem how he would define.


Is It Art? Is It Good? And Who Says So?


Usually, we judge everything in the parameter  of “Good or Bad”. Is it possible to judge/define everything in the parameter of “Good or Bad”?

What about ART ? What is BAD ART ? What is GOOD ART ? What makes a GOOD ART bad, What makes a BAD ART good.

IS BAD ART; ART ? IS BAD ART; BAD ?

Bad Art,Good Art

Alter          Error        Noise


WHAT IS AESTHETICS

Aesthetics Philosophy of the Arts

Aesthetics (/ɛsˈθɛtɪks/; also spelled æsthetics and esthetics also known in Greek as Αισθητική, or “Aisthētiké”) is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of art, beauty, and taste, with the creation and appreciation of beauty.[1][2] It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments ofsentiment and taste.[3] More broadly, scholars in the field define aesthetics as “critical reflection on art, culture andnature.”[4][5] In modern English, the term aesthetic can also refer to a set of principles underlying the works of a particular art movement or theory: one speaks for example of the Cubist aesthetic.

Wikipedia

Aesthetics and the philosophy of art

For some, aesthetics is considered a synonym for the philosophy of art since Hegel, while others insist that there is a significant distinction between these closely related fields. In practice, aesthetic judgement refers to the sensory contemplation or appreciation of an object (not necessarily an art object), while artistic judgement refers to the recognition, appreciation or criticism of art or an art work.

Philosophical aesthetics has not only to speak about art and to produce judgments about art works, but has also to give a definition of what art is. Art is an autonomousentity for philosophy, because art deals with the senses (i. e. the etymology of aesthetics) and art is as such free of any moral or political purpose. Hence, there are two different conceptions of art in aesthetics: art as knowledge or art as action, but aesthetics is neither epistemology nor ethics.

Wikipedia


DADA

Dada (/ˈdɑːdɑː/) or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century. Dada in Zürich,Switzerland, began in 1916 at Cabaret Voltaire, spreading to Berlin shortly thereafter, but the height of New York Dada was the year before, in 1915.[1] The term anti-art, a precursor to Dada, was coined by Marcel Duchamp around 1913 when he created his first readymades.[2] Dada, in addition to being anti-war, had political affinities with the radical left and was also anti-bourgeois.

Dadaism in 8 Minutes: Can Everything Be Art?

The Nonsensical Art of Dada | Dadaism.

NEO DADA

Neo-Dada was a movement with audio, visual and literary manifestations that had similarities in method or intent with earlier Dada artwork. In the United States the term was popularized by Barbara Rose in the 1960s and refers primarily, although not exclusively, to work created in that and the preceding decade. There was also an international dimension to the movement, particularly in Japan and in Europe, serving as the foundation of Fluxus, Pop Art and Nouveau réalisme.[1]

Neo-Dada was exemplified by its use of modern materials, popular imagery, and absurdist contrast. It was a reaction to the personal emotionalism of Abstract Expressionism and, taking a lead from the practice of Marcel Duchamp and Kurt Schwitters, denied traditional concepts of aesthetics.~ Wikipedia


FLUXUS

Fluxus is an international and interdisciplinary network[1] or movement of artists, poets, composers, and designers of the 1960s and 1970s, noted for experimental syntheses of different artistic media and disciplines. Participants from fields as diverse as art, poetry, economics, and chemistry produced performance “events,” which included enactments of scores, “Neo-Dada” noise music, and time-based works, as well as concrete poetryvisual arturban planning, architecture, design, literature, and publishing. Many Fluxus artists share an anti-commercial and anti-art sensibility. 

Fluxus is sometimes described as intermedia. In 1964, Fluxus artist, poet, and publisher Dick Higgins identified and named the category of intermedia to explain new syntheses of two or more unrelated media or disciplines.[2] The ideas and practices of composer John Cage influenced Fluxus, especially his notion that one should embark on an artwork without a conception of its end, and his understanding of the work as a site of interaction between artist and audience. 

The process of creating was privileged over the finished product.[3] Another influence was the readymades of Marcel Duchamp, a French artist who was active in Dada (1916-c. 1922). George Maciunas, the self-proclaimed founder of this fluid movement, coined the name Fluxus in 1961 to title a proposed magazine.

The Fluxus movement… developed its ‘anti-art’, anti-commercial aesthetics under the leadership of George Maciunas. Fluxus staged a series of festivals in Paris, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, London and New York, with avant-garde performances often spilling out into the street. Most of the experimental artists of the period, including Alison Knowles,Joseph BeuysYoko OnoNam June PaikDick Higgins, and Wolf Vostell took part in Fluxus events. The movement, which still continues in diverse forms, played an important role in the opening up of definitions of art.

What is Fluxus?

Yoko Ono, Paik, Vostell,…Fluxus-Happening-Artists, 1990


Anti Art

Anti-art is a loosely used term applied to an array of concepts and attitudes that reject prior definitions of art and question art in general. Somewhat paradoxically, anti-art tends to conduct this questioning and rejection from the vantage point of art.[1] The term is associated with the Dada movement and is generally accepted as attributable to Marcel Duchamp pre-World War I around 1914, when he began to use found objects as art. It was used to describe revolutionary forms of art. The term was used later by the Conceptual artists of the 1960s to describe the work of those who claimed to have retired altogether from the practice of art, from the production of works which could be sold.[2][3]

An expression of anti-art may or may not take traditional form or meet the criteria for being defined as a work of art according to conventional standards.[4][5] Indeed, works of anti-art may express an outright rejection of having conventionally defined criteria as a means of defining what art is, and what it is not. Anti-artworks may reject conventional artistic standards altogether,[6] or focus criticism only on certain aspects of art, such as the art market and high art. Some anti-artworks may reject individualism in art,[7][8]whereas some may reject “universality” as an accepted factor in art. Additionally, some forms of anti-art reject art entirely, or reject the idea that art is a separate realm or specialization.[9] Anti-artworks may also reject art based upon a consideration of art as being oppressive of a segment of the population.[10]

Anti-art artworks may articulate a disagreement with the generally supposed notion of there being a separation between art and life. Indeed, anti-art artworks may voice a question as to whether “art” really exists or not.[11] “Anti-art” has been referred to as a “paradoxical neologism,”[12] in that its ostensible opposition to art has been observed concurring with staples of twentieth-century art or “modern art,” in particular art movements that have self-consciously sought to transgress traditions or institutions.[13] Anti-art itself is not a distinct art movement, however. This would tend to be indicated by the time it spans—longer than that usually spanned by art movements. Some art movements though, are labeled “anti-art”. The Dada movement is generally considered the first anti-art movement; the term anti-art itself is said to have been coined by Dadaist Marcel Duchamp around 1914, and his readymades have been cited as early examples of anti-art objects.[14] Theodor W. Adorno in Aesthetic Theory (1970) stated that “…even the abolition of art is respectful of art because it takes the truth claim of art seriously.”[15]

Anti-art has become generally accepted by the artworld to be art, although some people still reject Duchamp’s readymades as art, for instance the Stuckist group of artists,[2] who are “anti-anti-art“.


George Maciunas

George Maciunas was a Lithuanian-American artist. He was a founding member and the central coordinator of Fluxus, an international community of artists, architects, composers, and designers. ~ Wikipedia 

georgemaciunas.com

Born: November 8, 1931, Kaunas, Lithuania 

Died: May 9, 1978, Boston, Massachusetts, United States 

Spouse: Billie Hutching (m. 1978) 

Period: Fluxus 

Artwork: Fluxkit (in 25 parts), more 

Education: Carnegie Mellon College of Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Cooper Union


Wabi- Sabi

https://crmrkt.com/bww8kB

Ikigai

Japanese ‘Ikigai’ Philosophy Could Be the Secret Formula to a Long and Happy Life


Whose works I am trying to explore these days:

GILBERT & GEORGE

http://www.gilbertandgeorge.co.uk