I've decided that Mr. Berg is not a person at all but a computerized device that sends us silly things about art according to some preset tag. Here, below, his latest. The blogger has finally discovered that art is what is said about it -- now and always-- without exception. In these days of theory over practice -- a natural effect of the absence of practice standards -- it's a ho-hum discovery to recognize that ideas, subject to the linguistic habits of culture (and highly suspect themselves although unexamined) appear more cogent in a word centered world. The ubiquity of advertising -- the closest thing to a merging of word and image once limited to religious and political propaganda -- is the template for today's art. Just as advertising as propaganda explains a bias and promises a benefit so too do we want our art to be explained. We look at art and we ask, "OK, now what does it do for me?"
I have nothing but contempt for the bottom-scudding efforts of Mr. Berg/machine. WC ----- Original Message ---- From: joseph berg <[email protected]> To: aesthetics-l <[email protected]> Sent: Thu, January 13, 2011 11:38:16 PM Subject: "The systematic preference for ideas to the detriment of aesthetics in contemporary art reflects a painful imbalance in our modern lives." http://www.mayaalexandri.com/mayas_blog/the-great-themes/importance-of-aesthetics/
