"Shouldn't an aesthetic ideal eschew effects? Well, there is a whole segment of the art-world -- across the arts -- that does precisely what Berg suggests and that is to present the virtual as the 'representational' art object. Thus Duchamp's urinal -- and actual plumbing fixture --was presented unmodified as sculpture, a heretofore representational medium. Since then hundreds of artists have done likewise with single objects or with complicated ensembles. All that is needed is the aura of an art context like a museum or the so-called white walls. Nowadays, the art world is rife with art objects or 'art occasions' that simply aim to alter the context for considering them and leave the object itself untouched. That's the complete eschewing of effects, unless you take the context to be an effect. Some do and insist therefore that the context must be as arbitrary as the object. This is the crux of so-called situational art where ordinary events in their ordinary contexts are claimed as art. The claim alone is sufficient to identify art. This means the end of the artist as a maker or pointer utilizing 'effects'. Now everyone is an artist and everything is art at the moment anyone says so. wc
----- Original Message ---- From: joseph berg <[email protected]> To: aesthetics-l <[email protected]> Sent: Sat, September 29, 2012 3:47:24 AM Subject: Re: Aesthetic Ideal To keep style subordinate to substance, shouldn't an aesthetic ideal eschew effects?
