On Sat, Sep 29, 2012 at 12:47 PM, joseph berg <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Sat, Sep 29, 2012 at 3:47 AM, William Conger <[email protected]>wrote: > >> We live in an era of extremes. Maybe it was always the case, at least in >> Western Culture. Whatever the idea or practice, the tendency was and is >> to take >> it to the most extreme level of realization. Then the idea or practice >> collapses and something new is begun. The way to be an artist today is >> clearly >> to do whatever you do to the most extreme. If you use paint then either >> go for >> the most lavish, extravagant use of it or to the opposite extreme , the >> most >> wispy, delicate, slight. It's gotta always be 'over the top'. Smart >> artists >> know they can't 'begin' anything because beginnings of a new cultural >> shift are >> pan-cultural events. They happen insidiously and seemingly everywhere as >> anyone >> who has studied the origins of new ideas quickly learns. But artists, >> alone and >> by sheer will and genius can and do finish cultural eras. They are the >> great >> ones we all admire. Cezanne didn't invent cubism. He finished the >> Renaissance >> perspectival and narrative tradition. Cubism was invented by scholars >> looking >> back at a wide array of tentative changes. So it is with any idea. What >> could >> be more vivid in that respect than the so-called arms race. To invent the >> most >> extreme weapons is the name of the game; to build the most extreme >> (highest) >> building, or the fastest plane, to perform the most difficult feat in >> athletics, >> etc. The list is long. The closer a cultural era is to the most >> extreme, the >> closer it is to radical change. The whole Western World is now in a >> Baroque >> phase. We're at the extreme of what our culture is. >> >> Go for the extreme of your idea! Take it to the breaking point! Better >> to be >> on the wave than under it. >> wc >> >> > Whenever I watch tv programs which feature brides shopping for their > wedding gowns, it surprises me that almost none of the brides say: > > - I am having a traditional wedding so I want a classic gown. > > Almost all of them say something like: > > - I really don't know exactly what I want, but I know I want > something..............................DIFFERENT.......................Definitely > over the top.........................Lots of WOW factor.................and > by the way, not too POOFY. > > Seems like the notion of 'fitting in' has become just > soooooooooooooooooooo 20th-c. > > Concerning how extreme things are becoming, young brides now to have large tattoos on their arms, back and even chest: http://www.partease.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/3896416270_4c2b9a73c5_z.jpg
