It does seems especially hard to find that middle ground in digital arts between the worst examples of academic naval gazing and the tool obsessed geek 'artist'. Bill Viola said in an interview recently that he thought the theorist were winning the latest round in this battle though it was a cyclical thing. He hoped that artists would focus on the making of work and its emotional impact without being so self conscious that they feel they have to justify it with big words. At least that's how i interpreted his comments. I agree with this generally, though in a country where anti-intellectualism abounds we do need Variant and other critical voices to help us understand the artistic and social political context we work in. I often come across situations where I feel people (and myself) would have benefited from some historical knowledge or some explanation. This is i guess where labels and festivals come in and this is where the problems begin. personally I try to use some critical theory and context to justify work to funders, I think this is right and proper. Beyond this I think any explanations (if asked for) should be as clear as possible. I get tired having to re read texts five times and then wish i had a dictionary handy in order to understand something that isn't very complex actually. It occurred to me while reading Cavan's words the irony of using artists to explain science to a wider audience. It seems that a lot of contemporary art is a kind of IQ test to see whether you 'get it' or not, simple objects being cloaked in some kind of obscure complex post modern sub text. Science issues on the other hand are often complex subjects made up of a lot of simple facts.
tell me if I'm wrong. simon ****************************************************** Simon Fildes & Katrina McPherson Greystones Main Street Newtonmore Highland Region PH20 1DR 01540670002 01540673796 07779106593 07798563799 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.left-luggage.co.uk ************************************************** ------------------------------------------------- a m b i t : networking media arts in scotland post: [EMAIL PROTECTED] info: send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and write "info ambit" in the message body -------------------------------------------------
