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Lesson Plans


Re: Artist Quotes (the final chapter---hopefully)

From: henry taylor (taylorh)
Date: Thu Aug 17 2000 - 08:05:55 PDT

  • Next message: Ann Heineman: "Re: Standard practices-unfinished work, regular projects going home-to mount or no ?"

    Did I ever consider working for a politician? ANY
    politician?

    YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING!!! ME? <ROTFL>

    First, you are probably right; Gore's team is behind in
    the spin race and could use some help, as far as that
    goes. Obviously he can't afford the pros that Bush's
    team has. They only do it because we are not skeptical
    enough or cynical enough about spin. We take their
    quotes too often at face value.

    But look, I'm an artist, so of course I understand spin
    and
    the construction (or deconstuction) of meaning. At the
    simple cost of the loss of any partivcular faith I
    might have had in meaning in the first place. It is one
    learnable skill available to all along the path towards
    becoming an artist.

    I am not, however, particularly political, I have no
    interest at all in controlling people or societies or
    in the totally antique, zero-sum, adversarial, conflict
    our two (or is it four) parties engage in. Win/Lose is
    a dumb paradigm. George Washington was correct.
    Political Partys are a bad idea. The institution of
    politics has a
    poor record in the long term. All gains are eventually
    paid for in
    losses of a greater degree.

    Anything can be persuasively made to mean or stand for
    any other thing or quality. Politicans learn the same
    skills
    --- often hiring artists of various stripes to add the
    final
    and most persuasive touches. It's something artists do
    best.

    As an artist I play with these things to expose their
    mechanism and not to persuade anyone that "Art is the
    lie".
    I expect that nobody thought my manipulation was
    intended
    to persuade anyone of anything other than that
    truncating someone's words or removing them from their
    context CAN
    alter their significance. Call it performance art.

    Happy voting!
    -henry
    (you are SUCH a tease Leah! I can't resist "playing"
    with you. VBG) 

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