Conceptual art: what's the point?

[padraig (u.s.)]

it was ever thus

during my brush with the scientific world, I was put off by the degree to which it functions in the same way

there it is, I guess, more defensible

technicians can do some things but depending on the research, you simply have to have some number of grad students/post-docs in a lab

but whenever someone gets a Nobel or whatever, it represents the work of many people

like any field, some people have better or worse reputations for crediting their underlings. I heard a few horror stories.

and because the publish or perish pressure is so acute, the head of a lab is like a feudal lord, holding everyone's fate in their hands

 

[version]

I read this on Twitter when Harold Bloom died,

"if you truly want to honor Harold Bloom you should have 20 unpaid grad students write his obit"

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

yes I suppose it's academia in general

it seems more egregious in the sciences because the stakes are much higher outside of academia as an end unto itself

 

[luka]

Feels nice adopting the certitudinal note of a pompous professor or true believer. I notice my previous post is lacerated at the ankles by constant expressions of doubt and relativism.

Jesus, this sentence

 

[Corpsey]

What the hell was I on about?

I was thinking last night that I should have a separate account for posting when stoned and high on lit crit.

 

[Corpsey]

Then I can delete all those posts and keep the ones I made when pissed up and enraged.

 

[luka]

What does it mean

 

[Corpsey]

It feels good adopting the confident tone of an established academic or religious zealot.

Having skimmed my previous post, I have noticed that my arguments are constantly hamstrung by expressions of self-doubt.

 

[Corpsey]

"certitudinal" tho

I was racking myself for this last night, in my defence. I've got a tendency to get high on my own gas sometimes.

It's an understandable sort of feeding frenzy my ego indulges in, it being beaten like a Dickensian orphan 99% of the time.

Also it's to do with my reading books by people like Santayana who can pull off that high style (the horrible "nay!"s aside), and wanting a piece of that action for myself.

 

[luka]

Let's adopt the high style. Are we more right than otherwise?

 

[luka]

What is it about that makes us say

 

[luka]

I would say try it and is it a road to truth

 

[Corpsey]

"Is not the poetic quality of phrases and images due to their concentrating and liberating the confused promptings left in us by a long experience? When we feel the poetic thrill, is it not that we find sweep in the concise and depth in the clear, as we might find all the lights of the sea in the water of a jewel? And what is a philosophic thought but such an epitome?"

 

[Corpsey]

It's a bit like taking a drug, reading a book – a book with a strong style, I mean.

 

[version]

Great example of art bollocks in RA's review of the new Actress single,

"Walking Flames" is almost radical in its conventional approach

 

[luka]

almost interesting in its boring approach

 

[version]

It'd work if they were taking the piss and it was a negative review, but it's a serious, positive review.

 

[sus]

It's a bit like taking a drug, reading a book – a book with a strong style, I mean.

sometimes I feel like I'm having a panic attack after watching a woodie allen film, it's just a way of being, you know? it rubs off on ya

 

[craner]

Great example of art bollocks in RA's review of the new Actress single,

"Walking Flames" is almost radical in its conventional approach

Good spot.

 

[Leo]

but if an artist has previously done only unconventional music (which, regardless of whether you like him or not, is largely the case with actress), then taking a conventional approach is in fact a radical change, no?

you guys sound like a bunch of old geezers sometimes. "Oh, that silly art stuff, my five-year old granddaughter could draw that!"