Abstraction and Material Necessity in Art and Society
1
John Cage, 4'33" [In Proportional Notation] (1952/53) OBJECTS OF STUDY Taking Alfred Korzybski’s profound statement that the “map is not the territory” as the catalyst for my investigation, I aim to elucidate that which falls outside the map: the indeterminate, unpresentable nature of nature. The natural world precedes and exceeds abstraction necessary for the human language, knowledge, and communication—outside the control of any supposedly totalizing human systems based on abstracted models. We need not remain confined to the past’s hubris holding nature subordinate to humanity and its ideologies; today, we can see our finitude and fallibility with unprecedented clarity. We currently face existential crisis on a global scale, both physically and philosophically. Simply, this paper asks: what can art do here? (Or more precisely: what does art afford here?) Works considered: John Cage’s musical composition 4’33” and text Silence Guy Debord’s film Critique de la Separation (Critique of Separation) and text The Society of the Spectacle THESIS In examining the affordance of “art” I use the term in a deliberately ambiguous sense and in no way mean to define it in any conclusive manner; rather, I aim to outline an affordance of the art considered here, which is not exclusive to these works or the artistic realm in general. The ambiguity of the term reflects its existence and experience as such, which can occur through virtually any media. While each medium has particular affordances, what I examine here is one shared among all, and one of potentially limitless possibility: a capacity to facilitate experience of an explicit ambiguity at the edge of the map’s borders, to recognize a reality beyond presumption. From this realm of the undefined or unknown, by uniting abstract theory with concrete recognition at the level of lived experience, the convergence of theory and practice opens a space for the revelation of new meaning and possibilities, through recognition of characteristics and affordances of the event not previously seen or known. The work explored here affords this space of explicit ambiguity, a space of radical play to imagine and create new possibilities beyond what is as it is—a space to redraw the map. RESEARCH QUESTIONS Can art offer affordances to recognize and address the unprecedented importance of ecological crisis and existential risks? If so, what are those affordances? What is the relationship between theory and practice? Can the convergence of abstract perceptual categories and more intuitive experience facilitate the recognition of new possibilities outside entrenched pathologies? SOURCES Brecht, Bertolt and Eric Bentley. "A Model for Epic Theater." The Sewanee Review 57.3, 1949. Cage, John. Silence: Lectures and Writings. 1st ed. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1961. Critique of Separation. Film. Directed by Guy Debord, Dansk-Fransk Experimentalfilm Kompagni. 1961. Debord, Guy. The Society of the Spectacle. New York: Zone Books, 1994. Derrida, Jacques. The Truth in Painting. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987. De Saussure, Ferdinand. Course in General Linguistics. Edited by Charles Bally, Albert Sechehaye, and Albert Reidlinger. Translated by Wade Baskin (New York: Philosophical Library, 1959). Gann, Kyle. No Such Thing as Silence: John Cage's 4'33. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010. Gibson, James Jerome. The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1979. Korzybski, Alfred. Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics. 5th ed. Brooklyn: International Non-Aristotelian Library, 1994. Lahman, Mary P. "General Semantics: Understanding Korzybski's Formulations." ETC: a review of general semantics 70.2, 2013. Lyotard, Jean-Francois. The Inhuman: Reflections on Time. Translated by Geoffrey Bennington and Rachel Bowlby. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991. Marx, Karl. “The Fetishism of Commodities and the Secret Thereof.” The Marx-Engels Reader. Edited by Robert C. Tucker. London: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1972. Norretranders, Tor. The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size. Edited by Jonathan Sydenham. New York: Penguin, 1998. Plant, Sadie. Most Radical Gesture: The Situationist International in a Postmodern Age. London: Routledge, 2002. CONCLUSION Our living relationship with the physical world and others within it is made invisible within closed worlds of prescribed thought divorced from material necessity. But my point is this: what we see is a fraction of the visible, while the visible comprises only a fraction of the true dynamism in which we live. The unseen is a realm of limitless and untold possibilities, both positive and negative, the characteristics and affordances of which it is up to us to decipher and utilize, or not. This is the game, and art is a key player. Art can create a place of exploration at the map’s borders, reaching the absence outside the spectacle’s pervasive presence, revealing and charting previously unseen territory, to make the unknown known. The explicit ambiguity of this undefined space affords limitless possibility alongside unceasing change, where what is and what is not coexist in flux, so that characteristics and affordances not known in previously established paradigms can be seen, deciphered, and used toward greater benefit for all. It Is, as It Is, Not: Abstraction and Material Necessity in Art and Society ROBERT OSWALD Alfred Korzybski, The Structural Differential (ca. 1923) John Cage [left] page one of proportional-notation score of 4’33” (1953) [right] written score of 4’ 33” (1961) Guy Debord Critique de la Separation [still] (1961) BIOGRAPHY . . . in the making . . . ( and so on ) Robert Oswald is a fourth-year student in the BA Honours Program in Visual and Critical Studies. Honours BA in Visual and Critical Studies Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences For program related inquiries contact: The Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences and School of Interdisciplinary Studies 416-977-6000 x. 3351 [email protected] www.ocadu.ca/academics/undergraduate/ visual-critical-studies.htm For admissions related inquiries contact: Admissions & Recruitment 416-977-6000 x. 4869 [email protected] www.ocadu.ca/admissions.htm
Transcript of Abstraction and Material Necessity in Art and Society
John
Cag
e, 4
'33"
[In
Pro
port
iona
l Not
atio
n] (1
952/
53)
OBJECTS OF STUDY
Taking Alfred Korzybski’s profound statement that the “map is not the territory” as the catalyst for my investigation, I aim to elucidate that which falls outside the map: the indeterminate, unpresentable nature of nature. The natural world precedes and exceeds abstraction necessary for the human language, knowledge, and communication—outside the control of any supposedly totalizing human systems based on abstracted models. We need not remain confined to the past’s hubris holding nature subordinate to humanity and its ideologies; today, we can see our finitude and fallibility with unprecedented clarity. We currently face existential crisis on a global scale, both physically and philosophically. Simply, this paper asks: what can art do here? (Or more precisely: what does art afford here?)
Works considered: John Cage’s musical composition 4’33” and text SilenceGuy Debord’s film Critique de la Separation (Critique of Separation) and text The Society of the Spectacle
THESIS
In examining the affordance of “art” I use the term in a deliberately ambiguous sense and in no way mean to define it in any conclusive manner; rather, I aim to outline an affordance of the art considered here, which is not exclusive to these works or the artistic realm in general. The ambiguity of the term reflects its existence and experience as such, which can occur through virtually any media. While each medium has particular affordances, what I examine here is one shared among all, and one of potentially limitless possibility: a capacity to facilitate experience of an explicit ambiguity at the edge of the map’s borders, to recognize a reality beyond presumption. From this realm of the undefined or unknown, by uniting abstract theory with concrete recognition at the level of lived experience, the convergence of theory and practice opens a space for the revelation of new meaning and possibilities, through recognition of characteristics and affordances of the event not previously seen or known. The work explored here affords this space of explicit ambiguity, a space of radical play to imagine and create new possibilities beyond what is as it is—a space to redraw the map.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Can art offer affordances to recognize and address the unprecedented importance of ecological crisis and existential risks? If so, what are those affordances?
What is the relationship between theory and practice? Can the convergence of abstract perceptual categories and more intuitive experience facilitate the recognition of new possibilities outside entrenched pathologies?
SOURCES
Brecht, Bertolt and Eric Bentley. "A Model for Epic Theater." The Sewanee Review 57.3, 1949.
Cage, John. Silence: Lectures and Writings. 1st ed. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1961.
Critique of Separation. Film. Directed by Guy Debord, Dansk-Fransk Experimentalfilm Kompagni. 1961.
Debord, Guy. The Society of the Spectacle. New York: Zone Books, 1994.
Derrida, Jacques. The Truth in Painting. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.
De Saussure, Ferdinand. Course in General Linguistics. Edited by Charles Bally, Albert Sechehaye, and Albert Reidlinger. Translated by Wade Baskin (New
York: Philosophical Library, 1959).
Gann, Kyle. No Such Thing as Silence: John Cage's 4'33. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010.
Gibson, James Jerome. The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1979.
Korzybski, Alfred. Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics. 5th ed. Brooklyn: International Non-Aristotelian
Library, 1994.
Lahman, Mary P. "General Semantics: Understanding Korzybski's Formulations." ETC: a review of general semantics 70.2, 2013.
Lyotard, Jean-Francois. The Inhuman: Reflections on Time. Translated by Geoffrey Bennington and Rachel Bowlby. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991.
Marx, Karl. “The Fetishism of Commodities and the Secret Thereof.” The Marx-Engels Reader. Edited by Robert C. Tucker. London: W.W. Norton &
Company, Inc., 1972.
Norretranders, Tor. The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size. Edited by Jonathan Sydenham. New York: Penguin, 1998.
Plant, Sadie. Most Radical Gesture: The Situationist International in a Postmodern Age. London: Routledge, 2002.
CONCLUSION
Our living relationship with the physical world and others within it is made invisible within closed worlds of prescribed thought divorced from material necessity. But my point is this: what we see is a fraction of the visible, while the visible comprises only a fraction of the true dynamism in which we live. The unseen is a realm of limitless and untold possibilities, both positive and negative, the characteristics and affordances of which it is up to us to decipher and utilize, or not. This is the game, and art is a key player. Art can create a place of exploration at the map’s borders, reaching the absence outside the spectacle’s pervasive presence, revealing and charting previously unseen territory, to make the unknown known. The explicit ambiguity of this undefined space affords limitless possibility alongside unceasing change, where what is and what is not coexist in flux, so that characteristics and affordances not known in previously established paradigms can be seen, deciphered, and used toward greater benefit for all.
It Is, as It Is, Not: Abstraction and Material Necessity in Art and Society
ROBERT OSWALD
Alfred Korzybski, The Structural Differential (ca. 1923)
John Cage[left] page one of proportional-notation score of 4’33” (1953)[right] written score of 4’ 33” (1961)
Guy DebordCritique de la Separation [still] (1961)
BIOGRAPHY
. . . in the making . . . (and so on)
Robert Oswald is a fourth-year student in the BA
Honours Program in Visual and Critical Studies.
Honours BA in Visual and Critical StudiesFaculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences
For program related inquiries contact:
The Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences and School of Interdisciplinary Studies
416-977-6000 x. [email protected]
www.ocadu.ca/academics/undergraduate/visual-critical-studies.htm
For admissions related inquiries contact:
Admissions & Recruitment416-977-6000 x. 4869
[email protected]/admissions.htm
