Re: Antoine Schmidt (France) and the entity in action

on 11/6/02 11:27 PM, Jim Andrews at [email protected] wrote:

> "Avec determination" at http://www.gratin.org/as/avecdetermination is a
minimalist study of lively motion via the programmed. Depending on the mood
you catch it in, you might get quite a show.


Another fine link! JA, while I may take issue here and there with your views
of these works, your findings are always marvelous!

Re: the site "avec determination":

This is good. This is art. (Or getting close.) I am actually reminded of
Beckett, in particular his use of obsessive minimal gestures repeated ad
nauseum, and of the puppetlike status of the people doing hurtful things to
themselves without being able to stop.

There is also grace on display here, and even a curious kind of dignity in
the struggle to keep going. No matter how many times the user's mouse as
"deux ex machina" thrusts a sprite against the wall or makes him float to
the ceiling, he always manages to regroup himself and get back into the
game. There's no stress or fatigue built into the algorithm, though, so in
the end I cannot fully relate. This is more like one god pitted against
another in an infinite loop. There is no breaking down of the system, no
ultimate concession, defeat or death. (And, conversely, no ecstasy,
revelation, etc.) This would be my main critique of this work, and of these
flash-generated thingies in general. I feel too distant from the so-called
life that is happening in them, no acknowledgment of my fragile and limited
status on this earth and of the tragic needs of the flesh which will always
be with us no mater how robotized we become. Such beings may exist as
virtual entities of a sort, but not in any world that I inhabit and will
someday be leaving. Even the Greek gods had human flaws and foibles. Where
are the flaws in these dancing sticks? I do not see them. They are blind,
indomitable, perfect, and as such do not ever live because they cannot ever
die.


-m