Re: data diaries (response to all)

–> dear all, i'm taking these a bit out of order, but wanted to
respond to a few of the things that have been said about _data
diaries_…

t.whid said:
"All art builds on what has come before, sometimes it leaps forward,
sometimes it steps forward. to deny that is to deny how human
creativity functions."

–> this is well put and also reminds us of the conceptual &
structural overlaps between language and visual art (and, perhaps
even more so, here, its history). let's think of ourselves as working
with a dictionary. we only have so many words at our disposal. we may
come up with new ways to combine or alter them, new poetics, new
narratologies, even, but we are constantly working within the domain
of language and, whether we like it or not, our use of it–even or
attempts to "deny" it–simply act to underscore it. that said, it's
great when an artist (in any medium) can work in a way that is
appropriately self-reflexive, that is aware of its conditions while
doing something about or within them. at times, this means going back
to very basic, root structures. or repeating existing structures for
the sake of controlled, observable repetition through which the
artist benefits personally/creatively/intellectually (in learning
form the repetition) and, hopefully, from which a reader/viewer can
benefit in the experience of that performative function. arcangel has
done all of this.

jess loseby said:
"The fact the final product is weak is just something that we (as
viewers and artists) seemed to have started to accept as ok in
conceptual art…" <…> "why not take a bit more time on what the
piece actually looks like and the aesthetics of the translation…?
Corys work… looks…so basic."

–> i think that the latter would be a compliment to arcangel. this
mostly subjective/comparative interpretation should not serve to
deface a work or its "value," should we feel compelled to assign it
one. beyond this, i am curious why, more specifically, it would be
called "weak."

lewis lacook said:
"the thing about works as conceptual as this is that there's all too
often a poverty of sensory material…which is the point behind
conceptual work…to avoid there being any sort of art object at
all…this of course is a hybrid, and i find this fascinating…"
<…> "codepoetry? <…> the innerworkings of something we're not
meant to see…"

–> i'd like to better understand what you are saying here. i think
that we (those of us engaged in this discussion) need to better flesh
out our use of the term "conceptual," as i do not see "minimalist"
or, as i said, "arte poverte" being wholly constitutive of
"conceptual" art, nor is the latter an appropriate description of
_data diaries_.

–> "codepoetry" is a great term and quite applicable, here. of
course, rather than having a revelation of the code, there is a new
iteration or translation of the code, into another, visual lexicon…

michael szpakowski said:
"What makes all the above notable for me?- engagement with the human
and with the human being in society; high degree of technical ability
(and a willingness to undertake drudgery) sometimes bordering on
virtuosity but not to an obsessional extent & rarely entirely for
it's own sake; universality - relatively independent of context -even
though often very much of it's time nevertheless it resonates for us
now.. ..and I think I'd want to argue that somewhere in there lies a
framework for what justifies art as a human activity." {and}: "(in
the long run we're all dust) but not in the historical, hundreds of
yearsy medium term scale which is the only really graspable and
meaningful one for us humans- us and our culturally preserved
memories"

–> i find this interesting criteria and, just for the sake of
dragging it out, i'd like to lay it over _data diaries_. DD is an
autobiographical project and its basic elements are unique to so many
of us. (both its content and delivery vehicle.) this is, in fact,
quite "human." i would also absolutely say that arcangel's work is
"virtuoso" (with all the flair that connotes) but not obsessionally.
the kid can code but he's applied his skills to what reads as minimal
work and uses equipment/software/media that subvert the fetishization
of the highest technology. (yes, there is, indeed a retroactive
fetishization, here, but let's just say that i obviously favor it in
difference to the new, new, new.)

–> it is difficult to call software-driven art timeless, in any way.
it is ephemeral and takes a central place in the very constellation
of pseudo-darwinian technolution that privileges the new.
nevertheless, _data diaries_ is very aware of its time, looking back
to a bygone aesthetic, revolving around a person's use of time and a
computer's processing of it, and giving us a project which contorts
time at a time in which is is urgently demanded that we consider the
after-effects of said technolution.

marisa

_________________
Marisa S. Olson
Associate Director
SF Camerawork
415. 863. 1001

Comments

, Geert Dekkers

I think the work might do well out of the context of net.art. It
might do especially well as a museum piece – projected onto the
walls of a darkened room. There it might interact with other examples
of the minimalist tradition.


Geert Dekkers * http://nznl.com