Quote of the day
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From Flat against the wall, Olia Lialina's essay for the Media Art Undone panel at transmediale: "Comfort for all parties is a feature of Contemporary Art. New Media does not know this word. In New Media artists fight, curators suffer, audience gets angry. And that's how it should be." |
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Agreed, but that's how it should be in every discipline of art.
I'm not saying that we need more provocative works, but comfort definitely is a great problem of contemporary art. There's even different kinds of it. For example, many pieces, as long as they claim to contribute to a given (although never named) discourse, are being attributed great value without questioning their power to actually affect someone. In Europe, at least in galleries, it is highly unlikely to find textual explanations with even the most conceptual artworks (if you don't count bloated press-releases).
This also leads to a certain comfort because we can't actually argue about what excludes itself from one's understanding, except in very general terms.
However, for (new) media art, this is also a danger because there often enough the technology represents the obscurantist strategies. I really like the theory that art only exists so it can be fought about so I very much agree with Olia's hope.
agree: and i thought wmmna was the place for accommodating media art: funny, colorful and for everybody to enjoy.
It would of be course interesting to see what passes as discomforting nowadays and I don't mean statements about discomfort.
I agree with the wish Olia is expressing but am not sure that the statement she implies actually stands. My opinion is that new media artists are just conformist in new ways. You know - as in New Mediocricy.
Conformism of the artists is the largest force in the universe and please don't get me wrong: I am not saying it's not revolting.
(Hey Olia, how's tricks? I still owe you the 100€ provision fee for selling my file to that museum in Spain. How do we do that?)
Is this supposed to be a joke? What, anger, fighting and suffering are the mark of the true artist?
It's a joke, right?
It doesn't matter now or then if comfort is utilized,show a piece to two people and you will get 2 most likely strong, completely opposite opinions as feeling, and meanings as to what they see...While we as the Artist know it's complete, sometime painful Creation and deeper secrets of the piece we show.