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Happy April Fool's Day
Post #765 • April 1, 2006, 11:31 AM • 28 Comments
Don't worry - the joke's not on you this year. Or is it?
2.
April 2, 2006, 12:45 PM
I had a very good April Fool’s day. The Artist’s Garage Sale was another success; combined with the previous garage sale, I made over $1,200. Since it was a cash-only event, I could not close my wallet that had too much cash in it at the end of the sale! I am thankful to Books & Books for allowing me to do it.
In the evening I got a free feast at a Japanese restaurant, funded by a marketing company.
No one fooled me on that day, and that was indeed a good April Fool's day to me.
3.
April 2, 2006, 2:16 PM
April Fool's Day? This is a call for papers for one of the panels that has just been announced for next fall's SECA/MACAA conference in Nashville (complete listing at http://www.macaart.org/Nashville_sessions.pdf). This is NOT a parody. An excellent paper from our departmen criticising the deemphasis ot the visual in favor of the conceptual was rejected.
CHROMORGASM: CHROMANCING THE COLOR MOSHPIT
The artist’s romance with color has long been a seductive one. From the sensual
shape-shifting quality of color to its adaptive and assimilative properties, color
often seduces the visual culture producer into a dangerous relationship.
Frequently,as an artist flirts with his/her desire to manipulate color they begin
to develop a power struggle with the hidden hierarchical structure of color and
its interlocutors. Yet the deception of traditional theoretical primary systems,
arbitrary linguistical associations,and curatorial coding frequently restrain the
artistic use of color. Recently, academics and artists in many fields have begun
to question the homogenous visual distribution systems and manipulated
marketing strategies of color. Just how can a decentralized, feminine,and
nonlinear notion of color subvert the dominant paradigms often controlled by
color corporations, pigment manufacturers, and color organizations? What new
provocative production strategies, teaching territories and artistic dialectics can
be bridged from today’s metameric movement beyond the spent art historical
two-dimensional matrix? The panel seeks presenters willing to transgress
foundational myths, cross technical boundaries,fashion interdisciplinary
relationships and open newhybrid conduits beyond the formal artistic and
educational processes of color. Sociopolitical issues such as globalization,
human rights,war,gender,and the “other”will all be considered in connection
with color accessibility,color,reproduction,and color (MIS)management.Does
the continued engagement of color with artists have a flirtatious future or is
color destined to become mere fleeting romance? Pete Driessen,Visual Artist
and Independent Scholar,4520 Abbott Avenue South,Minneapolis MN 55410.
612-782-9185.Email: elroydog@bitstream.net
4.
April 2, 2006, 4:47 PM
OP, you mean this is an actual panel that is already a go, and not just some joke of a proposal? What you posted from this Driessen person is beyond parody and beneath any serious consideration. If he's not embarrassed, I'm embarrassed for him.
5.
April 2, 2006, 5:05 PM
It is serious, it is a panel, it has been accepted and there is a call for papers. There will be no embarassment; this is what everyone is doing.
I think I am going to submit a paper to develop a power struggle with the hidden hierarchical structure of color and its interlocutors to counter the deception of traditional theoretical primary systems, arbitrary linguistical associations, and curatorial coding and question the homogenous visual distribution systems and manipulated marketing strategies of color to subvert the dominant paradigms often controlled by white male dominant culture figures like Senator Joseph Mcarthy, who called everyone "Reds" and "pinkos".
6.
April 2, 2006, 5:17 PM
Do it, OP. I have long wanted to replicate the brilliant Sokal Hoax on the art world.
7.
April 2, 2006, 5:35 PM
But how in the world can you outparody the actual panel submission?
What if Mr. Driessen suddenly showed up and said "gotcha!!". Would that suddenly make his panel a parody? No, it wouldn't change a thing, because it can function perfectly well either way.
These people are wandering in never-never land. Why did we ever get in this business?
8.
April 2, 2006, 5:43 PM
OldPro: maybe you ought not parady anything. Just get on the panel with whatever BS it takes, then tell them off after you get the microphone. They can't really stop you at that point.
Despite the hotness of the topic, the audience is not likely to be large.
9.
April 2, 2006, 5:47 PM
Metameric nonsense. Good word though, metameric.
10.
April 2, 2006, 5:47 PM
These people, OP, are wandering in Bogusland, aka the Land of the Irremediably Lame. How is anyone who is serious and sensible supposed to respect any organization that patronizes this gobbledygook?
11.
April 2, 2006, 5:54 PM
Yes, Ahab, so is iambic pentameter, but neither throwing that term around nor actually using it to write something means anything much in and of itself. As I said, very embarrasing, and not just for Driessen.
12.
April 2, 2006, 6:07 PM
Metameric is an excellent word in chemistry, or color science, where it has a precise and useful meaning. But "metemeric movement" makes no sense at all.
I actually am beginning to think that this is a hoax of the Sokal variety. It is just too far-fetched and preposterous on the face of it.
13.
April 2, 2006, 10:33 PM
Re #4: OP, Just send them a 5x7 Color Aid.
14.
April 2, 2006, 10:38 PM
Prussian blue is metameric.
15.
April 2, 2006, 10:42 PM
i think metameric means that the color looks different under different conditions. Isn't Prussian Blue merely unstable? I am not an expert on this,.
16.
April 2, 2006, 10:55 PM
No prussian blue, when used full strength will exhibit "bronzing", a copper reddish sheen under certain lighting conditions. I thought it was a good example for a oil painter (prussian blue is unstable in alkaline souutions)
17.
April 2, 2006, 10:57 PM
or did you mean Prussian Blue was an unstable form of German Pornography?
18.
April 2, 2006, 11:23 PM
Speaking of color, has anyone seen Gunter Umberg's paintings?
Very intense, usually "black" though several mixes of Prussian Blue. He
uses dammar resin, then paints up to 40 layers--mostly black.
What I have trouble with is that he paints layer after layer, using dammar/pigment.
Whenever I've used dammar/pigment, it darkens after the first coat.
Any ideas?
19.
April 2, 2006, 11:46 PM
Gigi, are you grinding pigment into damar varnish? Makes a very brittle paint of I recall correctly.
20.
April 3, 2006, 1:39 AM
Old Pro, this is an issue involving 'anyone can do it' vs 'only some can do it'.
21.
April 3, 2006, 1:40 AM
- the minutes Gigi, the minutes please!!!!!!
22.
April 3, 2006, 6:33 AM
I don't know what you mean, Jordan
23.
April 3, 2006, 9:11 AM
Oh Franklin, Franklin, Franklin... when will you learn? Asking Artforum to support a meaningful discussion about art is like asking a realtor to support a meaningful conversation about architecture. They don't care, they just want to make the sale. The blog format is merely a convenient vehicle to speak directly to the vapid masses of sheeplike collectors and other hopeful insiders to keep the art trade afloat on a raft built of media buzz and insecurity. The diary isn't a discussion forum, it's an instruction manual, or maybe a to-do list. The constant name dropping exists so that the would-be glitterati can go through and count the names they recognize or, even better, know personally, and then rush off to the latest party or gallery opening with their instructions on who else to meet.
In all seriousness, that's why their blog isn't going away anytime soon. You are not its audience and neither am I. It's a brilliant strategy... you know, in a Josef Mengele sort of way.
24.
April 3, 2006, 2:03 PM
Writing a paper on color? Sould'nt there be a PRESENTATION on color that is cross disciplinary, providing visual examples, demonstrations regarding usage, or it's "decentralized, feminine, non-linear notion of color" as manipulated by manufacturers?
25.
April 3, 2006, 2:19 PM
Of course, Jordan, but presenting a paper demonstrating that this thing makes any sense would be a hegemonic dominant western white male value-laden hierarchical concept, so it won't happen.
26.
April 3, 2006, 2:24 PM
I can't believe they actually say "subvert the dominant paradigms." There must be some kind of deconstructionism starter set with phrases like that ready to go out of the can, like frosting.
What greater feminine archetype do we have than the wheel, which is the central organizational idea of color theory? We could work up a whole Joseph Cambell thing based on Mother Color, Father Drawing.
27.
April 3, 2006, 2:51 PM
Yous guys are no fun.
Yous should be getting together and trying to rite a paper which makes absolutly no cents at all, using them flowery wurds and seein ifn you can git it accepted.
I am serious, fight fire with fire, it's the postmodern thing to do.
28.
April 3, 2006, 2:54 PM
Or as Sokal put it: "I decided to try a modest (though admittedly uncontrolled) experiment: Would a leading North American journal of cultural studies -- whose editorial collective includes such luminaries as Fredric Jameson and Andrew Ross -- publish an article liberally salted with nonsense if (a) it sounded good and (b) it flattered the editors' ideological preconceptions? The answer, unfortunately, is yes."
1.
Jack
April 1, 2006, 1:42 PM
Alas, it's true, one can't really parody a parody. The fact that the ArtForum blog has remained what it was is sad, of course, not least because it suggests that there is a significant audience for it which likes it that way, consisting largely of people who see and present themselves as serious art people. It's very hard to believe that ArtForum is unaware of how fatuous its blog is, so the implication is that they don't care because they feel no need to do so. To the extent they are correct, it's a pretty pitiful situation, but that's hardly news.