A Good Laugh @ Course In Post-Modernity
Mapping The Post-modern
Has Globalisation acted as a major influence upon the ways that non-western artists negotiate issues of identity?
The phenomena that is globalisation has been a major influence upon all spheres of life and marketplace, as originally a western ideal of transcending the world marketplace into a local market due to the enhanced interdependence of nations upon one another, the connected markets and interconnected cultures have been exploited by lucrative business / commercialisation. Such a transposition of values have not destroyed all sense of identity but rather disseminated nation identity with a much more complex worldly virtual syndrome of ideas and conceptual positions, such as feminism, nihilism, humanism, and the list continues. The artist, perhaps more poignant for the non-western artist, not only embraces social issues that define their virtual identity but also partakes within an international discourse of these various and multiple social issues within the framework of the Arbiter or, Interpreter or, Activist. It is proposed within this essay that the influence of globalisation has not only caused non-western artists to take upon themselves a virtual role but also incorporate three distinct changes within the ‘art world’: the worldly acceptance of the ‘Other’, the pertinence and prevalence of multicultural and societal issues within art, and finally the changing relationship between the art critic and the art audience. The subsidiaries of economic globalisation, such as communication and expanded information, have created a local community of the globe thus bringing artist, audience and critic into a relationship never before experienced where all parties concerned are shaped by their relative knowledge bases, which are ultimately discerned by cultural influences, thus coercing a greater epistemological understanding of each others relationship all participants expecting each other to have prior contextual knowledge.
Throughout modes of art and art practice the understanding or coming to terms with the ‘other’ and ‘outsider’ has been a primary concern to cognitive thought and stimulation within the art world. The primary goal of many artworks have been to attempt to communicate a familiar group / singular / cultural definition of another unknown entity or difference and then reconcile this other with themselves and the audience. The communication mode of globalisation, although merely in a provisional method, has brought about a worldwide understanding of the other and their practices (this may not be true however in a few third world nation states). Thus the artist, critic and audience already conceive of a virtual cultural stereotype represented to them via their respective information outlets, creating a preconceived notion to which an artwork / art practice / art concept stands to be judged and / or considered within the world. For instance Chinese cultural minorities and dominant State have been preconceived by the world due to the circulation of the events upon Tiananman Square, this cultural identifier must be consummated by the artist in any of the three supposed roles of Arbiter, Interpreter, or Activist, presenting a message in relation to this global understanding of the ‘other’. The influence of globalisation has been major in this effect in due course largely because of the re-acquaintance that must be undertaken by non-western artists with their now global audience, artists must understand the positions of their virtual culture within the global marketplace. This has become so apparent in such instance of the Mexican / United States Free Trade Agreement and the affect of displacement such an agreement had upon the Latin American artists, present in the work of Michelle Angela Ortiz – a Latin American artist – who participated the ‘The Markings’ and ‘Energia’ series within the Mexico / United States Art Fair. The driving economic force of globalisation garnered horrific results for the native artists who initially participated and finally withdrew due to the money driven tourist attraction and eventual purchasing of well-known North-American artists. The artists themselves were not aware of the cultural expectations placed upon them by the influence of globalisation and thus this was not represented within their artworks, the economic rationalism resulted in more profitable artists being proffered gallery space.
The changing aspects of society and various interpretations of liberal theory are redefining modern western concepts of societal issues and what constitutes a minority group, and in turn are having global impact via the medium of economic globalisation. Although such arguments that popular majorities are not receiving accurate cultural and social information through global channels of communication due to its secondary nature within economic globalisation, the fact that an image of social and cultural issues are reaching a wide majority audience in a dominant position of audience and critic purports upon the non-western artist, most probably a minority in a western dominant art-world, a responsibility to at least implicitly address issues of impetus and importance. The expectation of societal address (redress) from the art audience and specifically art critic standpoint is inherent due to the influence of globalisation upon dominant social institutions and dominant cultural thought – the non-western artist, if she wishes to converse with the mainstream global audience, must now accept that a discourse of the global ideal of societal values must be found within art concept. The influence here is not as great as the observance of the other, for the non-western artist still has a great array of choice and needs not to merely be issued a position or stance but rather creates one individually upon the artist’s subjective being. The contemporary works of Allan Sekula and Martha Rosler illustrate the choice that the artist participates in referring to their respective stance on societal issues, particularly identifying the mainstream stereotype of their original society and presenting a varying perspective with justified opinion. Both artworks examine the shifts of marginal cultures in a global society, the short shelf life of concepts within popular culture and the speedy empowerment of that which re-instates power and financial gain.
The indirect influence of globalisation via the closing distance between art audiences and art critics applies an even pressure to artists, western and non-western, by the way an economic global market creates a position for the audience as a critic in the guise of what is financially viable. The relationship of art critic defining art and the audience reacting on such a critical definition is changing as globalisation influences artists to partake in business target market audiences to create a stage for presentation of realistic global justification for the creation of art and use of art practice in the mainstream. The digitalisation speedily connected via the globalisation trails brings art-space into the living space of the population, it is finitely so, the audience that maintains the capital for the succession and consequential continuation of the modern art world. The gallery space must contain items that are not available to an audience who is hardwired to the world and has the Mona Lisa available in the comfort of their own home twenty-four seven in high resolution millions of colour format. Artists such as Nam June Paik have adapted and created methods of art practice which even in today’s homogenous locality is still as of yet irretrievable from the global network of data. The thematic ideas and art practices developed by non-western artists claim that art is inseparable from the world and its global heritage, thus it must be experienced within the world but understood from the context of our homes.
The influences of globalisation have been driven largely from the market place, major changes occurring via the secondary information splurge that accompanies such a market place, resulting in a greater focus of the marketability of art in the global locale. Non-western artists have been shifted a great deal, due largely to their locality varying from the birthplace of globalisation, but also have developed new conceptual and practical methods of converting their individual, sometimes marginal, art concepts to a global audience. Whether or not the influence of western globalisation has been beneficial to non-western artists is a matter for further deliberation over a greater period of time, however it is important to note the influences spoken of above and how certain artist have dealt with globalisation.
Footnotes - That Word Stuffs Up On The Paste Every Time
Levey, Geoffrey. Liberal Nationalism and Cultural Rights. “Political Studies”; vol 49, 2001, pp. 670-691
Chomsky Noam, The Chomsky Reader, London, the Serpent’s Tail, 1988
Schöllhammer Georg, Art In The Era of Globalisation, http://www.republicart.net/disc/mundial/schoellhammer01_en.htm , 25/10/04
Baoill Andrew, Essays of National Identity, http://www.republicart.net/disc/mundial/schoellhammer01_en.htm , 25/10/04
Chomsky Noam, The Chomsky Reader, London, the Serpent’s Tail, 1988
Ibid.
Manovich Lev, The Language of New Media, Cambridge MIT Press, 2000
Nam June Paik - “06”
Alan Sekula – “Rdoc Coffin”
Martha Rosler – “airport”
Bibliography
Baoill Andrew, Essays of National Identity, http://www.republicart.net/disc/mundial/schoellhammer01_en.htm , 25/10/04
Chomsky Noam, The Chomsky Reader, London, the Serpent’s Tail, 1988
Foucault Michael, The Foucault Reader, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, Penguin, 1986
Kymlicka Will, Contemporary Political Philosophy, (2002), New York, Oxford University Press
Levey, Geoffrey. Liberal Nationalism and Cultural Rights. “Political Studies”; vol 49, 2001, pp. 670-691
Manovich Lev, The Language of New Media, Cambridge MIT Press, 2000
Schöllhammer Georg, Art In The Era of Globalisation, http://www.republicart.net/disc/mundial/schoellhammer01_en.htm , 25/10/04
Siegel H, Relativism Refuted, Boston, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1987
Sokal A, The Sokal Hoax: The Sham That Shook The Academy, Editors of Lingua Franca, University of Nebraska Press, 2000
Labels: COFA, joke
likewise...i
i guess i was never worried about how it would turn out. the chase was long and hard but it was worth it all the while. of course i knew what action i was taking. it was sick. i know that know. still i sit here waiting for them to know that. just like the two lepers. they knew all along yet they held out, right to their deaths. maybe they will too. hold out, right 'til my death.
the day had burst forth, the sun spared no one. heat and light flooded the still atmosphere. i sweltered like a pig. stubbornly i resisted removing my boots. i convinced myself of the benefits of the boots filling with sweat. Tatty bounced into the porch with no restraint. the jiggling body refused to still itself, like a raver quelling thirst at first light monday morn. the party marooned itself within the motor-neurone section of the brain. never had blatant sexual thirst dissuaded my desire than now. the heat had surpassed a motion of passion and had circumvented discomfort proceeding heedlessly into incapacitating. my penis knew not its coordinates among the ocean that was my lap. the wandering mind had left an AWOL notice stabled to my forehead. the finger thin joint had self-combusted within my hand leaving the rest of the body dazed and confused. Tatty looked frustrated, she felt frustrated, a sea-lion yawned itself from deep within Tatty.
The water-pipes don't pass in the sunlight. My wrists are frozen, biting on the cuffs. The razor draws another scrape across my face. This sack of shit sitting in the tub with me must love his job. i can see his balls shrinking in the cold water. I guess that's why they leave me here a little bit longer. The male-nurse goes and dips his balls in warm water before they unleash me. So they look bigger than me in the hall. Screw them - everyone knows i got the biggest balls in here. That's what they are afraid of. they'll hold out. i gotta get smarter. I think next winter i will grow a beard.
She would have given anything for the martini that slipped between my fingers but she had nothing to give. there was no bodily comfort to be gained in this heat. again with the heat. the day was marked with heat. perhaps that is why the events of that day seemed so unclear and void. as though the day itself disguised the truth. a game fizzled in our heads. well at least in my head. tatty would be hard pressed. tatty would always be hard pressed. still she sweltered for my martini. i thought to splash some over the floor, to see it hiss into the air vaporous. making a singular path to the stereo tatty pored over dripping vinyl. some sort of soul rubbered under the needle. the sounds seemed somewhat slower that day. tatty jiggled. i bathed in an ocean of sweat.
those shadows leave a delicate mark on the hall wall. sun stained patches reflect the walk marks of the floor. two sets. a dark grey thick straight line, and a lighter column of paths. the inmates tend not to walk the same way twice, helps them grow, and they know they're not walking in someone else's shoes. sometimes they would be dragged, not always screaming but most. that wouldn't leave a mark i suppose. the attendants are always heavier, thick set. hmph. they get to return to the wives, who thrash out a solid meal every other night. exercise. warmth. and the sun. but they walk the same line everyday, with everyone. here they are, on choice, en masse, as early as i can remember and when i feather off to sleep. which one is it? him or me.
Labels: shortstory
Character Description (community announcement)
DH is a quiet sea-faring Leo who is content to take long walks in the park and admire beauty wherever he may find it. His heart is filled with happiness with a dash of longing. He pumps enthusiasm, on occasion, and is usually served with a side of colourful vegetables. Sprinkled with oregano this dish is best completed with an aged wine. DH preferred Red over White, but will drink free bottles of Stella Artois. This turtle of the deep sea pops his head out to look at a bit of art on the low tide, but likes to keep to the ebb and flow. Never to be caught looking too geeky DH can be spotted, unlike a leopard, at all the hottest Indie, Jazz and Psych Rock get-ups around town. So if you want to buy DH a beer look out at you local for the beret wearing beatnik standing in the corner. And for god’s sake make it a real beer! Or scotch.
By the way if you think this is funny, it’s not.
how could we forget satan
i have fallen in love with the tv. it has finally provided something entertaining and engaging. the beauiful lime greens tantalising the fertile yellows. the tv has disconnected itself and is transmitting colourscapes beyond recognition. no lsd required. those among us watching programs were missing the inherent playfullness of the tv - the tv itself was entertainment. not the program. not the presenters. not the gameshows or the prizemoney. but the object, in-itself, positing itself within the room, within space, and projecting thought.z
the profiteering had ended. the vivid brainwashing jingles of the most recent food advertisement was transformed into a wash of white noise. the soothing tidal, radio-waves, pitted against our ears. a welcome comfort from the blaring nite-club, and sinister free-wave propagandist.
And i would like to thank...
i'm really procrastinating here, so before i go back to my studies i would just like to say thank you. Thank you to all religious leaders, zealots, and fundamentalists. It is these people that keep the modernists, post-structuralists and the like in check. Although we have had the enlightment with Kant in the early nineteenth century the aforementioned people continually question and defy reason.
Even Hegel admitted that no one person is completely rational. And it is good to see that there are large groups of people that exist in the twenty-first century who still battle with pre-enlightment dillemmas. Like what came first; the chicken or the egg?
Creationism - it's brilliant. Much better than its faux cousin "Intelligent Design". What modernist can argue against creationism. I know that i created the world this morning when i woke. Fossils? I put them there? Written history? Hah, a mere three minutes of typing. Memory? pft.
I'm not alone. There are other people out there who also believe that i created the universe and all that is in it. 'Darwin's evolutionary theory is a tottering nonsense, built on too many suppositions'
Once again: THANK YOU!