[MD] ART versus NONART

[Ham Priday]

Greetings, Marsha --

> Re:  Art versus Nonart: Art out of Mind (Contemporary
>Artists and their Critics) (Hardcover)
> by Tsion Avital, John G. Harries (Translator)
>
> Thanks for the recommendation Ham!
>
> I am only through the first chapter, but I'm finding this an
> extremely interesting and challenging book: Art is as dead as that
> small teal (duck) in ZMM.  I've included a quote below, chosen only
> because it uses a water analogy.  But I'm really upset that this book
> should cost $90.  It seems to me this book should be published in
> monthly installments in People magazine or as a comic book.  How can
> anyone blame society when they're fed crap and the elites restrict
> access to the good stuff?

Thank you for reporting back to me on Avital's book.

I'm pleased to have recommended a tome that proved challenging without even
having to read it!  I suspect Avital wrote it as text book for the serious
art student, hence the opportunity to make a handsome profit.  My interest,
of course, is the philosophical theory this author applies to the creation
and appreciation of art.

 "The problem of demarcation created for the first time a
situation in which everything, including nothing, may be accepted as
a work of art.  But then there is not differentiation between the
class of entities that belong to the category of art and those that
do not belong to that category.  The significance of this fact is
that in these conditions there is no art, nor can there be
any...."

If you substitute the word "differentiated" for the author's "demarcation"
in this quoted excerpt, and think of existential reality as a "work of art",
you'll see that he has really defined the "beingness" of our experience.
Putting it in my words, without differentiation there is no being, nor can
there be any:

"Similarly, if everything is water, and there is nothing that is not
water, then there is no meaning to water, for there is no way of
distinguishing a duality or difference between water and
 nonwater. ..."

The rest of this paragraph talks about art in a "symbolic" sense, which will
have more interest to the semioticists here:

"That is to say, if any thing can be art, than there is no art.
This conclusion follows from a basic and most important attribute
of symbols of every kind.  Every symbol, whether verbal or pictorial,
connects all entities that have a certain common denominator and at
the same time separates them from all others entities in the
world.  This attribute is what makes symbols of all kinds a means of
classification and ordering."  (ART versus NONART, pp56-57)

A symbol may be a word or sign that represents a concept.  Avitar is saying
that if we can't distinguish something as a specific type of art [being], it
has no cognitive relevance or value.  If, for example, a Neanderthal had
stumbled upon a circular frame connected by some spokes to a central hub, he
might regard it as a strange rock formation, or pass by it altogether.
Modern man would recognize it instantly as a wheel, and would probably begin
looking for its counterparts.

The intellect does establish categories for objects; but that is only a
small part of its function.  The inventor of the wheel had to understand the
concept of applying force to a rotating surface, as opposed to a sliding
surface that encounters  frictional resistance.  Then he had to go about
finding materials suitable for fashioning and attaching such a device so
that it could support a transportable load.  These days, all that
information is intellectually accessible from our brain; so that when I say
"wheel", you know exactly what I mean.  And, I suppose the artist also uses
such symbols as a basis for creating abstract or "interpretive" works of
art.  (Or am I reading too much into this quote?)

I'm beginning to wonder if the name Avital might be a play on the word
"Avatar" --sometimes spelled Avitar, which video gamers know as a
reincarnated Hindu deity used as a personalized symbol by members of other
forums.  (Do you suppose he could be pulling our leg?)

Anyway, glad you're getting something out of it.  If you come across any
other metaphysical analogies along the way, kindly pass them on.  I think
they can be useful.

Happy New Year and best regards,
Ham