Feeling like the world is becoming less friendly? Social theorist Jonathan Zittrain begs to difffer. The Internet, he suggests, is made up of millions of disinterested acts of kindness, curiosity and trust.
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
What is Art? What is the Artist’s function?
In Uncategorized on April 20, 2009 at 2:39 pmArt is a word; specifically, a verb (ref: techne/tekne a Greek word meaning the method to produce a work).
Words are symbols.
Art is all the glowing, gleaming bullshit in the synaptic gap between the artisan and her artifact.
Some will argue that art is the expression of the individual. I reply, “Why pursue this Holy Grail called individual expression?” Some will cry out for the next big thing, the next evolutionary leap, the next great step carved into this tower of babble. I ask, “Where are we going?”
Fire is fire. We don’t ask fire to change, evolve or even be unique. It is fire. Art is the same. It may be true that everything has been done. That may be true. But even if it is… does that mean we’ll stop learning Shakespeare’s sonnets?
It’s not the artist’s duty to discover something unique. The individual is a tentative thing. The pursuit of individual expression is a modern myth coinciding with the rise of industrial agriculture and cities manufactured by assembly lines. Are we not reacting to this? Do we participate in art to convince ourselves that we are human, or to affirm that we are not rat racing cattle following a blind shepherd?
Vain is the obsession to “discover” something unique and lay claim to it.
Look around you. We are all part of one. Your function (as an artist) is to be an articulate medium and nothing more. Your function is to feed the fire etching light on the audience memory. Your function is to burn.
Mathematicians Live and Unrendered (03)
In Uncategorized on March 5, 2009 at 6:55 amFEATURING: Pete Pythagoras, Dewi Decimal, Albert Gorithm iV, and Doctor Jonathan Phelps
DIRECTED BY: Kit Anderson
“NYs Mathematicians once again played a show worthy of headlining a Sat night at 9:30 Club. Yet they were in the living room of the 90s punk rock staple Kansas House, 50% of which was filled with their gear. The other half was packed solid with a writhing sweaty mess of bodies, furiously freaking the fuck out. Their gimmick works; nerd costumes, rapping about math, etc., because the underlying songwriting is so solid. I cannot recommend seeing this band live enough. In fact, I cant think of any other band you should make the effort to see more next time theyre in town, regardless of if its in somebodys living room, or DAR Constitution Hall.” – Cale, Brightest Young Things
What is Art?
In Uncategorized on March 3, 2009 at 11:41 pmThere is the artisan and their artifact. Art is all the bullshit that happens between the two.
Mathematicians Live and UnRendered (Episode2)
In Uncategorized on February 10, 2009 at 9:44 pm
FEATURING: Pete Pythagoras, Dewi Decimal, Albert Gorithm iV, and Doctor Jonathan Phelps
DIRECTED BY: Kit Anderson
"This was a wild show. We rolled up and I was the first to cross the threshold. The whole place smelt like burnt marshmallows or toasted plastic. Immediately, I turned around and told the guys to watch their shit this evening. Why? If you don't know what crack smells like, walk inside and breathe in; that's what crack smells like. So, we played a crackhouse, but not the kind of crackhouse you see on The Wire. No. This is the kind of crackhouse where the kids have wireless internet for their titanium MacBookPro's, but no running water or toilets. The guys considered playing/or not… Then Chris Acosta showed up with some of his buddies from the other side of town, who rode their bikes to see Mathematicians play, so the show went down, and for half-an-hour that night we scared all the crackheads out of their own house. I've never seen another band just take over a room quite like Mathematicians. It's something to see. Good thing I had a camera with me. Check it out." -Kit Anderson, Cinematic Weapon #8
Formats available: MPEG4 Video (.mp4)
