It is early in the morning and I’m still spellbound by the grey light that is sifting in through my office window like ashy enriched flour. Beauty has been on my mind all night. Mainly, what is the relationship between beauty/aesthetic feelings and ethics in my personal life? My professional/artist life?
Two viewpoints:
Bourriard – the social interaction of human beings is, in itself, an act of sheer and utter aesthetic beauty. By bringing people together, creating a situation where knowledge/emotion/anything is exchanged we are creating something beautiful: a relational aesthetic. (I’m being incredibly brief here, because I should be working on something office related, but I digress…)
Virillio - The focus of art has shifted to the breaking of taboos (for whatever reason). In this slanted view, we are constantly moving toward the aesthetitization of anything that we previously considered un-aesthetic. To an extreme, one could argue that the most vile actions could be made into art – for example, murder for aesthetic reasons.
Both viewpoints involve the packaging of social interactions as aesthetic performances.
Back to the post.
In my personal life, I am somehow a hedonist. I’d go so far as to say that I’ve reduced (or elevated, perhaps) the greatest social pleasure in life (sex) to a purely aesthetic level. I’m not in it for love. I’m not makin’ babies (obviously). I just want purely aesthetic biological pleasure. Tradition dictates that this is a completely unethical situation.
But can I get away with it by saying that I’ve transported the aesthetic feelings (usually reserved for art-making) in the exceptionally personal social-aesthetic realm of my sex life? Am I a slut for art’s-sake?
In my professional life, I’m completely and totally geared toward the conceptual. My work has little to do with aesthetics in the traditional sense – and – I have never been able make a convincing argument that a beautiful idea is an aesthetic endeavor.
So, what I’m left with is the moral paradox of trying to live a life that embodies the aesthetic desires I have – and – making art that is informed by ascetic conceptual discipline.
Ouchy.
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Another view on aesthetic feelings/ethics:
This American Life has an amazing podcast on the role of testosterone in the creation of desire.
As I’m gazing out my window at the grey sky over the IDS building the dread of winter is starting to set in. Yes. It’s finally here – and – with it comes the nesting urge. It may be biological or it may be sociological, but my urge to make my living arrangements better is suddenly pronounced.
There is some part of me that still subscribes to the bourgeois fantasy of having a comfortable home with all the material trappings. I have to take this with a bit of inherent irony, because my apartment is located in a mid-60s, perfectly rectangular modernist block. To spruce it up a bit: its Midwestern platenbau – a true rarity in a city of bungalows and brownstones.
That said, I think I’m spending my weekend at IKEA, painting my walls the proper shade of avocado, and getting ready to be indoors for the next couple of months.
I’ll be posting photos of the transformation of my apartment from grungy artist hovel to less grungy artist hovel.
This was posted on Wednesday, November5th, 2008 in Compulsions, Life
I am a man of very simple tastes, few means, and many many compulsions. Why does this matter? Ok – I’ve become addicted to tracking various components of my life – mainly – my acts of consumption. Through the website mint.com I have developed an obsessive love affair with the pie chart that shows me all my spending. Its more of a love-hate relationship: as I’m embarrassed to report I spent $600 on sushi in one month. And an additional $200 on booze.
That’s a lot of sake and raw fish.
Speaking of raw fish, sake and other things I put in my mouth (shut up Colleen), I briefly flirted with another life-tracking website: Fitday. Fit day is one of those well-meaning websites for people that can actually track what the eat/drink and then make healthier choices. NOT ME. Not me at all. All that Fitday has told me is that roughly 45% to 55% of my daily caloric intake comes from vodka, gin, and vermouth. As if I didn’t already know.
Why am I rambling on about this you ask?
Simply because I am trying to focus myself on the compulsions in my life that actually matter. Why isn’t there a good website that makes me all OCD about photography? Or printmaking?
Why is it that I can never really focus on the thing that my time is supposed to be about?
Perhaps because I am an American with all of the term’s Baudrillardian implications. As Eddie Izzard points out, “It’s 10% what you say and 90% how you look while your saying it.”
Now, if you’ll excuse me. I need to marvel at that pretty, shiny, and colorful pie chart which tells me I spend way too much money on books, booze, and other “entertainment”. The things in an average American life that really matter.
This was posted on Saturday, October11th, 2008 in Art, Compulsions
