Kathy Forer on wed 21 apr 04
There's a fine line between declaring the non-functional to be useless=20=
and relegating art to a trash heap of non-PC extravagance. An inverse=20
snobbery with its own hierarchical value system doesn't change the=20
situation that people will tend to blindly value the intangible over=20
the specific. Promoting function over form as an endgame bent on=20
reforming a corrupt design process or rescue it from an effete=20
aestheticism has never really succeeded.
According to biologists, forms, or rather small incidental
modifications in forms always appear first, while function,
i.e. the functional exploitation of the modified forms, emerges
afterwards - if at all. [1]
It's an insidious slippy slop for a culture to deny or rationalize the=20=
useless. It leads to no dancing, no music, no poetry, no art. No=20
teaching, learning, questions, stories or inventions. That's not to say=20=
the cult of the utterly useless need be embraced wholeheartedly, though=20=
that has its place and time. But an equation of useless with wealth is=20=
pretty warped. Bergdorf Blondes do not represent the only purely=20
useless expressions these days, that's just the goal of their=20
marketing. Lots of other things are purely useless and utterly free,=20
and not just those in Mastercard commercials.
On a more personal level, it can be fatal to reject the useless. A=20
prison lifer makes a painting for no reason whatsoever, no purpose,=20
others see it and encourage him. He gets "orders" from friends and=20
though amused and flattered, becomes unable to follow through; the=20
scenario has changed from reflection and expression to one of supply=20
and demand, to a critical design parti: "make five paintings with the=20
children and the dog." Nothing wrong with that for a trained pyro=20
professional mud monkey, but a break of the leap of faith for a naive=20
or developing artist whose budding autonomy is hard-pressed to compete=20=
with an administrative design methodology.
Another aspect that illustrates an over-reliance on the dictates of=20
functionalism is economic determinism. The story of the poet who had to=20=
take a second job to support her family and then was unable to find the=20=
inner resources to use her time "luxuriously," in the making of poetry.=20=
It wasn't until she was much older that she was able to write again,=20
having shed her day to day burdens. It only compounds the difficulty of=20=
creating to impose the rule that it must be "useful."
Another reason to beware the cult of the functional is when it comes to=20=
making forms and objects. We can start with an ideal form that=20
represents a function and go ahead to realize that, or we can start=20
with a form and see what it means or becomes, cognizant of existing=20
possibilities and open to new. A ball of clay with an indention is not=20=
necessarily a mug, or one with a hole of the side a tea pot, but they=20
can become those things with their own forms. It's that transformation=20=
we seek, not the stamping out of identical pre-determined solids. Well,=20=
except for production, of course.
An exclusionary embrace of functionalism won't serve to eliminate=20
formalism.
MOTTO: "Dear Theo, Will life never treat me decently? I am =
wracked
by despair! My head is pounding! Mrs. Sol Schwimmer is suing me
because I made her bridge as I felt it and not to fit her
ridiculous mouth! That's right! I can't work to order like a=20
common
tradesman! I decided her bridge should be enormous and billowing,
with wild, explosive teeth flaring up in every direction like=20
fire!
Now she is upset because it won't fit in her mouth! She is so
bourgeois and stupid, I want to smash her! I tried forcing the
false plate in but it sticks out like a star burst chandelier.
Still, I find it beautiful. She claims she can't chew! What do I
care whether she can chew or not! Theo, I can't go on like this
much longer! (...) - Vincent"
=46rom Woody Allen's =93If the Impressionists Had Been Dentists: =
A
fantasy exploring the transposition of temperament." [1]
1 - http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2360/jm-eng.fff-hai.html
............
Kathy Forer
Lat: 40:23:33.756N
Lon: 74:01:24.499W
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