From: Ed Atkeson <edatkeson-AT-gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:16:24 -0400
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Social Insanity


Success is being able to do your work, no?
Keep your day job.
best,
Ed

On Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 10:09 AM,  <puppetpro-AT-aol.com> wrote:
> Steven,
> You make two salient points that I'd like to summarize quickly::
> Firstly, what makes a successful artist? Is it government support? As in the Soviet Union, or other states where certain artists are aggrandized while others are not (I think of Stalin's murder of the bandura players of Ukraine)...
> Is it "the marketplace"? Proving which artists have mass appeal -- or with the ideology of Social Darwinism -- "survival of the fittest?"
>
> Secondly, the ideas related to "Insanity" -- What about the arts heals the mind, while at the same time being disruptive (and suspicious) to "society" at large?
> The place of the artist in society has not always been that of outcast. Certain societies (albeit smaller, more isolated ones) had a place for the artist -- and found reason to support and embrace their idiosyncratic ways -- and the artists responded -- becoming respected members of their society. I think specifically of Black Elk, or Indonesian artists (dalangs, sculptors, dancers, etc.).
>
> So, What is SUCCESS? Does it have to do with the artist's relationship to societal structures? And how do those relate? And what can we artists -- in our society -- do to help facilitate "success" ?
>
>
>
> Rolande
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stephen Kaplin <skactw-AT-tiac.net>
> To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
> Sent: Mon, Mar 15, 2010 10:34 pm
> Subject: [Puptcrit] Social Insanity
>
>
> Chris,
> =A0I smile (okay it's actually a smirk) when I think about the last
> great civilization to treat their artists on par with plumbers and
> electricians-- the Soviet Union. Then again those Soviets did pretty
> good by their "cultural workers"-- if you consider the =A0immense scale
> of support =A0that the People's State managed to put up to maintain its
> puppet theaters, ballets and orchestras. =A0Now that it has made the
> switch from Socialism to Free Marketeering much of that support has,
> naturally, evaporated.
>
> I think that Diane's original post touches on a deeper subject. I
> personally do not see much difference between an artist's creative
> obsessions and the aberrant behavior that society generally labels
> "criminal" or "insane." =A0I think many artists (myself included) would
> have stood a good chance of being institutionalized at some point in
> our lives, had we not found a way to channel our peculiar visions and
> flaky lifestyles into something that is at least arguably socially
> constructive. =A0We see evidence of this connection in the word
> "genius", which at it's root indicates a spirit, creative or otherwise
> that takes possession of a person. We see further evidence in this
> from the way that art programs sometimes have in altering the self-
> destructive behavior of inmates in mental hospital or juvenile
> detention centers-- which must explain why such programs are routinely
> the first =A0to go when budgets are cut. Peter Schumann also alludes to
> this connection when he states =A0that the best place to study the
> history of =A0European puppet theater for most of the past several
> centuries is in the Police records.
>
> "Insanity" is a social construct. It is the label that "Sane" and
> "Civilized" cultures slap onto any sort of mental activity that =A0they
> can't find =A0a use for or profit from. Thus, the Ants of the World
> can't help but to view the Grasshopper's fiddling as "insane" (unless
> it goes viral on YouTube. or wins a Grammy). =A0And I suspect =A0that
> while Aesop, =A0that clever Egyptian slave who framed the story for his
> Greek masters, might have secretly sympathized with the Grasshopper,
> ultimately he (or his editors) had no choice but to come down on the
> side of Anthood's definition of what constitutes socially acceptible
> (ie- "sane) behavior. This attitude is, after all. completely in synch
> with the mainstream of classical =A0Greek Culture (as exemplified by
> Plato's inability to grant citizenship to artists in his ideal
> "Republic") which is the foundation for Western Civilization as a
> whole. It is represented in our own culture by attitudes which place
> unemployed artists one stop north of Kook-dom, while giving
> unemployed plumbers the honorific title of "Joe Six-pack" and allowing
> them =A0to play a significant and vocal supporting role in the central
> political debates of our generation.
>
> And further more, I'd like you consider the fact that our illustrious,
> enlightened =A0Federal Government =A0recently saw fit to drop =A0billions
> and billions of dollars (equivalent to about a century's worth of its
> spending for the arts) to keep Ford Motors afloat. Now if the
> recipients of that government largess had not moved all their
> factories to Mexico and overseas in the '90's and '00's, perhaps
> Chris's brother would still have a job.
>
> Thanks and goodnight =A0to all you fellow kooks out there,
>
> Stephen
>
>
>
> On Mar 15, 2010, at 2:09 PM, Christopher Hudert wrote:
>
>>
>> On Mar 15, 2010, at 10:39 AM, Monica Leo wrote:
>>
>>> I agree with you, Christopher, in that I get extremely annoyed with
>>> artist friends who think they're something special and don't consider
>>> what their lives would be like without garbage collectors,
>>> carpenters,
>>> plumbers, mechanics, etc.
>>
>> Oh, and I forgot the little idea that often we, as artists, seem to
>> think we don't need the garbage collectors, carpenters, plumbers,
>> mechanics, etc. We can do it all ourselves. But often if we pulled in
>> someone with some specialty in another field, our art would be better.
>> What a concept.
>> (Yeah, I know that sometimes we don't call others in because we lack
>> the funds to pay them, but more often it is because we have this bad
>> habit of DIM - do it myself.)
>>
>> Christopher
>>
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