Date: Wed, 11 Sep 1996 23:42:32 +0100 (BST)
From: Julian Thomas <julian.thomas-AT-dial.pipex.com>
Subject: Re: Introduction


At 14:25 11/09/96 -0700, you wrote:
>Julian, thanks for the fast response. (Talk about service!!)
>

>
>Why is the "individual 'expressing' oneself" a problem?  If it is a problem
>how could it be avoided? I mean, if the "consumers" are consuming an art
>education they're probably going to be interested in making things. They're
>going to need to determine what things to make and how to make them and
>this in itself could be considered self expression. Any decision or action
>would be to some degree a bit of self expression. Should they try to
>express someone else's self? Or no self? What's the significance of the
>idea of consumers producing "meanings" ?

There is no 'problem' with expressing oneself. The problem arises when this
expression is divorced from society. making things is not enough to make it
art. Baudrillards definition of consumption was... "...the virtual totality
of all objects and messages ready constututed as a more or less coherent
discourse. If it has any meaning at all, consumption means an activity
consisting of the systematic manipulation of signs." The resources for this
activity are in society, they are not in the self. Baudrillards point here,
is that  cultural stock has been manipulated by the media, and the way in
which people use signs to to produce identity has changed beyond
recognition. The individual is obviously involved in this, but is not
divorced from social meaning systems.
>



>
>Would it really be possible for any institution to promote everyone and
>offer everything?
>Seriously, some things would have to suffer. What about institutions
>founded on the idea of intense specialization? Music conservatories or
>medical schools etc.? There are some benefits to be gained from these.
>They've reached their various levels of competence as a result of the focus
>that exclusion makes possible. I'm not entirely clear on this.
>
Decisions taken by govt deny the opportunity for teaching programmes to be
adapted for local conditions. This is a political point more than any other.
The specialisms you mentioned would not be possible. The teaching strategies
and content needed vary with communitiy. The point I was trying to make is
that teaching should be based in society, not a fabricated set of truth
hierarchies established by govt. Baudrillard discusses the postmodern
society as having no absolutes and there not being a hierarchy of cultural
action.






>>>If the "expressive" mode emphasises the individual how is it that there is
>>>no allowance for symbolic individual action? Why should individuals produce
>>>identities from the media????
>>Expressivism is artist orientated.. artist at the centre. postmodern theory
>>ha sit has it that we can only represent the world through a network of
>>socially established meaning systems and signs. The artist is not alone
>>discovering a single 'truth' or identity, but us placed in a society
>>discovering meanings that are socially situated.
>
>I don't see how you get rid of the idea of self expression with the view
>that "we can only represent the world through a network of socially
>established meaning systems and signs."
>An individual is still needed to  percieve these signs and relate them to
>other signs/experiences and make decisions regarding them. How has anything
>changed with this?
>>Fashion,
>>advertising, music etc are all producing images that are not taken on board
>>wholesale, but are adapted and adopted in different context to create
>>identity. Oft quoted examples of this are the punk movt and the use of music
>>images from different periods which are combined to produce a new art
>>meaning. The work of photographer  Cindy Sherman, and the way music is
>>sampled and recontextualised in rap, are also oft quoted examples.
>
>With this as well, where is personal expression, or artist, missing? It's
>at the core of the decisions about what to sample/steal/borrow/appropriate
>and how to arrange these elements.
>
The artist isn't missing. Pastiche, recontextualising are all postmod
techniques.

I'll come back to you on the rest its late!.....
Can I recomend "The System of Objects"? Thanks for the work out!

Julian

Julian Thomas.
julian.thomas-AT-dial.pipex.com
Cambridge UK