a few art comments (quotes)

[abknight@zzzzzz]

Oh, and to continue engaging myself in conversation re
Symposium from Hell...

One will notice that web site for symposia are seemingly
as a rule maintained by tourism departments of the cities
or towns which host them.  They exist as a function of
tourism development.

The Spanish Symposium
http://www2.ocn.ne.jp/~hitoshit/VAD-sympo.htm
is an egregious example of the most selfish and wanton
motivations which prompt cities into their host role.

Lagniappe:

An interesting editorial in the NY Times today reviewing
the career of architect Phillip Johnson and his
involvement with Nietzchean fascism.  Art and the will to
power.  As artists we like to imagine our remoteness from
public affairs but it is a common awareness in today's art
studies that all art is political.  It is a difficult
concept, but worthy of study.  Certainly the symposium is
a reciprocity of both the artist and the civic body's will
to power.  An artist working in any commisioned or public
project will find herself in a tangle of competing wills.
What goes on in a private artist's activities is more
obscure, but there are doubless politics to be enearthed.
I hope those wishing to peruse the editoral aren't pressed
with difficulties of logging-in.

[URL now obsolete]