[a rant, via netbehaviour]
Art is the specialised language [for art].
Being smart at medicine is no good when a car won’t start. But being
good at quoting Theory is good no matter what, apparently, much like the
transferable skills of management. The idea that Theory is the proper
domain language of art is one that needs “problematising”. Or spanking.
I’d refer to my favourite theorists Art & Language to make two points.
The first is that art is only a defensible activity if it does things
that cannot be done any other way. Reducing art to a mash-up of
fashionable cod-philosopho-political jargon doesn’t do this, and art
students are within their rights to reject the verbal fetishes of this
cult in favour of actually making art. And/or theories.
The second is that given the current march of a corporate information
culture grinding the world down to manageable, sellable binary digits
(cf Alan Liu), the aesthetic is not the conservative fetish of the
illiterate - it is a vital means of resistance. One that the semiotic
managers of Theory are helping to neutralise.