Retrospective note ...

I thought I could gather my writings from my non-digital diary–slash sketchbook–slash research–slash notes–in this blog, so that it all will be in the same place (i.e. more convenient). So, this means that it should be read as something that I said early in the term, not necessarily (hopefully) what I will say now, at the end of the term.

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1 entry:
CLAY:

• can simulate soft or hard materials pretty easy
• goes through a process itself from soft/wet to hard/dry
• is a material used for "art for art's sake" but also as a material that was very important in making pottery (i.e. containers for water, grain, food in general)
• has a very long history in both artmaking and wares (I think many times this was interchangeable)
• is used pretty much all over the world ... (?)
• has no special symbolic meaning (except maybe tradition/usefull/sensibel/flexibel and so on ... [ not quite sure what I was thinking of right here :) ]
  

2 entry:
MASKS:

Masks has a long tradition in all cultures through history. It can be used to hide your identity or it can give you an identity. It can be used to change your identity, what you are, and what you represent. It can represent magic, death, good, evil, happy, sad, ...

[ I think that these scribblings best represent an idea of something I would like to research more at some point. Clay would be a nice material to use for this, but is only one of many options ]


3 entry:
THE SACRED:

What is sacred to me? Life is sacred. I don't believe in life after death, so we have to spend our time wisely. Also, for me personally, it is important to stay alive and be healthy so that I can support my child as he grows up. My mom died of illness (leukemia) when I was three years old, and my dad died of cancer when I was 13. My dad's illness was a self inflicted one, something he actually could have done something about [ he claimed he didn't know about the risks of smokeing when he started, which might, or might not, be true ... ]. I think having these experiences have made me more aware of life, but also of death, and I [ think I ] almost have a cynical view of how that 'works' ...

4 entry:
BASE MATERIALISM:

The good thing about clay, in contrast to say, shit, gold, plastic, is that it doesn't have a strong 'hierarchical' connotation to it. That should make it easier to focus on the material's 'base' properties, and to further explore these. What I have found so far, is that clay change its plasticity pretty rapidly when you're working with it, and thus make it a less useful material for 'clay motion' ... unless I actually wanted to focus on how the material itself changes over time. This could be used to represent my notion of 'sacred life' (albeit a cliché one). I was also going to incorporate light (the sun as the ethernal sign/symbol of life), and again, I can't seem to get away from looking for metaphors or symbols to communicate something. Is Bataille's goal to completely get away from that? A sort of 'non communicative' art? What does that communicate? [ Sorry for being somewhat cryptic in this post, I'm not even sure what I was trying to say my self ... :) ]

5 entry:
SACRED:
(ideas for the assignment)

• religion
• control mechanism
• patriarchal
• putting themselves in a 'holy' position (i.e. the Pope etc.)
• use of shrines
• using the best symbol for man = testicles (maybe not the best symbol, but ...)
• a shrine with testicles on a pedestal (has this been done before, I wonder?)
  

Shrines: Exists in several religions . Use as a place to contain the 'most sacred of the sacred', often itself contained inside a sacred or holy place ... ---> Reliquary ...

Inscription on the box?
man = vir ...
these holy parts from man ...
= illa sanctus secui ex vir
these testicles give us hope ...
= illa testis dat nos spes
and control of all the people
= quod imperum totum populus

[ quasi latin from a translater page ... ]

other notes:

comment on how the western world has changed from religion (life and death) to materialism ...