Monday, November 24, 2008

defining the blog-ist

Today was a WTF day. Everything was swell and dandy until a huge wave of cramps hit me out of nowhere and I felt like someone roundhouse kicked me in th stomach. While cutting out of the Daily Bruin office early and comforting myself in the massive mess of distractions across the internet, which is mostly just people's insignificant bullcrap opinions (myself included), I discovered something worth reading. I came across a blogger that articulates an idea I've often thought about before, but so eloquently, it stopped me in my virtual tracks.

Instead of reiterating the ideas through my own mumbo jumbo, I'll let his words speak for my thoughts. If you have the patience to read this blurb, I'd say that this could be considered a piece of art in itself.

"To be more specific, I find that “art” has become a euphemism, a synonym for glorified self-absorption that encourages a form of narcissism that goes beyond simple vanity in that, by deeming it as “art”, actually justifies and even celebrates self-centeredness. And I think many young people–I’m not necessarily excluding myself–find this kind of thinking attractive (for obvious reasons), but don’t think beyond themselves, making their “art” and the idea of “artist” simplistic and masturbatory. Bottom line: I believe that it’s important to state (and perhaps overstate) what it means to be an artist because much of what constitutes “art” these days is complete bullshit in the sense that, if it’s saying anything at all, it generally encourages and celebrates this supposed “liberal individualist” perspective instead of encouraging a constructive and community-oriented criticism for awareness and, hopefully, change. In my thinking, an artist is only an artist because he has art to share–for others to respond to–and therefore art should (ideally) encourage a dialogue between the artist and the viewer. Even more ideally, that dialogue should be a two-way communication and should, at its best, promote a social consciousness through constructive criticism."

http://www.jonobr1.com/argentina/2008/11/18/hi-how-are-you-im-an-art-ist/

Amen.
~taken from Ted, the art-ist / blogger

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