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I didn't agree with (or, frankly, understand) all I had read of Rorty, but his recent death is a great loss to American philosophy. Here's a quote from his last interview:
Richard Rorty: When I visited Tehran I was
surprised to hear that some of my writings had been translated into
Persian, and had a considerable readership. I was puzzled that rather
fussy debates of the sort that take place between European and American
philosophers, and in which I engage, should be of interest to Iranian
students. But the reception of the talk I gave on “Democracy and
Philosophy” made clear that there was indeed intense interest in the
issues I discussed.
When I was told that another figure much
discussed in Tehran was Habermas, I concluded that the best explanation
for interest in my work was that I share Habermas’s vision of a social
democratic utopia. In this utopia, many of the functions presently
served by membership in a religious community would be taken over by
what Habermas calls “constitutional patriotism.” Some form of
patriotism — of solidarity with fellow-citizens, and of shared hopes
for the country’s future — is necessary if one is to take politics
seriously. In a theocratic country, a leftist political opposition must
be prepared to counter the clergy’s claim that the nation’s identity is
defined by its religious tradition. So the left needs a specifically
secularist form of moral fervor, one which centers around citizens’
respect for one another rather than on the nation’s relation to God.
(via 3Quarks Daily)
That "specifically secularist form of modern fervor" sounds like just the ticket. So how do I get to practice good citizenship? Why, through my artwork of course! if only it were that simple.
But sometimes it does work. I'm thinking of a couple of public-spectacle pieces that really swept me along. The Sultan's Elephant, by Royal DeLuxe is one, and Cloud Gate, by Anish Kapoor is another. It's a shame that both of these are such large scale, expensive pieces; I could've made a better point with a small, cheap book that gave as much pleasure and wonder. But both of these pieces inspire wonder. Both give pleasure to the crowds that beheld them, both drew together crowds in the city in a way few other things do. I felt part of the city, part of the experience that was taking place amongst all these people around me, who were, at that moment, emphatically my fellow-citizens, the people with whom I would shape the future. If that's not patriotism, what is?
Technorati Tags: art, reading, review, studio log, writing
I'm working on a project with andrew Atkinson at the moment that seems to be about various subjects to do with space: its measurement, transgression, depiction, the social conventions that describe it, the ways in which it is transformed, compressed and folded. This fits in a lot with my "whistling Copse" series, which was about poaching and evidence, and with my "Hidden Fortress" idea, which is about, for want of a better description, 'ghost-space". The idea of a space that is hidden, one that is RIGHT HERE, but unavailable, that is hiding behind the air.
We're going to be working with images that work with or against photographic conventions, the various codes drawing has for space, and things like city codes, maps and stories, to investigate the sorts of spaces that are created by the intentions of another order of planning. For example, the forbidden spaces in the undergrowth beneath the elevated road, or the forbidden space created by the ownership of land. There are texts, too, underpinning things. We've yet to agree, but de Certeau and the acts of Enclosure, and stuff pertaining to the career of Robert Moses, the NY city planner, are all in our sights.
Technorati Tags: art, book, report, studio log, writing
http://rogermc.blogs.com/tactical/
http://rogermc.blogs.com/tactical/ait_hour_museum/index.html
Momus' blog Click Opera informs us that Roger McDonald's Tactical Museum blog (see links above),is
the only place you'll find the ROJO group being related to Certeau (whose distinction between Strategy and Tactics gives the blog its title, of course), or a description with photos of Makoto Aida's spoof "biennale" tours of his old house in Nishi-Ogikubo.
Momus' blog is one I read all the time, but his posting of McDonald, holding up his 'Museum is Over- If you want it' sign alongside the Certeau reference (whose work I'm just discovering), was beguiling. Now read on..
Technorati Tags: reading, studio log, writing
