Cultural Terrorist is astonished at the rapid and voluminous response to this blog. One of the most interesting was a telephone conversation with a jazz musician of a quartet called the Empty House. I will reproduce it here from memory as best I can.
"I would like to join the International Dada Centennial Committee."
"You're in, dude. It's free. Of course if you want my signature on anything, that will cost you four bucks"
"Cool. Actually my group has been kind of celebrating the Dada movement for some time. Didn't the dadas say they were creating anti-art?"
"Yeah, in protest against the senseless mass slaughter on the battlefields of France."
"Well, we play anti-jazz."
"Sweet! What does it sound like?"
"Well, it has no rhythm at all."
"No rhythm..."
"Yeah. We figured that since rap music was music that was nothing but rhythm, with no melody, the next logical step in musical evolution was music that was nothing but melody, with no rhythm."
"So what kind of reception do you get?"
"Well, that is how we came up with the name Empty House. Music with no rhythm tends to also have no audience."
"Sorry about that..."
"No, it's cool. We can't get gigs in bars because we don't bring in people to buy drinks, but we play in city parks and on the streets. We get the contemplative types who need to relieve stress for a while."
"A yes! Homo Sapiens, the only life form capable of self contemplation!"
"Well, capable doesn't mean much. But we have gotten so we can tell who is going to stay to hear a number and drop a dime in the bucket and who isn't. So we slow down the tempo until the wrong ones can't stand it and split."
"Do you have a cd I can get a hold of?"
"No, but we can play for you right now, over the phone."
"I'm all ears."
He then introduced himself as trumpeter Bud Miller. He introduced drummer Myron Platzblatt, bassist Random Beaux-eaux, and vocalist Heather Weintraub. They played for about three minutes. It was quite interesting. Bud was really good. I am not sure what kind of objects the drummer was hitting. They certainly were not the standard snare set. The bassist was fair and the singer had a strange mixture of teenager and ravaged middle aged woman in her voice.
"Is there any reason you all take turns and don't every play at the same time?"
"It just seems like the right thing to do."
I then began to suspect that the Empty House anti-jazz quartet was actually one person playing all four parts with his mouth. But I am not ready to confront him with this yet. I may never.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Dada was an art movement that put, on the map, the idea that art is a tool, mechanism, macromechanism, a technological entity, for the preventing of senseless mass slaughter on battlefields. Now, one hundred years later, in the future year of 2014, we will revisit this idea in a thousand and one mostly dumb ways. Dumb may become an officially recognized critical category among Art Historians. Why did I capitalize that? I really like the way Germans capitalize all nouns.
Art as technology for preventing senseless mass slaughter on battlefields is not high tech. From abacus to the Internet took, what, 5000 years? I am impatient. I want Art, no, art, capitalizing on a keyboard is just such a pain in the neck, no, ass, to become high tech now, NOW! Calm down, buddy. Okay.
One day art as moral technology will be user friendly. Dude comes to the breakfast table, says good morning darling, drinks coffee and reads the newspaper. Will there still be newpapers when art becomes effective in preventing senseless mass slaughter? He reads about some senseless mass slaughter in, oh, say Africa. Senseless mass slaughter will probably continue in Africa farther into the future than anywhere else. Holy shit, he says, there is yet another case of senseless mass slaughter in Africa! This is a job for Art Man!
Well, don't hurt yourself, dear, his wife says. I will be carefull, he says. He jumps into a telephone booth which, of course, is not really a telephone booth, it is just called that. For centuries after the disappearance of telephone booths, it will be called that. He may not even leave home. He may not even leave his chair at the breakfast table.
Art at this time in the future, has developed into a high technology of senseless mass slaughter prevention. It also prevents senseless non-mass slaughter, sensible non-mass slaughter, etc. How does it do this? The art handbook explains both the theory and practice. The theory is based on Dracula. Dracula avoids the light. Art sheds light. When art increases the light indefinitely, there comes a point at which sinners feel uncomfortable about committing sins. This is called the tipping point. Sin requires a minimum of light shed upon it to flourish, just the opposite of green plants. Sin is a fungus, but not a morel.
The theory of art as moral technology was formulated in the early 21st century by a 60 yr old ne'er-do-well named Charles Barry Williams, sometime before he died painlessly in his sleep at a very advanced age. The key word in the theory is cultural mass.
CULTURAL MASS
Cultural Mass is the sum total of artists, genres, media, output, rate of output, that is focussed on manipulating the cultural climate in such a way as to make a particular sinner, say a senseless mass slaughterer, feel so uncomfortable committing his own particular brand of sin, that he develops inhibitions strong enough to prevent him from committing it. Cultural Mass is the vehicle of cultural climate change. Cultural mass is measured in three major ways: quanity, quality and diversity.
QUANTITY
Increase indefinitely the number of artists focussing on making the particular type of sinner feel uncomfortable. Increase indefinitely the number of individuals pieces of art, poetry, fiction, music etc., produced per unit of time. Increase indefinitely the size and flashiness of the pieces. Increase indefinitely the dispersal of the pieces so that the sinner gets the impression of being surrounded, or followed, that this "thing" is everywhere he(male=neuter) goes. Encourage the production and proliferation of low quality art because this is the easiest.
QUALITY
Increase the number of "great" pieces produced per unit of time.
DIVERSITY
Make it very difficult for observers of a particular project of moral technology to say "It all looks the same!" Confuse them, if neccessary.
To be continued
Art as technology for preventing senseless mass slaughter on battlefields is not high tech. From abacus to the Internet took, what, 5000 years? I am impatient. I want Art, no, art, capitalizing on a keyboard is just such a pain in the neck, no, ass, to become high tech now, NOW! Calm down, buddy. Okay.
One day art as moral technology will be user friendly. Dude comes to the breakfast table, says good morning darling, drinks coffee and reads the newspaper. Will there still be newpapers when art becomes effective in preventing senseless mass slaughter? He reads about some senseless mass slaughter in, oh, say Africa. Senseless mass slaughter will probably continue in Africa farther into the future than anywhere else. Holy shit, he says, there is yet another case of senseless mass slaughter in Africa! This is a job for Art Man!
Well, don't hurt yourself, dear, his wife says. I will be carefull, he says. He jumps into a telephone booth which, of course, is not really a telephone booth, it is just called that. For centuries after the disappearance of telephone booths, it will be called that. He may not even leave home. He may not even leave his chair at the breakfast table.
Art at this time in the future, has developed into a high technology of senseless mass slaughter prevention. It also prevents senseless non-mass slaughter, sensible non-mass slaughter, etc. How does it do this? The art handbook explains both the theory and practice. The theory is based on Dracula. Dracula avoids the light. Art sheds light. When art increases the light indefinitely, there comes a point at which sinners feel uncomfortable about committing sins. This is called the tipping point. Sin requires a minimum of light shed upon it to flourish, just the opposite of green plants. Sin is a fungus, but not a morel.
The theory of art as moral technology was formulated in the early 21st century by a 60 yr old ne'er-do-well named Charles Barry Williams, sometime before he died painlessly in his sleep at a very advanced age. The key word in the theory is cultural mass.
CULTURAL MASS
Cultural Mass is the sum total of artists, genres, media, output, rate of output, that is focussed on manipulating the cultural climate in such a way as to make a particular sinner, say a senseless mass slaughterer, feel so uncomfortable committing his own particular brand of sin, that he develops inhibitions strong enough to prevent him from committing it. Cultural Mass is the vehicle of cultural climate change. Cultural mass is measured in three major ways: quanity, quality and diversity.
QUANTITY
Increase indefinitely the number of artists focussing on making the particular type of sinner feel uncomfortable. Increase indefinitely the number of individuals pieces of art, poetry, fiction, music etc., produced per unit of time. Increase indefinitely the size and flashiness of the pieces. Increase indefinitely the dispersal of the pieces so that the sinner gets the impression of being surrounded, or followed, that this "thing" is everywhere he(male=neuter) goes. Encourage the production and proliferation of low quality art because this is the easiest.
QUALITY
Increase the number of "great" pieces produced per unit of time.
DIVERSITY
Make it very difficult for observers of a particular project of moral technology to say "It all looks the same!" Confuse them, if neccessary.
To be continued
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
2014 will be mark(?) the centennial of the commencement of world war I. I do not know whether the dada movement in the arts began in 2014 or after 2014. But the international dada centennial committee (IDCC) will recognize 2014 as the beginning of the dada movement because that year is easy to remember for anyone who still remembers his (male=neuter) high school history. Any one can qualify as a member of the International Dada Centennial Committee simply by saying he (male=neuter) is a member. Dada came about when a group of artists, hanging out (draft dodging?) in the neutral nation of Switzerland, declared that art had failed in its mission to civilize humanity, as evidenced by the senseless mass slaughter on the battlefields of France.
This is historically significant. It is, to my knowledge (and I majored in Art History at Duke University Graduate School, mind you), the first time the idea that Art has a mission of civilizing humanity got on the map. Now, (2014) one hundred years later, we in the IDCC will do our best to hit humanity over the head with this core idea: Art has a mission, a duty, a job, to civilize humanity by, among other things, effectively preventing senseless mass slaughter on battlefields, off battlefields, non-senseless mass slaughter, senseless non-mass slaughter, sensible mass slaughter, sensible non-mass slaughter...Have I left anything out? My name is Charles Barry Williams. I live with my wife of 30 years, in a little cabin of my own design and making, in the mountains of western North Carolina. I tune and repair pianos. I am an unsuccessful artist. I am 60 years old. I have not given up. If you suspect that my founding of the International Dada Centennial Committee is an attempt, one more time, to become famous, you are on to something. You are so smart. Welcome to my blog.
This is historically significant. It is, to my knowledge (and I majored in Art History at Duke University Graduate School, mind you), the first time the idea that Art has a mission of civilizing humanity got on the map. Now, (2014) one hundred years later, we in the IDCC will do our best to hit humanity over the head with this core idea: Art has a mission, a duty, a job, to civilize humanity by, among other things, effectively preventing senseless mass slaughter on battlefields, off battlefields, non-senseless mass slaughter, senseless non-mass slaughter, sensible mass slaughter, sensible non-mass slaughter...Have I left anything out? My name is Charles Barry Williams. I live with my wife of 30 years, in a little cabin of my own design and making, in the mountains of western North Carolina. I tune and repair pianos. I am an unsuccessful artist. I am 60 years old. I have not given up. If you suspect that my founding of the International Dada Centennial Committee is an attempt, one more time, to become famous, you are on to something. You are so smart. Welcome to my blog.
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