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Post by Thoithoi O'Cottage on Aug 17, 2015 2:45:37 GMT 5.5
The following are excerpts from a Tony Cragg lecture delivered Thursday, October 24, 2013. Originally delivered in French (published in 2014), the machine translation below I conducted is not perfect, and I have not made any corrections.4. It is always interesting to evaluate what an artist has accomplished and how his work has influenced art movements. However, the compilation of facts and objective information on the life and work of artists is only a preamble to the great corpus of critical essays describing the work of art and its characteristics. Invariably we try to interpret and think about its ins and outs as well as social and political psychological and philosophical. The aesthetic and metaphysical qualities of the artwork give rise to endless speculation.
5. All language, intelligent and sensitive, artistic and sometimes insightful, is then printed as text, articles or presentations that feed the cultural media and shelves of books. These attempts to describe a work of art have to be beautiful interesting, it is obvious that even the richest and best tour language can never replace the experience of watching a painting or a sculpture, to listen music or even reading a poem.
6. All art, regardless of discipline, movement, style or genre, is an experience that expresses itself in its own terms. Even a poem, constructed from language elements identical to those of everyday life, is a unique and extraordinary experience that touches our senses as our thinking. It can not be translated in other words without being altered or completely destroyed.
7. The music moves us, inspires us and delights us, overwhelming our senses and minds of expressions and images that can not shoot any other way. The lyrics are often secondary; For centuries, religious assemblies listened to Latin texts without understanding, like opera fans around the world are carried away by the music without being able to follow the libretto. Similarly, we can appreciate the music of cultures that we do not speak the language, and most of the time the lyrics of pop music is incomprehensible - but we grasp the message. One could rightly argue that it is better to give music a mathematical description as verbal. However, in general, only mathematicians are sensitive to numbers and do not have to be a mathematician to enjoy music.
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Post by Thoithoi O'Cottage on Aug 17, 2015 2:58:12 GMT 5.5
The following are excerpts from a Tony Cragg lecture delivered Thursday, October 24, 2013. Originally delivered in French (published in 2014), the machine translation below I conducted is not perfect, and I have not made any corrections.9. As everyone facing the same image, use different words to describe it and give it meaning, one must really wonder if all do not actually see different images. Or will he has as many images as there are people who see them? What will future observers in the same painting? Y already he has an infinitude of different images just waiting to be seen?
10. But before we stray too far into the distant and imaginary spheres, we can assume that the experience of watching the images not only based on the information and features that we detect in this image, but also on what we put it in terms of perception, knowledge, experience and sensitivity.
11. The fact that we approach a work of art each with abilities and different stories, backgrounds, expectations and needs means, ultimately, that we understand and feel each something different. All images act as mirrors that reflect a part of ourselves. This applies not only to the images we watch and is not confined to art; it is a constant of our existence which applies to all that we see and all that we live.
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16. We penetrate and are penetrated by everything that surrounds us; we are in a mutual and permanent exchange with our environment. Be, or may be present in a time and in a place means that all our thoughts and all our actions overlap and interact with our surroundings. Any changes in material form has a precise and immediate consequence of our thoughts and feelings, on the price of our shares and therefore on the future.
17. We are becoming increasingly aware, unlike all our beautiful hopes and all our beliefs, that most of our existence is far more predetermined than we thought; we must especially focus on what we can determine for ourselves and the how . The greater part of what we call "culture" has long since succumbed to the pressure of utilitarian systems that govern our lives and dictate the shape of almost everything we do and use.
18. It is in art that we find the greatest potential to express something definitely and only human and spiritual that is not dictated by functionalism. Poetry, music, dance, painting and sculpture are all answers to the first raw material things that are deeper than it seems at the surface. They generate forms which are the expression of our lives and of our human essence more than the passing trends of the states, industry, economy, politics or fashion. Although the ideas and theories, which are very important to understand how is society, are for the most ephemeral or even simply wrong, humans will always need - as in all periods of our history - to express their existence and influence the course of events based on the prospects and the limited knowledge they have.
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Post by Thoithoi O'Cottage on Aug 17, 2015 3:16:19 GMT 5.5
The following are excerpts from a Tony Cragg lecture delivered Thursday, October 24, 2013. Originally delivered in French (published in 2014), the machine translation below I conducted is not perfect, and I have not made any corrections.27. The rule is simple: Motion creates emotion. That the animals have not the gift of thinking very far and yet manage to organize their lives according to their sensory responses shows how our subjective sensations remain a major part of ourselves and how they still run our lives. While we found many social conventions to hide or change our instincts and our basic needs, those who have something animal, they are nonetheless indicative of our fundamental nature. Art shows us who we are and where we are. Finally, all art, whatever the level of abstraction, touches on the human figure, to human nature.
28. Contrary to logical reasoning must be generally admissible, emotions are difficult to define and thus express in linguistic terms. It is precisely because it is an art to properly describe emotions and sensory experiences they tend to stay hidden in the individual and not reflected in our actions. These are the emotional universe which give their character to individuals; and art grafted on trying to share emotions.
29. The logic is often used to distinguish and to contradict solutions or positions on the same subject, which shows that the logical conclusions are not a guarantee of ultimate truth and logic works only within a framework of hard knowledge. The knowledge of each is limited and, beyond the horizon of our knowledge, we have to hope that what we believe is true. Beliefs have their foundations in the realm of non-knowledge, where there are no or few concrete facts, and where it is highly unlikely that two people believe the same thing.
30. Works of art acquire meaning precisely because they offer an experience, they allow to live something that involves going outside, beyond the scope of our concrete lives, known and describable, where signs have not yet been turned into symbols and where there are no descriptive vocabulary; they knock on the door not only of non-knowledge, but also the non-knowable.
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Post by Thoithoi O'Cottage on Aug 17, 2015 3:42:14 GMT 5.5
The following are excerpts from a Tony Cragg lecture delivered Thursday, October 24, 2013. Originally delivered in French (published in 2014), the machine translation below I conducted is not perfect, and I have not made any corrections.
31. The language falls itself, as human thought and feeling, the material world. Each word or concept that we have in our heads was forged from the material world and coined common symbols; we are free to use, modify them and give them a sense related to the circumstances of our own lives.
32. We use our senses and organs of perception to collect and store data, signs and symbols from the field. The link between language and the material is an indivisible whole. Works of art are material entities and must therefore have a language they are associated. Works of art become such because artists create things that bring symbols material form that gives them meaning, with specific qualities. The close relationship between matter, language and thought allows artists to change the material forms and in doing so, create new thoughts and emotions. This critical link is the foundation of the practice of sculpture; is making it a powerful and relevant form of artistic expression.
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35. The descriptions, transcripts or explanations come later, while experiences (experienced) affect us in an immediate way, beyond consciousness without words; they fall of the responses and spontaneous reactions of our body. It is generally accepted that human thought is largely driven by the same words and structures that speaking daily. Or contemplate a sunset is an experience that touches emotionally, in terms that are not really expressible...
40. A poem is the opposite of utilitarian language; it avoids the practical field, he invents new words and turns of phrase...
41. From the stream of consciousness, thoughts of the composer, the music flows and evolves linearly over time, in parallel with our existence; it is particularly suited to the description of events in time. It is definitely a language, but not the one who says how a door is opened, how we repair a bike, or would have any other practical function expected of language. Yet this does not mean that we must consider music as a lower language. Its practical application may be limited, but the density of the emotion it generates is deep. Music is an event, an experience; His message is the music itself, as an expression of human existence.
42. From the perspective of the sculptor, every word or note in the air can be seen as a small sculpture on the way to our ears. As in music, create sculptures and paintings is part of a time interval during which the flow of the artist's thoughts and emotions is reflected in the material. The artist moves, the material moves, he looks, he thinks, makes decisions and then starts to move, the material moves and gives it a new form to be examined. Each change of shape or volume, shape or surface gives a new feeling, an emotion or even a new idea. The product of these long sequences is a dialogue with the material that causes the artist to new forms of expression, stronger, he could have predicted or planned any other matter.
43. If one keeps in mind that the number of lines that can connect two points is infinite, set the pen on the paper can be the start of a touring and unknown destination. Use the matter for thinking is not as unusual as one might imagine.
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Post by Thoithoi O'Cottage on Aug 17, 2015 4:00:32 GMT 5.5
The following are excerpts from a Tony Cragg lecture delivered Thursday, October 24, 2013. Originally delivered in French (published in 2014), the machine translation below I conducted is not perfect, and I have not made any corrections.45. Our ability to read the material grown so much that when we look at each other, once we capture information on age, sex, health, mental state, mood, arrangement , history, allowing assumptions about the character and thoughts of our vis-à-vis. We are responsive to the slightest change of form, a smile, a grimace, a tiny muscle tension, especially on the face of someone we know, and all this can instantly change what we think of this person. Otherwise, why would we still be fascinated with a smile on a painting there are six hundred years?
46. When the matter changes, it changes our mind. When I change material, it changes my mind and often we can not really say which leads the other...
59. Production and industrial technologies have fostered the demand for manufactured goods exponentially; the world is full of them and they are the ones who impose the forms that surround us. Industrial machinery obey simple geometry that makes rational and economic, with the result that they produce a monotonous world reflecting this geometric simplicity: flat, right, round, square. These systems produce things that help us in the fight for survival, they protect us from the elements, reduce our workload, we give strength and food. Material possessions have become such an extension of ourselves they stand for what we are and shape the image we give of ourselves. As materialized representations of ourselves, they are now perfect subjects for the artists, who use them as metaphors of human existence. Unfortunately, the image of that human existence is often that of an unfulfilled potential, a repetitive monotony of a banal survival concern.
63. Nature has had plenty of time to try what works best; the things she created are of abysmal and sublime complexity; us, by comparison, are rather awkward in our creative efforts...
64. Our obsession with simple solutions led to simplistic in the education and social systems, in agriculture, forest management, architecture, urbanism and the media. Curiously, the elegance and beauty of scientific truths are often translated into inane solutions, ugly and harmful in the hands of designers, industrialists, businessmen and policy yet it should not be left alone shape the future. Sculpture, and art in general are scarce jobs of matter that give new forms dictated not by utilitarianism but by aesthetics and imagination. The aesthetic appreciations of all things, including people, landscapes and objects, are an existential evaluation is part of our survival strategy. Beautiful and ugly are only relative terms which refer to other terms as well and evil , leading us to turn to right and wrong , with moral and ethical systems.
67. The fact that the word material is derived from the word mater (mother) speaks volumes about its supremacy. Matter is what we came, what we are made, and although many find the term ugly materialism - particularly because it is a historical conflict with theology - everything we know and we do the Experience is material, including language, thought and emotion.
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