Schwarz
View current page
...more recent posts
Détournement, the reuse of preexisting artistic elements in a new ensemble, has been a constantly present tendency of the contemporary avant-garde, both before and since the formation of the SI. The two fundamental laws of détournement are the loss of importance of each detourned autonomous element — which may go so far as to completely lose its original sense — and at the same time the organization of another meaningful ensemble that confers on each element its new scope and effect.SI
Détournement has a peculiar power which obviously stems from the double meaning, from the enrichment of most of the terms by the coexistence within them of their old and new senses. Détournement is practical because it is so easy to use and because of its inexhaustible potential for reuse. Concerning the negligible effort required for détournement, we have already noted that "the cheapness of its products is the heavy artillery that breaks through all the Chinese walls of understanding" (A User's Guide to Détournement, May 1956). But these points would not by themselves justify recourse to this method, which the same text describes as "clashing head-on against all social and legal conventions." Détournement has a historical significance. What is it?
"Détournement is a game made possible by the capacity of devaluation," writes Jorn in his study Detourned Painting (May 1959), and he goes on to say that all the elements of the cultural past must be "reinvested" or disappear. Détournement is thus first of all a negation of the value of the previous organization of expression. It arises and grows increasingly stronger in the historical period of the decomposition of artistic expression. But at the same time, the attempts to reuse the "detournable bloc" as material for other ensembles express the search for a vaster construction, a new genre of creation at a higher level.
rago fall 09 auction online catalog
thx ree
Venom and Eternity, or Treatise on Slime and Eternity (1951)
Self-healing Concrete
via vz
lichtenberg figures
via vz
rockpile
american routes archive / whole lot of good shit in this archive of ten years worth of shows
pipe dreams archive
american public media
emerson: coen+partners
brett king builder bucks co pa
gio ponti in praise of architecture (1960) free read or down load @ internet archive
enzo mari Autoprogettazione
goog pics
city of signs
via things mag
ipod/computer speakers: klipsch promedia 2.1 $150.00 vs bose music monitor $399
srs iwow plug-in
Daring to Look presents never-before-published photos and captions from Dorothea Lange’s fieldwork in California, the Pacific Northwest, and North Carolina during 1939. Lange’s images of squatter camps, benighted farmers, and stark landscapes are stunning, and her captions—which range from simple explanations of settings to historical notes and biographical sketches—add unexpected depth, bringing her subjects and their struggles unforgettably to life, often in their own words.via vz
When Lange was dismissed from the Farm Security Administration at the end of 1939, these photos and field notes were consigned to archives, where they languished, rarely seen. With Daring to Look, Anne Whiston Spirn not only returns them to the public eye, but sets them in the context of Lange’s pioneering life, work, and struggle for critical recognition—firmly placing Lange in her rightful position at the forefront of American photography.
justin found this one
heres a quiz. lets say you are on top of a mountain. where is eye level? i say eye level would be looking straight across to another mountain top of the same height. a certain party i know says its the horizon line regardless of the horizons lines relation to sea level. im prepared to be wrong here, but curious about the answer since this certain party is almost always right. heres all i found.
What is a Traveling clock, a Carriage clock, and a Coach clock, and what is the difference between them, since they have the same function? The aim of this article is not so much to offer new information to specialists, but rather to explain and clarify the subject to a general public, providing a background for the upcoming sale of the historically important Le Bon clock, featured in the April sale.
We know for certain that in order to function correctly, a watch, whether worn on the person or intended for traveling, had to include an autonomous moving force (the main spring). This was originally a helicoidal spring, and later a spiral (main spring). It had to possess enough autonomy to guarantee a sufficiently long duration of timekeeping, and to allow it to be transported while maintaining a relatively constant moving force.
It is not particularly relevant to this article to determine whether the first to adopt the spring as a moving force for a horological object was the architect Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446), quoted in Vasari in 1410, Jean de Paris, watchmaker to Louis XI, or, according to the Germans, Peter Henlein (c.1480-1542).
It does, however, seem to me to be essential for a detailed analysis of the origins of traveling clocks, to understand the difference between the names used to identify the various types of clocks, and to review, in this manner, their history. In order to remain accurate, it is necessary to take into account the many appellations used in the horological jargon and the various interpretations given in the past. The latter often derive from translations of historical documents, and offer descriptions that are often extremely brief, which only creates uncertainty. I would also like to emphasize the fact that horology is a mathematical and geometrical science, despite the many various interpretations of the product throughout the centuries. Though it is sometimes enthusiastically interpreted in too idealistic a manner, it always remains strictly logical. The few known horological “curiosities” are anomalies which give credit to the true inventions, the discoveries of which make the field even more fascinating and surprising. Let us go back to the beginnings of portable horology. The first travel clocks emerged around 1400 ; these early traveling clocks were referred to as simply l’horloge de voyage in French. It goes without saying that a trave- ling clock must function when it is being transported from one place to another. It is equally evident that the name pendulette de voyage, in the French language, could only be used after 1657, that is after the invention of the pendulum by Huygens, who published his work in a book called “Horologium”. All agree, whether it be the French or English horologists, that the modern Traveling Clock, or Carriage Clock, began in 1798, when A.L.Breguet sold his first carriage clock, or pendulette de voyage to General Napoleon Bonaparte, a few weeks before his departure for the Egyptian campaign. (See Antiquorum “The Art of Breguet”, April 1991, lot 10)
the barns collections new location in philly
architects shoes. i remember bernardos being the thing in ladies sandals in the 60's
Modernist Magazines Project The critic Michael Levenson warned that "A coarsely understood modernism is at once an historical scandal and a contemporary disability". The Modernist Magazine Project aims to refine and enhance the record through the production of a scholarly resource and comprehensive critical and cultural history of modernist magazines in the period 1880-1945. So-called 'little magazines' were small, independent publishing ventures committed to new and experimental work. Literally hundreds of such magazines flourished in this period, providing an indispensable forum for modernist innovation and debate. They helped sustain small artistic communities, strengthened the resolve of small iconoclastic groups, keen to change the world, and gave many major modernists their first opportunities in print. Many of these magazines existed only for a few issues and then collapsed; but almost all of them contained work of outstanding originality and future significance.via things mag
the modernist journals project
Dickie Peterson, whose screaming vocals and pounding bass lines helped push the psychedelic blues-rock trio Blue Cheer into the musical territory that would later be called heavy metal, died Monday in Erkelenz, Germany. He was 63 and lived in Erkelenz and Cologne.
In another example, Pirsig explains to the reader how one should pay attention and learn: when the Narrator and his friends came into Miles City, Montana, he had noticed (second page of chapter 8) that the engine "idle was loping a little", a sign that the fuel/air mixture was too rich. The next day he is thinking of this as he is going through his ritual to adjust the valves on his cycle's engine, because it "has picked up a noise". In the process, he notes that both spark plugs are black, another sign of rich mixture. He solves the puzzle as he is thinking about the feel-good-higher-altitude-mountain-air; the altitude is causing the engine to run rich. New jets are purchased, and installed, and with the valves adjusted, the engine runs well. His cycle begins coughing and almost quits when they get into the mountains of Montana. This is a more severe altitude problem, but he knows it will go away when they get back to lower altitude. He does adjust the carburetor to prevent over heating on the way down.
With this, the book details two types of personalities: those who are interested mostly in gestalts (romantic viewpoints, such as Zen, focused on being "in the moment", and not on rational analysis), and those who need to know details, the inner workings, mechanics (classic viewpoints with application of rational analysis, vis-a-vis motorcycle maintenance) and so on.
The Sutherlands represent an exclusively romantic attitude toward the world. The Narrator initially appears to prefer the classic approach. It later becomes apparent that he understands both viewpoints and is aiming, not for the middle ground, but for the necessary ground that includes both. He understands that technology, and the "dehumanized world" it carries with it, appears ugly and repulsive to a romantic person. He knows that such persons are determined to shoehorn all of life's experience into the romantic view. Pirsig is capable of seeing the beauty of technology and feels good about mechanical work, where the goal is "to achieve an inner peace of mind". Zen and the Art demonstrates that motorcycle maintenance may be dull and tedious drudgery or an enjoyable and pleasurable pastime; it all depends on the inner attitude, or lack thereof.
Pirsig shows that rationality's pursuit of "Pure Truths" derives from the first Greek philosophers who were establishing the concept of truth, against the opposing force of "The Good". He argues that although rational thought may find truth (or The Truth) it may not be valid for all experiences. Therefore, what is needed is an approach to viewing life that is more varied and inclusive and has a wider range of application. He makes a thorough case that originally the Greeks did not distinguish between "Quality" and "Truth" – they were one and the same – and that the divorce was, in fact, artificial (though needed at the time) and is now a source of much frustration and unhappiness in the world, particularly overall dissatisfaction with modern life.
Pirsig aims towards a perception of the world that embraces both sides, the rational and the romantic. This means encompassing "irrational" sources of wisdom and understanding as well as science, reason and technology. In particular, this must include bursts of creativity and intuition that seemingly come from nowhere and are not (in his view) rationally explicable. Pirsig seeks to demonstrate that rationality and Zen-like "being in the moment" can harmoniously coexist. He suggests such a combination of rationality and romanticism can potentially bring a higher quality of life.