The Unspeakable Book
(discussion 1 for a possible co-authored book)
Meeting on 30th May 2024
The Pre-meeting Notes
Joe had already sent some notes including his video/talk en Pleine aire. He mooted the idea of 'landscape' as an 'activity' (i.e. a verb?).
(JW: all 'saying' is indexical)
(including Law of the instrument (e.g. Manchester Hammer) and JW had replied, suggesting that Affordance was a useful opposite concept.
- Prescriptive ‘training’ Professions. – these are useful but how can we encourage an active ‘pourosity’ between them? “intra active different to inter active?
- “good artists are the ones who have shaken themselves loose from the shackles of training” John Bridle (I think?) #How confidence works
- “Creative Practice” initial discussions with UCD Architecture whilst still at NCAD. - ‘invite practioners to work collaboratively on common theme. Eg “space” Architects explore space: so also do sculptors, fashion designers, dancers, mathematicians, natural scientists -----.
- Drawing - not only artists draw ---so do plumbers. Re MA back in 1996/98.
- Curiosity – Noticing—Examining – Understanding
- EmpiricalExplaining ==Communicating – Re Cognising – Re #Presenting - How often does the education model work exclusively rather than inclusively “Don’t waste your time on subjects that are not relevant to a predetermined pathway” ie structured backwards. (this is a bit simplistic!!!}
- If you are part of say a graphic design team who is given a job to design an “anti smoking campaign” then whether you are for the motion or against it personally or otherwise is irrelevant.
- If a handkerchief and a ballpoint pen got together and had offspring - what would they be like???
- If one is trying to explain visually how to bake a cake then little point in spending hours doing beautiful rendiyion of finished thing. However if one were trying to persuade someone to eat / buy one -then fine!!?
- Purpose information
- Information - qualitative / quantitative. Eg teams of people looking at “land-scape”
- Geology;
- Archaeology;
- Artists??
- If we didn’t have “geologists” the rocks etc would still behave and do what they have been doing. But if we didn’t have artists we wouldn’t have art and vice versa ??
The Discussion
- (n.b. although John reminded us that we live in the era of the Anthropocene in which recent human activities are physically affecting the nature of the planet.
- Gaia hypothesis is the idea that the systemic nature of the Earth's self-organisation make it reasonable to see it as a living system (c.f. James Lovelock)
- Angela McMahon is an artist who began as a geologist...said that geologists need to have the imagination of sculptors because you can't actually observe the landscape as a whole.
- Anthropocene - could artists become (geological) anthropologists of the Earth?
- Anthropologists inhabit other people's worlds (like actors)
- Joe talked about the 'building' of a drawing like layers in the formation of regions of the Earth.
- John suggested catalysis as a way to 'design' the conditions for an effective reaction. (e.g. Room clutter impedes effective action).
- Cornelia Parker and explosions