This Modern Art

Art & Me

I often claim to be an admirer of art, but in truth, art for me consists of pixels, not pigments. This is not say I prefer art online to art offline, but rather I have no choice. In the economics of artistic expression, rural America faces neglect. There are no art museums, no murals, no street performers, and so on and so forth.

I am far from fluent in ‘art theory’ and the extents of my artistic abilities are somewhat narrow. I dabble here and there in painting and ceramics, which I quite enjoy, but my works are, to say the least, less than avant-garde.

I appreciate art dearly in all its forms; art is the highest expression of man. It is man’s most humanistic act — art says, “Hey look, look what I’ve seen, look what I can imagine, look what I can do”.

Art & Society

In principle a work of art has always been reproducible. Man-made artifacts could always be imitated by men. Replicas were made by pupils in practice of their craft, by masters for diffusing their works, and, finally, by third parties in the pursuit of gain. Mechanical reproduction of a work of art, however, represents something new. Historically, it advanced intermittently and in leaps at long intervals, but with accelerated intensity. […] Lithography enabled graphic art to illustrate everyday life, and it began to keep pace with printing. But only a few decades after its invention, lithography was surpassed by photography. […] Since the eye perceives more swiftly than the hand can draw, the process of pictorial reproduction was accelerated so enormously that it could keep pace with speech. (Benjamin)

In the 1450s, Johannes Gutenberg popularized the printing press in Europe. In 1826, some three centuries and three-quarters centuries later, Nicéphore Niépce took the first photograph. Together, these two men revolutionized society in two ways. Gutenberg’s printing press established wide-scale literacy, allowing persons beyond the royal families and clergy to experience written knowledge and fantasy. Niépce’s invention brought visual literacy, allowing person to see the world without experiencing the world.

Even more so, the 20th Century took this revolution further, namely with the internet and personal cameras. With hardly any effort on my part I can open up my web browser, enter ‘http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page’, and have access to a million or so articles. With a digital camera I can take photos of anything and transfer them to my computer, upload the images to a webhost, and suddenly I can show anyone with access to the internet my photos. Certain dialectic has taken place here; there is an increase in the quantity of artists and naturally, there is a change in the quality of artists.

Here art has gone through another dialectical change. The first human artists were cave dwellers painting with animal’s blood and their hands. The creation of cities and class society brought art out-of-itself, art developed new techniques using new materials but only a privileged few were able to engage in artistic activities. Now, art returns to itself, as the broad masses of people have the opportunity to be artists or experience art but with new techniques and better methods.

Art & Socialism
I do not remember the exact phrase, or the exact context, but I believe Lenin once said ‘a Social-Democrat once said that the postal service is a model of socialism. That is true’. Art is socialism under capitalism. Any person may partake of art and receive the full value of their work, art. A person can distribute their art across the world.

What is socialism? Socialism is a society where man receives the full product of his labor. With his fellow workers at the cooperative, he distributes his products to the community. Again, I badly paraphrase Lenin, but Lenin once said in Can the Bolsheviks retain State Power? Lenin says that capitalism sows its own seeds of destruction and replacement. Lenin argues that a proletarian state reorganize the banks, syndicates, and cartels along the means of socialist production in replacement of capitalist industrial organization. In modern society, we will unify and socialize production utilizing computers, the internet, and all of our new technological devices.

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Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.”
Marxists Internet Archive 1936. 27 May 2006.
<http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm>.

Prison House Revolt

Thursday, the detainees at Guantánamo Bay in their limited resources attempted to revolt against the guards. The detainees used weapons made of fans and light fixtures, and consequentially crushed by a ‘minimal force’. After the crushing of the uprising four detainees attempted suicide. The ability of the United State’s people to ignore human rights abuse in the world is easily understandable when most Americans turn a blind eye to their own human rights abuses.

Today, after much demagogue and passive defiance, the United Nations declared that Guantánamo Bay must shut down in addition to the various ‘black sites’ across the world. The UN accuses the United States of violating the international 1987 U.N. Convention against Torture, or other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment by exploiting detainees’ cynophobia and humiliating detainees sexually.

The day is coming when the toiling masses of America will hear that appeal and act upon it. Then the prison doors will be opened and the prisoners set free, for the masses have an authority higher than that of any court. — James P. Cannon

Day Without Apathy

I was almost hesitant in posting this entry. I didn’t want to reach a judgment too soon but I feel the movement has more or less ‘calmed’ or rather, it started out calm is still calm.

The answer to the question of ‘Where this movement is going?’ is simple: back to the drawing board. The movement thus far is unorganized. The radical left has ‘left the building’. The people in the streets are demanding something, but that something is undefined. The radical left needs to go out and form organic connections with the Hispanic proletarians. From here, we need to build up a central organization with the demand of ‘Legalize Everyone!’

However, despite the shortcomings of the movement it takes a higher role. The movement generates social antagonism that provides the basis for discovery and resolution of class antagonism. In the words of Ernst Mandel:

Elementary class struggle, elementary class organisation and elementary class-consciousness are born, then, directly out of action, and only the experience arising out of that action is able to develop and accelerate consciousness. It is a general law of history that only through action are broad masses able to elevate their consciousness.

And how was my May Day? Like this:
Yesterday, I discovered that there would be no rally points in my town. The nearest rallies were in Bentonville (Yes, that Bentonville) and Springdale. So I made a deal with my inner-self, I will still go to school but I will wear white in solidarity. Fast forward to today, I wore a white shirt and what do you know? I was the only one in support of the movement. No Latinos walked-out, no one spoke up, and people only mentioned it in brief — until I brought it up.

In one of the positive moments of today, around the trashcan, some friends and I brought up the issue of immigrants’ rights. It was one of those rare moments when rather than be told their opinions students put forth their own opinions.