On first reading of Seth Price’s ‘Dispersion,’ the article can be viewed as a wide ranging observation of random topics as described in our tutorial as ‘sampling,’ like a combination of Wikipedia pages. This idea I can relate to as I have a broad range of knowledge but nothing specified. For me, the way Price groups a large seemingly random text as a form of sample bought back the ideas of Meg Cranston. “I don’t discredit artists whom go deep, but I go broad. I prefer to go from flower to flower. That was part of my education. We were taught not to trademark- that was unethical, to brand yourself” . This point is very relevant to all of us we are taught from an early age to study a wide range of subjects if an individual is not good at one area we are taught to try and try again where as back in history from an early age you would become an appretiance to a ‘master’ in a particular area. In this era with the access to technology the notion of knowlege has changed a lot. We view a range of information to be relevant, knowledge is part of success. As the world his developed we have needed to learn about a wide range of things, for me this is how Price’s article is relevant. At first the big picture in Prices essay is hard to grasp but once we break down the text into areas for example blocking off the source from the image we begin to see how the ambiguity is the authors intention, like Wikipedia we all take ideas from different places to help piece our knowledge together to form a varied relevant new language.
Israel Nico, Cranston Meg, Running on Light Feet in Hot pants in a Cold Cold World: Works 1987-2007, Artspace and Clouds, Auckland, 2008, pg.7
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Hi Emma, i totally agree: with such accessibility to and availability of, information and knowledge through the net, we are all becoming jack-of-all-trades in a wide range of areas, whatever we want or feel like.
ReplyDeleteWe can all be (semi-)experts and
multi-disciplinary because we can apply net-gained knowledge and information, mixing it all up! But then doesn't this bring us back to that fundamental question of what is art, and also how do we reconcile the disappearing of distance between artist and audience, if anything goes.
This is also interesting in relation to the new structure of art schools like Elam: because we no longer specialise in a particular discipline, 'sampling' and breadth seem to be encouraged. I often wonder if this turns us all into jacks-of-all-trades but masters of none... There seem to be advantages and disadvantages to both approaches. The same can be said of Price's piece: while it is extremely broad in its scope, I found that it only skimmed the surface of certain topics.
ReplyDeleteit is interesting to consider the fashions of art school and the many systems of change and fad that are imposed on it. the Jack- of - all - trades "sampling" that occurs at Art schools (Elam in particular as that is what we know) is a new direction from the tradition of departments - How ever, as this structure allows the art student to explore their concepts without restriction (gaining conceptual depth)- i often wonder weather practical skill is being lost and if the outside market will ever demand a return to the tradition - to create more consumable work - well crafted work. Not to say that the works of "jack-of - all -trades" are not well crafted but their is something desirable about the expert in a chosen field, especially know that we live in such as dynamic information saturated world.
ReplyDeleteI agree with all that we are turing into 'jack of all trades' I think it relates to our Pioneering history we are a nation of DIYers and this is the same when it comes to learning.
ReplyDeleteHi guys, what is interesting is that a previous generation of NZ artists such as Cliff Whiting and Sandy Adsett worked across a range of disciplines in their art practice and didn't confine themselves to just one area. I think as artists we tend to acquire divergent skills to assist us with our work and this can only be a good thing! Also, in our time now we have such amazing options open to us it would be a shame not to explore to enhance our personal practices.
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