Ironic postneoshit as the dominating trend in contemporary art

I really don't care about the 'why' of pieces like that. They represent the goings on inside the head of a person who means nothing to me.

The 'why' of ancient art fascinates me.

Yeah, hundreds would require more effort than I'm really willing to put in to this. Especially given that I'm actually at work. Waiting here to aleap into action and save the lives of those in peril on the sea, which is a better use of my time than Tracy Emin's entire body of work.

edited 11th Feb '12 3:25:30 PM by InverurieJones

'All he needs is for somebody to throw handgrenades at him for the rest of his life...'

Why spend time trying to understand art when we can spend our time cataloging anime ass shots and figure out if our favorite video game characters are tsundere?

And the why of ancient art pertains to the goings on of someone's head who has nothing to do with you as well.

I don't see why people dismiss modern art so readily even if they like older eras of art. Same thing with literature or philosophy.

edited 11th Feb '12 3:25:55 PM by Culex3

to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee

EXACTLY!!!!

I think I like you.

The 5 geek social fallacies. Know them well.

I don't believe that I lack the capacity to understand art, I'm just much more of a "technician."

edited 11th Feb '12 3:27:41 PM by Wheezy

Novel progress: The Adroan (110k words), Yume no Hime (81k), The Pigeon Witch (40k)

Whatever floats your boat. Most modern art is on a par with anime ass shots.

Also, I said the modern artist didn't matter to me, rather than 'had nothing to do with me', as in 'I don't care about the inner workings of his head'. I know the society he lives in, what do I care if he's a raving loon with a toilet fixation?

edited 11th Feb '12 3:29:23 PM by InverurieJones

'All he needs is for somebody to throw handgrenades at him for the rest of his life...'

I do tend to prefer older films and books.

The 5 geek social fallacies. Know them well.

That viewpoint likely has more to do with closemindedness on your part than any problems with modern art.

to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee

No, I just have better things to do with my time than study the self-obsessed, self-referential, navel-gazing drivel of a society that has very little interesting left to say.

I'm sure that whoever comes after us will come up with all kinds of exciting things, but we seem to be exhausted.

edited 11th Feb '12 3:33:41 PM by InverurieJones

'All he needs is for somebody to throw handgrenades at him for the rest of his life...'

Indeed. It may be wishy-washy pretentiousness (and there's no denying there's some of it there...), but there is no standard that says "YES! THIS IS ART! PURE AND SIMPLE!"

Art is about symbolism. Modern art is just a different way of working it out, and attributing it.

> implying this isn't an inherent trait of humanity, or that this wasn't prevalent in "The Good Old Days"

edited 11th Feb '12 3:36:38 PM by inane242

The 5 geek social fallacies. Know them well.

That may be true, but it helps if the result of that massive character flaw is at least nice to look at.

edited 11th Feb '12 3:43:28 PM by InverurieJones

'All he needs is for somebody to throw handgrenades at him for the rest of his life...'

YMMV, I prefer modern aesthetics.

The 5 geek social fallacies. Know them well.

The thing I don't see about postmodern/minimalist/"ironic" art is where the ambition and passion are.

So, you painted a canvas black, pulled a toilet out of a dumpster, or shat in a tin.

OK.

Now where's your drive to become better? Where's your love for the art form and willingness to study, practice, and become truly great at what you do? If you're trying to send a message, how much thought are you putting into it?

I'm not saying modern art isn't "real art," because all art is "real art." But really, if you didn't put the time, effort, and heart into it, what makes your work any more deserving of money and praise than the warmup doodles I do in the morning?

There are some truly great abstract and surrealist artists like Jackson Pollock and Salvador Dali, but at least in Dali's case (I haven't learned enough about Pollock to give an opinion), you can tell he busted his ass to get his painting talents honed.

Edit: This is also my main complaint with most webcomics.

edited 11th Feb '12 3:44:43 PM by Wheezy

Novel progress: The Adroan (110k words), Yume no Hime (81k), The Pigeon Witch (40k)

See, when I look at a landscape I can project myself into it, infer the rest of the world beyond the frame- even if it isn't this world. Like wise with a portrait, a decent sculpture or a temple frieze.

A toilet on a plinth? Great; got two of those in the house. An unmade bed? Got one of those, too.

Any idiot can splat paint about to represent a bad mood or whatever, but if an artist doesn't give me a world to go into then his work has no value for me.

I like Dali, because his paintings give me a bizarre world to go into.

edited 11th Feb '12 3:44:44 PM by InverurieJones

'All he needs is for somebody to throw handgrenades at him for the rest of his life...'

Minimalist visual art is the only minimalism I don't like/tolerate.

If you don't like a single Frank Ocean song, you have no soul.

And that assumes that your entire output is toilet seat covers and black canvases. Most of these artists are technically skilled (*Find some of Jackson Pollock's early stuff*), it's just that their chosen style does not require the use of these skills.

Merzbow is generally considered to be one of the best drummers in the world, but

He'd rather rape your ears all day.

The 5 geek social fallacies. Know them well.

Man, I hate harsh noise.

If you don't like a single Frank Ocean song, you have no soul.

Me Too!, actually.

The 5 geek social fallacies. Know them well.

I kinda sorta like ironic postneoshit sometimes. >.>

ᐅᖃᐅᓯᖅ ᐊᑕᐅᓯᖅ ᓈᒻᒪᔪᐃᑦᑐᖅ

So the gist of this new are trend is to be as obnxious as possible with little else. I hate modern art sometimes. I get quirky geometic works and other modern art items with visually different texture themes and playing with colours and shapes. This other stuff is unimaginative.

Who watches the watchmen?

First off, I must admit that by no means am I an expert at art, so most (if not all) of the labels are flying clean over my head. As a result, I would like to respectfully request that anyone replying to my post is patient with me.

Now, when I see something like, say, the broken toilet on a pedestal or an unmade bed, my first thought is not "Oh, that represents [xyz]" but rather "...That's a broken toilet on a pedestal/unmade bed". Not every man/woman on the street is going to take the time to read more deeply into the piece*

. I understand that some of the more rewarding pieces of art require at least some effort on the viewer's part to appreciate, but equally the art shouldn't be needlessly obtuse or abstract if it does not impinge on what the artist is trying to convey.

For a silly example, can a series of haphazardly applied stripes of coloured paint really be considered art rather than... well... a series of haphazardly applied stripes? It's not really art so much as mere squiggles. A portrait of a landscape is something with "presence" if that makes sense; that is, it carries more significance than what is essentially meaningless noise. You can call the squiggles art, but they are no more so than a single line drawn in charcoal. Equally, though, you can argue that art is such a subjective term that to try to narrow it down to one or two traits is an exercise in pointlessness. One man may consider that bunch of squiggles to be very evocative, while his contemporary feels less enamoured of it.

That was not quite as eloquent as I hoped it would be, but hopefully my points are clear and are valuable to the discussion.

Locking you up on radar since '09

Made sense to me!

'All he needs is for somebody to throw handgrenades at him for the rest of his life...'

@Flanker

I'm pretty sure modern art just supposed to make you think about what it could mean, as opposed to explicitly saying something. I may be wrong, though.

edited 11th Feb '12 4:48:25 PM by Loid

"Dr. Strangeloid, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Cleanlink" - thespacephantom

My "band" plans to make postneocoreshit music.

If you don't like a single Frank Ocean song, you have no soul.

Pfft.

My band makes neopostcore, Parteh.