(just saw a new post from you - will read and reply later-ta ta)
Hi David,
Your thoughtful responses tingle my brian! But my favorite part of your
note is this next rather large passage (followed by more comments by me):
>Here is an interesting opening on "Content".
>CONTENT: There is no clear consensus on what the content of a work of art
><http://www.arts.ouc.bc.ca/fiar/glossary/a_list.html> is. Some would
>distinguish subject matter from content -- i.e., denotations vs.
>connotations, more or less -- while others would prefer terms like meaning
><http://www.arts.ouc.bc.ca/fiar/glossary/m_list.html> and significance
><http://www.arts.ouc.bc.ca/fiar/glossary/s_list.html>. What follows is a
>provisional record which tries to take into account most of the available
>possibilities. For the sake of categorical clarity, we can arbitrarily
>differentiate content from form
><http://www.arts.ouc.bc.ca/fiar/glossary/f_list.html> and context, although
>there are clear points of interchange or mutual inflection
><http://www.arts.ouc.bc.ca/fiar/glossary/i_list.html>. Simply put, content
>is "what" the work is (about), while form and context are "how" the work is
>and "in what circumstances" the work is, respectively. Within the category
>of content we can further distinguish three levels of complexity. Although
>they are arranged numerically here, there is no intrinsic
><http://www.arts.ouc.bc.ca/fiar/glossary/i_list.html> hierarchy that holds
>true for all audiences
><http://www.arts.ouc.bc.ca/fiar/glossary/a_list.html>. The primary content
>includes literal <http://www.arts.ouc.bc.ca/fiar/glossary/l_list.html>
>iconography; straightforward subjects and imagery; and describable facts,
>actions, and/or poses. The secondary content includes the basic genres
><http://www.arts.ouc.bc.ca/fiar/glossary/g_list.html> (history,
>megalography, mythology, religion, portraiture, landscape, still-life,
>genre, rhopography); figurative
><http://www.arts.ouc.bc.ca/fiar/glossary/f_list.html> meanings like those
>afforded by conventional signs and symbols (including allegories,
>attributes, personifications, and traditional connotations); basic tropes
><http://www.arts.ouc.bc.ca/fiar/glossary/t_list.html> (metaphor, metonymy,
>synecdoche, irony, parody, etc.); and/or performative effects
>(paralinguistic <http://www.arts.ouc.bc.ca/fiar/glossary/p_list.html> formal
>inflection of content). The tertiary content represents the convergence and
>mutual inflection of form, content, and context. The primary content of
>Ingres's Napoleon Enthroned, for example, would simply be a richly dressed
>individual sitting on a throne, etc. The secondary content would become a
>megalographic portrait of a particular political figure, identifiable as
>Emperor by the various attributes, and given extra dignity by stylistic
>treatment, not to mention compositional allusion
><http://www.arts.ouc.bc.ca/fiar/glossary/a_list.html> to Phidias's Olympian
>Zeus. The tertiary level can be understood either as simple one-way
>determinacy <http://www.arts.ouc.bc.ca/fiar/glossary/d_list.html> or as a
>two-way chiasmus. I.e., Ingres's painting glorifies Napoleon in apparent
>imagery and style, as well as in context -- which is to say not only that
>Napoleon is idealized for obvious contextual reasons, but that obvious (and
>sometimes not so obvious) contextual factors are also idealized by Napoleon
>(or at least by his representation
><http://www.arts.ouc.bc.ca/fiar/glossary/r_list.html>). In theory, failure
>to perform an exhaustive analysis of the interrelations of these levels
>opens the artwriter <http://www.arts.ouc.bc.ca/fiar/glossary/a_list.html> to
>charges of interpretive agnosia
><http://www.arts.ouc.bc.ca/fiar/glossary/i_list.html>.
> Robert Belton
Dawn:
Not only is what you're saying stimulating (content) but it's presentation
is fantastic (form/context). What is so beautiful about this passage is
the interjection of web pages that flow right into and out of the
sentances. I was imagining what it would sound like if we were actually
talking to each other. Would one speak the links? As I am reading am I to
jump to the link at the moment I come to it then return to the passage and
read to the next link then jump to it and so forth? Plus the links all show
up blue on my screen so it has a visual beauty as well. It's got this
fractured thing going. A multiplicity - many streams flowing into one or
many related thought lines all going at the same time. It's amazing how
much information we can handle at once anymore.
Divisio:
Are we talking "dance" here, or "art"? Not necessarily the same. If your
interest is art I suggest the problem is falling into a satisfactory
definition by people who possibly don't know the difference.
Dawn:
Maybe the term "art" could be a heading over any of the subcatagories or
dance, music, painting, poetry etc. Meaning there is dance that is art and
dance that is not just like there is painting that is art and painting that
is not (think dentist office landscapes). How one defines which is which is
totally an individual bias. It almost seems like "art" is used to describe
something that isn't popular, that has no other purpose except to be itself
(doesn't sell something) and that has a hard time getting funded. Right?
Divizio:
MUCH better if we give up all ideas of communicating the art....ie...the
delivery of the "Art" and try something "other" like refining our art of
Communicating.....WHICH, I might add, dancers are in a rather fine position
to assist in the ensuing "adjustment".....historically ...or herstorically,
if you must ...though I prefer An-storically..... in the wake of the Post
Modern upheaval.
Dawn:
Why are dancers in a better position to refine the art of communication
over other kinds of people? I'm not sure I follow.
cheers,
Dawn
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dawn Stoppiello / Artistic Co-Director / Troika Ranch / troika@artswire.org
http://www.troikaranch.org
321 Graham Avenue #4R Brooklyn, NY 11211 +1.718.218.6775
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