Examination Question: Section A

[erosman]

LOL

See gentlemen, there's more than one way to get a woman's clothes off. It just depends how defensive she might be about her womanhood.


I'll go now and leave you to your plaything. I'll check back later to see if there are any intellectual developments.

 

[GreenEyedGirl]

I am tempted to quote my generation, which I rarely do, and say "whatever."

I need some coffee.

 

[riff]

You mean whatever-dot-com.

Often when I blow someone off or something off with whatever, I just add dot-com to it.

You wouldn't believe the interesting things you can find on the Internet by just adding dot-com to it. Me and my students make a game of it.

 

[Dillinger]

Just went to whatever.com - one of the first things I saw there was "Things To Do In An Elevator" - however their suggestions turned out to be nothing like my Elevator suggestions...

 

[freescorfr]

Lets put complexity theory into action.

I invite you all to participate in our own Summer conference.

If your thinking, "I can't go to Europe" then think of how you're spending your life. I imagine those of you who teach are inspiring, creative teachers. Nourish yourselves this summer.

Think what you all have written about Art and Life.

I offer you this from the complexity theory site I visit so often:

"Why do we work ? From necessity or love ? If the former, then our world is failing us, we are being exploited, being made slaves for the benefit of others. The ethic that work is a 'good thing' is a throwback to a Victorian mentality of puritanical pain and denial of our humanity, an ethic that is so far removed from the reality of our human nature as to be pathological. Humans are creative, they are not machines, nor are they 'sinners' that must be made to suffer 'hard labour' for the redemption of their 'soul', a sort of authoritarian Hell on Earth. Toil is for dumb machines not for thinking creatures - to create is to think, to think we need inactivity not action. If we are to free the creativity of the masses, we must free them from work, from useless and mind deadening toil, from control from outside, from regulation, from hate, from constraint. Only then are we likely to grow as individuals, only then can synergistic considerations resulting from free association transform our world. We can reasonably say today that our politicians have failed us, our bosses have failed us and our institutions have failed us. We, the people, surely can do better (we could hardly do worst !) ? Restoring power to the people will not be easy, those that currently hold it are blinkered by their own selfishness and dualist thinking, they are as ignorant as the masses and for the same reason - the one-dimensional non-systemic you or me view of life. Freedom to enjoy a creative life is crucial to our humanity, as psychologist Erich Fromm says:

"Freedom means many things to many people. Do we mean by freedom, a freedom from - freedom from drudgery, from monotony, from the stupidity of manual work, freedom from the irrational authority of a boss or foreman, freedom from exploitation? Or, on the other hand, do we mean a freedom to - freedom to participate actively in the work process or freedom to enjoy work? Actually our concept of freedom today is essentially a negative one It is freedom from and not freedom to, because we are mostly concerned with what we are against and not what we are for - against whom we should defend ourselves rather than what we are living for."
Freedom in the Work Situation (1959)

"

1959, I ask you.

There you are Greeneyedgirl - that's my freedom.


Start looking now for flights to France in August - or to London. Only requirement sleeping bags and other necessary superfluities. Some clothes for Greeneyedgirl.
Accomodation: under canvas by the lake. Cost per week about $100 including meals with wine.
I'll arrange a conference Hall. Local transport no probs.

I'd suggest everyone propose a paper they'd submit beforehand or offer a workshop on their special area. If we set it up properly some of you may be elligible for grants from somewhere.


Am I moving too quickly from the imaginary to the real?

I used to do this sort of thing many years ago and am happy to arrange things this end.

freescot in France.

 

[Ishmael]

My shot at it.

Much of this has been said in one way or another previously, but my perceptions are;

Life is art. We all start as a blank canvas, or sheet of paper and proceed to 'create' ourselves. In that respect, we're all artists.

From time to time some among us will write a poem, paint a picture, carve some stone, take a picture. An attempt to capture, or release, or explain, if only to ourselves, that art that is within us for that moment of time. In that respect, art is not art, but a frozen moment of our lives, and that is the true art.

freescorfr is quite correct in his assesment of the temporally tanscendect nature of 'art'. It is the concrete residue of our lives at that moment in time. But saved so that posterity can see that small part our canvas.

How many people are moved by your life (art) is a measure of how you have managed to touch upon their soul with yours. How long they feel that way is the difference between 'pop art' and great 'art'.

I doubt that few great artists ever started out to paint the worlds 'best' picture, or write the all time 'greatest' novel. I suspect that those who started with those motives never came close.

So in keeping with all those old Kellogs twenty-five words or less contests:

Art is nothing more than the fragment of a life under a strong magnifying glass and frozen in amber.

Ishmael

 

[GreenEyedGirl]

Lets put complexity theory into action.

I invite you all to participate in our own Summer conference.

If your thinking, "I can't go to Europe" then think of how you're spending your life. I imagine those of you who teach are inspiring, creative teachers. Nourish yourselves this summer.

Think what you all have written about Art and Life.

........


1959, I ask you.

There you are Greeneyedgirl - that's my freedom.


Start looking now for flights to France in August - or to London. Only requirement sleeping bags and other necessary superfluities. Some clothes for Greeneyedgirl.
Accomodation: under canvas by the lake. Cost per week about $100 including meals with wine.
I'll arrange a conference Hall. Local transport no probs.

I'd suggest everyone propose a paper they'd submit beforehand or offer a workshop on their special area. If we set it up properly some of you may be elligible for grants from somewhere.


Am I moving too quickly from the imaginary to the real?

I used to do this sort of thing many years ago and am happy to arrange things this end.

freescot in France.

I am tempted beyond belief. I have never been to France, and the thought of camping by a lake near a ruined abbey, discussing Art, Life, Beauty, Philosophy, and anything else.........
Drinking wine with such excellent company.......
I'll go. In a heartbeat. Regardless if I am the only "female" to give perspective or not.

And I am applying for grants to begin an art festival, so research could be done at this meeting of the minds.

Now, what am I to do until August?

 

[GreenEyedGirl]

You mean whatever-dot-com.

Often when I blow someone off or something off with whatever, I just add dot-com to it.

You wouldn't believe the interesting things you can find on the Internet by just adding dot-com to it. Me and my students make a game of it.

Riff -
I wish to the highes power that may be that you had been one of my teachers. And that my friend, is just about the best compliment I can think to give someone.
Your students are lucky to have you.

 

[freescorfr]

Riff, our examiner has been pissed. Pissed examiners are part of the fabric (n.b. costumery allusion) of the thread, interwoven with purls of wisdom, a worn tapestry of wit and woe, hiding behind the arras of an anti-post.

Greeneyedgirl, before August, prepare your tapestry, your exhibition - you can exhibit in the abbey - look into the grants.

Ishmael adds a new perspective - he's an engineer.

 

[Hamletmaschine]

Free, your invitation is so generous, as well as tempting, that I may do just that. Looking at all those photos you put up for your av--I'm guessing a couple of these are of Etretat?--makes me ache.

I am still cross-eyed from a bout with insomnia, and so will spare you all any further reflections on either art or life until the caffeine kicks in.

 

[Dillinger]

Might I be invited as well? I promise to do more intellectual theorizing than flirting.

 

[freescorfr]

Might I be invited as well? I promise to do more intellectual theorizing than flirting.

Dilly, you're essential. Flirt away. I don't expect anyone will suppress any side of themselves.
If you can't make it Hamletsmachine will parody you every day religiously.

 

[Dillinger]

Does he parody me? (Religiously? *lol*) Did I miss this?

Oh Hamletmachine... come out come out - I want to see this!!!

Or is has he done it here already and I'm just dense?

*grin*

 

[Hamletmaschine]

I didn't parody you, Dilly!!! I'm sure I didn't.

I think Free is just referring to my parody of a few days ago--the 'telling the wife its' over' thread--and projecting that as my general modus operandi. I hope that's what he meant, anyway.

 

[Dillinger]

No worries... I'm just teasing you.

Besides - imitation is the sincerest something or other anyway.

I think I need to make some replicas of the Venus de Milo but add green eyes to them.

 

[Hamletmaschine]

Hope you won't knock off the arms, though....

 

[Guest]

 

[Hamletmaschine]

Tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum. Yup, that's us.

How ya doing today, sweet-ums? What happened to the hubba-bubbas?

 

[Guest]

 

[Hamletmaschine]

Well, have a good night then. And if you're not gonna be needing the hubba-bubbas for awhile, would you mind if I borrowed 'em?

 

[freescorfr]

I didn't parody you, Dilly!!! I'm sure I didn't.

I think Free is just referring to my parody of a few days ago--the 'telling the wife its' over' thread--and projecting that as my general modus operandi. I hope that's what he meant, anyway.

Yes, that's what triggered it, indeed. Not however any implication that it is your modus operandi - just one of your capacities.

 

[Guest]

 

[Hamletmaschine]

It would be my pleasure. Handle with care

But of course! And I'll try not to wake you.

 

[GreenEyedGirl]

Life is art. We all start as a blank canvas, or sheet of paper and proceed to 'create' ourselves. In that respect, we're all artists.

From time to time some among us will write a poem, paint a picture, carve some stone, take a picture. An attempt to capture, or release, or explain, if only to ourselves, that art that is within us for that moment of time. In that respect, art is not art, but a frozen moment of our lives, and that is the true art.



Art is nothing more than the fragment of a life under a strong magnifying glass and frozen in amber.

Ishmael

Thanks for a fresh perspective, I agree with you that we use art as an attempt to capture/release/explain/present ourselves. That art can be a frozen moment in our lives.
But what if one also considers the amber that holds the moment to be art?
I think Hamlet wrote "refuse common sense in the disctinction between Life and Art." (correct me if I am wrong, I can not find the line now). This is an excellent point to the amber being Art as well. Can Art be created only? Does it exist as a free element? Are we simply harnassing something raw and altering it to please our esthetics?


Free - I am working on my tapestry and beginning my grant proposal. I want all of us to meet at the ruined abbey, everyone bring their favorite bottle of fermented beverage, and let the mind orgy begin! (And before Dilly goes there........ MIND orgy... but please do make sure you are there!)
And a green eyed Venus with arms - hmmm...... sounds familiar for some odd reason. But if she is green eyed and fully limbed, would she really be Venus, or some new form of Art? *lol*

 

[GreenEyedGirl]

Riff,
Please heal and come back. I miss your wit and wonderfully dark mind.