When Craft Gets Sloppy

Pedagogical=of or relating to teaching.

I really like the idea of making something sloppy on purpose.  I think about doing that myself because usually, the projects I do are really perfect.  Sloppy is hard for me.  But I have a feeling if I tried to make something sloppy it would look, planned out sloppy.  

Abject=extremely bad, unpleasant, and degrading.

Prodigious=remarkably or impressively great in extent, size, or degree.

"The lack of evident skill somehow implies the presence of concept." - this may be true sometimes, but I really don't think that is the case always.  I know that when I see something well made, I do think about the smarts that it takes to build it.  I know that doesn't touch on the conceptual aspect of it...  A piece of art that is well made would probably have to be in a museum/gallery type setting for there the be a conceptual aspect expected.  

Celerity=swiftness of movement.

Investing in the Object

Pejorative=expressing contempt or disapproval.

I really don't think there will ever be a definite way to define art, craft, or the mix of the two.  I think every one has their own style.  Their work may be easy to define but it may cross the art or craft line either way.  I think it is a compliment to say that something is well made.  I don't think in any way that it takes away from the concept behind it.  I do think it can be both.  

Atrophy=wasting away.

Spectatorship, Power, and Knowledge

Interpellation = bring into being or give meaning to.

"He (Lacan) was most concerned with how human beings come to imagine themselves as unique individuals even as they are given identity within the social structures of Western capitalism."

• This is funny.  Is it saying that we are ridiculous to think we are unique?  In some ways, I think so.  There are so many of us, is it really possible to be truly unique, probably in very slim amount of cases.

"Docile bodies of the modern state - citizens who participate in the ideologies of the society through cooperation and desire to fit in and conform."

• I have to face it, I am a docile body...

"Photography has been used to document foreign cultures since its beginnings, and hence to provide visual codes of difference between the anthropologists and their subjects."

• Is this a bad thing?  Yes, there is a certain amount of power in saying that what you do is different, so then you automatically compare what you do to what others do and then decide which is better.  But I think there is more power in looking at another culture and just simply thinking that, well we all do things differently, so what?

"We believe we know what culture is because we can identify  its opposite (nature), thus difference is essential to its meaning."

• I like this definition.  It is very true that we identify the differences between each other.  So that is how we identify what we do differently.

Clearing the Ground

"Do you think that basic physiological demands - organic functions, as you call them - are external to social life, to culture, to civilization, and are thus unchangeable, or relatively so?  Such a postulate would be highly debatable and highly dangerous."

• Basic physiological demands are separate from those things, only in the thought that they are necessary functions in order to survive.  But they are also fully engrained into social life, culture etc.  I don't think they can ever be completely taken out of those social aspects.  For example, what we eat is part of culture.  Why is it dangerous though?

"Everyday life is an aspect of history, an interesting one, maybe, but minor.  To study it in itself and for itself entails certain dangers."

• Why does he like that world, danger, so much?  Why is that dangerous.  "Everyday" life is part of culture and life.  It can't be taken out of that.  It may not be newsworthy, but it is part of us.  It is there, so why not study it?  I find little quirks that people have to be extremely interesting.

Praxis = practice, accepted practice or custom.

"Critique of unfulfilment and alienation should not be reduced to a bleak picture of pain and despair.  It implies an endless appeal to what is possible in order to judge the present and what has been accomplished."

• I really like this explanation.  I have often worried about what I haven't done with my life so far, I guess it just shows that I am willing to change my situation.  

Response to the article by Herrell Fletcher

I really liked this little excerpt.  I love that he chose people for his inspiration in art.  I always want to talk to people more.  I have always been a shy person so it is really hard for me to open up.  I have been trying to force myself to do so a lot lately.  I think people are the best inspiration.  We all are so very amazing and you should open yourself up to meeting everyone you can.  I feel that every person has something to offer, good or bad.

"For What and For Whom?"

More definitions...

Ubiquity = present, appearing, or found everywhere.

Tonnage = weights in tons. (I like this word, anything with 'age' on the end it great)

Deputisation = 

Skulduggery = underhanded behavior (this word is just fun to say)

This article is about the expansion of the duties of the curator to the general public.  But that is only a new developing form of curating.  And that it can never replace the actual profession of curator.  

I really like the idea of the every day person participating in curating.  But it definitely should not take away from the education and knowledge required to be a professional curator.

"Curating doubt"

This is one I had to read twice, so I will mostly just have definitions...

Neologism = a newly coined word or expression.  (Good to know, I make up words all the time...)

Demarcation = the act of fixing the boundary or limits of something.

Hypertrophied = become enlarged (I don't know why the author used this word, the author already used 'expanding' right before it...)

Antecedent = a thing or event that existed before or logically proceeds another.

Segue = a uninterrupted transition.

Cadre = a small group of people specially trained for a particular purpose or profession.

Elision = the omission of a sound or syllable when speaking.  

Hegemony = leadership or dominance.

This article is of course about the uncertainty of the definition of a curator or curating.  I don't particularly identify with this topic; I guess I just have never thought about it.  I didn't realize there was such ambiguity within the profession.  I guess if I was ever put into the position of a curator, I would probably have a lot of self doubt too.  Will people like this?  Do I like this?  Does that matter?  It could go on like that forever.  I don't think there will ever be a real definition for this though.  Art changes all the time.  Every artist is so different as well, that how are you really supposed to know what will sell?  There should be a prerequisite to be an Anthropologist to be a curator.  This is all related to our next assignment!  Oh wait, I have an Anthropology degree....

Response to "Album" and "Images of the Everyday"

"Album"

Okay, at first I had no idea what was going on.  Of course the second reading cleared that all up a bit.  

"At 4 pm on the street I am always surprised by the indifference of the people crossing each other's paths."

• I think this just about everyday.  I think that on the bus on the way to school.  When someone sits next to me, I think, the person is so close, why don't we talk?  Usually listening to your ipod allows you to avoid that question...  Also, the only time that someone talks to me on the street is when I am with the little girl I nanny for.  Something about a cute little kid opens people up.

"Images of the Everyday"

"The habitual manners of behaving, (which were) governed by custom, passed on by tradition, had to be replaced by rules"

• Ahh oh my gosh, why do people think they can have that much power?  I guess because they do.  It's amazing how easily it is to "trick" people in to behaving in certain ways, even without them knowing it.  But making them think they are taking control, when there really don't have any.

"For him, women as homemakers enter into his model simply as the means for transmitting middle class values to the working class.  He does not consider how the home economics classes - because they were taught to and carried out by women - shaped the subjectivity of women in particular."

• Just another example of how people think they should be able to have this kind of power over others.  

"By portraying herself within these stereotypes, Messager acted out how advertising had influenced her.   Yet her drawn activities appear exaggerated and highly unnatural, providing a parody of the stereotypes and rising above the media immersion, signaling a critical perspective that Lefebvre would have thought women could not attain."

• I really like that Messager did this.  In a really simple way, she was able to say so much with just sketches.  She admitted that advertising has an affect, and it does.  But she was of course, able to rise above it and make fun of it.  Women are not pawns, it is easy to see through the attempts of advertisers to trick women into buying certain products or ideals.  

Response to "The Man Who Never Threw Anything Away"

Deluge = a severe flood.

"should everything, without exception, before his eyes in the form of an enormous paper sea, be considered to be valuable or to be garbage, and then should it all be saved or thrown away?  Given such a relationship, the vacillations in making such a choice becomes agonizing."

• I feel this way every time I feel it necessary to do major cleaning.  It does become amazing to realize how much you keep when you actually take the time to clean it up...  Why is it so hard to throw things away though?  That bank statement from six years ago, really does not need to be kept any longer...
  

"In our memory everything becomes equally valuable and significant.  All points of our recollections are tied to one another.  They form chains and connections in our memory which ultimately comprise the story of our life."

• Memories can be so vivid and important to use.  I definitely would not want to forget everything that happened in my life.  But why do we get so attached to them?  And attached to the things that bring them up?  Memories are just that, memories.  What happened does not exist anymore.  It happened, but is now over.  They aren't really anything to be attached to.

"To deprive ourselves of all this means to part with who we were in the past, and in a certain sense, it means to cease to exist."

• This is an intense sentence.  How can you not exist because you get rid of garbage?  It seems a bit silly to me.  You are not the garbage that you keep around!