GOLD CORROSION
The Art Game and Surrealism.
Geoffrey Hamilton
April 15, 1997
Before King David wrote his Psalms, the Psalms had been previously unexpressed
and unknown. Once Sir Walter Scott wrote Ivanhoe it could be seen as previously
inexpressible and unknowable. So when Andre Breton made this statement: "I expressed
what was considered inexpressible . . . I have divulged what was said to be still
unknowable", he was only using hyperbole to hide the banal. Many things are
inexpressible and unknowable. As an example, 90% of the matter of the known universe
is said to be too dark to know or express much about. Ignorance is such a vast
field of endeavor that the contents of newspapers divulge each day what was
previously considered unknowable and inexpressible. Nevertheless, Breton was
correct to say what he said, as he, and other surrealists, managed to do exactly
what was necessary to compete with the grandiose expectations of newspaper readers.
Therefore, Breton and his adherents Tristan Tzara and Salvador Dali were able to
formulate a new game, called surrealism to justify random thinking and created new
values in art and so expressed the once inexpressible so their audience could know
the once unknowable.
That art is a game is difficult for many people to
accept, but if the standard definition of games is observed and it is not forgotten
how seriously other games are played, then even people who think art is holy can
begin to see the game of art. For clarity, all games can be said to involve limited
goals/values, that are constrained by rules, and which are played for an emotional
reward. The emotional reward is contingent on an estimation of success in a game
that is gauged to be more difficult to achieve than a certainty....
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There is no audience.
The artist makes up an audience along with his art.
No one is plugged into art's messages. The senses indicate something
and we all pretend over that.
The greatest artists are the ones with pretentions which have the
fewest gaps, at least
while the fashion for it lasts. This area examines what is going on.
TV Delusions
Geoffrey Hamilton
October 24, 1995
Delusion is an under-rated ability. For example: without the created delusion that
children offer a form of immortality to parents, there might be no children. Or
similarly, without the instinctive delusions of the sex drive, many children would
not have been concieved. Other examples come through religious competition,
national rivalry, psychological states of denial and many others. Each form of
delusion offers people a sense of value (for example, in children) or prevents
a sense of value from being under-cut (for example, when people refuse to listen
to something)....
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SUCCULENT SHADOWS
On Poetry's debt to Obscurity
March 28, 1995
With academia's obsession with making distinctions the numerous
similarities between distinct things gets less attention then they
deserve. Links of similar qualities exist between all things in the
same way that a chosen square inch of dirt on the ground is linked to
the whole surface of the globe. By this idea a boarder-blur is recognized
and the distinctions....
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The Game of Poetic Language
Marlowe's Part
December 1, 1996
Today older poetry, such as that which Marlowe's age produced with rhyme, is often
in the tow of apologists who justify these tested forms as mnemonic and now, the
argument goes, with the end of oral cultures such mnemonic devices have outlived
their usefulness. 'Primitives' and idiot rock stars use the older forms still,
and so, the conclusion is, it's too easy, or too retrograde.
These are mistaken understandings of the older forms which stem from
a misunderstanding of meaning, form, and purpose regarding poetics; a
misunderstanding that Marlowe....
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Abdul, Paula
born June 19, 1963
Geoffrey Hamilton
November 09, 2005
There are many accidents and decisions which need to
happen before anyone can succeed, especially in an
artistic setting. Paula Abdul has had most of them
which makes her story one of the better examples.
Before getting started let me just say two things; forget
high and low brow distinctions in art
they are just another layer of pretension and while
there is nothing wrong with that in general this art
project is about success not excess.
Secondly, one of the things that gets some people into trouble is
believing there is such a thing as integrity. Actually what
they mean to worry about is being true to their inherent dispositions.
But you know what? you can't avoid doing so, so
don't worry about it. Every decision you make is automatically you
being true to you. If you want to avoid being unhappy about any
success you get while sleeping your way to the top, for example,
just make sure to enjoyed it, at least you'll have that......
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"You're constantly trying to get the audience into the state of feeling , and
how things feel, rather than how things are".
Brad Bird, 2007, director and writer of film Ratatouille
"Every idea comes about in its own way. I had an idea for a film that started with me hearing a song
and thinking it was another song."
Brad Bird, 2007, director and writer of film Ratatouille