I recently went to the albritknox, on a friday when they have it free and open to the public. I am sure most of you know what i speak of, they even have a catchy title for it, they have positivly dubbed it "Gusto at the Gallery". GUSTO, isnt that great, Gusto is the word equvilant of a cheerleader. The word itself is pleasing to look at, pleasing to read and embodies all the power and energy of a national champion cheerleader squad dancing, smiling, and tosing themselves into the air. (qucik side note for you word lovers out there::::1629, from It. gusto "taste," from L. gustus "a tasting," related to gustare "to taste," from PIE ) I will start of by stating that i am in no way trying to bastardize the event, for 1. i am a really big fan of FREE, i mean really thats the best price in town, and 2. i believe in allowing a certain time to be truly open, for the museum to actually carry out it's intended function, and that is art for the people, by the people (insert long-winded proletariat romaticized statement here). It is really great, and not only is the art work accessible, but they couple it with public interactive evnts that involve people from all walks of life, and art related explorations of a plethora of mediums, feilds of study and intrigue. But now back to my point i will try and make, maybe. I started to explore this word gusto, for yes as i stated above truly has this impactual visual and audial(sp) apeal to it, it is positive, and makes me want to be there. This is the definition of Gusto,:
gus·to [guhs-toh]
–noun, plural -toes.
1. hearty or keen enjoyment, as in eating or drinking, or in action or speech in general: to dance with gusto.
2. individual taste or liking.
or if you change dicitonaries up
. pl. gus·toes
Vigorous enjoyment; zest. See Synonyms at zest.
Individual taste.
Archaic Artistic style..
I found this great...They really did there etymological research for this title, it truly embodies this action of opening up to the public, which as we can safely assume has varying individual tastes, but doing so with ferver and enjoyment.
On this particular night the gusto was focused on the title "long live film". The highlight of which as a screening of "Avant-garde films", which acutally meant squeeky wheel was kind enough to show selected films from their archive of hand manipulated films. And i must say, a nice and diverse showing of this particular method indeed. Im not sure if anyone is unfamiliar with these types of films, they tend to be abstract, and loosely narative, most of the time it is like watching a pollock painting in motion, which from my video making background i quite enjoy. But it seems that many who are unfamiliar with these types or productions are not. The autitorum that the albright houses these lectures, screenings, and talks, was to my amazement pretty filled, Avant-garde usually tends to throw people off unless well they consider themselves to be to some extent. As i waited for the films to begin i scanned around the room, visually judging everyone there, trying to find people i would be shocked to see there or didnt appear to be the type, it is a bastardly thing to do i know, but i believe i do it most the the time in the hopes that i am wrong. The lights dimmed after a brief introduction of what we were about to see, and let the abstract flickerin' begin. Slowly as the screening progressed, one dark figure after another rose from their dark cushy seats and sped out of there. Now i use this as an example, for two reasons, one being that most of the films were results of public funding for the arts, and secondly, well not only were the people jetting out durring the screening the public, more so they were a filtered down specific part of that public, that has enough intrest, intrigue, or investment to make the consorted effort to attened such a thing. I bring this to the table, for it was questioned about the public not seeing the need for the funding, well it is not just that general public we need to worry of it seems. For even within the smaller more select group of people you have gusto(individual taste).
Sunday, March 18, 2007
i's gots a halo do you
IN LOOKING BACK THROUGH THE HALO
the halo is interesting, maybe i am a bit late commenting, but most good things come through spontaneous reflection distanced from the matter at hand. But this halo image has been frolicking around in my head sporadically for some time. When i first came to buffalo and didnt know anyone and i was begining to painfully intergrate myself by meeting people and socializing there is somthing that kept comming up. When i was being introduced to people for the first time via someone else, they would always start off with announcing that i was a grad student at UB. First off i didnt really think twice about it, of course why not it is true, this is why i am here right now meeting you for the first time in this setting. Logic is blinding sometimes. But the more and more this happend i started to notice a trend. The peoples reaction was generally the same each instance. They would perk up and their voice would gain a sort of intrigue with repeated phrases like "REALLY", "OH VERRY GOOD". I started to realize that this was a little membership card, this title, this thing that could be looked at i guess as an achievement, but in my eyes it was just somthing i am doing now, another part of my continued progression through life. It is not like i particularly earned the position, or i invented somthing of major importance, it was like using a template for a website, the attachement of this title, which followed my name much like the PHD, Made my identity. I guess i kinda see this as a sort of halo, somthing that is placed on me, and not me placing it on myself, for the most part. Instantly at the utterance of this i was accepted, to an extent, into a particular social bracket and circle. It seems to me this academically placed halo is in direct proportion or fucnction to that which gets placed onto artists socially. It seems that the upper class, which dictate most of popular culture needed to invent this merrit badge inorder to let us feel inducted into a system that is generally out of our element. The creation of art to me is very removed from this space in which the halo is placed. Having a social position and the act of creation to me couldnt be any farther apart from each other. Is this just another example of how academia has vastly perverted most forms of personal expression? the restriction of the cannon is removed so to speak and instead is replaced by the halo, which appears to aknowledge the merrit of individual creativity. But really it just seems like a trojan horse. They present us with his image of our individuality, while the other hand picks our creative pocket, and holds us to a larger system that we cannot see becasuse the blinding light from the halo doesnt allow us to precieve the horizon. I don hold this just to the blindness of the individual recieveing the halo, but really to all that are involved, including those on the "outside" who just as blindly accept the same information as truth. they may have a differnt feeling about it, instead of prasing, they look on with scorn, perhaps. To return to my original example, as i started to notice this occurence and well the general perdictability of it, i would begin to place the halo on myself without prompt. Not just to those who are in this particular social of culture or academia, but also to the "average" the "unassuming" etc. It was funny to me how similar teh reaction was, it may have lost it's luster of praise, but nonetheless it still commanded a particular acknowledgement. And perhaps it ws perdictable becuase it has been so long practiced and induced into society, that it envokes a pavlovian response. MAYBE...?
the halo is interesting, maybe i am a bit late commenting, but most good things come through spontaneous reflection distanced from the matter at hand. But this halo image has been frolicking around in my head sporadically for some time. When i first came to buffalo and didnt know anyone and i was begining to painfully intergrate myself by meeting people and socializing there is somthing that kept comming up. When i was being introduced to people for the first time via someone else, they would always start off with announcing that i was a grad student at UB. First off i didnt really think twice about it, of course why not it is true, this is why i am here right now meeting you for the first time in this setting. Logic is blinding sometimes. But the more and more this happend i started to notice a trend. The peoples reaction was generally the same each instance. They would perk up and their voice would gain a sort of intrigue with repeated phrases like "REALLY", "OH VERRY GOOD". I started to realize that this was a little membership card, this title, this thing that could be looked at i guess as an achievement, but in my eyes it was just somthing i am doing now, another part of my continued progression through life. It is not like i particularly earned the position, or i invented somthing of major importance, it was like using a template for a website, the attachement of this title, which followed my name much like the PHD, Made my identity. I guess i kinda see this as a sort of halo, somthing that is placed on me, and not me placing it on myself, for the most part. Instantly at the utterance of this i was accepted, to an extent, into a particular social bracket and circle. It seems to me this academically placed halo is in direct proportion or fucnction to that which gets placed onto artists socially. It seems that the upper class, which dictate most of popular culture needed to invent this merrit badge inorder to let us feel inducted into a system that is generally out of our element. The creation of art to me is very removed from this space in which the halo is placed. Having a social position and the act of creation to me couldnt be any farther apart from each other. Is this just another example of how academia has vastly perverted most forms of personal expression? the restriction of the cannon is removed so to speak and instead is replaced by the halo, which appears to aknowledge the merrit of individual creativity. But really it just seems like a trojan horse. They present us with his image of our individuality, while the other hand picks our creative pocket, and holds us to a larger system that we cannot see becasuse the blinding light from the halo doesnt allow us to precieve the horizon. I don hold this just to the blindness of the individual recieveing the halo, but really to all that are involved, including those on the "outside" who just as blindly accept the same information as truth. they may have a differnt feeling about it, instead of prasing, they look on with scorn, perhaps. To return to my original example, as i started to notice this occurence and well the general perdictability of it, i would begin to place the halo on myself without prompt. Not just to those who are in this particular social of culture or academia, but also to the "average" the "unassuming" etc. It was funny to me how similar teh reaction was, it may have lost it's luster of praise, but nonetheless it still commanded a particular acknowledgement. And perhaps it ws perdictable becuase it has been so long practiced and induced into society, that it envokes a pavlovian response. MAYBE...?
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