Johanna Drucker’s “The Crux of Conceptualism: Conceptual Art, the Idea of Idea, and the Information Paradigm” was a very dense and difficult read for me. After reading each page over about three times, I feel like I finally understand the evolution and embodiment of Conceptualism. As explained in the text, Conceptual art has a long history, and many different ways at looking at the art form.
The evolution of Conceptualism took place alongside the Information Paradigm. This was perhaps the most interesting thing to me about the text. Learning why and how exactly Conceptualism developed helped me understand why “it is what it is”. Our society and economy has completely shifted from production-focused to management- focused, as Drucker notes on page 265. With this shift in society as a whole, artists have also had to “go with the times” in order to keep the interest of the masses. One of my favorite quotes from the texts is when Drucker cites McShine, “the alternate for the artist to absurdity and irrelevance is to extend the idea of art beyond traditional categories of production; to embrace concepts that are broader and more cerebral than the expected product of the studio and to become interested in the rapid exchange of ideas, rather than ‘embalming the idea in an object’” (253).
The shift from material to ideas is a fascinating to me because I am not much of an artist, and have never considered myself creative. This class doesn’t seem so out of reach for me.
I picked this picture because I feel like, after reading this text, I can make my projects in a "raw" fashion.
I completely agree that the part of the text that concentrates on the evolution of Conceptualism parallel with the information paradigm. Both of these things attracted my attention because they've never been subjects i've paid much attention to in my past art classes. The emphasis on the productivity and innovation of the idea is really interesting and exciting, and as you mention it does extend beyond the traditional bounds of creativity.
ReplyDeleteDespite never considering yourself creative, what I think this article properly demonstrates is that just like art, creativity is very a much a subjective noun. Ideas can be produced by anyone and everyone, and within the heart of an idea lies boundless creativity.