Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking

Product Information

It's not written by psychologists, so there are none of the familiar catch-words or prescriptive solutions for our malaise. It's penned by a pair of working artists who have also fallen into the same hole that we all end up in one time or another. In that sense, it's a survival manual, a kind of lifeline. But it's beautifully and elegantly written, too, condensing some of the hardest issues we deal with into real-world artists' questions. For that reason alone, it's a book I will keep on my shelf for as long as I write, because I know I'll come to this point again. pg. 29 The ceramics class divided into two groups; half would be graded on quantity and the other half on quality. The half graded on quantity ended up making better work The book makes it clear that it is the product, and less the product, the artist's original conception of the product or the audience's review, which matters; hence, it is the process, sittin down and practicing, which matters most. As everyone who has ever written a paper realizes, the end result has most often made so many steps away from the original conception that it is more firmly rooted in the world for having been worked over and made real than in the writer's mind. The session will provide a concise introduction to the core theme and its significance for philosophy and the arts. We’ll then break into smaller groups for a guided discussion in which participants can explore the ideas and develop their own take on them in relation to the exhibition and to contemporary events.

The first half examines the core elements of existentialist thought, and its relation to anxiety as a vehicle for self-discovery and ethical change. The second half will look at artistic depictions of emotion more broadly: how can a painted surface express happiness or misery? And who gets to judge whether it succeeds?I soaked up the first half of this slim guide with frequent shouts of "Yes! THIS!" and skimmed the second half with a bit of a shrug and a *meh* Isn't it odd when that happens? It's really okay, though, since I found so very much solace, empathy, and inspiration in the parts I did absorb. Things like, Paul Virilio is one of contemporary Continental thought's most original and provocative critical voices. His vision of the impact of modern technology on the contemporary global condition is powerful and disturbing, ranging over art, science, politics and warfare. Finally I was really put off by the author's text in boxes. Basically from time to time, they'd have a small aside to "explain" something, but it really seemed more like snarking than anything else. For example: For each of the emotions, I encourage clients to do an abstract picture and avoid words, faces, and recognizable images. I ask them to think about what colors they connect with each feeling and then what lines, shapes, and gestures could express that feeling.

Paul Virilio's vision of war, art and technology has informed contemporary debates about techno-capitalist modernity for some time. Often perceived as a prophet of doom and pessimism, Virlio has consistently interrogated the effects of modern technology on the human condition....John Armitage's introduction offers a concise overture to both Art and Fear and to Virlio's general trajectory of thought. Art and Fear itself, relying almost exclusively on the historical development of genres as transgenic art, does a commendable job of providing a stereoscopic view of the political contexts of such art - Auschwitz, genocide, war." -Pramod Naya, International Journal of Baudrillard Studies, January 2006With that notion in mind, the authors explore different forms of fear that lead people to stop making art, and explain concisely why each one is silly, surmountable, and ultimately up to you to overcome. It's a beautiful piece of quasi-self-help that offers only blunt and useful considerations without any of the fluff and hand-holding with which self-help, as a genre, is infested.