if . . .

"What is it that makes you want to write songs? In a way you want to stretch yourself into other people's hearts. You want to plant yourself there, or a at least get a resonance, where other people become a bigger instrument than the one you're playing. It becomes almost an obsession to touch other people. To write a song that is remembered and taken to heart is a connection, a touching of bases. A thread that runs through all of us. A stab to the heart. Sometimes I think songwriting is about tightening the heartstrings as much as possible without bringing on a heart attack."   - ( Life   - Keith Richards) :: Note :: ... seems like a good answer to What makes you want to create theatre? ... i enjoy reading musicians writing about themselves ....

A wonderful moment at The Mendel Art Gallery of Saskatoon with the student artists talk. Since it's inauguration in 1972 the annual Spring School Art Exhibition has been a favorite of mine. "School Art is in keeping with the vision of Gallery founder Fred Mendel. It was Mendel's conviction that art is for people of all ages and walks of life. (Folio MendelArtGallery Vol. 39, Issue 2: Spring 2011) The young artist in the picture spoke with confidence and composure. Others were shy but all were received with genuine warmth. The Gallery was full of excitement and celebration articulating the joy of creativity. A grade one boy slouched against the wall hands in pockets casually confirmed "the cutting of his paper collage took a lot of time." Another self-composed youth produced a finished work which came from the study which now hung in the exhibition. Each work was treated with deserved respect. Afterall 200 artworks were selected from the 2,000 submitted pieces....

... listening to Ted Harrison interview on The Next Chapter he explains ... simplify the shapes & add more colour ... gradually the colour takes over ... the colour was a discovery ... ... strikes me Gabriel Josipovici follows this aesthetic in his novels I've recently read: conversations in another Room & Everything Passes ... ... in the theatre render the action & deepen concentration ... wonder on the pedagogical application ... - See: ArtistsSpeak :: note :: ... ? ...

"And so life is reckoned as nothing. Habitualization devours works, clothes, furniture, one's wife, and the fear of war. "If the whole complex lives of many people go on unconsciously, then such lives are as if they had never been." And art exists that one may recover the sensation of life; it exists to make one feel things, to make the stone stony. The purpose of art is to impart the sensation of things as they are perceived and not as they are known. The technique of art is to make objects 'unfamiliar,' to make forms difficult, to increase the difficulty and length of perception because the process of perception is an aesthetic end in itself and must be prolonged. Art is a way of experiencing the artfulness of an object: the object is not important." ( -- Victor Shklovsky "Art as Technique" ) - See: Artists Speak :: note :: ... wonderful attending the Floyd festival (old link not up-dated) ... youth working in post post-modern ways ... ...

... attended Public Lecture Dr. Jayne Wark Conceptual Art in Canada: Histories, Geographies and Debates : a lecture offered in tandem with the Mendel's exhibition of Iain Baxter& ... talk described three Canadian conceptual art workers: General Idea , N.E. Thing Co. and NSCAD ... honoured the influence of McLuhan ... explored the interrogations/anti-visual language/idea machine & viral aspects of conceptual art + the methodologies of art production/commodification/capitalism ... lecture was accompanied by a powerpoint slideshow ... concluded with a challenge to "tone up" ... a metaphor to critically examine the historical revisionism surrounding conceptual art, to correct the much neglected documentation of canadian conceptual art and finally how "conceptual art continues to define Canadian contemporary art, and its legacy is being mined by the young artists of today." ... - See: Artists :: note :: ... thanks for the solid intro both dense and cl...

"Stevens's commitment to the effectiveness of poetry results in a dynamic definition of the art. 'It is,' Stevens states, 'a violence from within that protects us from a violence without. It is the imagination pressing back against the pressure of reality.' Poetry is both a shield and a sword. It not only protects us from those inimical forces arrayed against us, it counterattacks as well. His definition is especially bracing when one considers that 'It' - and this is apparent only if one has read the entire passage - refers not to poetry, but rather to the nobility of poetry. The distinction is important: Stevens wishes to remind us of poetry's power to preserve our dignity and maintain our spirit under excruciating circumstances. " ( AGNI | A Violence from Within: Poetry and Terrorism by Kenneth Sherman ) - See: ArtistsSpeak :: note :: ... imagination in terms of pressure ... zygmunt always talked about the proper pressure ... press a sp...

Manifesto of the Perfect Art Form Today's theater is in crisis. It has lost significance. To imagine a full powerful theater it must bring faith to humanity. We must rediscover a new language-on-theater. The new language-on-theater is not a parasite living on what society has built for Darwinian survival. It is a theater to reawaken our numbed sensibility by retracing the organicity on how to be human. The new language-on-theater is an action and voice in rhythm. First of all, we must destroy the text crafted by the playwright that leaves room for only interpretation or the debatable logic of intellect. Theater is not possibly understood through studies of aesthetics or accomplished by persuading the actor into action. Logical rational argument or reading of the text cannot create a theater. Theater must be composed of an intuitive re-action. Destroying the text, we destroy our enslavement to the text and text as a trap. Non-scripted text is then chosen. The text must be a means fo...