Further to my last post on 'signs', here are two examples of how the way in which we now consume information/imagery and frame our thoughts have been shaped in very different ways.
The first is the visualization of data with the help of computer graphics. Is this seductive over-simplification or a vital tool to organize the constant bombardment of messages in monochrome/colourful form from every kind of media? This prompts a more vital point concerning info-tainment; how can aesthetics combine with data - if at all? Is it a refreshing sense of perspective or a smoke-screen before our eyes?
And then we come onto Testuya Ishida's paintings, which illustrate a pessimistic view of modernity and technology. A 'surrealist' painter, he committed suicide in 2005. But it is open to debate whether his message had any political message at all, or rather he was merely quite a politically-minded person. His dark take on Japanese society hits a tone for some: "He has captured the disconnect between the commercial and inner drive." "What sophisticated brains and good imagination you need to draw such things. And could the painter be a healthy person?" Just to make things more interesting, let us consider these comments from a Chinese blog forum: "The deviant paintings of deviant person. I just want to vomit looking at these, my head unbearably dizzy/faint." "No wonder he would go get hit by a train, he has psychological problems." Despite my careful selection of quotes, national identity politics should surely not be combined with art.
'Playful', dream-like surrealism cannot portray the world, just ask Picasso: "
Despite the enormous interest the painting generated in his lifetime, Picasso obstinately refused to explain Guernica's imagery."
Despite the enormous interest the painting generated in his lifetime, Picasso obstinately refused to explain Guernica's imagery."
I find it difficult to agree with Otto Neurath that "words divide us, pictures unite us". There is something beautiful about literature in its consistent form - one admittedly reads the black font against the white background even on the Amazon Kindle; it would be a shame to lose the many unifying possibilities that beauty brings. But perhaps it is about time that I widen the scope of beauty... and perhaps reluctantly, reinterpret the realm of suffering and madness.
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