Archives for September 2026

"Real art has the capacity to make us nervous. By reducing the work of art to its content and then interpreting that, one tames the work of art. Interpretation makes art manageable, conformable.” Susan Sontag (Against Interpretation) “The task of aesthetics is not to comprehend artworks as hermeneutical objects; in the contemporary situation, it is their incomprehensibility that needs to be comprehended.” Theodor Adorno (Aesthetic Theory "But a word in a poem is transformed, its meaning made precise and unique, by its placing in relation to the words around it: in the same way a shot in a film is given its meaning by its context, and each shot modifies the meaning of the previous one … [Read more...]

"...an analysis of the simple surface manifestations of an epoch can contribute more to determining its place in the historical process than judgments of the epoch about itself." Sigfried Krakaur (The Mass Ornament) "The owner of labor-power is mortal." Karl Marx (Capital) "The new concern with self involved a new experience of self. The new form of the experience of the self is to be seen in the first and second century when introspection becomes more and more detailed. A relation developed between writing and vigilance." Michel Foucault (Technologies of the Self) I have been thinking lately about 'intelligence'. About what that word means. If you asked me the most 'intelligent' … [Read more...]