Saturday, February 11, 2012

Dike Blair on Thursday, February 16

When I asked him if there was anything we might read to help us better understand his work and practice before his visit, Dike Blair replied:


I have a bunch of my writing on my site:
http://www.thing.net/~lilyvac/writing.html

Many of those pieces are included in a collection of my writing:
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/A/bo5456605.html

Now, my writing is separate from my art. The writing reflects interests that may or may not have any relevance to what I make in the studio.

I eschew theory in favor of fiction. I suppose a Haruki Murakami short story would have as much to do with how I think in the studio as any non-fiction.


Here are a couple links to Murakami short stories.  Pick one to read before Blair's talk.

"Town of Cats"


"The Wind Up Bird and Tuesday's Women" 
(To access the whole story you need a New Yorker subscription.  Unless you have one, access this through online access to The New Yorker via the UNLV library website.  First find "The New Yorker" electronic subscription, then access the November 26, 1990 issue.)


4 comments:

  1. Today is a studio day for me, so I am really looking forward to reading these and discussing them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am excited to see an artist with an eclectic mix of interests! I also look forward to looking more deeply at his site before meeting with him and hearing his lecture Thursday night.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I read a few of the articles from Dike's site today and enjoyed them all. I took special interest in the article THE WHOLE BALL OF NON-ZERO-SUMNESS
    http://www.thing.net/%7Elilyvac/writing22.html

    It deals with issues I am interested in on a personal growth level. I have been considering the questions of human evolution, cultural evolution, religion, and science since I could patch together a thought. I am also particularly interested in quantum physics/entanglement, which Wright classifies as
    "This is where you send two photons off in opposite directions and you measure one and force it to assume a definite state. The state it assumes leads the other photon, which is now far away, to instantaneously assume the same state."

    I also completely agree with his conclusion

    "I guess this is one reason why I think there's a place for what you could call a religious or spiritual point of view--even in the mind of someone who is completely conversant in modern science. The other thing is that some parts of science are actively suggestive of a kind of higher purpose. "

    I have immediate plans to read more of Robert Wright's writings.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I also read Murikami's story 'Town of Cats'. It was a decent read which dealt with generational angst. The character Tengo is stated to be 30. While his Dad's age is not mentioned, the withered condition in which his father is described suggests a man in his 80's. That was the overall impression this story left on me.

    ReplyDelete