Dear Cathy,
Thanks for this latest note. This veers away from
the thread on reference and citation, so I am
posting it with a new subject header.
What I mean by choice is that artists have a far
greater range of free choice than designers. There
is a spectrum, of course, and one could say that
public commissions and public art lie between
free art and a form of architecture as a kind of
designed art.
In an interesting way, some of the same issues
are raised when artists realize their work through
scores or instructions to fabricators. The first is
a tradition pioneered in Fluxus, representing a form
if musicality. The second began notably with the
work of Sol Lewitt and became common in the
installation work of the 1970s and 1980s.
Many kinds of work can be found in the frequently
ambiguous middle ground of contemporary art forms.
Many of these exist in a space on the spectrum that
lies between the private arena of studio practice
and the grand forum of public imagination. These
different kinds of forms, media, and practices
share the features of many activities. That's what
makes them challenging, exciting, and occasionally
difficult to describe.
Each artist chooses the kinds of challenges and
media that he or she prefers. Many of these choices
are similar to the choices that lead to a career in
architecture or design.
What I'd say is that you can make the choice to
solve these kinds of problems external to the self
and be an artist, but you must agree to solve problems
external to the self to be an architect or designer.
That said, I acknowledge the counter-examples of
conceptual architects and designers who don't solve
problems external to the self, but I'd say they are
actually artists who have chosen architecture or
design as a personal medium of expression.
I once spent a year as visiting artist and designer at
a large ceramics and glass firm. During my year there, I
designed a few playful products. A few were one-off,
and some were impossible to manufacture. Those were
examples of what I mean by design as a medium of art.
In contrast, the things I really attempted to manufacture
were designed artifacts in which art played a role in
the overall design and manufacturing program.
Conceptual architecture and conceptual design serve
valid purposes. They can offer real value to the practices
from which they emerge, and they can serve society.
Thought experiments in physics and mathematics
serve many of the same kinds of goals.
Best regards,
Ken
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