Hey all,
I wonder if any of you have come across Jonathan Lethem's State of
Cinema address at the San Francisco Film Festival, delivered last
night?
http://blog.wired.it/misterbit/2012/04/22/jonathan-lethems-neotonous-aesthetic.html
Matteo Bittanti has written up a nice overview of Letham's address
(which can be listened to here:
http://mbf.blogs.com/files/20120421-140702-1.mp3 ), which was titled
"Neotenous aesthetics".
In it, he outlines his thoughts on cinema, our increasingly
technologisised society and how that's impacting on art-making, and
his views on a new generation of artists. He describes neotenous
aesthetics as "the idea of leaving unresolved elements or problems
inside the work".
There' some very interesting points in there, especially for those of
us who've been thinking a lot about The New Aesthetic. These lines
jumped out at me:
"Reality has acquired a new level of measurability."
"The activities we perform in our digital age are not necessarily
new. What is new is that *we can see them all*".
And I found these lines (actually intended for the critical response
to the mumblecore genre of cinema) particularly resonant:
"It is typical lately to dismiss a generation's prototypical artists
by suggesting that their susceptibility to congenital pre-adolescence
disqualifies their claims on our grown-up attention.... "
"If there is one thing certain in 21st century art making, is that to
present one's vulnerabilities is to call forth the haters".
Would be interested in the thoughts of others who may have come
across Lethem's talk.
Best,
Honor
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honor harger
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