Dear Ken

" . . . I'd rather show you these six wonderful paintings of what the equations mean to me." - that's a whole order of absurdity beyond the original - and, very funny. Sounds like a Monty Python script - you can either have the Messiah or these three loaves of bread - but you can't have both. You can either sit on this chair, or you can have a hair cut, but you can't have both.

Of course, if we video the poor people who might be faced with these absurd decisions, at an exhibition, then we could always claim the 90 minutes of video as the true experimental work at the core of a PhD and we could possibly add on a manifesto that claims there are no real PhDs just experiments in absurdity. All of which would be fun on a wet weekend when we couldn't go to the beach or frolic in the snow.

Then on Monday, we could dress up in academic gowns and grant ourselves all kinds of degrees in all kinds of things and know that we had, once again, avoided discernment.

cheers

keith




>>> Ken Friedman <[log in to unmask]> 11/30/10 3:32 PM >>>
Dear Keith,

Thanks. One could do an exegesis without using Freud, but once the candidate brought Freud in, it became necessary to address Freud seriously rather than skipping around him -- "I could have discussed Freud had I wanted to."

Of course, I can say the same thing about my dramatic new unified field theory in physics. I've managed to unite quantum theory with gravitation. I could write the equations if I wanted to, but I'd rather show you these six wonderful paintings of what the equations mean to me.

Yours,

Ken

Professor Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS
Dean, Faculty of Design
Swinburne University of Technology
Melbourne, Australia


Keith Russell wrote:

--snip--

Exegesis is certainly a serious research approach and one not to use lightly.

Most humanities research applies a four fold approach that ensure a broad account of things that need to be covered in any investigation.

Historical
Analytical
Critical
Theoretical

I would anticipate that any written work that accompanied an art exhibition would need to cover all four of these approaches. Hence Freud would need to be covered, in the example you give, probably four ways.

The idea that one might simply elect to leave out any one of these four accounts, simply because one wanted to, is absurd.

--snip--