k2% more crisis.txt
Alan Sondheim
CRISIS
This course is about crisis, making-do, bricolage, fury, anger, how to
face global extinction, how to avoid dead-end despair, how to avoid mental
slaughter, how to wonder whether cultural work makes any difference at
this point, what to do in the face of evil, and anything else we might
want to discuss while avoiding catatonia. Artwork in any medium
acceptable, no assignments, continuous readings though, some happy moments
of mutual praise, worrying about the future of education, fun thinking
about being very very rich. How to eliminate kill/delete and face
dis/comfort. Let's not raise an army. Crisis is singular by the way, like
a rococo fold. Think of artworks that fail with a thud; we're
mountain-topping in UnderAcademy and not proud of it at all. <initial
description>
1. Is there a crisis? I'm considered to be overly pessimistic in this
regard. WIRED magazine takes the tact that all solutions are technological
and there's little need to worry. There are also issues of flora and fauna
extinctions - while this is dynamically the greatest catastrophe in the
history of the planet's 'natural world,' there are people who believe that
nature's fecundity will prevail and the world will develop new species.
2. Is there any conceivable spiritual or religious solution here? This
might range from armageddon to some sort of spiritual healing to a belief
in the very real possibility of peace and humanity turning towards less
and less violence; I believe that Pinker believes this.
3. What's the position of philosophy in relation to all of this - I
believe philosophy, outside of issues of ethics, morality, how to 'be' in
the world - is useless when it comes to the 'big' questions of origin,
causality, what constitutes the world, and so forth. I tend to side with
cosmologists and the lived or sensory inconceivability of the world.
4. What's the use of art? Art seems to be a bridge between the sensory
and lived world, and its inconceivability. Issues of death and evil are
deeply unresolvable. We're here for the duration. And this is all I have
but it tests the machine.
k3%
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