It isn't good and it's extremly late but at least I wrote something.
Preface
The relationship between this inquiry and my studio practice… No problem with this one.
Introduction
Statement of intent…
What will be discussed in the correct order…?
Open subject a little…
Using particular examples to support your views research and consider the role of influence in your own field of practice and also perhaps the anxiety of influence.
The role of influence was always to connect different practitioners, artists and scientists. In this way they often become a network of thinking and creative conscious and emotional collaborators. The word influence comes from the Latin language meaning: in the flow. This is unfortunately and usually confused by some students with the style or the looks of someone’s work. If you ask who influenced them they will likely answer that they have been “looking at” a certain artist. In fact most of the time those works are an aesthetical plagiarism instead of an extension of ideas and contents. Doing work with similar looks has got nothing to do with sharing the flow with him or her, because this stream concerns obviously ideas.
I do not know what the anxiety of influence is but I’m going to try to clarify what I stated above with some examples from the beginning of the XX th century and maybe I’ll be able to recognize some anxiety of influence in some of those…
Influence - Duchamp and the fourth dimension in the XXth century
In my field of practice Duchamp is inevitable. I would love to write this whole essay about him, his work, science and art in general but a book would be more suitable for that. To make it specific enough to research I selected a specific idea in his work: the fourth dimension (time).
The beginning of the XXth century was one of the most prolific times for mankind in most areas. Science was building the ideas that would change the world and give us the power man always wished for. Art was growing in maturity and freedom. Rules were bending and breaking. Tradition became less important then ever before. The latest events were the most meaningful. Time was starting to run too fast, people had no time to look back. Art was inspired by science because of the dreams that were being fed to the “western man” (and vice versa). Einstein was in his golden period. People thought his intuition for formulas was unbeatable. Quantum mechanics and relativity were making the world an exciting place for a scientist to be. Duchamp’s enigmas were unbreakable. Surrealism, Dada and all the avant-garde movements electrified the imagination of lots of artists. Mankind was in the edge of insanity: the biggest wonders were coming along with the worst wars and nightmares. This was the time electricity started becoming essential to everyone. The public eye merged technology and science making them into one single, dangerous and extremely useful institution. Art had for the first time all doors wide open to all subjects and matters. How could artists and scientists take advantage of all the freedom and so much recent valuable information that came from the rush of wars and wonders...?
Quantum (Photon) – unit of energy (light particle) – Quantum Mechanics – Einstein created and denied its uncertainty
(Ex: black body radiation paper)
Cube (tesseract) – visual unit (4th dimension)–Cubism- Duchamp developed the concept and denied the media.
(Ex: Nude descending staircase)
Intellectual Quark – concept – Stream of consciousness – Man uncomfortable with the belief in the invisible world
(Ex: Finnegan’s Wake)
General Relativity – time – rules for the macro world – the origin - E=Mc2 – Big Bang
Conceptual Art – Idea – essence of the art world – the readymade - Urinal - Installation
Duchamp was in a way the Einstein of the art world. They were both victims of their creation. Just like the scientist, he was father of the main ideas about time, the invisible world and the enigma of origins. These three areas are obviously connected and they were crucial for the development of both divergent and convergent thought (these stand for art and science respectively). Time was the central issue in both of them. That was the key to the invisible world of the past, of the beginning of everything… and the only way to understand the microscopic world of the atom, electrons… and all combinations of quarks in general.
Einstein created with his friends the quantum mechanics creating the matrix where the explanation for electromagnetic, strong and weak nuclear forces was going to be developed. Before that happened he denied that pathway for human thought (even though he was its main father). Meanwhile Duchamp started the Dada and wondering about the 4th dimension leaving painting for cubists and mixed media for other Dada to pursuit.
Conclusion
Summarise
Findings of my research…
References
www.toutfait.com
www.artscienceresearchlab.org
marcelduchamp.net
http://www.soccernet.com/euro2000/france/player/Desailly.html
Books:
Dialogues with Duchamp
Duchamp in Context
Duchamp Effect
Stuff I must check:
Conceptual Art - phaidon book
Pierre Cabanne, "Duchamp & Co.", Terrail: Paris 1997
Francis Naumann, "Apropos of Marcel", exh. cat., Curt Marcus Gallery, NY,8-30 October 1999
The tesseract, Alex Garland
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