Lecture #4

This one was a lot more interesting and informative but unfortunately I never caught his name. He was German though, I do know that.

He said a lot of things but through the accent and some of the fluff, he made some really profound points. He talked more about art making and how technology has always been used but has been separate. We as artists don't think of factory work and mass production as art and individual and unique. He gave some examples of artists who have tried to bridge the gap between factory work and art work. Duchamp was one example with his fountain.

In the mix of this, he explained that by doing what Duchamp did he reskilled the artists hands instead of deskilling. In other words, just because he didn't necessarily make the fountain he did create art with his hands, but he used his hands artistically in a way that's never been done before or thought of.

It was pretty interesting. He was nice and his accent was soothing to the ears. What he said really made sense. I thought that Andy Warhol was also someone who did something on a similar lines by adding in mass production and making it art with his soup cans and multiples.

The speaker talked about how artists view themselves as above the masses and omnipresent in a way and everyone else who isn't is grounded and limited by their view. Warhol and others bridged the gap by including everyday objects and this idea of mass production to ground the artist. It also gives recognition to machines and the mechanical way of working because artistry is seen as human and unique and good while factory mass production is cold and non individualized and therefore bad.