Page 41 - Studio International - October 1969

rather than an object. Nevertheless, the idea
of all of one's perceptual experience as a single
object does establish a high degree of latitude
in the naming of objects as sub-divisions within
the subjectively experienced perceptual con-
tinuum. A more or less gratuitous designation
of objects is possible as all perceptual data
may be fitted into the common matrix of
interval and duration.
Visual information concerning duration is
gained, as it is gained when we observe mo-
tion, from observations of shift in perceptual
field. In travelling past an object we are
presented with an apparent configurational
evolution from which we may abstract a
number of discrete states. Comparison of
expired configurations with the configuration
of the moment tells us we are in motion
relative to the object. An exercise of a similar
nature is involved when we observe change in
a place to which we have returned after an
absence, we compare and contrast past and
present configurations, or more accurately,
we superimpose a memorized configuration
upon a configuration present to the retina.
Pragmatically, within this complex of shifting
appearances, we have workable systems of
establishing space-time coordinates for navi- behaviour. This situation in art is the corollary hierarchical structures which have previously
gation and prediction, but true locations exist of a general reduction in the credibility of in- determined the relevance and usage of
only in the abstract as points of zero dimen- stitutions8 and many find much recent art materials and media in art. It is through an
sions. Locations such as those given by the implicitly political. One may disagree, how- indiscriminate empiricism that the new work
National Grid are fixed by definition, but the ever, with those who would locate motivations is currently evolving. q
actual spaces to which they refer are in in as doctrinaire an attitude as 'Disgust with
continual flux and so impossible to separate the decadence of Western civilization'.9 1 See: editorial Art Language, Vol. 1 No. 1, May 1969.
2 Karl H. Pribram, 'The Neurophysiology of Remem-
from time. Art intended as propaganda is almost invari- bering', in Scientific American, January 1969.
Time, in the perception of exterior events, is ably both aesthetically tedious and politically 3 John Cage, 'A Year from Monday'.
the observation of succession linked with impotent. The process-oriented attitudes It may no longer be assumed that art, in some myste-
muscular-navigational memories—a visceral described here are not intentionally iconocla- rious way, resides in materials. Attempts to determine
identification with change. Similarly kin- stic and one should be suspicious of easy com- the necessary and sufficient conditions of aesthetic
structure have failed from an emphasis upon the
aesthetic modes of appreciation are applied to parisons with Dada. It does not follow, object rather than upon the perceiver. The implications
the subjective transformation of these events because some institutions have been ignored, of a redirection of attention, from object to perceiver,
in interior time and in recollection. All behav- that they are under attack. It seems rather less are extensive. It may now be said that an object be-
iour has these space-time parameters in likely that the new work will result in the over- comes, or fails to become, a work of art in direct res-
ponse to the inclination of the perceiver to assume an
common. To distinguish, therefore, between throw of the economy than that it will find a
appreciative role. As Morse Peckham has put it, `... art
`arts of space' and 'arts of time' 7 is literally un- new relationship with it; one based, perhaps, is not a category of perceptual fields but of role-playing.'
realistic. The misconception is based in in the assumption that art is justified as an 5 Morse Peckham, Man's Rage for Chaos. Biology, Behavi-
materialism, it springs, again, from a focus activity and not merely as a means of providing our, and the Arts. Schoken, New York, 1967.
upon the object rather than upon the behaviour supplementary evidence of pecuniary reputa- 6 James J. Gibson, 'Constancy and Invariance in Per-
of the perceiver. Theatre and cinema are not bility. As Brecht observed, we are used to ception', in The Nature and Art of Motion, ed. Gyorgy
Kepes, Studio Vista 1965.
arts of 'time' but arts of theatrical and cinematic judging a work by its suitability for the 7 This dichotomy has been most recently revived as
time, governed by their own conventions and apparatus. Perhaps it is time to judge the `Modernism' v. 'Literalism'. See: Michael Fried, 'Art
the limitations of their hardware. The Parthe- apparatus by its suitability for the work. and Objecthood', in Artforum, Summer, 1967.
non is not 'timeless' but, simply, set in The recognition of a multiplicity of times, the 8 Robert Jay Lifton has described personal connections
geological time. It is a mistake to refer to 'time' concentration on process and behaviour, with experience devoid of overriding value systems and
has proposed that the concept of 'personality' be
as if it were singular and absolute. A full destroys the model of time as some sort of replaced by a more appropriate concept of 'self-process'.
definition of the term would require a plurality metaphysical yardstick against which the This notion of self-process is useful in understanding
of times and would accomodate such contrast- proper 'length' of an activity may be meas- some recent attitudes in art: 'The protean style of self-
ing scales as the times of galaxies and of viruses. ured. Works may be proposed in which process is characterized by an interminable series of
The current occupation with time and eco- materials are deployed and shifted in space experiments and explorations — some shallow, some
profound — each of which may be readily abandoned in
logy, the consciousness of process, is necessarily in order to create compressions and rare- favour of still newer psychological quests. . Just as
counter-conservative. Permanence is revealed factions in time. Such a work would be per- protean man can readily experiment with and alter
as being a relationship and not an attribute. ceived in the 'extended present' within which elements of his self he can also let go of, and re-embrace
Vertical structuring, based in hermetic, histor- we appreciate music. In this state of awareness idea systems and ideologies, all with an ease that
ically given concepts of art and its cultural the distinction between interior and exterior stands in sharp contrast to the inner struggle we have in
the past associated with such shifts.' Robert Jay Lifton,
role, has given way to a laterally proliferating times, between subject and object, is eroded. article in Partisan Review, Winter, 1968.
complex of activities which are united only in There is something of Brown's 'polymorphous 9 Barbara Rose, 'Problems of Criticism VI : The Politics
their common definition as products of artistic perversity' in the attitudes now infiltrating the of Art, Part III', in Artforum, May, 1969.