A problematic attitude of modernity expressed in art and culture is the elevation of the mundane, the mass reproduced, the "average" trash is endlessly picked apart and critiqued as if it has transcendent importance, see your average blogosphere listicle about any tv show/film.
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We no longer venerate the exceptional anymore, we worship sameness, we want to all be plugged into the Borg, we all want to drift into the mass of humanity and pretend like it's a good thing.
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Art in the 20th and 21st century became the expiration of reality, expressing intuition and caring for the soul, to just bring another consumable commodity, even art that critiques sameness and consumerism becomes in turn consumed as a feel-good product.
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Replying to @giantgio
You should write something delineating the "appreciation of the mundane" in contemporary art vs. in eastern/Zen traditions. (i.e. that Wabi-Sabi)
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Replying to @giantgio
because it's two very different approaches to art but prima-facie "appreciation of the mundane" might be misconceived as the same in both cases.
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Replying to @Bobsmithumz
Exactly, in zen it's the mundane of direct experience, the totality of all life, whereas the former is well, the mundane of current society, it's been awhile, how would you differentiate the two?
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Replying to @giantgio
I really find the Marxist interpretation useful here. For Zen, like you said, its the direct experience of the thing in question in terms of its positive "characteristics," its fundamental "lack," and context – liberated of conceptual imposition.
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Replying to @Bobsmithumz @giantgio
Contemporary art is hyper-bourgeois in that it’s a celebration of the mundane in terms of reification, and conceptual baggage. Not even an attempt to hide the crystallized nonsense
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Holy crap so true, the culture industry celebrates a particular escapism, an escapism that is just an idealized version of everyday life!
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Replying to @giantgio
Yeah - Marxists are real good at diagnosing social ailments, even if their prescribed solutions tend to be wanting
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