Nmherman on 1 Jan 2001 01:15:40 -0000


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[Nettime-bold] New Prose for the Genius 2000 Network from Briggs Seekins


Subj:    Re: Perhaps we ought to distrust museums
Date:   12/26/2000 1:06:23 PM Central Standard Time
From:   baseekins@netscape.net
To: Nmherman@aol.com
CC: Genius2000Conference2000@egroups.com

I'm wishing to respond mostly just to the subject heading of the post: Of 
course we ought to distrust museums. Every intelligent, self-respecting 
producer of artistic/intellectual/imaginative material ought to look upon 
museums with utter contempt. That's not to say nobody should visit them and 
enjoy looking at the art work. I visit my local museum often on Friday 
evenings when they have free night and magnanimously open the doors to all 
the local riff-raff. 

But essentially, museums exist for the purpose of domesticating the 
revolutionary energy of artistic/intellectual/imaginative production. Museums 
exist to legitimize certain artistic/intellectual/imaginative productions, 
which has the (I believe very much intended) effect of marginalizing and 
de-valuing artistic/intellectual/imaginative production by virtually 
everybody else in society. Museums, along with Universities, are crucial to 
establishing a bogus hierarchy of "legitimate" artists, poets, critics, 
etcetera, and the faceless hordes beneath them who don't quite make the cut. 
A few "special" people get to produce artistic/intellectual/imaginative 
material and everybody else can just learn to be content with a life of wage 
slavery. If we're still interested in what the special people produce, we can 
watch a television show about it. 

Forget for a minute that it's absurd to talk about any sort of firm judgement 
in regards to artistic quality. "Artistic quality" is a reactionary term, 
used by museum and university hacks to justify the profoundly undemocratic 
allocation of funding and support to artists, writers and intellectuals. And 
anybody who has seen these institutions operate in person knows that the 
criteria for getting into the special person's club has less to do with 
actual artistic/intellectual/imaginative production and a lot more to do with 
where you went to school, who your professors were (and whether or not you 
were the sort of student who stroked their egos), dumb luck and maybe most 
important of all, how thoroughly you've internalized the materialistic and 
nihilistic ideology of late 20th century, early 21st century, celebrity 
consciousness. 

Museums are faux public spheres, in which actual access is very carefully 
regulated by a whole matrix of intentional and unintentional ideological 
checks and balances. Even the most revolutionary art work is no match for the 
domesiticating influence of the museums. Just as Universities rip the teeth 
right out of Stevens or Joyce (not to mention Shakespeare, Keats or 
Dickinson) by making them central to the canon, any really interesting work 
that ends up in a museum is subjected to a radical re-contexualization in 
which a lot of its genuine power is undermined. 

And probably the most disgusting thing about museums is the roll they play 
within the framework of PHILANTHROPY INC. Museums exist above all else 
because they provide a lot of opportunities for rich fucking dirtbags to  
congratulate themselves. In a world where 1.3 billion people don't even have 
safe drinking water, in a country where millions of people don't have 
adequate nutrition or shelter, rich fucking dirtbags routinely gather in 
museums, each dressed in fancy clothing that cost enough to feed a family 
thrown off from the AFDC rolls by the "liberal" demoncrats for a month or 
more, and then they congratulate themselves for how generous they are, for 
how ethically and aesthetically advanced they are. This should be 
aesthetically and intellectually untenable to anybody who truly considers him 
or herself to be an artist.  
Nmherman@aol.com wrote:
>
> Subj:    RHIZOME_RAW: Re: [Nettime-bold] SFMOMA \ David Ross is a 
> Disreputable Person Running a Disreputable Institution
> Date:   12/25/2000 9:38:00 PM Central Standard Time
> From:   integer@www.god-emil.dk
> Sender: owner-list@rhizome.org
> Reply-to:   <A HREF="mailto:integer@www.god-emil.dk">
integer@www.god-emil.dk> </A>
> To: Genius2000Conference2000@egroups.com, nettime-l@BBS.THING.NET, 
> list@rhizome.org
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> re: 
> 
> >David Ross is a Disreputable Person Running a Disreputable Institution
> >Ross, you're a bum!
> 
> 
> If one may, NN has been made aware by SFMOMA `artists` that 
> they aren't provided with the software etc they desire
> e.g. NATO.0+55 and thus are forced to travel begging.
> 
> NN finds this ultra amussant + has concluded SFMOMA
> may in fact be just another destitute plantation style 
> provincial `organization`.
> 
> Friendly, NN
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>                                                          
> -
> 
> Netochka Nezvanova  - simply SUPERIOR
> f3.MASCHIN3NKUNST
> @www.eusocial.com
> 17.hzV.tRL.478
>                                                     e
>                                                     |
>                                                      |  +----------
>                                                     |  |     <   
>                                    \\----------------+  |  n2t      
>                                                        |       >
>                                                        e
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> >Subj:    RE: RHIZOME_RAW: IBM&Intel push copy protection into ordinary 
> >diskdrives
> >Date:   12/23/2000 4:53:36 PM Central Standard Time
> >From:   daross51@pacbell.net (David A. Ross) [Director of SFMOMA]
> >To: Nmherman@aol.com
> >
> >Dear Max Herman:
> >
> >Holiday greetings to you as well, and may all your wishes for fame and 
power
> >come true.
> >
> >David
> >
> >++
> >
> >I take it you won't respond to the open letter regarding your theory of 
> >"internal revolution" to be brought by the internet.  Remember the 
audience 
> >during your speech with Weibel, back in '99, and how they said "the 
internet 
> >is so new and all your comments and ideas about are so stale and cliche"? 
 I 
> >do.  It's on the tape you made too, I'll request access to it one day.  
> >Perhaps you better lose it somehow.  
> >
> >An open question:  Do you trust David Ross to do what's right?  I don't.  
> >I've met him and seen many of his posts, and I say he's just another 
> >corporate weasel who works for the rich.  
> >
> >For more background on this dispute, check 
> >www.egroups.com/group/Genius2000Conference2000 and 
> >http://www.geocities.com/genius-2000/Archive2000.html (SFMOMA82700).
> >
> >Ross, you're a bum!
> >
> >Max Herman
> >The Genius 2000 Network
> >
> >
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: owner-list@rhizome.org [mailto:owner-list@rhizome.org]On Behalf Of
> >Nmherman@aol.com
> >Sent: Saturday, December 23, 2000 12:56 PM
> >To: media@web.net; un-media@egroups.com; cyberculture@zacha.org;
> >MediaReality-L@mailserv.fao.org; list@rhizome.org; syndicate@aec.at;
> >nettime-l@BBS.THING.NET; mediamentor@egroups.com;
> >Genius2000Conference2000@egroups.com
> >Cc: VoteGenius2000@egroups.com
> >Subject: Re: RHIZOME_RAW: IBM&Intel push copy protection into ordinary
> >diskdrives
> >
> >++
> >
> >The new agenda for digital art at the SFMOMA is paid for by Intel.  Why
> >don't
> >we all get out there and start getting some.  Let's get some.  Let's get
> >some.  David Ross, fuck you.  Hard.  It's a sin not to act.  Delenda est
> >Sfmomo.  Many humans die grasping for the things we are allowing to be
> >murdered.
> >
> >Come on fuckers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> >
> >Max Herman
> >The Genius 2000 Network
> >http://rhizome.org/object.rhiz?1866
> >Now is the time
> 
> 
> 
> 
> + http://www.entropy8zuper.org/skinonskinonskin
> -> Rhizome.org
> -> post: list@rhizome.org
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> To: Genius2000Conference2000@egroups.com, nettime-l@BBS.THING.NET,
>         list@rhizome.org
> Subject: RHIZOME_RAW: Re: [Nettime-bold] SFMOMA \ David Ross is a 
> Disreputable Person Running a Disreputable Institution
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Date: Tue, 26 Dec 2000 14:05:33 -0500
From: baseekins@netscape.net
To: Nmherman@aol.com
Cc: Genius2000Conference2000@egroups.com
Subject: Re: Perhaps we ought to distrust museums
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