Deus ex machine
February 21st, 2012 Comments Off
A deus ex machine is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly and abruptly solves with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability or object. Latin: God out of the machine
The Latin phrase comes to English usage from Horace’s Ars Poetica, where he instructs poets that they must never resort to a god from the machine to solve their plots. He refers to the conventions of Greek tragedy, where a crane was used to lower actors playing gods onto the stage. The idea is that the device of said god is entirely artificial or conceived by man. Aristotle criticized the device in his Poetics, where he argued that the resolution of a plot must arise internally, following from the previous action of the play.
A deus ex machine is generally undesirable in writing and often implies a lack of creativity on the part of the author. The reasons for this are that it does not pay due regard to the story’s internal logic and is often so unlikely that it challenges suspension of disbelief, allowing the author to conclude the story with an unlikely, though perhaps more palatable ending. It is often considered to be a poor storytelling technique by critics because it undermines the story’s internal logic although it is sometimes employed deliberately for this reason.
Nietzsche argues that the deus ex machine creates a false sense of consolation that ought not to be sought in phenomena and this denigration of the plot device has prevailed in critical opinion. Some criticism suggests that the deus ex machine allows mortals to probe their relationship with the divine. Rush Rehm cites examples of Greek tragedy in which the deus ex machine serves to complicate the lives and attitudes of characters confronted by the deity whilst simultaneously bringing the drama home to its audience.
– Wikipedia
Go Vietnamese
February 18th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
6 hours of work on Valentine’s day is unforgettable: menu board drawings for Banhmi11, a Vietnamese street food business. menu text written by Faizan of Banhmi11
Failure
February 5th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
In the realm of art, failure has a different currency. Failure, by definition, takes us beyond assumptions and what we think we know. Artists have long turned their attention to the unrealizability of the quest for perfection, or the open-endness of experiment, using both dissatisfaction and error as means to rethink how we understand our place in the world. The inevitable gap between the intention and realization of an artwork makes failure impossible to avoid. This very condition of art-making makes failure central to the complexities of artistic practice and its resonance with the surrounding world. Through failure one has the potential to stumble on the unexpected. When the conventions of representation are no longer fit for purpose, failure can open new possibilities. The judgement involved in naming something a success or a failure is symptomatic of the time and place, and contingent on the critical apparatus one uses to define it. While speculative thought strives for ever-deepening levels of understanding in search for content, irony asks questions, not to receive an answer but to draw out of content and form yet more questions. The ironist deals with the how of something being said rather than the what, paying a distanced attention to the surface of statements so as to identify gaps in knowledge and productive miscommunication. Where we embrace the irony of bad taste, we distance ourselves from the assumed natural order of things.
– FAILURE Documents of contemporary art
Formalism
January 26th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
In general, the term formalism describes the critical position that the most important aspect of a work of art is its form, that is, the way it is made and its purely visual aspects, rather than its narrative, content or its relationship to the visible world. In painting, a formalist critic would focus exclusively on the qualities of color, brushwork,form,line and composition. Formalism as a critical stance came into being in response to Impressionism and Post-Impressionism in which unprecedented emphasis was placed on the purely visual aspects of the work. In 1890 the Post-Impressionist painter Maurice Denise wrote, ‘Remember, that a picture, before it is a picture of a battle horse, a nude woman, or some story, is essentially a flat surface covered in colors arranged in a certain order.’ Denis emphasised that aesthetic pleasure was to be found in the painting itself, not its subject. Writer Clive Bell formulated the notion of ‘significant form’, that form itself can convey feeling. All these led to Abstract art, an art of pure form.
– The Tate guide to Modern art terms
My name is Hello
January 24th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
My piece for CE Contest II 2012, a platform toy worldwide competition based on the CE figure.
I gave this guy the name My name is Hello. I guess you kinda know what he represents yeh~
January 2012 – Phenomenon No.II o R B
January 17th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
An exhibition at Milk Tea & Pearl(London), a bubble tea shop, was held in January 2012 to celebrate Pao’s second year of life. Titled Phenomenon No.II(as a major Phenomenon happens on every birthday of Pao), the narrative was created with context of the exhibition space in mind.
Click on the pictures for more photos and h e r e for the full story. Sale of the exhibition publication is also available h e r e
We must create(1922)
January 15th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
Excerpts from Huidobro’s Manifestes(1925) which provoked thoughts in me today, over a cup of yoghurt with honey cashews
Vicente Huidobro was a cosmopolitan Chilean poet, exponent of the artistic movement of Creacionismo, which held that artists of any stripe should ‘create’ rather than ‘imitate’, that is to say invent or ‘add to the facts of the world’.
We must create. That is the sign of our times.
Inventing is making things that are parallel in space, meet in time or vice versa, so that they present a new fact in their conjunction.
The totality of the diverse new facts united by a single spirit constitutes the created work. If they are not united by a single spirit, the result will be an impure work with an amorphous look, resulting from a fantasy with no laws.
The study of art throughout history shows us clearly this tendency of imitation to move towards creation in all human productions.
In art the power of the creator interests us more than that of the observer, and besides the former contains in itself the second, to a higher degree.
