Comments on *Matters of Appearance*

by Dr. Ulrike Ritter of arts-on.com

(...) I found three turtle eggs:
1. Strong working class and ecological thinking working within the signal languages of politics.
2. Serious theoretical thinking pointing out some progressive aspects of contemporary arts, especially a critical concept of analytical process instead of artefactuality and the rejection of individual conceptualization - stated in the article by A. Haarmann as 'privatistisch':

"Die individualisierte Herstellung von künstlerischen Objekten lief Gefahr, privatistisch zu werden, zumindest wenn man beanspruchte, Themen mit gesellschaftlicher Relevanz zu untersuchen. [The individualized creation of artefacts was endangered to get into privatism, at least, if the artists claimed to handle subjects of social relevance.] (1)

3. the third egg: Friendly and light artificiality, some references to artistic research, science, and theoretical deeplinks into the history of art - like Johann Sebastian Bach composing a concert on the refrain "Die Sonne scheint". This is of course no criticism. But it may catch the aesthetic sense of the beautiful "Colourbook" that is embedded in some statements about media pixels which are accused of diffusing rational judgements of importance. But to intermingle weather broadcast and politics, social discussion and some ficticious fun with motor boats, sex or horses is not necessarily to put all these down into a soup of unimportance. If it really creates the Colourbook as its result, as a compensation for the feeling of loss of meaning and value, it is quite great, because the Colourbook is as picture of a phenomenological structure of appearance (as we know it from Mach, Carnap and Goodman, the early empi ricists and their formalistic followers): de-ideologized, breathing freedom of thought even if in sheer bubbleness.

Another paradoxes is the quasi empirical research projects on artist texts. Pascal Unbehaun and Nina Baker collect invatation cards and press releases of political parties, as in the currently running SPD-Project, where they analyze the expression "Arbeit" in a political statement; and Off-Artists' releases and profilings, how they subconsciuosly use expressions in different semantical fields. This typical research project of Matters of Appearance is some kind of open string sociological empirism. The SPD-Project uses cheap, fast media like twitter, mobile phone fotos etc to 'publish' their proceedings.
The cummulation of the expression in the SPD manifest proves quite convincingly, that to give Arbeit (work) to all is really something the self understanding of the party is still grounded in. Thus, why discussing the point till it dies? The unemployed could simply become a member and continue the research as such. For an artist group as Matters of Appearance, a project with a name so complicated that the unemployed will perhaps never be interested get into seems striking. But concept and visualization convincing because of their simplicity. The time of Agitprop theatre shines through, like in another project working within the beautifully silly signals of discourse we find in politics: Supercorn. The project's theme this time is nutrition, between eco and oeconomics. A hired demonstrator performs for (or against?) genetically altered food.
The slogan "higher yields" is just an argument a bavarian farmer's wife gave me when I suggested to feed her horse with biological carrots and bananas. (...) Unbehaun nicely describes(2) the problems for artists who deny the creation of artifacts to rescue their sensible, situative art projects from exhibition to exhibition. He cites convincingly Robert barry "To remove the work is to destroy the work". Well, if there is something to move in a literal sense, it may be judged as conservative, but think about the forces of the market which likes to force art into simple craftsmenship, accepting only sellable stuff as art. Thus scholarships and prizes are the only way of existence for an artist, but how if you left the age for a subsidy award? (...)

What‘s virtual, stationary, politically correct and rendered in the public sphere?

Tracing the discussion about contemporary developments in art, it appears that classifications into genres, schools of thought or „-isms“ are either not undertaken or only carried out in a particular manner. Established, partly purely formal categories, which are often several decades old, are preferably cited: minimalism, political art, installation, site specific art, performance. These terms convey a feeling of certitude on the one hand, since they are established and as such appear sacrosanct. For the same reason an artwork will be ennobled if it is linked to these terms. On the other hand, a large distrust exists towards these classifications and an approach to art that could be considered critical or even „analytical“ is regarded with suspicion. Associated with this distrust is the absence of art critique proper. Thus, discussions about art stay at an ambiguous level.

But the usual communicative imagery disguises the view for questions how the new, relevant art movements can be characterized, whether an approximate formulation is possible and if so, how this can be achieved? Indeed, there are already many buzzwords and the debate if this society is still post- or already transmodern continues; however, these descriptions are very general. Is it not possible for art to transcend its surrounding cultural context and to produce its own progress? Where could this progress be found? Matters of Appearance takes a first step and ascertains if „emerging“ art has its own Zeitgeist and also inquires what the producing artists themselves consider to be of importance in their work. For that purpose we ask the question: What strategies are used to legitimize this art?

For this research, a methodology and a data base are necessary. The latter consists of several hundred exhibition announcements (teasers) of the so called „off-scene“. When art projects like exhibitions, performances or the according supporting programs are announced, it is mostly done through short texts with the purpose of making the event palatable. In an advertising context such a text would be called a „teaser“. A teaser should be brief, get down to the point quickly, has to rouse curiosity, but at the same time should not reveal everything. Rather, it conveys all at once an image of the announced event, of the artist, as well as the exhibiting institution. On no account it may be like an advertisement, this would make it sound trivial, lacking intellectual level.

Thus, ideally the teaser contains what is most important for artist, curator and institution in compressed form. Our research methodology used to analyze large quantities of text is based on the concept of „data mining“. Here, large amounts of data are submitted to an automated scan according to set correlations of terms. This makes it possible to look for recurrent patterns, the most frequently used terms in art mediation.

The contradiction to use data processing in the context of art is a deliberate choice. It reflects the inconsistency of an alleged „objective“ strategy of research and the absolute subjectivity of MoA as an art project. MoA researches teaser in the art context in order to trace constants of the contemporary cultural production. MoA asks: What terms are used? Which level of meaning do they address, consciously and unconsciously? What is considered politically correct (PC)? Is the P in PC political?

MoA will publish its results as an artist edition (slide presentation on cd).


Some Remarks on 'Colorbook'

In order to understand the characteristics, objectives and appearance of an institution, it is sensible to first examine its inner structures. The primary goal of media corporations is an economically profitable performance. Indeed, media competition alone does not guarantee media plurality, however a heavily concentrated media market will more likely result in partial reporting because of the small number of providers.

This profit orientation also increasingly affects a media domain which is essential for a functioning democracy, namely so called "professional journalism", journalism that is expected to cover and uncover political issues in an unbiased manner and uninfluenced by dominant interest, instead working in the interest of "the people". What is taking place in the contemporary news media landscape is exemplary for the increasing permeation of "hypercommercialization" of societies and the capitalistic efficiency dogma, demanding maximum profit at minimum expense that is usually accompanies this development. We can witness a "flattening" of content, the line between news and entertainment becomes blurred. Hard news, investigative pieces and foreign affairs are declining due to cost reduction and are being replaced with mundane life style stories and weather talk.

McChesney writes about this development:
In the past 15 years, the autonomy granted professional journalists has come under sustained attack. As many of the major newspaper chains and TV networks have been gobbled up "at high prices" by the giant conglomerates, the traditional deal between owners and journalists has made less and less business sense. Why, accountants ask, should a firm's news division generate less profit than its film studio, its music division, or its TV networks. Accordingly, newsrooms have increasingly been subjected to commercial rationalisation: reduced staff, less controversial and labour intensive investigative reporting, and more easy-to-cover but trivial stories about celebrities, crime and royal families. ( New Media Theory Reader 102)

The leading figure of the public relations industry, Edward Bernays, explains that "the very essence of the democratic process" is "the freedom to persuade and suggest," what he calls "the engineering of consent." "A leader," he continues, "frequently cannot wait for the people to arrive at even general understanding... Democratic leaders must play their part in... engineering... consent to socially constructive goals and values," applying "scientific principles and tried practices to the task of getting people to support ideas and programs"[...] that those who control resources will be in a position to judge what is "socially constructive," to engineer consent through the media, and to implement policy through the mechanisms of the state. (qtd. in Necessary Illusions 16)