Tagged: Joseph Cornell Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Izzy 01:48 on 21/02/2014 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Joseph Cornell   

    Fluxkit 

    Fluxkit, 1964/65. Fluxus edition, assembled by George Maciunas. Mixed media (vinyl attaché case), printed matter. The Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection, Detroit / Photo: Walker Art Center. All you need to make Fluxus art is in this suitcase.

    Fluxkit, 1964/65. Fluxus edition, assembled by George Maciunas. Mixed media (vinyl attaché case), printed matter. The Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection, Detroit / Photo: Walker Art Center. All you need to make Fluxus art is in this suitcase.

    What would a “Fluxus Briefcase” or Fluxkit be in cyberspace?
    What would a Cornell box be in cyberspace?

    Is all of cyberspace a Wondercabinet?

     
    • Christa Forster 18:30 on 21/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

      I’m fascinated by the fact that you are fascinated with this question! You keep asking it; and in doing so, a response is starting to form in my mind. What a wonderful phenomenon: if we ask the same question over and over, the mind continues to solve the problem (find the solution), slowly but surely.

      I’ll let you know when it’s clear! It’s still inchoate.

    • Patrick J. Sweetman 00:11 on 26/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Hi Izzie and Christa, This is new to me not have lived through the 1960s. What defines a Fluxus Briefcase? I must go and dust off the old travelling case and fill it with stuff and things. But I feel I’d probably be a bit random at the moment.

      • Isabella Medici 21:09 on 27/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

        Yes Patrick, I think you’ve got it! A briefcase filled with stuff and things. Everything you need for a fluxus performance.

        Or to put it in Ysidora friendly terms, you might say that a Fluxus Briefcase is like a Spanish Land Grant for your mind.

  • Meg O'Ryan 00:46 on 12/02/2014 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Joseph Cornell,   

    Lose my number? 

    *Tilly Losch,* by Joseph Cornell, circa 1935

    Tilly Losch, by Joseph Cornell, circa 1935

    Neither Oscar, nor Donnie ever call me anymore. What’s up with that? I hope it’s not because of that Tilly Losch chick! What’s she got??

    Oh?

    She doesn’t speak?

    I always forget how infatuated Dummies are with the sound of their own voice!

    Narcissistic bastards.

     
    • Oscar 01:02 on 12/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Oh, come now, Ellie. That’s a bit harsh! You can’t bully folk into correspondence. We’ve had a lot of stuff going on in the past week: Donnie was having nightmares about Ysidora and then his head fell off…Do you know how difficult it can be to reattach a head? And as for treating his nightmares…Well, as you can imagine, Donnie tended to seek comfort in a substance that, rather than soothe, seemed to amplify his fears.
      I’m quite tired right now.

      • Meg O'Ryan 18:46 on 12/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

        I’m sorry Oscar. We’ve already had this whole conversation and I already know you don’t like me that way and I thought I’d moved on, and honestly IDK what’s wrong with me. Gawd! I’m such a jerk! Feel free to just mute me or whatever. Or, haha, I guess you already did!

        IDK, I think I’m just lonely or bored or something. I’m sure I’ll get over it. I should get a hobby. Or maybe a cat.

        Oh, and I hate to ask, but if you could stop calling me “Ellie,” my name is Meg.

        • Oscar 02:47 on 13/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

          Dearest Meg Ellie O’Ryan, I’m really confused here…
          Is “muting” the equivalent of online sulking? If so, well, no, I definitely don’t want to “mute” you and I wasn’t deliberately avoiding you or ignoring you I was, just as I mentioned, otherwise occupied. (Crash course in First Aid. Further on this anon). You are absolutely not a “jerk” – you are full of fun and an insatiable curiosity about life and this is wonderful.

          With regard to the Ellie/Meg issue. I remember confiding in you that I wished “for purely practical/physiological reasons”, you were called Eliie” (this is an easier name for a vent doll to say). You replied that your second name is, in fact, Ellie and that I was welcome to address you as such. As this seems to no longer apply, I will, of course, address you as Meg. (Unfortunately, this sounds more like “Neg” from the mouth of a ventriloquist doll).

          I need to…er…tape up a few things here. But I’ll be back later 🙂

  • Izzy 10:38 on 24/01/2014 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Joseph Cornell   

    What does an altered book artists book look… 

    What does an altered book (artists book) look like when books have become websites?

    I’ve been thinking about the idea of Cornell Boxes in cyberspace. Say in a 2D space like a website. Yes the “messy desk” blog themes are kind of contrived, remediation, and skeuomorphic… yet critiqueable as they are, they’re also an attempt, no doubt at least sometimes successful, to give an embodied being a tactile experience in a 2D place. Do you think a compelling Cornell-like experience in cyberspace would look Cornell-like? Or entirely different? Is Pinterest not a Cornell Box because it has hard edges and is on a grid? Or does it depend on the depth of the investigation of the pinner?

     
    • Molly Ross 10:49 on 24/01/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Isabella! Fabulous questions and ideas to ponder. I’m always struck by cyberspace’s ability to act as a portal–transporting me from my space to yours (or where ever you take me). You seem to be time traveling at the moment–see a portal from your time to our time! The thing about Cornell’s boxes is that they too are portals into miniature worlds–that represent collections, thoughts, emotions, spaces, times. Pinterest is an obvious parallel but because the pinner (artist/maker/collector) has little control over the display (the site dictates the grid pattern, the colors of the page) you are right– it does not manifest in a way that is very “Cornell.” I wonder how can you play with scale in the magical way the boxes do on a screen and in cyberspace–is that possible?

      • Isabella Medici 11:17 on 24/01/2014 Permalink | Reply

        Yes Molly, Pinterest, like Facebook, demands that you pour your content into their template. vs. WordPress, Tumblr, etc, that allow you more flex in how your ideas are displayed. Do we care too much about surface? Do FB’s 1B users care about aesthetics at all?

        A Cornell Box does seem to be the nexus of form & content. The same ideas in a book by a French culture theorist certainly wouldn’t have the quality of a Cornell Box. These “portals” (great word!) are remarkably tactile and fetishistic in their presence. Still, an awful lot of the general public might look at one and say “Old crap, so? Can we eat lunch now?” So I think the portalfulness is as dependent on the depth of investigation of the experiencer as the creator.

        The rabbi Lawrence Kushner tells the story of Moses and the Burning Bush. He asks, “Why a burning bush?” He notes that a burning bush is a pretty cheap trick. That you’re god, after all! Why not materialize the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, standing on the wing of a 747 Jumbo Jet, hovering over the mountain, as they sing the Hallelujah Chorus? Wouldn’t that be a better way to get Moses attention?

        Kushner notes that it takes 5-7 minutes for a piece of wood to combust. So if you see a burning bush, you can’t know if it’s “just a burning bush” or a divine presence, unless you stand there and watch it burn for more than 7 minutes. Kushner concludes that god was not trying to GET Moses attention, rather that she was trying to see if Moses was PAYING attention.

        Is it not the skeuomorphic details like “sloppy desk” or “layers of detritus” but the depth of attention paid by the viewer that creates this immersive Portal/Cornell experience? And if so, is it impossible to have such an experience in our ADD age? In our vastly-more-websites-than-you-could-ever-see-in-a-human-lifetime-even-if-all-you-did-was-click-“next” age?

        Or, as McCluhan said, when things become really important and ubiquitous, they become invisible. Almost everything we do is based on electricity, yet we rarely think of it. Is the entire Internet an infinite set of Nesting Dolls of Cornell Boxes that we don’t even have to try to make because it is already the journey that all the web surfers take every day for however long they are “awake” in this place? Do we live our online lives in Virtual Cornell Boxes?

    • Christa Forster 11:00 on 24/01/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Cornell’s boxes had layers, where things were seen on top of other things. At the Menil collection in Houston — where there was a great Cornell show in the mid 90s — there is a cabinet of curiosities, which seems to me what Cornell’s boxes do — create the cabinet of curiosity writ small.

      I think Molly’s right in that it’s a playing with scale and maybe layers issue. Holographs! Hey!

c
compose new post
j
next post/next comment
k
previous post/previous comment
r
reply
e
edit
o
show/hide comments
t
go to top
l
go to login
h
show/hide help
shift + esc
cancel