David Jones, artist and poet (1895-1974) begins his PREFACE TO THE ANATHEMATA :

'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)

(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia.
(2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.


20 August 2009

It's other name is "Double Taker"

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Following on from yesterday's "Double Feature", this morning Petrus referred me to the 15 minute online presentation Golan Levin makes art that looks back at you. ( click here )

In it artist engineer Golan Levin ( website here ) succinctly demonstrates half-a-dozen playful works of his devising that use and reflect upon the performance activities of the beholder. Here are a couple of glimpses, the first is from Eye Code.



In another, Jaap Blonk performs Kurt Schwitters Ursonate with reactive real-time typography sub-titles mixed into the visual record.



"The idea behind this last project (Snout) is to make a robot that appears as if it's continually surprised to see you. It's other name is "Double Taker", taker of doubles. It's always kind of doing a double take."


detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something . . .

LOGOS/HA HA