This might seem like a rant... it kinda is.. but it's also to kill time while my roommate continuously reads articles from cracked.com... he does this every night and I'm am bored to tears listening to him.... Indulge me...

I had to fill a requirement for a history class this quarter and I opted to take a class on Conceptual Art. I didn't know very much about it so I figured it would be a good thing to get a better understanding of.

Okay, I know that everyone is entitled to their ideas... I also know and agree that everyone is allowed to share their ideas....HOWEVER, the more I learn about it, the more I have come to realize that I cannot stand Conceptual Art at all.

Marcel Duchamp began this whole debacle after being snubbed at a french art gallery where he wanted to display his famous "Nude Descending a Staircase". Now, I love that piece and I recommend taking a look for anyone who hasn't seen it. The way he's able to convey motion in such simple shapes is truly fascinating.

http://www.marcelduchamp.net/images....._Staircase.jpg

Notice I said that this was BEFORE his descent in the existential madness. I'm not entirely sure if all of this stemmed from just that [I highly doubt it] but it seems like it played a HUGE roll in it. From then on, he was pretty much hell-bent on attacking the "established norms" of the art society. Now, to me that screams small child sticking his tongue out at his teacher.

But it didn't stop there, oh no, as his interest in sticking it to the artistic man grows, he began to study all sorts of things like physics and particle fuck-all and whatnot. He also took a trip of a possibly questionable nature into the mountains with another guy friend and they dude's sister or something... No one knows for sure what happened on the trip but the description "Forays of demoralization, witticism, and clownery” kinda makes ya wonder.

So at this point he turned his back on "retinal art" i.e. paintings, drawings, etc. and focused on expanding his ideas of perception. He questioned the requirements that characterized a work of art. Now, I question reality and perception all the time, it is a large reason why I am so damn paranoid, but acting on such impulses proves to be harder in this day and age than it was when Duchamp was alive. I don't know what was in the water, but he could take anything, anything at all, slap a signature on it and call it art. For some reason, he was able to get away with it. He was even able to found his own group in the united states where he and his followers sat around and discussed these... things... Ultimately, they settled on "it's art if I say it is and I don't actually have to do it myself for it to be my work". Now, I know that there are many artists who had apprentices and so on, but damn, their level of indifference toward their craft is mildly insulting. I can't imagine drawing something with absolutely no interest in how it turns out. It, to me, defeats the purpose of drawing AT ALL...

Bah, I could go on, but I need to get some sleep and going to bed upset ensures that the following day will be shit. However, if you need to kill some time, I recommend doing some reading on Conceptual Art. It with either piss you off or confuse you, unless of course you're into that sort of ceaseless questioning in which case, enjoy your head-splitting aneurysm...