Having just returned from a spending time with Dr Iain McGilchrist, author of 'The Master and his Emissary', I am beginning to wonder even more about these 'flaws' as part of an antidote to the what I call the Hubriscene (or as Mohamed Amer Meziane puts it, the 'Secularoscene.) Only machines create with infinite uniformity. To wish ourselves as machines, or to attempt to be like them, is surely half of how we got in the current predicament, globally. Yet to not strive for excellence in an art or science is a waste of our faculties and a disservice to others. I think this conundrum is in plain sight with your analysis of Kufi in architecture (which I am finding very generative): the 'typos', the choices of texts, the squared script within the buildings' soaring curves. There seems to me to be a wonderful conversation going on between the fluid expression of cursive ornamentation and the modular, linear, Kufi.
This 100%. I can see why, when machines were first put together that could make "perfect", uniform goods, there would have been child-like fascination at this new thing, but we're 2-3 centuries past this now with no sign of growing up: instead we have tech bros, and this original fascination has too obviously devolved into a form of self-infatuation or self-worship, on the altar of which the entire planet should be sacrificed. Interestingly enough, my mentor keeps saying that arabic calligraphy has been dead 600 years because traditional calligraphers only learn to turn themselves into computers that will write every letter perfectly identically every time, like a font, with no allowance for living creativity. It's one of the reasons I'm much more interested in Kufi, where this deadening never occurs – except under the pen of peple projecting their mechanical ottoman training on it.
Going on a tangent here! But all the threads find each other constantly. Thanks for the link, I need to be in a more appropriate space to listen to it, but from the summary I can tell it aligns with muchof what I've learned. It's another way of saying we have set ourselves up as gods, isn't it!
I'd rather not, he's dealt with me (and other artists) in such a disrespectful, arrogant and petty way in the past that I will not have anything to do with him again. I saw that project and found it deeply ironic he should set himself up as that kind of artist now, considering.
Thankyou for this excellent post.
Having just returned from a spending time with Dr Iain McGilchrist, author of 'The Master and his Emissary', I am beginning to wonder even more about these 'flaws' as part of an antidote to the what I call the Hubriscene (or as Mohamed Amer Meziane puts it, the 'Secularoscene.) Only machines create with infinite uniformity. To wish ourselves as machines, or to attempt to be like them, is surely half of how we got in the current predicament, globally. Yet to not strive for excellence in an art or science is a waste of our faculties and a disservice to others. I think this conundrum is in plain sight with your analysis of Kufi in architecture (which I am finding very generative): the 'typos', the choices of texts, the squared script within the buildings' soaring curves. There seems to me to be a wonderful conversation going on between the fluid expression of cursive ornamentation and the modular, linear, Kufi.
(Here is where I found Meziane's talk on the Secularoscene, in case it's of interest - https://dougald.substack.com/p/the-burden-of-being-heaven )
This 100%. I can see why, when machines were first put together that could make "perfect", uniform goods, there would have been child-like fascination at this new thing, but we're 2-3 centuries past this now with no sign of growing up: instead we have tech bros, and this original fascination has too obviously devolved into a form of self-infatuation or self-worship, on the altar of which the entire planet should be sacrificed. Interestingly enough, my mentor keeps saying that arabic calligraphy has been dead 600 years because traditional calligraphers only learn to turn themselves into computers that will write every letter perfectly identically every time, like a font, with no allowance for living creativity. It's one of the reasons I'm much more interested in Kufi, where this deadening never occurs – except under the pen of peple projecting their mechanical ottoman training on it.
Going on a tangent here! But all the threads find each other constantly. Thanks for the link, I need to be in a more appropriate space to listen to it, but from the summary I can tell it aligns with muchof what I've learned. It's another way of saying we have set ourselves up as gods, isn't it!
I'd rather not, he's dealt with me (and other artists) in such a disrespectful, arrogant and petty way in the past that I will not have anything to do with him again. I saw that project and found it deeply ironic he should set himself up as that kind of artist now, considering.
Ah, I am sorry for that, I did not know. Apologies for bringing up something unpleasant for you.
That's ok, no reason why you should have known!