The conscious replicability of traumatic experience enabled by technology carries the ‘massification’ of industrial production into the realm of the aesthetic and the psychical, a mode of contemporary identity most readily and dramatically revealed by writing technologies and disorders of writing. The most extreme of these disorders is that of serial killing. As ‘The Grey Man’, ultra-pathological paedophilic serial killer Albert Fish put it, explaining why he had written a letter to a mother detailing the atrocities he had committed on her young daughter, “I had a mania for writing”. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Kathryn’s response was more in the vein of her own work, which related such tediousness to artistic practice. Only after speaking to her, did I realize just how many artists in the world are obsessed with serial killing as an art form.<\/p>\n
From my experience, I’ve found research like this absolutely compelling, and (Kathryn’s work aside) artwork about it mostly boring – an extreme eroticization of that which we wish we could do, even if only on some obscene level. Am I wrong? What makes it cool<\/i>? Smart? Does the endless research show through the work? Does turning murderers into rock stars make sense? This is not a moral question – perhaps a naive one, moreover. If the words do it for me, and I am more than willing to engage, why does not the art (on most occasions, anyhow)?<\/p>\n
Perhaps Mapplethorpe’s politics (art in a different vein), and Smith’s intertextuality, open their work up for me where the others fail; hell, one could easily say that most art about (fill in the ____blank____) is crap (especially in my own field of The Digital). I just know that, as an artist, I hate to say ‘I don’t get it’.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
And here’s Kathryn Smith, sandwiched by James Sey and Jane Taylor, at a WSOA (Wits School of the Arts, University of the Witwatersrand) Research Seminar. James, our fearless leader, read a paper about the network of psychical relations that arises as the experience of time and space becomes statisticalised in order to co-ordinate industrial society […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,9,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-pop-culture","category-uncategorical"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9blZT-7c","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1609,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2008\/04\/03\/in-two-minds-marcus-neustetter-at-art-on-paper-gallery-johannesburg\/","url_meta":{"origin":446,"position":0},"title":"in two minds: marcus neustetter at art on paper gallery, johannesburg","author":"nathaniel","date":"03 April 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Marcus is one of my favorite people and favorite contemporary artist-thinkers in South Africa. This his his first solo exhibition there (as far as I know). GO! in two minds Marcus Neustetter Please join us for the opening on Saturday 5 April 2008 at 14:00 The exhibition is accompanied by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1616,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2008\/04\/15\/marcus-neustetter-walkabout-art-on-paper-gallery-johannebusrg\/","url_meta":{"origin":446,"position":1},"title":"Marcus Neustetter walkabout @ Art on Paper Gallery, Johannesburg","author":"nathaniel","date":"15 April 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"in two minds, Marcus Neustetter a chat with the artist on Thursday 17 April 2008 at 18:00 - 20:00 Art on Paper Gallery, 44 Stanley Avenue Braamfontein Werf (Milpark), Johannesburg South Africa Marcus Neustetter: in two minds, site-specific installation, 2008 Although Marcus Neustetter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s latest exhibition at Art on Paper Gallery\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1316,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2006\/09\/12\/va-various-art-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":446,"position":2},"title":"v\/a (various art) (updated below)","author":"nathaniel","date":"12 September 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Sorry for the lack of posting lately, everybody. As promised a few weeks ago, things are crazy with the big move, and finishing up all the things I need do here in Joburg. It looks like, however, I may have a couple of takers for my blog, which means Joburg\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"jeremy wafer @ sasol wax (highlighted by gerhard marx)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static.flickr.com\/88\/241278660_8e4dfed23a_m.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1470,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2007\/05\/11\/james-spader-his-boston-legal-character-on-gitmo\/","url_meta":{"origin":446,"position":3},"title":"james spader (his Boston Legal character) on Gitmo","author":"nathaniel","date":"11 May 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"AWESOME. via Andrew Sullivan (Nicole says: \"and we thought irony was dead\"):","rel":"","context":"In "news and politics"","block_context":{"text":"news and politics","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/news-and-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1257,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2006\/07\/04\/jan-neethling-and-robert-hodgins-young-men-in-garage-trousers\/","url_meta":{"origin":446,"position":4},"title":"JAN NEETHLING AND ROBERT HODGINS: YOUNG MEN IN GARAGE TROUSERS","author":"nathaniel","date":"04 July 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Robert Hodgins. Gentlemen conversing quietly. 2006. Monotype. 320X515mm 35 years of printmaking @ Art on Paper gallery in Johannesburg, opening this Saturday, 8 July @ 15h0044 Stanley Avenue\u00a0 Braamfontein Werf\u00a0 (Milpark) 2092From press release by Wilhelm van Rensburg:Robert Hodgins and Jan Neethling first met as lecturer and student at the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Robert Hodgins. Gentlemen conversing quietly. 2006. Monotype. 320X515mm ","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/Hodgins.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1417,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2007\/03\/15\/1417\/","url_meta":{"origin":446,"position":5},"title":"The Upgrade! Johannesburg and WSOA Digital Arts present: James Webb","author":"nathaniel","date":"15 March 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"via atjoburg: Upgrade! Johannesburg is proud to present: The Art of Sound - James Webb presents his major gallery installations and radio projects James Webb is a leading South African sound artist with a growing international reputation. He will discuss the challenges of his large-scale sound installations including Prayer (2002);\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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