Art as Ritual
Flusser felt that the term “art”– in the West — was almost always understood either as “work”–intended to change the world—or as “communication”—intended to share something with another person. He thought both were wrong....
Category: aesthetics
Protreptic Writing
I am grateful to Lambert Wiesing for having described and named a form of writing that does not set out to demonstrate the truth or value of the author’s views as such, but provides...
Honeywell
At the September meeting of Telltales (writing group based in Falmouth), I read “Honeywell”, a short piece about the Minneapolis company now gone global. It was a response to the theme chosen for that...
The Visibility of the Image
I am pleased to be the translator of this, the second edition of Lambert Wiesing’s Die Sichtbarkeit des Bildes. The book, first published in 1996, draws on the history of formal aesthetics to present an...
Luxury
Luxus — Luxury — is the title of Lambert Wiesing’s most recent book, published by Surkamp in August this year. I’ve translated the introduction, which proposes that that luxury is not a quality inherent...
Photographs and family
Photographs have some effect on “family,” but I seriously doubt whether they actually consolidate or construct it. The idea comes first, I think, and the photographs shore it up. Whatever elusive idea actually ties...