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.


28 September 2021

prefix-Use-suffix Value

  
Use value (German: Gebrauchswert) or value in use is a concept in classical political economy and Marxist economics. It refers to the tangible features of a commodity (a tradeable object) which can satisfy some human requirement, want or need, or which serves a useful purpose. In Karl Marx's critique of political economy, any product has a labor-value and a use-value, and if it is traded as a commodity in markets, it additionally has an exchange value, most often expressed as a money-price.[1]

Marx acknowledges that commodities being traded also have a general utility, implied by the fact that people want them, but he argues that this by itself says nothing about the specific character of the economy in which they are produced and sold.

Origin of the concept

The concepts of value, use value, utility, exchange value and price have a very long history in economic and philosophical thought. From Aristotle to Adam Smith and David Ricardo, their meanings have evolved. Smith recognized that commodities may have an exchange-value but may satisfy no use-value, such as diamonds, while a commodity with a very high use-value may have a very low exchange-value, such as water. Marx comments for example that "in English writers of the 17th century we frequently find worth in the sense of value in use, and value in the sense of exchange-value."[2] With the expansion of market economy, however, the focus of economists has increasingly been on prices and price-relations, the social process of exchange as such being assumed to occur as a naturally given fact.

In The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, Marx emphasizes that the use-value of a labour-product is practical and objectively determined;[3] that is, it inheres in the intrinsic characteristics of a product that enable it to satisfy a human need or want. The use-value of a product therefore exists as a material reality vis-a-vis social needs regardless of the individual need of any particular person. The use-value of a commodity is specifically a social use-value, meaning that it has a generally accepted use-value for others in society, and not just for the producer.

- Wikipedia

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26 September 2021

Should auld aquatints be forgot, keep your eye on the Red and the Blue!


AFL 2021 Grand Final result
Melbourne Football Club           21.14 (140)
(after 57 years) def.
Western Bulldogs                        10.6 (66)

"In the blink of an eye, it was gone."
Luke Beveridge, coach of Western Bulldogs

Artist               Francisco Goya (1746–1828)
Title                 Asta su Abuelo  (And so was his grandfather)

Description    No. 39 of the "Caprichos" series 
                         (1st edition, Madrid, 1799).
Date                1797-1799
Medium         etching and aquatint

Theatre of the Athletes of Regard    
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 (Triumph of the Demons over the Bulldogs
 after Tommaso Siciliano, 1585)
   
     
        

25 September 2021

AFL Grand Final Eve : Demons or Doggies?


Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs. Both teams have treated us to so many highs this season. Below, a few weeks ago, Cody Weightman takes a screamer over Max Gawn as Tim English looks on.

photo Michael Wilson/Getty/AFL 
It's hard to pick the winner...

Theatre of the Athletes of Regard  
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22 September 2021

Q: Mirror, Mirror...? A: Pist Idiots


Idiocracy (Pist Idiots) : Four young men from Western Sydney with fresh ear piercings, mirror guitars and cars. What's not to like?!

Liked by : SLAVE GUITARS

Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
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20 September 2021

Dog Wins 2021 Brownlow Medal


No second guess as to which golden haired player we were barracking for in last night's Brownlow Medal count.


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 PS  Ollie Wines won
   

19 September 2021

re. escapoLOGOS/HA HA and re-entry


At the time, we let it pass without taking notes, but it has stuck: seen on YouTube, said as an aside, someone at a seminar proffered (alluding to Klein's Leap into the void
... a leap into the world.

Below, Yves Klein breaks through (1960) and sees ahead ... Houdini (1907).


Theatre of the AviaTARs of Regard  
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18 September 2021

Melbourne Lockdown : Extraordinary Scenes


Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
As protestors in Melbourne decry the state of their constraints, the escape artist Houdini appears before a camera in the chains of ignorance, desire, afflictive emotions and illusion/distraction.

Today, on a bridge over the Yarra. 
By the Yarra River at Queen's Bridge, Melbourne, surrounded by a large crowd, the artist prepares to liberate himself.

click image to enlarge  
Meanwhile, how the hell...?!

Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
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17 September 2021

... emphasized the process of ideation over realization, wrote Mr God Free (pron.)

 
Through skillful means,
they do not abide in nirvana,
and through wisdom, not in samsara.

Having abandoned the two extremes,
Buddhas engage in universal welfare,
free from conceptual thought.

- Asanga, Mahayanasamgraha


 January 5-31 1969 : from left - Robert Barry, Douglas Huebler, 
 Joseph Kosuth, and Lawrence Weiner. Photo by Seth Siegelaub
Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
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15 September 2021

Knife Throwers (see : Dagger Definitions)


1. Defining the Definition 
   
definition
/dɛfɪˈnɪʃ(ə)n/
noun
        1.  a statement of the exact meaning of a word, 
             especially in a dictionary.
             "a dictionary definition of the verb"
        2.  the degree of distinctness in outline of an object, 
             image, or sound.
             "the clarity and definition of pictures can be aided by
             ... throwing knives [see: TARget)
Similar : clarity  clearness   visibility  precision  sharpness  crispness  acuteness  distinctness  resolution  focus  contrast
Opposite : blurriness  fuzziness

2. The Initiate

Theatre of the Adults of Regard  
click image to activate video  
3. The Practice of Law 


Theatre of the Actors of Ringside  
4. The Record

Theatre of the Actors of Reflexivity  
4. Projection-Space Concept(s)

  Lucio Fontana with knife and canvas (Milan 1964) photo Ugo Mulas
  Lucio Fontana and four of the 'Fine di Dio' series, photo Orazio Bacci

5. Defining the TARget

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11 September 2021

] Carry wood and study the texts (


Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water; 
after enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. 
— Zen proverb


 Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754-1799)                                      collection FIAPCE

One, two, buckle my shoe
Three, four, shut the door
Five, six, pick up sticks
Seven, eight, lay them straight
Nine, ten, begin again
— Children's verse (Traditional)
  

Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
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09 September 2021

Mother Earth


matrix
/ˈmeɪtrɪks/
Origin
late Middle English (in the sense ‘womb’): 
from Latin, ‘breeding female’, 
later ‘womb’, from matermatr- ‘mother’.



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07 September 2021

Congratulations bLOG Appreciator


FIAPCE -1998- 
Yesterday, researching Gordon Parks' 1956 photographs of the Chico Hamilton Quintet for LIFE magazine, this popped up...

Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
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06 September 2021

Music for TARchestra


Following on from yesterday's album cover photography by Gordon Parks : today, two other promotional images from that 1956 visit of the Chico Hamilton Quintet and Slave Guitars to the studio of artist Vito Paulekas and his 'Counterpoints' sculpture.

Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
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05 September 2021

Spare Room 33


Heide Museum of Modern Art, (Heidelberg outside Melbourne, John and Sunday Reed)
Museum of New and Old Art, (Hobart, David Walsh)
TarraWarra Museum of Art (TarraWarra outside Melbourne, Eva and Marc Besen)
Buxton Contemporary (Melbourne, Michael Buxton)
.
.
Lyon Housemuseum and Housemuseum Galleries (Melbourne, Corbett and Yueji Lyon)
Justin Art House Museum (Melbourne, Charles and Leah Justin)
Pestorius Sweeney House (Brisbane, David Pestorius)
.
.
Spare Room 33 (Canberra, Peter Jones and Susan Taylor) 
Smaller in scale ("Cut your coat...) but not in serious intent. With Canberra in lockdown, Peter has taken to Instagram. Today, for example:

It being Sunday, we're enjoying pancakes and listening to 'difficult' music. It has always been grimly amusing to us that the barely three minutes of Webern's Opus 11 for cello and piano is now rising 107 years of age and can still drive people up the wall. Whereas we love the atonal, the serial, the minimalist.

Morton Feldman is one of our favourite composers. He was in love with sound, and his systems were dedicated to freeing it. His beef with his European contemporaries in the 1950's was that system and process had become for them the actual subject of musical composition (though we love their music too).

The added bonus with Feldman is that he was a brilliant writer and raconteur, was a close friend of many major New York artists, and thought deeply about the differences between their art and his. His friend Franz Kline's work is on the cover of the pictured LP from 1962.

Here's a typical Feldman musing: "Franz Kline once told me that it was only rarely that colour did not act as an intrusion into his painting ... In music it is the instruments that produce the colour. And for me, that instrumental colour robs the sound of its immediacy. The instrument has become for me a stencil, the deceptive likeness of a sound." And further: "I began to feel that the sounds were not concerned with my idea of symmetry and design, that they wanted to sing of other things. They wanted to live, and I was stifling them ... To make something is to constrain it. I have found no answer to this dilemma. My whole creative life is simply an attempt to adjust to it." Morton Feldman, 1972.

Last week (28 August) :

Six classic records (well, five classics, one not so much) featuring black and white cover photography.
1. Holger Czukay, 12" EP. Cover photo by Angus MacKinnon.
2. Steely Dan, Pretzel Logic. Cover photo by Raenne Rubinstein.
3. Jay White, Street Scene. Cover photo by Burt Goldblatt.
4. Chico Hamilton, Quintet in Hi Fi. Cover photo by William Claxton.
5. Ruby Braff, Braff!! Cover photo by Jay Maisel.
6. Bob Mould, Workbook. Rear cover photo by Marc Norberg.

Theatre of the Actors of Regard  
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 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
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