After our last podcast about utopia, we wondered if utopias are more credible in science fiction than in realistic fiction. Are space adventures like Star Trek the place to look for a utopian vision?  (Intro: Traveling in Your Mind (edited) by Loyalty Freak Music, from The Free Music Archive, CC0 1.0 Universal License. Outro: Peace Within (edited) by Peter Rudenko, from The Free Music Archive, CC BY 4.0 License.)

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Few people enjoy reading about utopia. Why do we prefer visions of chaos to dreams of order? Are we all dystopians at heart?  (Intro: Traveling in Your Mind (edited) by Loyalty Freak Music, from The Free Music Archive, CC0 1.0 Universal License. Outro: You Happy? (edited) by BJ Block & Dawn Pemberton, from The Free Music Archive, CC BY-ND 3.0 License.)

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In this episode, we conclude our nine-part series on contemporary art that was inspired by Ossian Ward’s book Ways of Looking.  Looking back, are the works of contemporary art more valuable than they seemed to us at first?  And if not, why does the art world prize these works so highly?  Artworks discussed include James Turrell’s Dividing the Light.  (Intro: Traveling in Your Mind (edited) by Loyalty Freak Music, from The Free Music Archive, CC0 1.0 Universal License. Outro: L’Irlandais (edited) by Salmo, from The Free Music Archive, CC BY 4.0 License.)

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Sometimes modern art doesn’t seem to offer any deep insights into life, but neither does a traditional landscape or still life.  Are they more similar than they seem?  Is modern art valuable for the same reasons that traditional art is valuable?  We ask these questions as we discuss the idea of “Art as Spectacle” from chapter seven of Ways of Looking.  (Intro: Traveling in Your Mind (edited) by Loyalty Freak Music, from The Free Music Archive, CC0 1.0 Universal License. Outro: Bagatelle for a Winter Morning, composed and performed by Lily Popova, used by permission of the artist.)

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Some contemporary artists seem to mock the art world itself, suggesting that its patrons and consumers are fools who’ll buy anything. Does that mean that modern art is a deliberate scam? Could it be a collective delusion? If contemporary art doesn’t have the power to provoke valuable responses, what keeps the art world afloat? While discussing these questions from chapter six of Ways of Looking, we examine the works of Damien Hirst, including his diamond-encrusted skull called For the Love of God (2007).  (Intro: Traveling in Your Mind (edited) by Loyalty Freak Music, from The Free Music Archive, CC0 1.0 Universal License. Outro: Hurting the Boy (feat. Troy Sarj), edited, from The Free Music Archive, CC BY 4.0 license.)

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One traditional role of art has been to offer a message. But do artistic message have to be ambiguous and indirect in order to be powerful? We discuss two contemporary works from chapter five of Ways of Looking: Play Pit (2000) by Miroslav Balka and The Green Line (2004) by Francis Alwys.  (Intro: Traveling in Your Mind (edited) by Loyalty Freak Music, from The Free Music Archive, CC0 1.0 Universal License. Outro: Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring (edited) by J.S. Bach, perf. by Kevin MacLeod, from Incompetech.com, CC BY 3.0 license.)

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In chapter four of Ways of Looking, Ossian Ward says that some contemporary artists make art out of human performances, including eccentric performances like punching a time clock every hour for a year. Are these really works of art? Can they be good art? We discuss these questions while examining Tehching Hsieh’s One Year Performance 1980-1981 and Marina Abramović’s The Artist Is Present (2010).  (Intro: Traveling in Your Mind (edited) by Loyalty Freak Music, from The Free Music Archive, CC0 1.0 Universal License. Outro: I am Rich (edited) by Naran, from The Free Music Archive, CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 DE license.)

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Some contemporary artists take moral risks in order to confront an audience with what they think is the truth. Some even use other people as part of their works. We discuss artworks from the third chapter of Ways of Looking:  Thomas Hirschhorn’s Touching Reality (2013) and Santiago Sierra’s 160 cm Line Tattooed on 4 People (2000). Note that these works, especially Hirshhorn’s, contain graphic and disturbing images.  (Intro: Traveling in Your Mind (edited) by Loyalty Freak Music, from The Free Music Archive, CC0 1.0 Universal License. Outro: 6.6.05 (edited) by BOPD, from The Free Music Archive, CC BY 3.0 license.)

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Chapter two of Ways of Looking leads us to several questions about art that aims to be entertaining:  Can a work of art can be worthwhile if you could get the same experience at a children’s playground? When curators assess contemporary artworks, are they really just assessing their monetary value? Is it enough for works of art merely to suggest questions, without giving the hint of an answer? Artworks discussed in this episode include Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled (1982), Carsten Höller’s Test Site (2006-07), and Roman Ondak’s Good Feelings in Good Times (2003).  (Intro: Traveling in Your Mind (edited) by Loyalty Freak Music, from The Free Music Archive, CC0 1.0 Universal License. Outro: Living in Reverse (edited) by Broke For Free, from The Free Music Archive, CC BY 3.0 license.)

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We discuss two artworks from chapter one of Ward’s book Ways of Looking: Christian Marclay’s film The Clock (2010) and Martin Creed’s museum piece Work No. 227: The Lights Going On and Off (2000)  Do works of art like these need to provide us with profound insights on topics like life, death, and time?  Or is it enough for them to give us a mild chuckle? (Intro: Traveling in Your Mind (edited) by Loyalty Freak Music, from The Free Music Archive, CC0 1.0 Universal License. Outro: Matter of Interest (edited) by Heavy Links, from The Free Music Archive, CC BY-SA 3.0 license.)

Correction: The Monty Python “Flying Lesson” sketch mentioned by John doesn’t actually contain the line quoted in the podcast title, though it does contain the line “No more buttered scones for me, mummy, I’m off to play the Graaahhhhnd Piaaahhhno.”

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