Vivienne Westwood’s Manifesto.
i have gone through the manifesto in detail, and identified the key elements i find crucial to my project, and also personally interesting. here i have listed quotes from the manifesto, and my response.
Westwood on the manifesto:
it penetrates to the root of the human predicament and offers the underlying solution. We have a choice: to become more cultivated, and therefore more human; – or by not choosing, to be the destructive and self-destroying animal, the victim of our own cleverness (To be or not to be).
She means the manifesto to be the basis for social change. She gives the reader a choice, and illustrates what she sees as the implication of either decision.
art gives culture and that culture is the antidote to propaganda.
Those who are cultured and understand art, recognize, are more aware and are not seduced by propaganda.
She only exists when we know her. Does she exist? The answer to this question is of vital importance because if Art is alive the world will change. No Art, no progress.
The personification of art, giving ‘her’ human attributes, demystifies it as an entity, making it more relatable - less daunting.
But you have stolen imagination. There is hardly anyone left now who believes in a better world. What is the future of unlimited profit in a finite world?
The pirate titles himself ‘Progress’, and wears a t-shirt baring the slogan “I love crap” (propaganda). Westwood asks what the point of progress is in a dying world without hope?
True progress, as the Greeks thought of it is without limit. How can things get better and better if there is a limit?
Beautiful slavegirl: ‘Everything must have an end. And to progress or advance in any way you must know where you are going.
The destruction of the earth seems to be sending us hurtling to the point of no return, how can there be progress in a world in which we are imposing an end? The slavegirl states that everything must have an end, and that there is a comfort in recognizing the inevitable.
Happiness is the true end of human existence. In practice this means to realise individual potentialities to their limits and in the best way possible.
Happiness breed’s the inclination to becoming idle and satisfied, this is the end of progress. Success is realizing there is always more to be achieved. Ones never truly fulfills their potential.
A work of art may show us our self – who we are and our place in the world. It is a mirror, which imitates life.
By interpreting art in relation to yourself, it becomes personal, easier to identify with.
… he doesn’t believe in anything, let alone himself. That’s why he’s a cynic. This self-promotion and doing what you want is a sham philosophy of life. No, no, it’s not self-indulgence but self-discipline that makes the individual.
Cynics lack belief; they need discipline to be able to truly succeed.
A work of art then, is an imitation reduced to its essentials, thereby forming a whole – as in a microcosm.
Thus art gives objectivity – a perspective, an overview. We define objectivity as seeing things as they are.
This statement discusses the importance of the ‘gaze’ in the relationship between art and viewer. This dialogue is subjective and completely individual.
‘Tell me all about it! If there is nothing fixed in the world then you find yourself in Wonderland where everything changes – including yourself.
People’s lack of understanding or awareness of value, has resulted in the disposable attitude of society, living season to season. Free of individual interpretation of personal style and image.
they speak to us of the human genius, –what it is to be human. Each detail illuminates the type and is what we call the universal in the particular – “someone like ourselves”. When we recognize this we are being objective – through putting ourselves in the place of another – we leave our ego behind.
We have to recognize we are all parts of a whole. We can put ourselves into another situation, objectively. This awareness of the wider picture, see outside of ourselves, is the action of leaving our ego behind.
The Ethical Imagination is a power of control
This is how we as individuals relate to a situation by projecting our own morals and values to it.
There are no rules – each person must decide. Yet we are not completely at sea, if we refer to RHN.
…the ethical imagination is absolute, he never ceases to explore and cultivate it. – To the art lover, we possess it in differing degrees, all may cultivate it. It is intuitive, you get at the truth through insight and you get better at it with practice, through comparison…
There are no rules to the out come of the interaction between art and an individual, it is subjective. However, the more time we spend engaging with art work, the more natural and comfortable the process will become.
the true artist is always true to his art; the impostor is self-conscious, demonstrating his idea, projecting his theory, his ego, and e.g. the figures of the painter are not borrowed ideas who demonstrate themselves talking, dying, dreaming they do it. They are of themselves and they LIVE! – and the flowers are not showing us how pretty they are, or how weird – they are what they are – Etc.! No invention for the sake of invention! Invention must serve the purpose of art.
Art is the only objectivity available to human beings; real life, including science, cannot do this: art is objectivity.
Art is truth. It is about holding a mirror up to the viewer, presenting them with life, albeit a different side of life. Giving the viewer the opportunity to find their truth within the experience, based on the truth of the artist and the honesty of the art. There are no smoke and mirrors.
‘Very good, - I recognize art: Therefore art exists! No matter how great the artist, if no-one appreciates his work then he goes unrecognised: Therefore no culture! It’s up to us as judges.
But – the artist has no responsibility to culture or to us: He serves art, alone.
This is the true meaning of the L’art pour l’art movement, mistakenly translated as “Art for art’s sake”.
At is the dialogue between audience and work. An artists dialogue is internal and results in artwork. Art and audience is a separate reality and breeds culture.
‘Progress in art – Picasso! What would he not have given to capture the “mana” of those bulls from the cave paintings of twenty thousand B.C.? If art progressed then today’s painter would be greater than Picasso.’
Art is not about progression. Artists are not getting better as time passes. The evolution of art is a result of social change, and the different interactions occurring within artists. Objectivity means art will always be relevant.
‘All effective propaganda has to limit itself only to a very few points and to use them like slogans.’
Branding; both social and personal.
Propaganda is:-
Nationalistic Idolatry, Non-Stop Distraction and Organized Lying
Well, “something different” is not always art, and culture is not local and peripheral but a universal and centralising power.
Art means more than identifying difference. It is universal relevant when one understands how to relate to it.
The artist is alive to difference and that is what makes his work original. He sees the common element in things that are apparently different and discriminates between things that are apparently similar. The Chinese say that the painter finds likeness in unlikeness and unlikeness in likeness.’
To be truly original, an artist must be able to recognize commonality. Only then are they able to find show present others with a unique perspective.
“Since cultural goods and services arise from human creativity, it follows that cultural diversity will be enhanced in conditions conducive to creative activity and to the production and distribution of a wide range of cultural products”.
In places where creativity is encouraged and nurtured, logic states there should be increased culture and awareness.
Through art we see the future. It holds up a mirror of our human potential; – or, as victims of our mere cleverness we will remain the destructive animal. Our innovations can contribute to progress, but our humanity is a scientific fact, and must be taken into account for advance to happen, otherwise we have partial science which will kill us.
Art is the means to reflect on the ills of civilization and progress from these as a more aware society. Though familiarity with art, we are arming ourselves with the power of knowledge and understanding.
If you follow it your life will change. In the pursuit of culture you will start to think. If you change your life, you change the world.
Only in the pursuit of change do we truly effect change.
