Comments for How To Win

Comment on About Stephen Duncombe by NYU Local | Gallatin’s Stephen Duncombe To Leave NYU for MIT

NYU Local | Gallatin’s Stephen Duncombe To Leave NYU for MIT — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:20:53 +0000

[...] we’re still joint pain-free and dancing at 3am.Professor Duncombe, you will be missed.Image via. Share this: Leave a ReplyOur Policy on CommentsFirst and Last Name – [...]

Comment on Tom Robbins on success by observer

observer — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 04:00:57 +0000

I was thinking he’s commenting on the unreliability of our collective successometer. As in, even if circumstances outside our control allow for the fruition of our plans, it’s questionable they were even the best plans for us in the first place.

Comment on A promise not satisfied by SteveL

SteveL — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:02:59 +0000

my mind is blown!

Comment on badpaintingsofbarackobama.com by duncombe

duncombe — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:40:38 +0000

Aw c’mon, Obama emerging from the water with the unicorn in back? I’m surprised the campaign didn’t use it.

Comment on CarrotMob gives stores incentive to go green by visual hierarchy » Issues in Contemporary Art, How To Win, and Carrotmob

visual hierarchy » Issues in Contemporary Art, How To Win, and Carrotmob — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 17:18:44 +0000

[...] reading through the blog posts bit by bit, this one however directly relates to 309; consumerism, the environment, and art. Carrotmob’s ideas [...]

Comment on Candy Raver Russian Revolutionaries by NWFB Route 13 » Blog Archive » Candy raver

NWFB Route 13 » Blog Archive » Candy raver — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 03:37:53 +0000

[...] How To Win › Candy Raver Russian Revolutionaries [...]

Comment on Camus by duncombe

duncombe — Wed, 27 May 2009 17:03:41 +0000

Sartre grew to despise Camus, and now I think I know why. seems like an elaborate, existential, justification for doing nothing except being "creative.". OK, I'm in a bad mood and I think Duncan's take on Camus is considerably more useful.

THis line did get me though:

“Language destroyed by irrational negation becomes lost in verbal delirium; subject to determinist ideology it is summed up in the word of command. Half-way between the two lies art."

Two ways to read this: a magic point between what is not and what could be; both decipherable to the present and pointing toward the future....or: art that looks nice over the couch.

Comment on Motherwell and Rosenberg by duncombe

duncombe — Wed, 27 May 2009 16:17:43 +0000

I'm not sure they are arguing for an apolitical art; I think that what they are arguing AGAINST is an art that is predictable enough to generate a known result. But their reasoning here is not art for art's sake, rather that the "dead political" can only be transcended by an art/act whose coordinates exist outside the known (as the known will lead us inevitable back into what we know: the crappy present)

e.g. "the question of what will emerge is left open. One functions in an attitude of expectancy. As Juan Gris said: ‘You are lost the instant you know what the result will me.’ "

This is the space between art and political action: the generator of new ways of seeing.

Comment on Oldenberg on the genre ‘art’ by duncombe

duncombe — Wed, 27 May 2009 16:07:31 +0000

I too am increasingly dubious of O’s desire to “find some way to take a totally outside position, ” on two grounds: 1) As O. pretty much understands “outside” is very hard to maintain; he points back to the Betas but he might as well be pointing at the Conceptual Artists et al of the 1960s 2) If you are completely outside it very well might meant that your art speaks of nothing and to no one — except yourself. Not much hope for social change there.

Comment on Tom Robbins on success by duncombe

duncombe — Wed, 27 May 2009 16:00:50 +0000

A bit cryptic but I think I get the point: failure actually pushes you to explore other options, whereas once you've succeeded it take a very brave person to try something new. However, I'm not sure "success" is stable; it's always contingent on other factors (like fate) which are always changing. Because of this your success, if routinized, will likely turn to failure.

We need to make sure to remember to comment upon the fluidity of success (and failure) in our writings