October 13, 2003
MarkBernstein.org
 

Recognition and Surprise

Anne Hollander (in Feeding the Eye) writes that

"Artists make art by absorbing the effects of other artists' productions, transmuting them through a personal effort inflected by circumstance, and the rendering a newly shaped thing... Original genius consists in the ability to do this most boldly, deliberately, and imaginatively, so that the public can perceive the works (maybe not immediately) with both recognition and surprise."

This is why critical discussion is so much more than Consumer Reports, and why getting it right matters so much. And it's why it's such a shame that so much new media stands apart from other work, hands in its pockets, silent.