From the mind in the caves 40,000 years ago, to the standing stones of Gobelki Teppe (12,000 BCE)

on to Stonehenge (3000 BCE)  then the pyramid of Djoser (2300 BCE) and the monuments scattered around the Mediterranean, then onto the Acropolis, the Roman Forum and Angkor Wat, all signify power. From the royal palaces of China to Europe’s High Gothic Cathedrals to the great towers of skyscrapers in our era—a pile of stone signifies power. Salesforce Tower is the latest fist into the sky. “I am here, I am mighty…you can join me or be a fleck of dust.” “Be a part of the cloud” they tout high on every building surrounding the Salesforce building. In neon lights. What does Salesforce want? What do they do?  How do we figure this one out?

Imagery fluency is what we are after here. We need this as we try to parse the confusion of the new millennium. One false move in IMAGE land and you are toast.  At the third debate when Trump was stalking Hilary around the stage, it was required that she turn and confront the beast—BACK OFF, BUSTER! was all she needed to say and the Oval Office would have been hers. Analysts proclaimed her the winner of the debate but Hilary lost because she failed the basic course in pictures.

In 1970, we saw the end of the modern game—shaving the log of meaning down to a toothpick. We wanted essences. The image was the image of no image. Then suddenly there were no more manifestos, declarations, no more schools of critical thought (Minimalism, Cubism, post-painterly abstraction). We were floating, trying to find a hand-hold, a driving wheel. Critical to this move to END-GAME art was the great MOMA curator Kynaston McShine. His exhibit INFORMATION at MOMA set the stage for the ascendancy of conceptual art (in essence a spiritual gesture later hijacked by materialist banditos). As we enter the era of data über alles it is super important to realize we are at the crossroad of data and information, the blinking yellow light reminding us our final destination is meaning. The meaning tool-kit from art we use to pry open ideas of mortality and loss, of energy flow through living systems, of forgiveness, of our relationship to the natural world.

And here is a PDF of Lucy Lippard’s fine follow-up to McShine’s work The Dematerialization of the Art Object —look and feel the history…

And here’s good ole’ Emily Dickenson—the original Punk Rocker of the 19th Century.

She knew her pictures, nuf’said…

The Brain—is wider than the Sky—
For—put them side by side—
The one the other will contain
With ease—and You—beside—

The Brain is deeper than the sea—
For—hold them—Blue to Blue—
The one the other will absorb—
As Sponges—Buckets—do—

The Brain is just the weight of God—
For—Heft them—Pound for Pound—
And they will differ—if they do—
As Syllable from Sound—