Arbus Retrospective Draws Criticism

[chuckroast]

You have the wrong guy. I can't even get my wife to look at the pictures I took when we were on vacation in Paris and London.

I feel your pain.

 

[Alex Benjamin]

Yes i remember it almost ruined his reputation back then.
Is it that expensive book now really?

Cheapest I found on Biblio. To me, that's about 515$ CA.

 

[Don_ih]

+1 with respect to anything that involves direct and indirect engagement with real people.

Well, my net won't catch any fish from this pond. No one here is interested in anything past the sound of their own voice. So sad.

 

[Alex Benjamin]

Well, my net won't catch any fish from this pond. No one here is interested in anything past the sound of their own voice. So sad.

I heard you ! I heard you ! Joining the next one, promise !!!

 

[Pieter12]

Art was there reinforcing the accepted beliefs of the church

And to keep them from going astray. Never mind scaring the crap out of them if necessary.

 

[nikos79]

You fell for it!

Workbook Print Scans - Home

I really like them! They evoke some sense of plasticity and emptiness all with using the forms, the empty spaces, the symmetry of the frame.
The ones I like most are: 3, 4, 9, 11, 12, 19, 25, 35, 44, 45, 50, 52, 55, 56, 66, 68, 72, 73, 95, 98, 100

Also this one of you that I attach is so Atget-Evans!

 

[TJones]

Well, my net won't catch any fish from this pond. No one here is interested in anything past the sound of their own voice. So sad.

Would love to, but I understand the desire to limit it to film-based hand-made prints.

 

[Don_ih]

Would love to, but I understand the desire to limit it to film-based hand-made prints.

Then the Postcard Exchange is just right for you.

 

[Vaughn]

Bats and whales use echo location

But do they use the label?

 

[Chuck1]

Hmm never thought of that

 

[Vaughn]

Whales might -- we have no idea of their intelligence. But otherwise 'sound' and the concept of 'sound' is a purely linguistic construct of humans to help describe the act of interpretating some of the energy waves that impact their bodies. If there are no humans, there are no sounds.

 

[Pieter12]

Whales might -- we have no idea of their intelligence. But otherwise 'sound' and the concept of 'sound' is a purely linguistic construct of humans to help describe the act of interpretating some of the energy waves that impact their bodies. If there are no humans, there are no sounds.

I would argue that animals hear sounds. They have the same or similar anatomical parts as our ears, and respond to vibrations we call sound.

 

[GregY]

Whales might -- we have no idea of their intelligence. But otherwise 'sound' and the concept of 'sound' is a purely linguistic construct of humans to help describe the act of interpretating some of the energy waves that impact their bodies. If there are no humans, there are no sounds.

The world still exists if you remove the humans.... it's not anthropocentric.

 

[chuckroast]

The world still exists if you remove the humans.... it's not anthropocentric.

All this hinges on an upside down debate about the meaning of "sound" - a debate that would make the linguistic philosophers quiver with joy. After all, the best way to win an abstruse academic argument is to make up new meanings for words in common use. When I grew up, this was called "gibberish" and it is all too common in academic circles.

Let us keep in mind that the koan is this:

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

The formation of the question is kind of begs the question because sound does not require something/someone to hear it to be produced. Sound has a specific meaning in physics independent of whether or not there is a consumer of that sound. Hearing has a common meaning requiring a biological entity receiving the sound.

The proposition that there has to be someone/something to hear a sound for it to exist, is like saying that there is no sunrise, sunset, or tides on a deserted ocean island.

So, assuming that a tree does not fall noiselessly in the forest, sound will be produced, with- or without an agent with hearing.

P.S. For a real hoot describing a scientist taking on the gibberish speakers, see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_affair

Or, do what contemporary intellectuals in the various fuzzy studies do: Make up whole paragraphs of
impenetrable gibberish:

https://www.elsewhere.org/journal/pomo/

(Hit reload a few times for Big Fun.)

 

[Vaughn]

The world still exists if you remove the humans.... it's not anthropocentric.

Ahhhh...yes, and also gone will be words...so no one to sound off. Just the vibrations from trees falling in the woods, waves crashing onto shores, etc..

 

[MattKing]

I wonder what the Ents would say about this tree and sound discussion?

 

[koraks]

I wonder what the Ents would say about this tree and sound discussion?

I suppose it'd take a heck of a long time to find out given the typical speed of Entish speech.

 

[snusmumriken]

A man once remarked to me, “God
Must think it exceedingly odd
To note that this tree simply ceases to be
When there’s no-one about in the quad.”

…

“Your reasoning’s really quite odd.
I am always about in the quad.
And that’s why this tree will continue to be,
As observed by yours faithfully, God.”

 

[Pieter12]

Let's not bring "God" into this. It's messy enough as it is.

 

[chuckroast]

A man once remarked to me, “God
Must think it exceedingly odd
To note that this tree simply ceases to be
When there’s no-one about in the quad.”

…

“Your reasoning’s really quite odd.
I am always about in the quad.
And that’s why this tree will continue to be,
As observed by yours faithfully, God.”

+1

 

[chuckroast]

Let's not bring "God" into this. It's messy enough as it is.

Too late. He was already here...

 

[retina_restoration]

Let's not bring "God" into this. It's messy enough as it is.

+1

 

[Vaughn]

I would argue that animals hear sounds. They have the same or similar anatomical parts as our ears, and respond to vibrations we call sound.

I would not argue against the fact that animals respond to what humans call 'sounds'. I just wish to refrain from imposing the human construct of 'sound' upon non-human beings. I do not assume that animals and plants experience reality in any way similar to humans.

This is in context to a tree falling in a forest.

I would also not assume that I have any clue what was going through Arbus' mind when she photographed. I do know that human are story-telling social creatures. We can not help ourselves to create stories and create labels when we see images of people. And Arbus gives us plenty to work with.

 

[MattKing]

Too late. He was already here...

I wonder if She agrees?

 

[Arthurwg]

It reminds me for some reason of an apocryphal Miles Davis story. Apparently, he hired some new, young player who didn't fully know the evening's set list. At some point, he leaned over to the kid and growled, "If you don't know the tune, play the melody."

He beeped when he should have bopped?