Art and DG CONNECT – a post-action evaluation of ICT Topic 36: Boost synergies between artists, creative people and technologists!

"Julia!"

"Yes Paul, xxx"

"Thanks. But what are you up to now you crazy artist? A post-evaluation of an activity when the Call for proposals has not even closed! The projects will not start until early 2017, and they won't be completed until 2019-20 at the earliest."

"Yes I know, it's great! Your problem is that you are too logical. You’re far too bound-up in the notion of rationality and objectivity."

"Uncreative as well! Don't forget my creativity deficit."

"Indeed!"

"And I'm a man!"

"Well, so it seems! But don't you understand that an organisation that is spending eight million euros of public money, is over hyping and politicising a topic, clearly has some other agenda that involves instrumentalisation of art for dark political reasons, and, well, it’s going to be a huge success this thing that they are STARTing. And having dragged-in those European Commissioners to say stupid things, no-one is ever going to admit that the whole thing has been a waste of public money because they did the wrong things. What we are seeing is manipulation that needs exposing for it demonstrates the true nature of the European Commission. So it's obvious that the topic is going to be amazingly successful."

"You're right of course. So what's your post-action evaluation?"

"Simple! STARTS has been a massive success. Synergies between (uncreative) technologists and (creative) artists have been boosted. We are overwhelmed by the number of unconventional and compelling products and services that have been produced. Silos have collapsed and amazing dialogues have resulted. The increase in the transfer of knowledge between the ICT and the creative industries is astonishing. The culture of the ICT sector has been transformed. At long last there is an appreciation of the societal and economic added value of creativity. And we have achieved a more innovation-oriented mind-set."

"Of course you're right. Now that the technocrats have committed to spending eight million euros they will have no choice but to proclaim it as a massive success."

"Now Paul, you have a lot of experience of ICT product development and design, so tell me please how one can measure if a product is unconventional and compelling?"

"Good question Julia. The answer though, is not something that those caught-up in ICT Topic 36 ideology will want to hear, for it could take many years to determine just how compelling a product is. That it is unconventional might be easier to determine, but the world is full of unconventional products that failed to even make a glimmer of recognition, because thinking up new ideas for products is the easy bit. And if you doubt this, just watch Dragons’ Den on BBC2.

“People who engage in technology joy-rides are developing unconventional products all the time, only to find that they have not thought about it sufficiently to even be worth considering for anything other than the also ran list in the history of potentially compelling product ideas. Ultimately what determines if something is compelling is the market, and that applies if one is selling something or giving it away free-of-charge through an open-source/Creative Commons model. But the chances of achieving this status are much improved by doing the right things at the right time, and one of the most critical phases is that which we call the front-end of design.

“The market is more likely to respond if at the front-end, important matters are properly considered such as concept development, industrial design, as well as the emotional dimension of design, interaction design, usability, and many other important issues, which today are all encompassed by holistic UX with its strong emphasis on front-end ideation. And to these critical issues one can add strategy and strategic vision, business models, timing, marketing, understanding of competing approaches or technologies, regulatory frameworks, social issues, barriers to adoption, …

“These are all things which those involved in the ICT commercial sphere, especially those working on consumer products, should know about and must today practice if they want to be successful. It’s basic and largely not the sort of thing that artists are familiar with. Self-evidently, judging by ICT 2015 conference performance Driving Innovation through Creativity and the Arts, it is largely also not the sort of thing that DG CONNECT is familiar with as well.

“In that conference performance one can see some very bad examples of design concepts, which actually undermine some of the speakers’ credibility and that of their organisations. Take the case of the car side window that is providing the child with in-vehicle edutainment. A compelling product idea? Not really. It is actually a very dangerous one. Someone in the audience noted that the child in the video was not wearing a seat belt which is illegal in the United Kingdom. But matters are worse than this, for just look at the child’s posture, and how the child’s torso, and hence its spine, is twisted. This is not a posture than anyone, child or adult, should be placed in. But this is not the worst of it! In the UK there is a law that requires children up to the age of 12, or until they reach a height of 135cm, to use a special car seat (restraint). Good quality ones are designed to provide some protection again side impacts. And the potential site of the side impact is the rear door and window, which is also the very place where the child is being invited to play. This is not good design, it’s technology joyriding!

“So, one should ask why such a design was pursued to the stage demonstrated in the speaker’s video clip. The speaker actually provided the answer to this question – they are caught-up in the ideology of prototyping, which is otherwise known as the road to making expensive mistakes.

“It’s like being back in the early 1990s watching people talking about prototyping as though it is some form of panacea. It’s actually a very dangerous and addictive drug that needs to be used with great caution.”

“So Paul, the more we look into these matters the more foolish DG CONNECT look.”

“Yes Julia. It’s like turning over a stone – all sorts of things start wriggling and crawling about. And it is not a matter of DG CONNECT looking foolish, they are fools – arrogant, and incompetent ones. And fools and their money are easily parted and the phrase incompetence at the tax-payers expense comes to mind.

“The point I am making, is that if you are in the ICT sector and do not understand the basics of modern design practices, and are looking to DG CONNECT for assistance, then we have beyond doubt achieved a situation where the blind are leading the blind. This is truly the Road to Serfdom… Post-evaluation over?"

"Not quite Paul. The stupidity of all this creativity nonsense, clearly exposes, to those who care to look, a significant strategic weakness in Western thinking, which those who are not caught-up in Western ideologies, like the Chinese and the Indians, can exploit.”

“Yes, Julia. Xerox PARC plainly understood though, for they clearly said of  their Artist in Residence Programme that started in 1992, yes that’s right, 1992, nearly 25 years ago – ‘it’s not about bringing creativity to …’ ”

“The 1990s once more and your 25 year rule, Paul – the EC does the right thing only 25 years after it was the relevant thing to do! And it is indeed the case that bringing artists into research, development, and innovation processes is not about bringing creativity to scientists, engineers and technologists. Deficit thinkers, however, having no other way of understanding the complexities of the matter, have no choice but to position artists in this way, for to do otherwise would undermine their ideologies and collective delusions. Oh, the delight of the fragmented and reductive mind, with its cognitive biases and its silent narratives – such minds speak so much about evidence-based policy making, about quantified knowing, but in reality they engage in behavioural policy making but do not realise this.”

“It’s that old question, ‘Why so smart yet so stupid?’ The answer to which, we know.”

“Yes Paul, we do indeed. But there is more …”

“More?”

“Yes Paul. More! The Call topic ICT 36 mentions in the expected impacts, silo-breaking. Robert Madelin also mentions this in an interview he gave just before he started his new job as Senior Adviser for Innovation. But it is clear that the European Commission, DG CONNECT and the ICT programme if they know anything about silo-breaking and why silos exist in Western culture, are making a very good job of hiding this understanding, for if they did know, they would certainly not have specified ICT Topic 36 the way it is. And I must say most artists and creative people also do not understand this issue. Why should they?”

“Because they’re alchemists Julia!”

“Yes Paul, this seems to be how we are perceived. We are, as the Americans would say, the proverbial silver bullet. So more of that zone of discredited practice! Yet, I do know someone who does have knowledge and experience of silos.”

“Yes, back once more to the early 1990s! And there are worse revelations yet to come Julia!”

“Oh yes indeed Paul, there is far worse to come. By the end, when this series of blogs is complete, and then published in a book, all those governments in other parts of the world, who might also be interested in bringing artists into research programmes, will have a reference model of what not to do – it’s called the European Commission STARTS Platform, and ICT Topic 36. This is the price, DG CONNECT, that you will pay for not listening. Welcome, DG CONNECT to the nexus of Science, Technology and the Arts! Did no-one tell you about art and what it can do, and the notion of maintaining critical independence? Evidently not.”

So as minds in DG CONNECT cross the frontier that marks the boundary between 1989 and 1990, and they begin to experience the 1990s, back in 2016 …

Art and DG CONNECT Theatre: ICT 2015 Performance ‘Driving Innovation through Creativity and the Arts’

The actors assemble on the stage, each knowing their lines, while those who will be their audience take their seats and wait expectantly for the start of the performance Driving Innovation through Creativity and the Arts. The odour of money drifts through the theatre with its stale recycled and specially conditioned air, intoxicating all who enter the room, inducing the sort of insanity that only puppeteers acting collectively can bring into being, as once more they proceed to construct one of their many convenient realities. And watching in another time and place, are Julia and Paul, who have come to see if, by some quirk of serendipity, something of substance may transpire, but mainly it is their intention to observe the playing out of what has already become a tragedy of errors and a comedy of errors both at the same time.

On the stage also is the one who will direct this theatre, and then they START, as one by one each plays their part, which is to heavily pitch themselves and their organisations, and it seems, to out-do each other in the number of times they speak the very special and magical word that is creativity, which is soon worn out with use, but left very much unexamined, nor it seems understood, for what is taking place before Julia and Paul’s eyes can in no way be described as the outcome of creative minds, except perhaps those found in marketing departments. And in noting all the emptiness, Julia speaks to Paul with silent words, which Paul, reading her lips, quickly comes to understand, as “some are clearly speaking of UX design.” Oh dear! The circus has indeed come to town, and consequently it will probably never be known if there is anything beyond this.

Julia now is pointing out, that Mercedes Man, has in fact, said virtually nothing, so to Google Paul does turn to seek out the results for Mercedes and this word Ideation, and lo and behold what does he find, but many pictures drawn by artists of future modernistic car designs, which, as Julia is now saying, is typical of men who to image making often turn when what is needed are the communication of that which might at least pass for words containing something of a more substantial form. And once again Mercedes are shown to be, literally, engaged in image making.

Looking now at a very futuristic automatic car, that on the web can also be found, she speaks again these words – “probably also much UX design.” Paul then says “yes indeed, most likely that which Buxton calls the holistic kind. Certainly, also, much focus on what we in the design business call, front-end design, which is where you will encounter this word, Ideation.” And, something else too, for Julia has noted Mercedes Man’s derogatory remarks about design thinking! So the intelligent observation is left for Julia, a woman to say: “that quite some time ago it became evident that design had, for many reasons, become out-of-date, which is also the case for many ways of thinking, and that too much emphasis was being placed on back-end design, but with this acknowledged and understood, there came about a different approach, that which we now refer to as UX design.” Obviously, this is way beyond the capabilities of image-making men and those ridiculous ignorant men in DG CONNECT to understand.

Looking from a different place and time, Julia and Paul review those questions that the panel are supposed to be considering, which mysteriously they seem to be either ignoring or just circling around, as they focus instead on pitching, as though in a competitive bidding process, to lay claim to be the partner of choice. And the audience too, obviously wishing to stake a claim to a share of the money, to the delusion, they also do contribute, with fine words of the kind that in another performance, were spoken to an emperor that many children, when quite young, learned about in a very famous and iconic storyline.

And of these questions – How can the arts inspire creativity in general? How can spill-overs from creativity in the Arts be harnessed by industry? How can spill-overs from creativity in the Arts be harnessed by society? – Julia notes that no speaker has questioned them, and not even raised any concerns whether the way they are phrased suggests that DG CONNECT clearly does not understand and has learned nothing at all. So much for DG CONNECT’s claim to be using art as a hammer! Probably they are, but to smash art!

So the performance draws to a close, but what is this? Julia it appears is making a note, writing down some words that one of the speakers spoke. She holds up her scrap of paper to Paul, and her mischievous smile appears once more, along with a wink, and for a moment Julia and Paul have become one, for evidently an idea for another episode in their surrealist performance has just be born, to deal with this very interesting statement: “… artists working on new technology for dance theatre, when brought into the brainstorming, came up with an idea that not a single scientist, engineer or designer could ever think of – projecting a virtual follow-me car onto the windscreen and the driver just follows this virtual car …” Oh dear!

And of summing up, what should be said? It was clearly an empty session, not at all about art, and a complete waste of most peoples’ time, and this stands in sharp contrast to the companion ICT 2015 performance known by the name The Innovation Revolution: Creativity and Arts in ICT, where much greater substance can be found, mostly because, the main focus was on what is termed the creative industries. Yet here too, strongly evident was the ideology of creativity.

Many questions also arise about whether what was being discussed in this other session was indeed art, or just artists working in other jobs, for it is indeed the case that not all those who from art school do graduate, follow careers as artists, but instead, to related jobs often do gravitate, so back once more to UX design! And just how imaginative and creative is all this? Julia and Paul ask this, for, without a doubt, even this session was framed within a well-defined and conventional mind-set with people saying very conventional things, through speaking of methodologies, intellectual property and such things. And clearly there was one who was very adept at pressing all the political buttons, who sang and danced so beautifully to the puppeteer’s score – Brussels is full of such singing and dancing people, which is one of the problems. Julia and Paul call them the Empty-headed Ones – they who speak a lot but say very little of worth.

Yet there was one, who, among all this talk of creativity, and the posturing, and the sycophantic praising of the European Commission, and people silently saying, “hey look at me”, clearly stood out from the grazing herd by not mentioning creativity, but instead, did of art speak, and in her presentation slides, even mentioned subjective knowledge, and in doing so, quietly established a credibility that no-one else did. And the name of this person is Laura Beloff, who clearly has more understanding than all the others combined.

Future generations will ask of this thing called STARTS, which Julia and Paul have noted is a manifestation of the ideology of creativity – why was it that so many people were so wrong?

2016 starts – or should that be STARTS?

A year of writing and creating other things begins, and the compulsion to work on the writing of books has returned. The list of books that I want to write grows as time slips by, but the time to complete them diminishes as every year passes.

There is still much left to say about DG CONNECT and its ICT ART CONNECTing and STARTing, so 2016 STARTS with many more explorations about this fascinating attempt by a failing government agency to boost its image by associating itself with the arts.

And let us not forget that other bastion of collective delusion within the Emperor's Court, the so called Research Executive Agency, or more accurately, the Resource Efficiency Administration, otherwise known as REA, another bureaucratic organisation with an over-inflated opinion of itself, but which is far from being resource efficient. What artistic delight can I conjure to appear about this particular manifestation of the Emperor's Court? And there is also this art-science/art-technology community that says the strangest of things. And ...

Oh so many muses. Where do I START? With STARTS of course! Socrates was right, for the unexamined life is not worth living, and what examinations of life yet lie slumbering, waiting for the moment when, arising like unpleasant manifestations of demons rather than men reflected there, they torment those that of dreams rather than nightmares would rather speak? Poetics! Let’s now see what you understand for I will tell you nothing … What could this mean?

2015 comes to an end

Drawing to a close now is 2015, a year that will go down in my own little and very insignificant history as a turning point. The Rubicon is crossed. There can be no turning back. Goodbye to that which is the past and to those of you who are my past, goodbye. Hello to that which is the future.

Now the sword is sharper, thanks to DG CONNECT and its ICT ART CONNECTing and STARTing which is something of gift sent from heaven for someone such as myself who is interested in collective denial and delusion, behavioural policy making and the transcending of boundaries. So to the matter of wielding this metaphorical weapon, I do now turn, to do that which no-one else has inclination towards, to begin the building upon a far distant shore, of a road to a different future – one that we all, in our hearts, wish to see. This is the power of one of which I wrote in A Tale of Two Deserts.

The poetics – this, you see, is what the hand that writes this wishes for things to be, because hermeneutics clearly confounds those that to the objective and rational mind, and to this alone, do retreat.

Art and DG CONNECT: Two European Commissioners in conversation with Julia

“Hi there all you artistic folk, it’s me, Julia, part of that highly schizophrenic art-technology pairing known as Julia and Paul.

“Today I have with me two European Commissioners who will say something about this thing called the nexus of art and science.

“So Commissioner Modas, what would you like to say about this topic?”

“Yes, thank you Julia. Let me first say that it is a great please to be here with you today. I think that more and more we all understand that innovation in the future will be on the intersection of arts and sciences.”

“Great. Now how did you come to such a conclusion?”

“Scriptwriter! Where’s my scriptwriter?”

“Well Commissioner while you and your scriptwriter are being creative and trying to find an innovative answer to this simple question, we’ll move on to Commissioner Oettinger. What would you like to contribute to this fascinating discussion?”

“I too would like to say that it is a great pleasure to be here with you today. Artistic creativity and critical thinking are essential for innovation in today's digital world.  Already, highly innovative companies like Mercedes thrive on a strong link between artists and their engineers. The EU will support [such] multidisciplinary themes in H2020.”

“Well said Commissioner. Did you know that in the medieval period the Roman Catholic Church also thrived on a strong link with artists? The Communist state in the Soviet Union also thrived on the very strong and rigid links that it forged with artists. So clearly, thriving on strong links with artists can mean many things. It seems that the European Commission is also forging strong links with artists too! Are they also rigid as well? But while you are pondering on these questions, I‘m glad you mentioned Mercedes, because we just happen to have here a representative from Mercedes Finance in the United States. Please tell us something about the strong links you have forged with the art world.”

“Indeed Julia I would be very glad to do so. We work with an art gallery where our employees view masterpieces by artists such as Diego Rivera, Rembrandt and Picasso. A trained facilitator then asks for their impressions during post-viewing meetings. During the debriefing session, we touch on how art applies to business and think about how employees can make use of more creativity at work and offer different solutions to our customers. Participants engage in collaborative discussion and offer answers to messages suggested by the art they view. However, to ask employees to completely connect the art experience to their jobs is forcing it too far. Nevertheless, a business-art relationship offers many advantages. It’s about cognitive diversity. The way people think is based on where they come from. Art reflects the diversity of the world, the workplace and the people in it.”

“So, looks much as though this is just a more sophisticated form of corporate sponsorship of the arts, primarily designed for the purposes of image making – your image! If it is the case that your employees are not sufficiently creative at work, were there no thoughts in your mind that there might be problems with your internal organisational design, or with the company culture, or with employee tasks and roles, or the way they are treated and rewarded, or with the attitude that prevails among middle and senior management? Or are you in need of a visit to the art gallery before you are able to have such thoughts?

“So there you have it – employees with a creativity deficit! The ideology of creativity – founded on an imaginary deficit.

“And I see that the European Commissioners and the Mercedes’ representative have left us. No doubt to reflect upon what they have learned here today. Or perhaps not! They are after all puppeteers … And men!

“Coming soon – more about the Ideology of Creativity. And I will be asking questions about this company called Mercedes and exploring just what they have been doing with artists – more image making! Literally!

“This is Julia signing off, xxx.”

Art, DG CONNECT and Being John Malkovich

So, the European Commission’s ICT ART CONNECT initiative and the follow-on, the STARTS Platform! Quite a performance, but nothing at all compared with the one that I am STARTing …

Being John Malkovich – I

In this surrealist comedy, a puppeteer takes a temporary job as a filing clerk. While at work, the puppeteer discovers a portal that leads into the mind of the renowned actor, performer, and artist known by the name of John Malkovich. The puppeteer then decides to enter the mind of John Malkovich to independently and objectively observe the life of John Malkovich, but being a puppeteer, ends up manipulating and using John Malkovich, thus changing John Malkovich to reflect the interests and objectives of the puppeteer.

Being John Malkovich – II

In this surrealist comedy, a civil servant, a puppeteer, takes a temporary job as head of a failing public sector organisation. While at work, the puppeteer discovers a portal that leads into the mind of renowned actor, performer, and artist known by the name of John Malkovich. The puppeteer then decides to enter the mind of John Malkovich to independently and objectively observe the life of John Malkovich, but being a puppeteer, ends up manipulating and using John Malkovich, thus changing John Malkovich to reflect the interests and objectives of the puppeteer.

Being John Malkovich – III

In this surrealist comedy, a cybernetician who knows that he is a puppeteer, just becomes the renowned actor, performer, and artist known by the name of John Malkovich. Being such, he then writes, stages, directs and performs in, something the likes of which has never been seen before, and in doing so, not only reveals that which is universal to all puppeteers, but shows the path towards a different way of knowing and doing based on an understanding of what it is to be puppeteer.

The instrumentalisation of DG CONNECT – they never expected that! The performance has only just begun! Here are the links to the earlier preliminary episodes:

Paul T Kidd's Blog Entry: ICT & ART CONNECT

Paul T Kidd's Blog Entry: Charming snakes

Paul T Kidd's Blog Entry: It is time for art

Paul T Kidd's Blog Entry: DG CONNECT classifies and symbolises technologists as the uncreative ones!

Paul T Kidd's Blog Entry: Surrealists make of DG CONNECT the fools that they are

Paul T Kidd's Blog Entry: Art, DG CONNECT and the tale of the Director General's new clothes

Paul T Kidd's Blog Entry: ICT-36b-2016: Boost synergies between alchemists and technologists

Paul T Kidd's Blog Entry: Art, DG CONNECT and “I'm out of my comfort zone”

Paul T Kidd's Blog Entry: Art, DG CONNECT and “He's too theoretical”

Paul T Kidd's Blog Entry: Art, DG CONNECT and yet another meeting of the STARTS circus in the European Parliament

In addition, collected all in one place, is most of the existing information about ICT ART CONNECT and the STARTS Platform, plus many links to related web sites: Paul T Kidd’s ICT ART CONNECT Web Pages.

Now you ask – why such a performance?

Art, DG CONNECT and yet another meeting of the STARTS circus in the European Parliament

Advertised recently was a meeting, to be staged in the European Parliament, of the highly schizophrenic, extremely noisy circus that is STARTS. This is the third time that such a meeting has been hosted in the European Parliament buildings. Interesting!

A grand total of three European Commissioners have also now lent their support to ICT-ART CONNECT and STARTS, but being politicians they will not know what they are talking about, as was the case when the former Chief Scientific Advisor to the President of the European Commission turned up at an ICT-ART CONNECT meeting talking nonsense about art and science. Interesting!

And we have this rather empty ICT ART CONNECT study report that contains some strange statements that, should you care to explore them further … Under normal circumstances such a report would be an embarrassment to DG CONNECT, but it is not! Interesting!

As to the matter of the application of due diligence procedures before including STARTS in the new, 2016-17, ICT Workprogramme – none can be detected. Interesting!

It has become very evident that DG CONNECT is out of its depth, and they have once more engaged in their usual habit of forming those allegedly morally corrupt relationships with their experts. Interesting!

It can also be seen that various other people are jumping on the bandwagon – me too they cry, and in doing so are reinforcing a delusion! And I am sure that there are many more who will want to join in. Plenty of opportunities to say stupid things! Interesting!

And then there are the Members of the European Parliament who also want to lend their names to this circus. Interesting!

In a different place, people are talking about how they bring their artistic hobbies to work and have started making claims about new discoveries made because of this, but of note, is a lack of critical assessment of such claims. Positivism, is seems, flies away when it is found to be inconvenient. Interesting!

Elsewhere too, many people (mostly scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians) with vested interests are talking, in a manner that mostly amounts to baby talk, about art-science and art-technology practices, yet seem not to be aware that their discussions at at such a level, or if they are, are not concerned about it. Interesting!

The growing interest in the so called nexus of art-science, or art-technology, is happening at a moment in time when people are beginning to understand just what scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians are doing to our world in their role as handmaidens to economic interests: global warming; acid rain; ozone depletion; desertification; mass extinction; lowering of river levels and water tables; bacteria resistance to anti-biotics; resource depletion; Fukushima; plastics polluting the world’s oceans; nitrate contamination of water resources; destruction of habitats; Fraking; … the list is too long to continue, but they are all brought to you courtesy of scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians (STEM people)! Interesting!

So what is going on? Why is art-science/art-technology being hyped-up, turned into the latest fad, and politicised? We know of course that the smell of money is in the air and that there is an opportunity for – 15 minutes of fame! And self-evidently people are now re-branding what they do (for example UX) and calling it by a new name (STARTS). But what does all this mean for the notion of a fair and proper evaluation of the proposal submitted to ICT Topic 36? Are the results already known to DG CONNECT?

I have seen these very noisy circuses before and they all end the same way, with little to show, for they are all style and little substance, and most of what goes on, is already what has been done under a different name. The result of STARTS will be that some people will end up with bigger bank balances, but the public will be out-of-pocket, with, most likely, nothing very much to show for the expenditure of their hard earned money. Collectively people seem determined to make of themselves fools, by declaring that the emperor is wearing a fine suite of clothes when in fact the emperor is naked. This perhaps is the nature of the Emperor's Court, the EC, otherwise known as the European Commission. STARTS is about style and has very little to do with substance, for what substance there is, already exists. It is about image making – DG CONNECT’s image!

It is now very clear that the European Commission are playing a political game, and are using art and artists for political reasons, so all those concerns about instrumentalisation turned out to be very well founded indeed.

“The grazing herd has arrived! It will of course eventually move on in search of fresh pastures, but that zone of discredited practice looms large because of all the dung that it will leave behind. Yet …

“I am wondering why this opportunity has presented itself to us. All this dung! Any thoughts about this Julia?”

“Yes Paul, indeed I have for we will use it to fertilise our thinking, so keep it coming, for all the nonsense, the emptiness, the re-branding, the grasping at straws, the vain attempts to find some justification for working with artists, feeds us, sharpens our minds, and, in the process of developing our critique, helps to know in ways that seem to lie far beyond the very limited horizon of this grazing herd. While you are busy pulling at the meagre grass and chewing the cud, we fly as eagles and see as a result, a very different world that is most certainly not one of dirt and grass.”