tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4345079524917013762.post2935101930094257616..comments2023-10-31T08:07:36.817-04:00Comments on LeVautourChronique: Nihilist Sculpture Project Nears CompletionBernard P. Provencher LeVautourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06401245997875675733noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4345079524917013762.post-14356545842334730902008-12-17T15:08:00.000-05:002008-12-17T15:08:00.000-05:00Wow. Mr. or Miss “Anonymous” got rather worked-up ...Wow. Mr. or Miss “Anonymous” got rather worked-up while scouring the year-old archives of my blog.<BR/><BR/>I must just say that, although this post was definitely far from completely “serious,” it wasn’t exactly a “joke” intended to be “funny” in the conventional sense, either. It as merely an academic experiment that I had conducted while in college, that was only posted here for the amusement of people who knew what I was working on at the time, and those people comprised the primary readership of my blog back then. This piece was originally written for a journalism class that I was somewhat ironically taking at the same time as a class on post-modern theory. As one class insisted that we must strive, above all, for unbiased “truth” (journalism), the other (the one to which my personal scholarly allegiances were stronger) insisted that such “truth” is impossible and irrelevant (postmodernism). Therefore, I thought it would be amusing and thought-provoking to try to fuse the two contradictory ideas together, experimenting with the limits of one while employing techniques of the other. Nihilist art seemed, therefore, an apt topic. Thus, I framed a scenario in which I could “truthfully” follow all of the rules and guidelines of the journalism assignment, which writing about something that, by definition, negated the possibility of such truth. I interviewed a “real” person (albeit the constructed identity of that person, an act which I believe all artists to be continually engaged in) and recorded his rambles on a topic that had already been discussed and debated at length in an academic organization that I was involved with, from the perspective of that constructed character, which was the primary outcome of the very “project” being discussed.<BR/><BR/>To me and some of my scholarly peers at the time, the outcome was somewhat amusing, so I decided to share it in a public forum. If you find this “pretentious,” I’m sorry. This is merely the sort of thought-puzzles and critical experiments that engage my mind and that I feel passionate about. If this way of thinking doesn’t sit well for you, you are in no way obliged to read it. If you fall into this category, as “Anonymous” apparently does, I would also advise avoiding the writings of Jean Louis Borges, Roland Barthes, and Samuel Beckett, who were the subjects of the academic papers that I was most actively engaged I writing at the time, which proved much of the provocation for this experiment.<BR/><BR/>Those who know me well can attest that I don’t take myself nearly as seriously as this reader apparently perceives that I do. What I DO take seriously, however, is keeping my mind actively engaged in critical and theoretical thought, and working out and experimenting with the dilemmas posed by such thinking in various creative forms. <BR/><BR/>I am well aware that the contents of my blog are not for everyone. I’m sorry, “Anonymous,” that I rubbed you the wrong way.Bernard P. Provencher LeVautourhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06401245997875675733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4345079524917013762.post-58127585938618915822008-12-17T01:59:00.000-05:002008-12-17T01:59:00.000-05:00This blog contains some of the most pretentious, r...This blog contains some of the most pretentious, ridiculous bullshit I have ever had the displeasure of reading. I would hope that it's a joke, except it isn't funny, and that would be just another level of failure. <BR/><BR/>Unfortunately, this pseudo-nihilistic "artist" will probably take any criticism as evidence that he is doing something right. Adversity probably validates his meaningless (and I don't mean that in the good way) little project. <BR/><BR/>You make a mockery of everything you touch. You are probably a giant asshole with endless justifications for your jackass affectations. In fact, I don't need that "probably".Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com