Friday, October 19, 2007

Rational Painting: A New Frontier

The Rational Painting Forum will running soon.

There will be two main requirements to post.

1. There will be no anonymous posters. All handles will be people's real names. This is to avoid sniping and ad hominem attacks on other well-meaning members, acts which seem to increase when people are not held responsible for their opinions.

2. As much as possible, all must be dedicated to critical thinking. That is, opinions must be supported by reason. ( Check the link on critical thinking.) The concern for all will be learning through trial, experience and debate. Respect is paramount and arguments will be geared toward greater understanding of the topic at hand. Expressions of personal taste are fine but must be supported by a thoughtful explanation.

Anyone can participate if they are willing to abide by the above and are dedicated to improving art. Art has resisted clarity and the rational for the last one hundred years. Its time that it changes.

I understand that artists can be passionate, and therefore hot-headed. If anything nasty is said or implied, the author of the post will have a chance to clarify his or her point and remove the offensive material. No one willing to rethink a statement will be asked to leave. However all nonsensical and off-topic posts will be removed to keep conversations on tract. No dissenting opinions will be removed as long as they are supported and not meant just to be contrary. The goal, again, is to collectively establish useful information and test its efficacy.

8 comments:

hellfish said...

right on graydon..should be a very cool forum and im sure many are looking forward to it. im assuming some of the great info in this blog will be transferred over to the new forum. when will it be up and running? (and will there be a opening party with lots of booze, balloons and lack of morals? haha)

graydon said...

All the information here will be transfered. Please invite all the professional painters you know, Tony.

It would be great to have Kate, Ed, Jake, Michael, Chris P. etc.

hellfish said...

i will. i'll gather them up. i can see this being really great. we talk about stuff like this, but in tiny tidbits, usually at each others openings or parties. it never gets REALLY intense..bout time it does.

Kent M said...

I take it that the forum will be moderated? Who will be the moderator?

I would suggest Graydon, that you NOT be the moderator. Not because you are not qualified - your posts on all forums are always polite and reasoned (I think I have only seen you get frustrated/rude once).

I say that because I think your time is very valuable. You have a great store of knowledge, and there is no possible way you could have enough time to ever satisfy our needs/wants for more information, teaching, and guidance.

So please don't waste your time with chores of running the new forum. Others have those skills, but your skills as an artist and teacher are are more needed.

graydon said...

I am hoping that the forum will be self moderated for the most part. When people are committed to reason, they don't tolerate insults as readily.

Most of the problems elsewhere is the lack of interest in improving, letter the better idea win through proof.

Now its not always an ideal situation, but we need to try a more rational approach to art, art history and art criticism.

Richard, I and Dave C. ( I hope ) will moderate. Each of us is committed to reasoned discourse. Dave has written excellent articles and Richard is committed to ideas. We made add another here or there.

I appreciate your concern, Kent. I hope you can join.

Dave said...

We are not QUITE ready to go live yet, with the forum, but should be within a few hours.

I have CLOSED the ability to register with the site for the moment, and will announce here when it is re-opened, along with details of the address, etc. We have had a few people try to join up already.

Dave

Anonymous said...

do we need to re-register with different handles that have our real names?

ewschott said...

I don't even remember registering, is there a secret place?

Wow, it's like Christmas Eve!