[rumori] the earliest recombinant art

Steev [rumori] the earliest recombinant art
Wed, 2 Sep 1998 19:20:18 -0700 (PDT) (00904789218, Pine.LNX.4.02.9809021911430.4181-100000atflotsam.detritus.net)

On Wed, 2 Sep 1998, Dan R Serkland wrote:


>How far back could you extend the collage/recombinant theme? Rosetta
>Stone? Cave wall paintings?

well it depends on how far you want to stretch the metaphor. I would say
stuff like cave paintings are not recombinant because they are
not incorporating previous artworks. they're simply a representation of
nature (buffalos, deers, etc.) And the Rosetta stone may not even be art,
it's more like record-keeping, isn't it? I mean it might look like a work
of art to us but it's more like documentation as i understand it, and
it's not really recycling any other art. that i know of.

however i guess if you define art as any activity that humans engage in,
then those both would be recombinant art. perhaps.

or perhaps cave painting is recombinant in a similar way that folk music
is. incorporating themes, texts, fragments, of earlier work (the spear
you drew last year becomes the leg of a deer i draw today), passing it
down through generations, makign new stuff out of it.

make sense?

smh

Steev Hise, Automagickal Adept
steevathise.org http://www.cyborganic.com/people/steev recycled art site: http://www.detritus.net -----------------------------------------------------------------
"Each and every sample is fragmented and bereft of prior meaning, kind of like a future without a past.
They're given meaning only when represented in the
assemblage of the mix. In this way, the DJ acts as the cybernetic
inheritor of the improvisational tradition of jazz." -DJ Spooky
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