Responses to Kaprow, Weschler "Desert", and Saunders

    Kaprow's article has a really attractive title "Art which can't be art". He started by describing the scene of brushing teeth and watching the rhythm of elbow  moving up and down. He considered such movements not suggesting art at all at first and made no secret of the distain for so called "artworks" - industrial products at the same time. Then after observing brushing teeth carefully and thinking about it seriously, he get the relationship between life source and art. He finally broadened the definition of art and regarded the ordinary life as the huge power, no matter whether it is perceived as art or not. I like the conclusion he draw in the end of the article, which brings art to a larger space and gives readers more power.
    I really like the process of finding ordinary life to be a kind of art and the depiction of psychology switching, but I was expecting the author to give more examples and explanations of it when I was reading it. Anyway, he tells me a class that art should not be stuck in the gallery only. 



    I really appreciate this article "Desert". It starts with the background that Irwin got rid of everything and sold his studio. Then along their journey to desert and talking process, Irwin finally learnt a lesson from the desert and picked up the trail again. Irwin switched from a tactile man to a perceived one because the desert showed him that things tangibly exist in one particular way - the way they are, not the way they supposed to be. The flat desert, no particular events, no rivers and mountains, seems to appear in front of me and I can perceive what it is going to tell me and what the author is talking about in the article. 
    People all have one pattern that they like to dominate and control what they like and keep them the way they like. But actually nature cannot be tangibly reached and depicted. Photographs, maps or drawing neither could transform everything into art in gallery. Actually I like the ending that the desert gives Irwin the power and confidence to manage the studio again and then perceive art all the time. 



    The article is about an excellent writer, who writes the world a beautiful one after experiencing a flight accident and was nearly dead. One always learns to cherish living in the world after confronting loss and death. His depiction of the accident is so close to the actual scene and I can really feel the tension and depression atmosphere at that time. But after a catastrophe he got a better psychological state and could capture a more beautiful world. I think I get to understand why the author admire Saunders so much.
    I enjoy the ending sentence Saunders said to himself. “Don’t be afraid to be confused. Try to remain permanently confused. Anything is possible. Stay open, forever, so open it hurts, and then open up some more, until the day you die, world without end”. It meaningfully implies that the beauty never die if we have bright eyes and mind to capture it. But candidly speaking, the article is too long and I think the author speaks over highly of Saunders.