#curationation

[historieofbeafts]

Is there a reason for the persistent association between scorpions, crabs, and basil?

[It's been long enough this probably needs a link to the original scorpion post for context]

As far as I'm aware, the association between scorpions and crabs comes from straightforward physical similarities (pincers, exoskeletons, etc.). Though when Ovid gives a list of animals that grow from decay in Book 15 of the Metamorphoses he says scorpions come specifically from crabs that have been buried without their claws, which is the opposite of what I'd expect.

[from the 1567 Golding translation, which gets overhyped as one of Shakespeare's influences, but was still an important text in the English Renaissance. also cleas=claws & writhen=twisted]

The association with basil is more complicated. The short version is that the first confirmed Greek mention of basil comes from a physician called Chrysippus (~4th c. BCE). His works were lost, but enough survives in later texts to know that he thought basil was extremely dangerous and unfit for human consumption, but doesn't seem to have mentioned scorpions.

Africa and Asia have a much longer history with basil, and when it does start to get linked with scorpions in classical texts there’s often an accompanying reference to “African” practices. Which isn’t enough to establish cross-cultural influence, but for the purposes of this blog I think it’s okay to speculate that a preexisting link between basil and scorpions + the Greek & Roman medical practice of treating scorpion stings with a mixture of basil, wine and vinegar + the fact that scorpions are frequently found in the kinds of places where basil grows +  a cultural belief in the spontaneous generation of small animals made the idea of scorpions growing from basil seem pretty reasonable.

That’s a lot of words without a primary source, so here’s internet favourite Pliny the Elder providing an example of what I’m talking about:

Brief digression, but the highlight of Pliny’s basil facts actually has nothing to do with scorpions. It’s this Totally Normal Gardening Tip:

Obviously it’s fun to imagine a world where this caught on and HGTV stands for Hostile Gardening Television, but it might be even more fun to imagine someone at a fair asking a prizewinning vegetable grower what their secret is and being told “ancient wisdom: swear at yer zucchini.” /end digression

This is already a pretty long post, but while I’m on the subject I can’t not talk about the ‘sniffing too much basil will give you brain scorpions’ urban legend popularized in the 16th-17th centuries. To start with, here are two 17th c. summaries that also give a pretty good idea of the Basil Discourse ™ at the time:

[Culpeper’s The English Physician (1652)]

[Topsell’s History of Four-footed Beasts and Serpents (1658)]

Point form notes because there’s a lot to unpack:

Billingsgate is a fishmarket famous for vulgar language

 Non nostrum inter nos tantas componere lites is Virgil reference for “above my pay grade”

Dr. Reason is an allegorical figure representing logic/common sense

The link with basilisks comes from dubious folk etymology, but still probably contributed to basil’s bad reputation

Hollerius is the Latin name for the French physician Jacques Houllier, and I went through his De morborum internorum curatione, liber I (1572) & De morbis internis, libri II (1589) in hopes of finding more information about Brain Scorpion Patient Zero

He doesn’t provide any

Seriously

Each volume contains a one (1) sentence summary saying that an Italian man grew a scorpion in his brain and then died as a result of smelling too much basil

That’s it

The Gesner example comes from a treatise on scorpions published posthumously as part of Vol. 5 of his Historiae animalium (1587)

It also doesn’t provide any information beyond “an apothecary told me about a French girl who died after smelling basil and turned out to have a brain full of scorpions”

Obviously the real reason for the vagueness is because these are, at absolute best, examples of the false cause fallacy, but I still have a pressing need to know how patients’ basil-sniffing habits entered the medical record

Like, where would you even get that information?

Catch me learning necromancy so I can ask 16th c. physicians some pointed questions about brain scorpion diagnostic criteria, I guess

After all that, it seems fitting to conclude this post with someone who has no problem describing exact methodology: the scientist and mystic Jan Baptist van Helmont, who provides a recipe for growing scorpions from basil in his Oriatrike, or Physick Refined (1664)

I mean, what can you say to that except

He also has a recipe for growing mice by leaving a dirty shirt in a container of wheat:

[adrianomaini]

La polemica del Roberti contro il Goclenius Il teologo Jean Roberti vide la luce il 4 agosto 1569 a Saint-Hubert (nelle Ardenne) e si spense il 14 febbraio 1651.

[jesusescuderoilustra]

Color&Grey #colorygris #illustration #ilustracion #device #libreinterpretacion #jesusescuderoillustration #winter #selfphone #comunication #fridayillustration #character #desingcharacter #pantallas #screen #color #city #pressillustration #editorialillustration #artdirectors #artdirection #dailydesignpick #curationation #curatorial (en Brussels)

[micstify]

/An old school love ❤/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . at Lopez Avenue Los Banos Laguna

[schindermania]

Had a fab time yesterday at the artists' talk for Queer Threads. You can read about it over on mrxstitch.com #curationism #mrxstitch #queerthreads #queerthreadsexhibit (at Craft and Folk Art Museum)

[marywoodartdept]

During the Art Department’s trip to The Met in NYC this past November 2nd, I found several interesting books in the gift shop. The book I decided to read first is Curationism : How Curating Took Over the Art World and Everything Else by David Balzer.

With the hectic nature of mid-semester, I haven’t gotten very far into it, yet. However, Balzer presents some pretty interesting ideas right from the start.

In Part 1: Value, Balzer begins by discussing how the act of arrangement and editing is universally common but infinitely variable, which has a lot of truth to it. Throughout my research and study of curation this past semester, I have learned that curation is arguably it’s own medium. Just as every artist is variable in their use of materials and tools, each curator is variable in their selections, their tools, their organization, their writings, etc.

He then uses a quote from British art writer Kenneth Clark in which he refers to art collecting as “a biological function, not unrelated to our physical appetites.” Balzer then analyzes how many others in the past have tried to study a physical pattern in the nature of collection and curation. It’s a very eye opening suggestion to think that art collecting is something embedded within us like natural selection, only the fittest will survive. I’m pretty new and still semi-unfamiliar with the world of art collection, but I always imagined collection to be survival of the fittest bank account. Now I’m starting to question the whole nature of why we choose the artistic paths we choose. Many curators are also artists, so what makes them have such a higher regard for collecting art rather than committing solely to their own art? I somewhat did the same thing. I can make art, I love painting architecture with ink and watercolor and I’ve always had a passion for photography, but something within me would rather work with famous artworks instead of my own.

I’m definitely looking forward to seeing what else this Balzer is going to dive into, I’ll try to keep you all posted! If you would like to purchase the book, it’s MSRP is $13.95 and it is sold on Amazon.

For anyone on campus or close to the Scranton area, feel free to check out the Zeta Omicron exhibition until 11/17! I have 2 pieces on exhibit as well as some fantastic pieces from my fellow Zeta Omicron members.

Thanks always for the read, feel free to leave me comments below!

P.S. Enjoy some photos from the NYC trip below!

Shelby, Arts Administration, tells us about some great books she picked up during a trip to The Met in "Curationism" During the Art Department's trip to The Met in NYC this past November 2nd, I found several interesting books in the gift shop.

[all-allemandigiovani]

IMPERMANENZE DELL’ARTE: COSA SUCCEDE QUANDO L’OPERA NON C’È PIÙ?

di Federica Gamba e Giulia Calì

La quarantaduesima edizione di Arte Fiera si apre con un’importante novità che amplia l’identità  della storica manifestazione fieristica: il convegno internazionale Tra mostra e fiera. Entre Chien et Loup, a cura di Angela Vettese con Clarissa Ricci, patrocinato dall’Università Iuav di Venezia e dall’Università di Bologna, che ha visto la partecipazione di numerosi professionisti del settore. I tre appuntamenti del convegno hanno offerto una panoramica di riflessione e dibattito su alcuni temi cruciali emersi negli ultimi decenni all’interno del sistema dell’arte contemporanea.

La terza sessione del convegno, curata da Cristina Baldacci, ha affrontato il rapporto tra permanenza e impermanenza nell’arte in chiave sia storica che critica, indagando i vari snodi conseguenti al processo di smaterializzazione dell’opera, in particolare dagli anni Settanta del secolo scorso ad oggi. In quegli anni proprio Arte Fiera fu determinante nel rendere possibile la diffusione di questa impermanenza, promuovendo la settimana internazionale della Performance, curata da Renato Barilli, che portò in città i protagonisti indiscussi nella storia della Body Art.  

Il carattere impermanente dell’arte assume oggi differenti connotazioni, legate non solo alle forme e ai linguaggi espressivi, ma anche alle modalità di valorizzazione, circolazione e ricezione. Le questioni poste al centro del dibattito hanno interessato quindi non solo lo statuto e l’identità di opere e progetti sempre più tesi all’effimero e all’impermanenza, ma anche il loro rapporto con il mercato che impone la necessità di trovare nuove strategie di mediazione per rendere possibile la vendita stessa dell’effimero.

Gean Moreno, curatore dei programmi all’ICA di Miami, in particolare ha puntato il focus sui processi di finanziarizzazione dell’arte e processi di consolidamento del mercato in cui sono emerse quelle che lui stesso chiama mega galleries. Attraverso queste ultime, si delinea sempre più una struttura verticale che porterà a un incremento del gap tra coloro che agiscono all’interno di queste mega strutture (a cui sono ovviamente connessi collezionisti, case d’asta e artisti) e coloro che non ne fanno parte. La conclusione della riflessione di Moreno non ha però, come si potrebbe pensare, un risvolto pessimistico, in quanto “gli esclusi” di cui parla, che sono in numero sempre maggiore, potranno avere un ruolo nel ridefinire le dinamiche del sistema,  creando nuovi spazi d’azione.

Le problematiche legate alla trasformazione dell’opera d’arte, accelerata dalla globalizzazione, riguardano non soltanto le sue modalità di circolazione ma anche i modi in cui viene mostrata e valorizzata. Importante contributo critico al riguardo è offerto da John Rajchman, filosofo e professore alla Columbia University di New York, il quale prende in esame l’iniziativa di riproposizione da parte di un rinomato gruppo di curatori (Hans Ulrich Obrist, Tom Eccles e Beatrix Rif) dell’ultimo progetto di mostra mai realizzata, Resistance di Jean François Lyotard. Se già nel 1985 con la sua mostra Les Immatériaux al Beaubourg di Parigi Lyotard aveva aperto la strada al modello curatoriale impostosi poi come predominante nel sistema dell’arte globalizzato, alla fine della sua vita aveva egli stesso indicato la necessità di forme di resistenza e di attivismo nella pratica stessa del “mostrare”. Da qui la valutazione di Rajchman rispetto all’intervento di riproposizione del progetto della Resistance è volta a sottolinearne non il carattere reazionario ma al contrario la necessità di combattere il modello unico del museo globale che con la mostra Les Immatériaux si pensava attuabile. Nel contesto del mondo globalizzato una pratica alternativa rispetto a quella del cosiddetto curationism sembra essere quella di un modello di mostra istituzionale che sappia attivare forme di attivismo critico e di controcultura come si propone di indicare il revival di Resistance.

A chiusura del convegno, l’intervento di Marianne Wagner, curatrice di arte contemporanea al LWL - Museum fuer Kunst und Kultur di Muenster, ha posto in evidenza quelle che si possono definire “le diverse vite di un’opera d’arte”, con riguardo alla scultura nelle particolari configurazioni emerse nelle varie edizioni dello Skulptur Projekt avviato nel 1977 a Muenster. Prendendo in esame due interventi del progetto, After Alife Ahead di Pierre Huyghe (2017) e Still Untitled di Xavier Le Roy (2017), Wagner riflette sulla necessità sempre più preponderante degli artisti di meditare sulla complessità temporale e sulla relazione che l’opera instaura con lo spazio che la ospita. Entrambe queste opere site specific, apparentemente votate all’effimero e alla trasformazione continua, mantengono in realtà una connessione con la materialità e la permanenza nel momento in cui vengono archiviate, oppure quando diventano patrimonio sentito e vissuto dalla comunità stessa.

In conclusione, le riflessioni offerte dai vari relatori sullo statuto dell’arte contemporanea e sulle dinamiche critiche, economiche e sociali che la interessano, non esauriscono ma aprono e stimolano il vasto panorama delle linee di ricerca circa la complessità del “fenomeno” dell’impermanenza.

Federica Gamba, laureata in Arti Visive all’Università di Bologna

Giulia Calì, laureata in Arti Visive all’Università di Bologna

[ricsonph-blog]

This time, I will be better. • . . . . . . . . . . . . #vsco #feedgoals #photography #instagram #vscocam #curation #feedgoalsdaily #fotografia #mensfashion #menwithstyle #asianguy #followforfollow #likeforlike #minimalist #lovelocal #belocal #curationation #manila #hotel #vhotel #summer #birthday #november #summet #itsmorefuninthephilippines #blogs #blogger

[csm-ma-md]

DIGITAL / INTERNET The value impartation is done by others (droves) via algorithms / The value is thus proportional to popularity and audience courting is synonymous with it / There is no better example of the darkest, most tautological aspects of accelerated curationism: rather than the simulated democracy .... of curated works being presented as attractive to a potential audience because they have been chosen exclusively and carefully for their value, the value in these content-framed works lies not in preciousness but in popularity.  From Curationism - D. Balzer

[macaetsam3]

Building on German artist Joseph Beuys' famous statement 'Every human being is an artist,' institutions empower and attract viewers through open, democratic notions of creating. 'My kid can do that' has in many senses transformed from dismissal to marketing opportunity. Most major institutions now have activity spaces for children that arguably reflect the ideals of relational aesthetics. Rirkirt Tarivanija, also a curator, is most famous for cooking Thai food and then doling it out to onlookers in galleries and museums. Cooking is no doubt a skill, but a domestic, not a rarified, one. Its function and presence, however gloriously synaesthetic, is widespread. (Ironically, the best-known definition of deskilling, understood in particular by economists, does not carry with it this connotation of heroism and democracy. Rather, it means the cost-cutting phasing-out of professional workers by machines or less-skilled workers.)

Curationism: how curating took over the art world and everything else. David Blazer. Ed. Pluto Press, 2014

[catholictastes-blog]

Book list:

Aliens & Anorexia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Kraus_(American_writer)#Aliens_and_Anorexia

The Argonauts https://www.amazon.com/Argonauts-Maggie-Nelson/dp/1555977359

An Arab Melancholia https://www.amazon.com/Arab-Melancholia-Semiotext-Native-Agents/dp/158435111X

The Baron in the Trees https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Baron_in_the_Trees

Birthday Girl with Possum https://www.amazon.com/Birthday-Girl-Possum-Brendan-Constantine/dp/1935904345

Blood and Guts in High School https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_and_Guts_in_High_School

Bluets https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluets_(poetry_collection)

The Stories of Breece D’J Pancake https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Breece-DJ-Pancake/dp/0316715972

The Broad Picture https://www.amazon.com/Broad-Picture-Essays-1987-1996/dp/1852424400

The Broom of the System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Broom_of_the_System

Chelsea Girls https://www.amazon.com/Chelsea-Girls-Eileen-Myles/dp/0876859325

The Centaur https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Centaur

The Coming Insurrection https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coming_Insurrection

The Cow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariana_Reines#Books_of_Poetry

Crazy for Vincent https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/crazy-vincent

Curationism https://www.amazon.com/Curationism-Curating-World-Everything-Exploded/dp/1552452999

Either/Or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Either/Or

Every Day Is for the Thief https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/books/review/teju-coles-every-day-is-for-the-thief.html?mcubz=0

Farther Traveler https://www.amazon.com/Farther-Traveler-Ronaldo-V-Wilson/dp/1933996331

Here We Are in Paradise https://www.amazon.com/Here-We-Are-Paradise-Stories/dp/0316199494

How to See https://www.amazon.com/How-See-Looking-Talking-Thinking/dp/0393248135

I Love Dick https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Love_Dick

If on a winters night a traveler https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_on_a_winter%27s_night_a_traveler

Jesus’ Son https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus%27_Son_(short_story_collection)

Love in the Ruins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_in_the_Ruins

Mercury https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariana_Reines#Books_of_Poetry

The Moviegoer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moviegoer

Mythologies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythologies_(book)

My Name is Red https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Name_Is_Red

Nausea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nausea_(novel)

NW https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NW_(novel)

Pastoralia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastoralia_(short_story_collection)

The Quick and the Dead https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Dead-Joy-Williams/dp/0375727647

Rabbit Run https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit,_Run

Sadness https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sadness_(short_stories)

Saint Thomas Aquinas: The Dumb Ox https://www.amazon.com/Saint-Thomas-Aquinas-Dumb-Ox/dp/0385090021

Salvation Army https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/salvation-army

The Second Coming https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Second_Coming_(Percy_novel)

The Soul at Work https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/soul-work

Steps https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steps_(book)

The Stranger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stranger_(novel)

Surveys https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/surveys

Tenth of December https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenth_of_December:_Stories

Testo Junkie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testo_Junkie

Torpor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Kraus_(American_writer)#Torpor

White Teeth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Teeth

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_We_Talk_About_When_We_Talk_About_Love

Winesburg, ohio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winesburg,_Ohio

Women, Race & Class https://www.amazon.com/Women-Race-Class-Angela-Davis/dp/0394713516

[mack-sculpturethree]

Curating = Buzzword!

[schindermania]

My latest column is up at MrXStitch.com featuring @joettamaue @irisnectarstudio and @kingbeeme ! #curationism #curating #curator #curation #qanda #mrxstitch