ideacritik

surely more to come... sites i revisited or were made aware of through the conference... check ca.
olia lialina
john chris jones
future farmers
weworkforthem
del.icio.us
wikicities
they rule

after attending an inspirational conference of webdesign today [http://www.decadeofwebdesign.org/] and buying a book on aesthetics, i feel i am compelled to address my previous dismissal of the concept of 'aesthetics'.

"it is notable, for example, that the so-called 'conceptual' art of the late 1960's and early 70s opposed itself indefatigably to the aesthetic, as such, rather than conceiving of itself as rethinking or reworking it in some way. while the antipathy of the cultural studies and art theory of the 1970s and 80s to anything conncected to aesthetics is well known. aesthetics appeared there as an anti-intellectual form of cultural elitism, the claims to universality of which are based on little more than a mystical veil of intuition, shrouding a defence of inherited authority."

from an aesthetic point of view, peter osborne, 2000.

a genius excerpt from a speech the late susan sontag delivered upon winning the German Peace Prize - found on designobserver - quoted by drenttel.

"To have access to literature, world literature, was to escape the prison of national vanity, of philistinism, of compulsory provincialism, of inane schooling, of imperfect destinies and bad luck. Literature was a passport to enter a larger life; that is, the zone of freedom. Literature was freedom. Especially in a time in which the values of reading and inwardness are so strenuously challenged, literature is freedom."