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kwispayne · 4 years

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The Top 10 Albums Of 2019

This year for music was spectacular. One of the better in a while. Usually I do a mini list of albums that were the worst that I don't release, but even the bad albums this year were just a bit bland or misguided (although this is from what I've heard, I know there is mountains of bad music out there). This year's top 10 is very much a list of artists who I have enjoyed or who was aware of who just completely laid out their A game. Some of these guys have been in my lists before and have barely scraped the top and this year they have just pushed their way in or completely floored me. Choosing this years list was hard as there are a lot of honorable mentions. You'll have to ask me which ones they are yourself.

Now before I go on I must explain that…

1. Yes, this is very biased, off course.

2. I haven’t listened to most great stuff which has came out this year. In fact, I have alot of CDs and stuff I still need to listen to, so this is of what I’ve heard so far. I really don’t have time to listen to alot of music and stuff at the moment.

3. All recommendations would be helpful for stuff that I should have listened to or reconsidered.

10. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Infest The Rats Nest

Genres: Thrash, Progressive Rock, Progressive Metal, Stoner Metal

Country of origin: Australia

For some strange reason I have kept these guys off my radar for a long time. I do not know how or why. These guys literally are for me. A group of crazy Australians who change their genre willy nilly and have experimented with some of my favorite sounds. So this year I decided to buy their first album for this year Fishing For Fishies (not in this list, but an honorable mention), a glam rock psych folk freak out. And then for them to turn around and release a progressive thrash metal concept album about sci fi and the environment...it just confused and intrigued me. The production on this album is one of my favorite little quirks. With less focus on modern compression, there's a very retro late 70's sound added to the early 80's thrash metal vibe, and it works perfectly. I'm also really impressed at Stu Mackenzie's ability to adopt a gruff thrash timbre when comparing to the voice he uses for their lighter material. Lyrically they have also been able to add a great niche to the eco metal trend, being not afraid to be honest with a good sense of satire and imagination.

9. Devin Townsend - Empath

Genres: Progressive Metal, Progressive Rock, Extreme Metal, Experimental Rock, Art Rock, Djent, Comedy

Country of origin: Canada

This proves how great this year is. Usually Devin gets a higher position, and while I have preferred his most recent material to this album, this is still an exceptional piece of work. Having disbanded the Devin Townsend Project, Devin decided to really take his sound and expand it to heights he hasn't been fully to achieve within the context of a band. With orchestras, choirs and harder compositions, Devin is the perfect example of an individual who under the stress of having too many big ideas, that he's able to create a piece of art and come out alive and well at the other end. Lyrically again we see Devin constantly seeking balance in the difficult world we live in, and as always Devin's approach to this is almost childlike, to the point where he even has a narrator reading out parts of what seems to be a children's story. Epic, grandiose, heavy, groovy and incredibly successful at pulling on the audience and the performers heartstrings.

8. Periphery - Periphery IV: Hail Stan

Genres: Djent, Progressive Metal, Extreme Metal, Experimental Rock, Pop Rock

Country of origin: USA

For a few years Periphery have always been on my radar and I have enjoyed a lot of their music, but as an albums band they have never really blown me away (the closest they got was Juggernaut: Alpha). But they are back again with their heaviest and most powerful album to date. I remember reading an interview with one of their old producers who claimed that these guys are their own worst enemies because they are obsessed with following their own path without the help of others and I'm glad that on this album they have stuck to their guns from what they've been building on for the past few years because it has all finally paid off. Musically brilliant as always, the real shining moment has to be Spencer Sotelo's vocals and lyrics. The range this guy has, from cleans, screams and growls, it really covers the full gamut of a metal vocalist. I think if this career doesn't work, he definitely could be an easy replacement for Chester Bennington from Linkin Park. I'm glad to finally have these guys in my top 10 lists, proving that djent isn't just a meme and can produce some great art.

7. Billie Eilish - When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?

Genres: Pop, Art Pop, Experimental Rock, Electronic

Country of origin: USA

This was an artist I really didn't see to blow up as big as she did. Whenever she was originally presented to me, I thought she would be massive in the indie world with a potential for crossover. But wow, this really has been her year. I think the hype around this album is as true as it could get, but I'd like to think I get a little bit more our of her music as most people would. Being a big fan of artists like Björk & Imogen Heap, I thought this would be a lot more like a modern version of what they are doing, but she definitely will be the next big thing over the next few years. Production wise, this album is in a complete league of its own. In many ways its very quiet, but the quietness of it very much adds to a certain level of dangerous. In many ways you could say the effect of her music is a bit like an electronic version of Pixies. The song writing and lyrics on this album are fantastic and really are impressive as this whole album is very much just an experiment between 2 siblings. Billie's vocals too are also very unique. In many ways she is like a less dynamic Björk, where she has this childlike quietness, but unlike Björk, she has an added sinister undertone. Worth the hype and whatever she comes out with next will interest me.

6. Bring Me The Horizon - Amo

Genres: Pop, Hard Rock, Art Pop, Post Hardcore, Electronic, Experimental Rock

Country of origin: England

3 years ago, these guys were able to slowly morph their way into a poppy sound, but keep the angst and metallic vibes they were presenting years previously. Now on this album, they have very much gone full force into the pop world. Now, in many ways this could be seen as a band selling out, but with Bring Me The Horizon it very much isn't, because the version of pop that they have decided to enter into, isn't very much a cash grab. Instead, the band have experimented with a murkier electronic tone and whenever the album moves into more radio friendly stuff, they are seen experimenting with indie electronic artist's like Grimes, beatboxer Rahzel and even Dani Filth from Cradle Of Filth. Bring Me The Horizon in my opinion now are part of what I believe to be a new level of artist (along with other artists like Enter Shikari or Jamie Lenman), where genre lables are unimportant, but sound is very much a focus. Lyrically also, the band deals with some some rather unpoppy subject matter, so I can't see these guys going down the Take That road just yet. In my opinion this is their greatest work, and I'm hopefully for whatever they decide to experiment with next.

5. The Claypool Lennon Delirium - South Of Reality

Genres: Progressive Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Experimental Rock, Comedy, Art Rock

Country of origin: USA

I am so glad that this wasn't a one time thing. A few years ago, this album was also able to find a place in my top 10, and I'm glad that they're 2nd album is even better. Musically as always, Les Claypool's bass playing is out of this world, but Sean Lennon has to be one of the most underrated guitar players out there. While their first album was very much a very well crafted experiment, this album is a tiny bit maturer, with a great focus on the songwriting and clearer production. Lyrically the album is very much full of humor or odd stories, but overall they add to the psychedelic sound (Like Flea's though is a great piece of environmental satire). In many ways, choosing this album to be in my top list is mainly just to confirm bias, because the sound these guys make is very much just a box tick list of sounds I like.

4. Vampire Weekend - Father Of The Bride

Genres: Pop, Indie Rock, Experimental Rock, Adult Contemporary, Hipster

Country of origin: USA

I have been a fan of these guys for a long time now, and while they've never made I've been unhappy with this, I do believe this album to be their masterpiece. The quirkiness of these guys is still very much an important part of their sound but the best quality of this album would have to be a bigger and better focus on the songwriting. At times this album is very much a bow down to the past, but at times the production can change to a more modern and experimental feel, with the added flourishes of vocoder and electronics. In many ways you could say that the band have successfully been able to make a millennial album for boomers. But jokes aside, the songwriting quality, the catchiness of the material and the surprisingly at times complex song structures and musicianship make this album and Vampire Weekend a band that sticks out in both the popular and indie sides of music.

3. Motorpsycho -The Crucible

Genres: Progressive Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Heavy Prog, Hard Rock, Stoner Metal, Experimental Rock

Country of origin: Norway

Each year these guys make an album, they always just scrape the barrel to be left off my top 10. I always feel back about leaving these guys off, because these guys really are one of the best prog bands out there. The best way I can describe this album is that it's like a modern version of Yes' Close To The Edge...but in reverse. This time around, the band only have 3 tracks, with them all being within the 8-20 minute mark. But each one is very much a different mood or mindset, moving from epic suites, crushing riffs, beautiful crescendos and insane freak out sections. I also love how vocally imperfect the guys in this band can be. They sometimes tackle things outside their range, but it's done in a way which adds to the emotional impact of the music that they're making. In my opinion this is their masterpiece but it also keeps me excited for whatever project they next have in store for us.

2. Neal Morse - Jesus Christ: The Exorcist

Genres: Progressive Rock, Hard Rock, Musical, Christian Rock

Country of origin: USA

I have been a Neal Morse fan for over 10 years now. Even after his exit from Spock's Beard, I have always followed his career, from his prog rock carefree to his Jesus loving aftermath. Now, to be honest, when I first heard about this project...I thought it was a joke. The title...come on...Jesus Christ and The Exorcist. But, it's not a joke at all. In fact it might be the greatest piece of work Neal has done. Apparently this project has been a few years in the works, and I'm glad that Neal has graced us with the release of the music itself. In many ways you could say that musically it is Neal by numbers, but it is a genuinely well crafted musical that I hope Broadway or the West End can snap up, because there is a wide audience for this (I'm not religious, but I can jam to this message). The voice cast he assembled for the recordings is great too, but the real fan boy moment was being able to get all 3 vocalists who have been in Spock's Beard, and in one song even to get them all to sing. The smile I still have stuck to my face from listening to this is not an easy one to get rid off.

1. Elbow - Giant Of All Sizes

Genres: Pop Rock, Progressive Rock, Indie Rock, Experimental Rock

Country of origin: England

England have won again for creating an artist which takes the top spot of my favorite album of the year. Now Elbow have been on my lists before, but I definitely think they are band who is getting better and better, and this album only proves it, as I think this is very much their greatest work. While they're previous 2 releases saw the band experimenting with different sounds, this album in many ways is a mire grander and experimental album with a conceptual feel. One of the elements that has always drawn me to this band is how in tune they all are musicians, made especially focused on this album. Production wise it is pretty much clear and crisp, but there is the odd experiment heard throughout. One of the best elements of this album is that it is very epic in scope, but behind it there is a a raw heart to it, which very well bodes to the concept which I perceive to be a working class emotion to the chaotic times that we live in. Guy Garvey's vocals and projection of his lyrics are always one the strongest feats of the band (I don't think I've ever met anyone who could hate his voice). Elbow are very much a band that I could say are very much a modern Beatles, where they go deep into the pop stratosphere trying to make their music as perfect sounding, but never losing the quality of their songwriting. Also, the album cover is dope too.

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bitchfromtheseventhhell · 7 years

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Which ASOIAF characters would be Hogwarts professors of?

this is a fascinating ask and i’ve been chewing on it a lot and am not sure my answer is the best answer but here we are.

i’m going to focus on each class–rather than character–and give an explanation for who i think would be best suited. i’m going to stick to major characters (not nec. pov characters, but characters who figure importantly) and see how that works for me. i grabbed the classes from the hp wikia. i’m also throwing in some short descriptors where i feel like the subject is less examined bc it doesn’t happen in harry’s perspective in the books.

Alchemy (Sixth and seventh years, if demand is sufficient) - “the study of the four basic elements, as well as the study of the transmutation of substances.” - dany - i feel like dany’s story thematically speaking is so much about the transmogrification of elements (and yes i do think that extends to her political actions as well). the fact of the birth of dragons is alchemical to some extent (esp if you’re talking about petrified dragon eggs).

Arithmancy - “predicting the future using numbers,” with “bit of numerology” as well. - sam - i kind of want sam to be a bunch of all of these, but i think that this is the most sam of them all, largely because of this:“Who cares how much pickled cod they ate six hundred years ago?” Jon wondered.“I would.” Sam carefully replaced the scroll in the bin from which Jon had plucked it. “You can learn so much from ledgers like that, truly you can. It can tell you how many men were in the Night’s Watch then, how they lived, what they ate…”“They ate food,” said Jon, “and they lived as we live.”a part of me wants to say that this is simply history, and i think that it in the context of asoiaf it definitely is. you’re looking at the past to take stock of what might be in the future (*coughs loudly at binns for sucking at being a history of magic professor*). but i think that there is a predictive nature to a lot of sam’s research, whether or not sam is aware of it, and i’m inclined to see this cross from history into speculation on sam’s part.

Astronomy - “Astronomy is a branch of magic that studies stars and the movement of planets. It is a subject where the use of practical magic during lessons isn’t necessary.” - sansa - i wish we had a better sense of what astronomy was like, tbh, but given that “Astronomy is one of the only fields of study at Hogwarts which has a direct equivalent in the Muggle world,” i’m going to kind of wing it here based on my own imagination. the main reason this strikes me as a sansa subject is that it seems to me one of the few subjects that carries the weight of songs. since so many constellations have stories that go along with them, that, to me, is crucial to sansa’s way of viewing the world and the influences on the world. (not sure how this fits, but the fact that it doesn’t involve the practical use of magic is one that ties in to the symbolism of lady’s death and the fact that sansa’s capacity to skinchange seems to not have grown beyond her direwolf).

Care of Magical Creatures - brienne - i’m not even going to pretend that this isn’t shaped by my brienne//keladry of mindelan parallels feels here. it’s entirely about “protector of the small” and if there’s anyone in asoiaf who is patient and gentle enough to protect all sorts of animals–even the dangerous ones–, as well as to teach how to do that, it’s brienne.

Charms - theon - i keep thinking back to augusta longbottom thinking that charms is a “soft option”, and the fact of “cheering charms” and i just keep getting hit by a truck with my theon feels. the fact that it’s seen as (and is?) a less powerful form of magic than transfiguration unless it’s in the right hands (see: prof flitwick) and the fact that there’s magic to make you smile and put on a happy face even when you’re the most down and out...idk that strikes me a lot of how theon spent his youth (before even touching his post-torture state). i don’t actually think he’d be a very good charms prof. but i think he’d be the charms prof.

Defense Against the Dark Arts - arya - i was tempted to try and put this with someone else but tbh it’s arya just straight up. honestly it was a crime that jkr didn’t make harry a defense against the dark arts teacher. even putting aside my own harry//arya parallels feels i feel like arya’s the best suited to it by virtue of the way she’s currently training. while i think jon and dany both have the “heroism to combat evil” thing going down, arya is learning an artistry to her own “heroism to combat evil.” yeah–these are dark arts (different poisons and magics and whatnot). but i also don’t for a second think that arya’s going to end up an assassin, or that she’s not going to be guided by her own ridiculously strong moral compass, and that’s where i see her turning all the resources presented her over the course of the series into a mechanism to defeat evil. there’s a breadth to her creativity that i think prepares her for this one.

Divination - melisandre - melisandre is someone who is a seer of some sort, and who is trying to teach others the way of her religion, so i feel like this one is fairly straightforward.

Herbology - davos - i was going to make a joke about “onion” knight or how he’s down to earth, but in reality i think that davos is sharp and observant and i feel like both of those are required for taking care of magical plants. i also think he’s patient and steady and wouldn’t mind waiting months on end for mandrakes to grow so that they could be used in potions. it’s not as flashy as doing some of the other kinds of magic out there, but it’s necessary, and that’s what davos does well: the necessary hard work to make the magic function.

History of Magic - tyrion - tyrion’s kind of like sam in that i think he could easily cover a whole bunch of these subjects, but the reason i pick history of magic is that many of the ways that tyrion manages to intellectually outflank people is having a good understanding of context, historical or otherwise, and using that to his advantage. he would be very different from binns (in a good way) as a teacher, but i think this would ultimately be his subject.

Muggle Studies - jon - i feel like jon would be the muggle studies professor who keeps bringing up muggle technology that would be so much more efficient than magic and people wouldn’t understand where he was coming from because he didn’t communicate his thought process effectively and everyone would give him a lot of side-eye, but he’d be definitely right because muggle technology and innovation has def outstripped magical technology and innovation at this point.

Potions - oberyn - i mean the bro makes his own venoms and poisons i feel like i don’t even need to explain this one.

Study of Ancient Runes - “the study of runic scriptures, or Runology. Ancient Runes is a mostly theoretical subject that studies the ancient runic scripts of magic.” - marwyn - feels like a bit of a cheap shot since this is basically what he does in canon. runner up is missandei.

Transfiguration - bran - i feel like bran takes it to the next level with his skinchanging capacity and since that strikes me as the most like animagic (is that the word for it?) then i feel like bran would be a master at transfiguration. (throw in the fact that dumbledore was a transfiguration professor, and he was one of the strongest wizards ever and i feel like that maps to bran as the most wizardly main character of the series)

#anonymous #hogwarts sortings #i suppose?

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survivorelara · 6 years

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Tribal Council #11: Orion

Let’s get to the questions.

Kori, 8 people left, how do you ensure that you aren’t going home when the stakes are so high?

Honestly fam, I'm just trying to not die in a Hurricane, and since I have to vote early, I'm sure the context of the tribal as I understand it is bound to change dramatically, and I'll vote incorrectly. I'm just hoping for myself to both be alive and in this game come tomorrow. But we'll see how it all shakes down.

Loris, still possibly 2 idols left in this game, should we expect more split votes?

I don’t think so.. especially considering it’s final eight where every vote matters and there aren’t massive majorities forming that can afford to do it. Also the idols haven’t been played very well so far.. let’s hope that’s a trend!

Roxy, first Dani and now Drew T have both expressed disdain towards you as they exited the game, what does this mean?

Ok firstly dani had disdane towards me because of smthing I didnt do and we made up. As for Drew t, well, weve been playing this game together since day one so he probably felt like I betrayed him since weve gone through a lot of tribals together. It just means he felt betrayed. Although I did feel close to him and his thoughts are justified I think had he put more effort into talking to me I might have felt closer to him. It was usually only me striking up the conversation and we only had about two or three full on conversations. Its easy to believe things others say and its easy to feel distant from someone if you are the only one putting an effott into having a conversation

Andrea, you also received 2 votes against you, so I’m gonna ask the same question to you that I asked Ci’ere, how does that make you feel going into this tribal?

lmFAO like trash. I know Ci'ere is still super mad like im sorry ilu still :(( im 100000% expecting some more votes this tribal and if trend continues itll be 3 so next round ill get 4 and be peacin out!! lol all jokes asides yikes I didnt mean to burn bridges I was busy like I said and had no time to even check into things. If I did I would have voted Drew. I really hope that wont be used against me, because I really love this game and 8th is just kinda sucky!

Ci’ere, you got 2 votes against you last tribal council, what happened and does that make you worried going into this tribal?

This is a rebuttal to Miss Andrea’s statement: I’m not mad. I never claimed to be mad. I never said anything to make you believe that I was mad. If I was mad, you would definitely know that I am mad. If you think I was mad before, you have not experienced my madness. If anything, I feel betrayed by a certain straight white male that shall not be named at this moment in time because I was willing to go to the end with him. However, he had no problem with signing my death certificate even though he had 6 other options to choose from excluding Drew T. & myself. Anyway, Andrea, I was just trying to understand why you voted for me because you didn’t have to. I (and probably others) told you 12+ hours before the deadline that Drew T.’s name was being thrown out, yet you followed the straight & told people you weren’t voting for Drew T. So don’t sit here and act like you didn’t know because you did. You made that decision on your own.

Emma, Drew T also didn’t say very nice words about you as he left… what do you have to say about that?

FIRST of all im not taking what he is saying seriously i never needed him on my side idc lol Sierra dawn thomas is just an okay player she was good in game changers thats it also if your basing everything on touchy subjects well ur not really aware sorry not sorry xxxx but at the end of the day its just a game i dont think any poorly him or hate him but im just saying hes wrong OOP

Sam, you scored 0 points at this challenge, what happened?

i was focused on tryna google answers and was a few seconds late to submitting so rip my 6 points

Drew H, CONGRATULATIONS on winning immunity once again!! How are you feeling?

Or um...12, I guess

Let’s go ahead and get to the votes.....

But before we do that... Emma stands.

Play the game or quit was said last round oh look surprise bitch! im actually playing the game

This IS the hidden immunity idol from Revati. She is playing this idol for: Roxy. Any votes for Roxy will NOT count.

First vote:

oh my god okay... either this is a throw vote which I’m fine with or this is an important vote and if so I’m rlly sorry I just can’t do this anymore and if people are being fussy about the votes then they leave me no choice but to do things like this

Roxy. (does not count.)

Second vote:

i know you're gonna hate me, but i feel this is best for my game. sorry :c

Roxy. (does not count.)

Third vote:

Realistically by virtue of me voting for you, you're gonna stay anyway but oh well talk to you tonight after it fails, i guess <3

Emma.

Fourth vote:

KMS

Kori.

Fifth vote:

Emma.

Sixth vote:

LMAOSOCKGH WHAT THE FUCK THIS WAS DECIDED IN THE LAST 3 MINUTES HELP

Kori.

Seventh vote:

I did not want this but I know where I wanna be down the line and I knew my options and this one I think will work out better for me in the long run.

Emma.

Eighth vote:

I am so fucking sorry kori I did not wanna do this. But I cannot vote someone who wants to idol me and this is how its turned out. Iku so much u are the only one who genuinely talked eith me this game. God this is literally killing me

Kori.

Meaning, this vote is ending in a tie. 3 votes Kori and 3 votes Emma. Everyone but Kori and Emma has 24 hours to send in your tie breaking votes.. remember if it ties again, you’re going to rocks.

Your revote is due tomorrow, October 10th, at 8pm EST.

#tribalcouncil #flyinghigh

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thefifthdayjournal · 7 years

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the architecture of a problem – psychoanalysis and creative practice

Mike Eden

An Interview with Professor Malcolm Quinn

Psychoanalysis has the character of a Promethean wound in that it has survived so many debunking’s and re-interpretations to grow back and undergo another renewal and return to its foundations in a rhythm that would more than likely amuse its founder.

It is now approximately one hundred and twenty years since Freud formulated his ideas and created psychoanalysis, since that point Freud’s dream of widespread acceptance of his theory has never fully come to pass but despite continued attacks from alternate theoretical frameworks and threatened irrelevance from the brain sciences Freud’s ideas persist and offer serious challenges to the would be usurpers.

In the arts psychoanalysis proves a compelling subject for or companion to art making inspiring first the Surrealists and subsequently such significant artists as Louise Bourgeois, Antony Gormley and Damian Hirst to name a few, however since the most scathing and convincing criticism of surrealism came from Freud himself we can safely say that incorporating psychoanalysis is always problematic.

To explore if this is a necessary problem Professor Malcolm Quinn shares his thoughts on psychoanalytic approaches in art and design.

M Eden: One of the first things I wanted to ask you about is an idea that you introduce in ‘Knowing Nothing Staying Stupid,’ the fall of knowledge, you relate this to the relationship in psychoanalysis between the analysand and the analyst, this is a difficult point for people to accept since we are often led to believe that knowledge is power.

M Quinn: The first thing to say is that I wrote that book with professor Dany Nobus of Brunel university and it was very much a joint effort, the thing we were most keen to point out in the book was that the only knowledge that’s at stake in psychoanalysis is unconscious knowledge, that psychoanalysis its self doesn’t represent a coherent body of knowledge that you then apply either to someone in the clinical situation or to an art work or something else, but really the whole point of psychoanalysis is to put ones-self as analyst in the position to receive whatever is emerging from the unconscious of the analysand[1]. As Freud pointed out in his introductory lectures the whole point of psychoanalysis is that the analyst knows nothing! This is a hard point to accept because this suggests that if you don’t know anything then you can’t do any interpretation, you can’t do any interpretation because the interpretation is being done by the analysand who is constantly interpreting whatever is in tension in the unconscious,

M Eden: A lot of artists have an interest in the unconscious, but you have said that the nature of this is often misinterpreted by creatives in what sense?

M Quinn: The unconscious isn’t a lumber room full of stuff, the unconscious is what is currently impossible in your life because your life is set up in a certain way, the unconscious is what is implicit but not allowed or in some way repressed, foreclosed or forbidden in the way a person’s life is currently constructed. So what is unconscious emerges precisely as a fall of knowledge, of knowledge of one’s self, so even as your aiming to make a definitive statement something trips you up you have a slip of the tongue and that slip of the tongue represents the fall of knowledge in so far as it’s the fall of explicit conscious knowledge into the realm of unconscious knowledge, it’s like the truth of unconscious knowledge appearing within the conscious effort to make a definitive statement. This is also why in psychoanalysis the ‘truth’ isn’t teleological, it’s not about the end, you don’t get the truth at the end, the truth emerges as cause, the truth is what caused you to make a slip of the tongue, the truth is what causes you to do something out of the ordinary. The unconscious truth is what emerges in symptoms in types of behaviour and out of the refusal to accept certain potentialities and possibilities. It’s not as if psychoanalysis is about being clever or stupid but the impossibility of being clever because even as you set yourself up to be clever the unconscious is going to find a way to emerge in ways you don’t expect.

M Eden: How do you help someone to understand that who is of the opinion that knowledge is empowering, the more I have the better off I am, the more options I have, the better I am at accessing aspects of society. People see themselves as needing this to be able to move forward to be employable or tackle problems that emerge.

M Quinn: I suppose I might say for example if you know more and more and more about the recent financial crisis and more and more and more about bankers bonuses does that actually help you to get any agency or grip on this world? It simply gives you more and more information and adds to a sense of being powerless to affect anything in anyway, so yes we are taught at school that knowledge acquisition is a good thing but we constantly come up against situations in life where the more knowledge you gain the more embedded you are in the situation your trying to escape.

M Eden: In what sense then do you feel people get this wrong when they try to use the unconscious in their work or as a subject for art?

M Quinn: The point about the unconscious is that it doesn’t emerge where you want it to, it emerges within close attention to structures of speech and language and I’m particularly interested in the construction of speech and knowledge and understanding in an art and design context. For example at the Tate (during the Turner prize) I saw that they had asked people to write down comments on post it notes and stick these to the wall so everyone could see them, it was an attempt to democratise the commentary on art, someone had written, ‘ what is the function of artists in society? I still don’t know after this exhibition!’ I thought that was a great question because you might say that in the art world, artists/critics and curators are always functioning but are they acknowledging their function? Do they know how they’re functioning?

M Eden: In what way does psychoanalysis help us to understand this blank spot?

M Quinn: In a strictly Freudian sense if the analyst knows nothing and the person being analysed knows something but doesn’t know they know it, because its unconscious/repressed, in this sense artists/art institutions could claim they know how there functioning and perhaps on some level they do but they don’t know how they know it and the ways that this knowledge prevents them from really seeing how they fit into society or a broader picture, for example perhaps they see themselves free of function there not a part of the system there above it commenting on it in a very self-aware way,

M Eden: Like the supposed openness of the Tate to ask people to display their opinions, as if it’s the opinion that really matters rather than simply standing for openness itself with no real agency offered?

M Quinn: Exactly, then someone comes along like a Lacanian hysteric talking to the master and says ‘I don’t know how you’re functioning! Tell me how you’re functioning!’ that I would say is the emergence of the unconscious because it’s about the construction of discourse it’s about the point where something emerges which reveals a point of impossibility it shows an obstacle or a difficulty of speech, ‘Tell me how you’re functioning!’... ‘No I can’t, I don’t function! I’m not part of a system I’m a free agent!’

M Eden: Would you say then that knowledge of psychoanalysis prevents a person taking too grand a position and forces them to reflect on the implications of their work?

M Quinn: Well it makes me think about a film ‘The Five Obstructions’ by Lars Von Trier, in some ways it’s a drama where the son kills the father, Von Trier goes back to his old mentor Jørgen Leth and says, ‘I love your film the Perfect Human it’s a great film and now where going to remake it five times’ part of the point of Von Trier asking Leth to remake his film is that he’s saying, you ask questions with this film but you never answer them, he’s trying to say these films are unfinished they need to be done again and in a sense the idea of taking ‘The Perfect Human’ which is also a perfect little film (It shows a contemporary couple doing things in a surreal space as a kind of celebration of modernity) and ripping it apart and being cruel and doing odd things like saying to Leth go to worst place in the world and make this film again but don’t show the place, so Leth goes to Bombay red light district and puts up a semi-transparent screen and Von Trier says ‘no your showing it do it again!’ it’s horrible in one sense it seems vicious but what Von Trier is after is a certain sort of rigor, he’s saying you raise these questions why don’t you answer them? And I think there is a lot of question raising in contemporary art a lot of bids for ethical value, a lot of bids for content and relevance but at a certain point you can say well you say these things but how far are you going to go? You claim these positions, these relevancies, these contexts but to what extent? At one point Von Trier says to Leth would you make this film in a refugee camp? Leth says of course not, so there’s a probing of ethical limits.

M Eden: And this probing of ethical limits is a part of your research and comes from an understanding of psychoanalysis?

M Quinn: A lot of the thinking I do about psychoanalysis and the arts is around notions of research there’s a famous text by Freud on Leonardo Da-Vinci where he said Leonardo was a researcher and an artist and often the researcher in Leonardo got in the way of the artist so he couldn’t finish anything, what Freud posits there is an artist Da-Vinci couldn’t finish a painting because research got in the way, you have a practice and a problem within it, I can’t finish, and I paralleled that with a story from Jacques Lacan from his seminar on ethics where he goes to visit his friend Jacque Prevert in Paris during the Vichy period its world war two there all starving and Prevert has put round the room these matchboxes he’s taken out the matchbox draws and stuck them into the next matchbox to make a large odd looking chain that you can never finish and Lacan says this is an interesting thing he compares it to the Freudian idea of the drive, the point about this is that if you have a practice you can say ‘I have a practice with a problem’, I can’t finish something but if you shift the position to one of research you can say ‘I can make a practice out of the problem’, in the case of Prevert you’ve got something and it never finishes so you actually rebuild the practice around the problem and that’s a different way to look at it. Artists might say I have a problem with my practice in the same way that in psychoanalysis people might say I have a problem with my marriage or I’ve got a problem with my kids or mum but that’s not the point of psychoanalysis that would be for some sort of cognitive behaviour therapy in other words repair re-build move on where as psychoanalysis would be like saying how do we look at the architecture of the problem how do we build this whole artefact that we are making over these weeks in analysis how do we make this Cathedral out of the problem! How do we construct the problem into something which has its own independent existence?

M Eden: So there’s a certain alternative priority, a commitment to the thing that disturbs ordinary function?

M Quinn: Well it’s about desire, the problem is the problem of desire what a person thinks needs to happen for things to work, we could suggest although it may seem absurd that Leonardo is an artist who really wants to make a work of art about not being able to finish, wouldn’t that be interesting? What people want in the case of Da-Vinci is the genius who maybe tormented but never the less still churned it out, whereas Freud is saying maybe not being able to finish is interesting in its self, rather than saying how do you fix it and move on isn’t not finishing telling you something?

M Eden: In this way things might emerge that you didn’t expect they undermine your intensions but spring from a drive or desire that’s unconscious.

M Quinn: Psychoanalysis is always about this contrast between the extravagance of our desires and reality, our desires don’t really fit the world they are more Baroque than the world but we have to get along in this world, what is great about psychoanalysis is that it builds this utterly artificial relationship between the analyst and the analysand out of everyday life, it’s not everyday life its totally artificial it’s like spending weeks with somebody building a matchstick Cathedral but that Cathedral is made out of desires, things that are foreclosed or disallowed or repressed. In terms of art it allows people to make something out of the interesting aspects of their own practice not neat resolutions but building something out of their problems this is something which artists who research often take up in their PHD study.

M Eden: So would you be suspicious of people who encourage creatives to use psychoanalysis to plug holes in their…

M Quinn: Of Hal Foster, yes, well I want to mention this, Hal Foster is the kind of person who is bad for creatives because he is quoted as saying, ‘well you know I get less and less interested in psychoanalysis the more I go on but it’s a good tool sometimes if you use it properly,’ which suggests that you have a kit full of stuff and somebody says well you’ve tried all these things, why don’t you try psychoanalysis as a last resort, maybe this tool will work, maybe this tool will fix your essay or give you a plausible thing to say in a crit. That’s not the point. The point of psychoanalysis is not to say here is a tool of last resort to make things work, the point of psychoanalysis is to say, just when you thought it’s all going to work we’ll make sure it doesn’t! Just when you thought everything is fine look for the thing that’s there in contradiction, there is a strong materialist thrust to psychoanalysis it asks, what is your problem made of? Not how do we solve your problem.

M Eden: And this insight is Freudian?

M Quinn: You could say that yes, in Freud’s text, ‘Beyond the Pleasure Principle’ there is this idea of the fort/da game where the little boy is seen to throw an object out of his cot and pull it back again, as Freud points out the little boy isn’t solving the problem of mummy being away by doing this he’s not therapizing himself, he’s not making himself better he’s actually making it worse he’s turning the trauma into a game and the game is a game of repetition but none the less it is something which is keeping a drive or a desire in motion, it’s a subjective act something the subject is doing for himself, he’s making (the little boy) for want of a better word a work of art out of the trauma he’s not solving the trauma he’s not interpreting the trauma he’s using the trauma to build something as if you look at a Francis Bacon painting and you say what’s the medium?...oil paint and trauma!

M Eden: It’s kind of pathological what the boy is doing.

M Quinn: And you think artists aren’t pathological?

M Eden: Well I think they can be, but it’s interesting, how do you know when you’re not being pathological?

M Quinn: You can always stand back, it’s like Philip Guston saying he turns up in his studio looks at his work from the day before and says, ‘Christ what have I done’ it’s not that one acts in a frenzy or a romantic dream and you wake up afterwards but in some senses there is a social self an accommodated self a self that has to get on out there in the world who might turn around to your inner child with the cotton real and say why are you doing this over and over again. There’s a very brilliant artist called Elizabeth Price who works at the Royal College of Art she did her PHD at Leeds and the final work was called ‘Boulder’ and it was really about a ball of sticky tape that just got bigger and bigger and bigger, until it was a Boulder, and you might say why? But I would see that as quite Fort-Da-ish it’s about something that just keeps going.

M Eden: Like a growing anxiety that underpins your actions maybe?

M Quinn: Yes and none the less it’s a piece of research into the type of objects you might make given that you’re setting up a certain set of parameters or actions, I’m very interested in this notion of the ‘act’ and in what sense the act is seen as something which is or isn’t addressed to the other.

M Eden: The ‘act’? This is a gesture or event that opens the space for becoming or a transformation?

M Quinn: Well look let’s say there are two safe and set positions, practice and theory, these are safe positions to be in! because you say here I am in the middle of a theory doing very nicely thank you, or here I am in my practice doing very nicely thank you, in research you put practice in a crisis and relation to each other, if we go back to the ‘Five Obstructions’ you have this finished work ‘The Perfect Human’ there’s no reason to make it again and yet Von Trier sees something unfinished something unconscious something unresolved in ‘The Perfect Human’ that he wants to return to Leth with and accuse him with it, I think a lot of advanced work in art and design is about finishing things that are implicit in an existing practice that haven’t been resolved or followed through.

M Eden: So there’s a tension between the statements a practice makes that are definitive and those which are, Implicit? Don’t lots of critics of Freud get annoyed at his assured and definitive stance?

M Quinn: Well really all Freud is saying in his introductory lectures, when he says the analyst knows nothing and the analysed knows something they don’t know they know, as in what drives them, it’s not a definitive statement it’s about something which is utterly indefinite which is unconscious knowledge he’s not saying this is the law, he’s saying here’s where you have to stand if you want to see the view. The act in its self would be to take up that position where you say well I don’t know what drives you, you do but it eludes you so let’s see what this thing which eludes you is made of and that’s not definitive at all it’s utterly contingent in terms of whatever that unconscious knowledge is. What Von Trier is saying to Leth is you think this work is definitive you think it’s done but it’s not its contingent! And in way you don’t even know! Maybe your work is contingent of the Bombay red light district, maybe there is an ethical element you just haven’t faced up to, so I say no to those critics it’s the opposite of definitive its contingent.

M Eden: I see now why Hal Foster would irritate you.

M Quinn: Exactly that’s much more definitive he’s saying here’s a bunch of tools and how do I maintain my position, I would say that creatives should leap into the act, face up to what is implicit in their practice’s and try to take the implications of their work to the limits that’s far more interesting even when it falls flat then somebody desperately trying to maintain a position.

Malcolm Quinn is Professor of Cultural and Political History, Associate Dean of Research and Director of Graduate School for Camberwell, Chelsea and Wimbledon (University of the Arts London) He has written two single-authored books, ‘The Swastika Constructing the Symbol’ and ‘Utilitarianism and the Art School in Nineteenth-Century Britain’ he has co-authored ‘Knowing Nothing Staying Stupid’ with Dany Nobus.

Michael Eden

www.michaeledenart.co.uk

Image copyright Freud Museum, London.

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