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Contradiction is ubiquitous. There is no discernible space between an idea, cultural phenomenon, artwork, relationship, or human enterprise of any kind and its own contradiction. Contradiction is ubiquitous. It is inevitable and internal to all cultural and social phenomena, to every social or cultural undertaking—including the one presented here. If we do not see it, it is because we will not look hard enough. If we do not see it, we may have succeeded in deluding ourselves. If we do not see it, we cannot move beyond—to an even richer, more instructive…contradiction.
Most challenging for us is to answer the question, where is the line? When does an intention become its opposite? Unlike the physical situation of the rabbit, where the halfway point is at least relatively clear, the precise point at which our best efforts toward realizing our intentions becomes the defeat of those intentions is far less obvious.
Postmodern Art Theory Seminar 1
One of my colleagues, an art historian, curator, and co-creator of this course, was discussing some of her experiences after coming to Towson University near Baltimore, Maryland. On arriving, she noticed (without surprise) that most of the artists on the faculty were essentially modernists. As time passed, it became obvious that more and more of the incoming students were producing work that reflected postmodern influences and ideas. Her point was that, as time passed, she witnessed (also without surprise) a gradual shift in many of the artists on the faculty toward postmodern ideas in their own work. I was struck by the fact that these same comments could not—would not—be made in many music departments of which I am aware.
The only members of the music faculty who are involved at any significant level in even modernist music are the composers and, rather more tangentially, musicologists, as well as some music theorists.