suncanon

Not sure I can do it justice in a paragraph, but generally I'm talking about the genre of social sculpture or "relational art" -- in which humans and human relationships are explored as creative material. You could think of this as parallel to the notion of "social media", except whereas social media tends to commodify individuals, relational art attempts to actualize individuals. These artworks usually try to have a direct impact on the world, such as through creating community, supplying a community with something that it needs, giving a voice to an underrepresented group, etc.

An example that sort of fits this (pardon that I don't know the name off the top of my head): - One recent artist gained fame as a sculptor in the modernist tradition, using found materials, junk, etc. His art started to garner a lot of money. So, he began to go into abandoned buildings in poor neighborhoods, cut out part of the wall or the floor, sell it as his artwork -- for hundreds of thousands of dollars at the Venice Biennale & such -- and then use that money to restore and revitalize the original abandoned building that he took the material from. He turns these buildings into community centers for the neighborhood. It's quite amazing. So really the ultimate artwork is the community center that is created and the benefit to the community that it creates, the human relationships it fosters, etc.

In other examples, artists simply create events through which people can engage with each other in some structured way. Famously, Rirkrit Tiravanija served a meal in an art gallery -- it was simply a public space to interact and be human. (There are other ways to read this artwork too... it is also a very real exhibition of culture... sort of like showing a found object but the found object is a dinner party).

There is a wide array of practices here...

But there are a few clear trends. In these new works, there is often no commodity to be bought and sold. Art rests not in images or sounds (post-internet, images and sound recordings are no longer rare), but instead the artists try to address real needs of people and communities. So, whereas the author of this essay describes modern art as purely abstract, subjective, meaningless, and designed purely for the ego of the artist, these new works are selfless, generous, and designed to have a direct impact on the world. In that sense, this movement draws from histories outside of art, such as civil rights, non-profits, grass-roots activism, etc.

Hope that is a good enough primer! In my opinion this shift (from tangible art to relational art) is as significant as the early 20th century shift from representational art to abstract art. It is a sea change, and we're right in the middle of it.

If this diatribe against postmodern art is sincere, I would offer that the author does not have a full understanding of where art sits as we begin the 21st century. We are in the middle of a stunning revolution in art that addresses many of the exact issues the author raises.

Art is far from dead and postmodernism was certainly not the end of it. If the author is in a contemporary art gallery and thinks all modern artworks look the same, perhaps it is simply not very good modern art that he or she is looking at...

Even if your journal accepts PDFs, michaelmior's comment raises an important issue that a LaTeX style template cannot be imported into most (or all?) of these Markdown editors. This would be a great feature to add, IMO!

I concur -- do any of the markdown environments listed above accept imported .cls latex style files? Would they even be compatible?

It seems like this would be essential for writing research papers according to a conference's template. If so, I would definitely use....

I like CodePen, but I am not teaching this class in JavaScript so I'm looking at more general screen sharers.

This is exactly what I'm looking for. Too bad they aren't taking new users right now.

See if there is pickup ultimate frisbee in your town/city. It is a super-friendly sport that welcomes beginners.

If you find running / weightlifting torturous (like I do), this is a really fun way to add activity to your life. After a game, you will suddenly realize that you just ran for 1-2 hours without even thinking about it.

The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property (1983) by Lewis Hyde.

It is not only a powerful deconstruction of the creative process, but it details the history of relationships between gift/craft and acquisition/capital. A valuable read for anyone who has ever wanted to put more into their projects than what is asked or required.