General Discussion Thread

[JoB]

I'm only hoping they'll come up with some kind of a fining system for situations where someone has clearly been warned but decided to go do something stupid anyway.

I conclude that you haven't had someone go skydiving in a rocks-hail storm upwind of a lava flow yet, then. "Has clearly been warned" is still too much of a loophole for some people.

[Laufey]

As for the Finnish tourists... Well, if I were a rescuer I would rescue them regardless of their obvious stupidity. Just leaving someone to possible death just doesn't sit right. I think they should be fined though for causing an avoidable emergency.

It would definitely be tempting to just evacuate them on basis of concussion but alas no one can be rescued against their wishes. It could be called the Icelandic freedom to get yourself killed in as stupid a way as you wish.

I conclude that you haven't had someone go skydiving in a rocks-hail storm upwind of a lava flow yet, then. "Has clearly been warned" is still too much of a loophole for some people.

No but we've had some guy run over hot lava wearing nothing but shoes and a bikini bottom. He was Icelandic though, which goes to show that knowing that something's dangerous and stupid has never stopped a certain type of a person. Much agreed on the latter part...

[hushpiper]

...What I have concluded from this is that Iceland is totes my kind of place and I should move there ASAP. And bring lots of stuff to keep me warm. o_o

Now for the part of this post where I ramble about my life:

Having been working basically nonstop this whole year on finding the right meds to keep my moods stable, I think I may have finally found the right combination and dosages for me. Hopefully the odd sleep issues (dreams that are hard to differentiate from reality, ahoy!) and weird oversensitive feeling in my fingers will go away with time. What's funny is that what I'm taking for anxiety is actually an allergy pill, hydroxyzine. Took a while for it to stop knocking me out every time I took a dose, but it's remarkably calming stuff.

For an example on the dreams: we're buying a particular house that we're rather in love with, but we found out a few days ago that our lender requires all the paint on the outside of the garage to be scraped and re-done or they won't cough up the money for us. So we've been scrambling to get that done so we can sign the papers and have done with it (we're supporting blue collar workers in the area by hiring them to do it for us ). Well, the other night I dreamed that we had a big family party and we all worked on it and got it finished. The next day, I woke up and went about my business, and had no idea that it had been a dream until my hubby gave me an update on the garage situation.

It's a weird feeling. Like deja vu but more so.

[Fimbulvarg]

No but we've had some guy run over hot lava wearing nothing but shoes and a bikini bottom.

Hopefully he put some sun lotion on at least. Wouldn't want to get burned, as so often happens with people of celtic complexion when wearing only swimwear.

It's a weird feeling. Like deja vu but more so.

I think that's quite normal? I get disappointed/relieved all the time finding out that something was just a dream I had the night before.

[Haiz]

I once woke up thinking the world has ended and scrambled out of bed to warn the others......

ANYWAY
for the last official lecture of the semester we went to the museum/gallery!! They're actually putting up a new exhibiton that won't be open before June, so it felt super exclusive, albeit unfinished. ANYWAY just lemme geek out about this for a sec because it was actually super cool

like
the trondheim art museum has an archive of over 5000 works and many of them might never be exhibited, but they do sometimes do a round of exhibiting some of them - once in a while they have an artist be the curator and let them exhibit their own art and choose things from the archives to accompany it. Usually around 150 works from the archives? Anyway, the new Curator of Honor is some swedish artist who decided to not exhibit his own art, but let the choice of the exhibiton itself be art.

he picked about 500 works to be exhibited.

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL because. while the Usual way of exhibiting art is to do it by artist, by time period, by place..... he decided to do it by theme. Which, okay, doesn't sound too odd but IT KINDA IS. Every room has its own theme, so it's like walking into a playlist where all the songs are about, say, waterfalls, but they're all in different genres and from different time periods. One of the rooms was actually about water - the paintings started high up on the wall, depicting streams high up on the mountains... and then every frame was a little lower, one wall had only waterfalls stacked up over and under eachother, and then the next wall had the water flow into the sea. This journey went through all kinds of styles and mediums - there were several 1700dsy romantic paintings, some photographs, a japanese inky thing, something almost cubistic... and there were no plaques telling us when, where or by whom it was made, so unless you found the signature you were left guessing. The other rooms that were set up was a Religion Room and a.... fisherman room? yeah. We were also told there's gonna be a 'cow parade' room.

Some of the things weren't even paintings, there was a pretty huge wooden construction of Nidarosdomen's front (our esteemed local cathedral), and some porcelain bowls and some sculpturey thing. But also!! one of the paintings very obviously missed a frame (it was a round painting on a square canvas), and one painting of fish was damaged - a hole and obvious marks from an earlier frame change. There's no way these would have been up in a 'normal' exhibition. That's what makes it so great, though --- the lectures we've had these past weeks have been a lot in the vein of WHAT IS ART. WHAT IS GOOD ART. WHAT IS KITSCH. ART FOR EVERYONE. ART ELITISM. (warning for maybe nsfw in video link?)
and. like. the artist just decided that naaaah none of this matters. Is this fish? could this be vaguely interpreted as fish? it'S GOING TO ThE FISH ROOM

true art democracy. it's beautiful.
[/art history gekeery]

[Fen Shen]

That sounds like a really interesting exhibition, and one I'd like to visit myself.
I've been to four different museums in the past two weeks (which is A LOT for me, normally I visit a museum once or twice a year) and I'm starting to find out about my 'museum preferences'. Which is fun

[Fimbulvarg]

That's what makes it so great, though --- the lectures we've had these past weeks have been a lot in the vein of WHAT IS ART. WHAT IS GOOD ART. WHAT IS KITSCH. ART FOR EVERYONE. ART ELITISM. and. like. the artist just decided that naaaah none of this matters. Is this fish? could this be vaguely interpreted as fish? it'S GOING TO ThE FISH ROOM

That clip was great. I still don't get it, but it was great.

Just a heads up though, by the end it suddenly got really NSFW too. Like, if you're highly allergic to crudely drawn genitals; maybe watch something else.

[Haiz]

That clip was great. I still don't get it, but it was great.

Just a heads up though, by the end it suddenly got really NSFW too. Like, if you're highly allergic to crudely drawn genitals; maybe watch something else.

argh, I forgot that was there. THANKS DADA. edited in a warning now

oh man i shouldnt start an actual art history ramble but BASICALLY it's about the collapse of our understanding of art and the struggle of WHAT IS REAL ART,, we've all seen the weird scribbles people call modern art and we've all heard "I can do that" but like, do you understand what made all this happen? It's when we literally can't define art anymore because it can be ANYTHING and once we find a good rule for what art is, SOMEBODY *side glance at duchamp* has to break them and
and
and yeah everyone tries new things and does weird things and everyone disagrees on what art is, what's good art, how smart do you gotta be to understand real art,,,,


edit: i tried to clear things up and i did not do that at all. whoops. i can do a more thorough lecture but i doubt anyone wants that ahahah

[Mélusine]

[/art history gekeery]

*Sigh* Memories...

[Nimphy]

[/art history gekeery]

*eyes skim over* Well, looks like you had fun

[Haiz]

*eyes skim over* Well, looks like you had fun

ah hehe he woops
......... no one is obligated to read all that. just picture me going all tuuri over a museum

[DancingRanger]

ah hehe he woops
......... no one is obligated to read all that. just picture me going all tuuri over a museum

Cute imagery.

[Mélusine]

just picture me going all tuuri over a museum

Is it an other way to visit a museum ? (I mean, at least, in your head ?)

[hushpiper]

I think that's quite normal? I get disappointed/relieved all the time finding out that something was just a dream I had the night before.

I think it depends on the degree... and on the person. I get that sometimes too--that's just normal deja vu--but it's pretty rare for my dreams to be consistently that vivid/realistic/linear unless I'm under some sort of influence. I have a friend, otoh, who only needs the slightest push to descend into woo-woo land where dreams and reality meld and she can never tell if she's awake or asleep. *shrugs*

Every room has its own theme, so it's like walking into a playlist where all the songs are about, say, waterfalls, but they're all in different genres and from different time periods. One of the rooms was actually about water - the paintings started high up on the wall, depicting streams high up on the mountains... and then every frame was a little lower, one wall had only waterfalls stacked up over and under eachother, and then the next wall had the water flow into the sea.

AHAHAHAA that's hilarious! It's like collage art! All that "but what is art reeeeeeeally" stuff somehow makes me think of that bit from Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics--this one. So very postmodern! Such ontology! OooOOoooh!

[Laufey]

I really want to visit an exhibition like that - art selected by theme? Yes please! It's a genius idea! The only thing more genius that that is the cow parade because I don't even know what that would be but I want to see it so badly.

I remember from our art history lessons that our teacher had pretty much given up on the topic already. She just said art's anything someone decides to call art, but that whether it's actually good art is always open for discussion. As is what "good" even means in context of art and whether there can even be such a thing as "good art" - told you, she had sort of given up.