Experimental Epistemology

A) Principle Skills. Facilities & Endowments:

1. Picture-making (with various and devious methods).

1.1. Dry pigments, oil, acrylics, ink, graphite, chalk, emulsions, gouache, Flashe, dyes, watercolors & tempera on linen, Canvas, vellum, acetate, bristol, Arches, Fabriano & photographic papers.

1.2. Collage, montage, décollage, bricolage & camouflage.

1.3. Photography: 35 mm & 70 mm negatives & prints, and all Polaroid formats: SX-70 & 5" x 8", 20" X 24" & 40" X 80" unique contact prints.

1.4. Video: single channel compositions, multi-channel installation formats & computer-generated imagery.

2. Writing:

2.1. Theoretical: addressing issues and consequent conundrums on the relationship between Art and high- technology Art and natural ecologies, praxis in the fin de siecle, and the role of memory & ambiguity in image making.

2.2. Critical: catalogue essays, historical texts (especially on the development of photography, video & computer alteration & enhancement), and reviews.

2.3 Proposals, and candid analysis of proposals.

3. Teaching:

3.1. Graduate critique seminars in all media; studio courses in painting & drawing, and video & computer works.

3.2. History of contemporary Art (1945–present), history & theory of installation, video & computer Arts.

3.3. Seminars in Philosophy, specifically calibrated for Art Students.

3.4. Artist-In-Residence stints, lecturing, panels.

3.5. Curriculum design, graduate advising, and curating.

B) General Attitude of Mind. Caveats & Intentions.

1. According to John Berryman, "The artist is extremely lucky who is presented with the worst possible ordeal which will not nearly kill him," Within the ellipse of any aesthetic endeavor, this opinion represents the apogee...And its perigee is best expressed by Igor Stravinsky's quip, "To enjoy to the full the conquests of daring, we must demand that it operate in a pitiless light."

1.1. Artistic practice is driven by the yoke of necessity. It is emphatically not a jejune, otiose or inessential undertaking. It is goaded by the principle of hierarchy as well as the spirit of Agon. It requires every bit of one's wits, all of the time. One is either doing it, viewing it, ruminating on it, criticizing, theorizing, agonizing, or sleeping on it. There are no exceptions.

1.2. Ars Nova Modus Vivendi...Art is a way of life, not a Small business.

2. One assumes a priori that the practice of Art is inextricably linked with the axial core of consciousness; further, Art is the ne plus utra of its manifestation in the World. Art is not a mere arbiter of the moment's fashion and taste; it is the functional embodiment of immanent knowledge—crucial to the maintenance of sentient existence, civilized discourse and ecological accord.

2.1. From Robert Musil: "Art is a tool which we employ to peel the kitsch off life...That in life which cannot be employed for Art's sake is kitsch," Have carpet, will travel.

Frank Gillette

2003 / NYC / Published (with tongue halfway to cheek) by Promotional Copy