Hiller - The Myth of Primitivism. Perspectives on Art - Esoteric Online

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Locality fails 269 the world <strong>of</strong> sports cars and freeways (or the world <strong>of</strong> pristine white walls and spilt drinks) also behave in such ways. Since Bell’s theorem proves that the principle <strong>of</strong> local causes fails it is <strong>of</strong> crucial relevance to the present discussion <strong>of</strong> a local’ content in Australian art, ‘regionalism’ and ‘aboriginality’. <strong>The</strong> principle <strong>of</strong> local causes asserts that what happens in an area does not depend upon variables subject to the control <strong>of</strong> an experimenter in a distant ‘space-like separated’ area. <strong>The</strong> principle <strong>of</strong> local causes is common sense. <strong>The</strong> results <strong>of</strong> an experiment in a place distant and ‘space-like separated’ should not depend on what we decide to do right here. Thus ‘local’ art inevitably reflects ‘local’ conditions. ‘Local’ conditions might include the continuation <strong>of</strong> an Aboriginal presence in Australia but equally they might include the transference <strong>of</strong> art information and models from New York to Sydney. For New York and Sydney are not ‘space-like separated’ at all: information is transmitted through identifiable channels (i.e. mechanical reproductions in aeroplanes) and thus arrives not mysteriously but by identifiable means. Could it be otherwise! According to Bell’s theorem it is otherwise. For the failure <strong>of</strong> the principle <strong>of</strong> local causes implies that there can be unexplained connectedness between events in different ‘space-like separated’ places and that this connectedness allows, for example, an experimenter (e.g. an artist) in one place to affect the state <strong>of</strong> a system in another remote (apparently unconnected) place. Or this can happen in reverse. Thus to take an almost preposterous example, Böcklin’s painting <strong>The</strong> Island <strong>of</strong> the Dead completed in 1880 in Munich might be the direct (though slightly delayed) result <strong>of</strong> the successful extermination <strong>of</strong> the Tasmanian Aborigines by the white settlers, 16 despite the fact that Böcklin would have had no direct knowledge <strong>of</strong> this catastrophic event. (Like the mother who rose in alarm at the same instant that her daughter’s distant automobile crashed into a tree.) Bell’s theorem would imply that this is not merely an association nor a matter <strong>of</strong> ‘pure chance’: the conversion <strong>of</strong> potentialities into actualities cannot proceed on the basis <strong>of</strong> locally available information. If one accepts the usual ideas about how information propagates through space and time, then Bell’s <strong>The</strong>orem shows that the macroscopic responses cannot be independent <strong>of</strong> far-away causes. This problem is neither resolved nor alleviated by saying that the response is determined by ‘pure chance’. Bell’s <strong>The</strong>orem proves precisely that the determination <strong>of</strong> the macroscopic response must be ‘nonchance’, at least to the extent <strong>of</strong> allowing some sort <strong>of</strong> dependence <strong>of</strong> this response upon the far-away cause 17 While it is outside the scope <strong>of</strong> this chapter to pursue the implications <strong>of</strong> Bell’s theorem on contemporary Australian art in any greater detail, it suffices to suggest that the conscious striving after the appearance <strong>of</strong> ‘localness’ could be an utterly futile and nonsensical activity except in that it might produce effects (unknown to us) in other, remote ‘space-like separated’ regions (say in the Carpathian Mountains or the Upper Urals). <strong>The</strong> failure <strong>of</strong> the principle <strong>of</strong> local causes also invites speculation on the ‘distant’ origins <strong>of</strong> ‘local’ phenomena. How are we to interpret the fact that ‘objects’ no more convincing than the crude representations in Giorgio de Chirico’s paintings occur with an
<strong>The</strong> myth <strong>of</strong> primitivism 270 unnatural frequency in the Australian suburban landscape? Does the mere resemblance <strong>of</strong> these dissociated, displaced ‘objects’ to those in de Chirico’s pictures necessarily imply a causal connection? 15.2a Photograph reproduced in European Dialogue: A Commentary, Biennale <strong>of</strong> Sydney (1979), p. 27.
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The MYTH o
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The MYTH o
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PART I Contents List of</st
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Illustrations Display case, Berlin
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10.2 A blend of sa
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Display case, Berlin Ethnographical
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little pictures inserted me neatly
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10 Christian Metz (Fall 1985) ‘Ph
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assumptions of the
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PART I
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The myth o
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Outsiders or insiders 19 Th
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Outsiders or insiders 21 content it
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Outsiders or insiders 23 honoured i
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Outsiders or insiders 25 If the con
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Outsiders or insiders 27 of
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Outsiders or insiders 29 free-range
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‘Remember, you are the stranger.
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Editor’s introduction The
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5 Emil Nolde’s ‘ethnographic’
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Unofficial version
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From primitivism to ethnic arts 133
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PART III
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Ethnography and the formation <stro
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10 Art and meaning SIGNE HOWELL In
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Art and meaning 181 which the sculp
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Art and meaning 183 overall social
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Art and meaning 185 woven into syst
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Art and meaning 187 anthropologists
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Art and meaning 189 and visited Mus
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Art and meaning 191 ultimate ‘oth
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Art and meaning 193 10.5 Jah Hut me
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Art and meaning 195 The</st
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Art and meaning 197 without models
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11 Dark continents explored by wome
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Dark continents explored by women 2
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Page 317 and 318: Index aboriginality, as Australian
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