Swantje Lichtenstein
§ 1
A genius is utopian. Every subject is utopian. A flight is utopian. So better act global than German. As a concept. As a concept rather than a utopia. The genius is the genie is the ghost that no writer can escape. The Geist is in my mind. It’s on my mind. It’s Weltgeist. The Weltgeist is utopian.
Without any critical doubt. Without the possibilty of being an observer from the outside, from another utopia. As you know. As you can’t leave capitalism. To leave socialism is not a decision. You can’t leave your body. You might try. We all try. “Genie sans corp” (Leibniz)
More radicant than radical. The radicant subject has versatile roots, heterogeneous contexts and figures, transposing rather than imposing. Puts it in a fragmented space, where the virtual and the real mix up with time adding a new dimension of space (vgl. Bourriaud: Radicant, 135). Polyglossical ab ovo. Air in the space. The origin of an origin. Which – by the way- is in the middle of nothing.
Genius is the attribute of the idealistic German aesthetics for creativity and productivity as a unity of natura and ars. (Ueding: Utopie in dürftiger Zeit, 179). Ars is a concept, as a book of rules, containing forms of a unlimited number of possible aesthetic practices or products, the natura of the genius is more a vague idea, a utopian approach to a psychological explanation, more mythological than morphological. Processing rather, than archiving. The artistic production is still chosen by the the artist, writer, poet etc.
The product of construction, as in process or in archive follows patterns and principles. As a „meaning making maschine“ (M.Perloff, UG, 9), as a “resistance” (T.W. Adorno), a choice. A scheme of things, of forms, of words etc.
Both originality and genius are the same and in the first place both only mean: to be born.
The in all probability German invention of a great (male) mind as an attribute of being primary, authentic, real compared to secondary minds and copies or simulations, not only kills differences. Maybe. But there are processes and things which –as a simulacrum- don’t know of an original anymore, and there are simulations which lie in the result of their processing structures (as i.e. media, choice etc.) and therefore differ from other types of copies.
Authenticity on the other hand already depends on marketing structures- Any service authenticity is authentic and it’s not, at the same time. Authenticity needs authentication.
Authenticity is a utopia. Has to be proofed. Through authentication. Like a Geistesblitz the genius is certified.
Processing is a practice. Processing is a practice of conceptualism. Practices demonstrate the processing of a “meaning making maschine” (M. Perloff).
§ 2
KANT’S CRITIQUE OF JUDGEMENT (1791)
Genius is the innate mental aptitude (ingenium) through which nature gives the rule to art.
UTOPIA RULES
Genius is the talent (natural endowment) which gives the rule to art.
GENIUS STARTS ART FORMS
The concept is usually associated with the word genius.
CONCEPT IS A WORD
Fine arts must necessarily be regarded as arts of genius.
FINE AS GENIUS
Art is only possible as a product of genius.
PRODUCT IS A GENIUS
Genius is a talent for producing.
PRODUCING IS A GENIUS
There may also be original nonsense.
THERE MAY BE ORIGINAL RULES
Where an author owes a product to his genius, he does not himself know how the ideas for it have entered into his head.
IDEAS BREAKING AND ENTERING
Genie is derived from genius, as the peculiar guardian and guiding spirit.
THE GUARDIAN AND GUIDING GEIST OF AN ANGEL
Every one is agreed on the point of the complete opposition between genius and the spirit of imitation.
GENIUS BRINGS SPIRIT AND GHOST INTO COMPLETE OPPOSITION
Since genius reaches a point at which art must make a halt, as there is a limit imposed upon it which it cannot transcend.
ART MUST MAKE A HALT
Despite the marked difference that distinguishes mechanical art, as an art merely depending upon industry and learning, from fine art, as that of genius, there is still no fine art in which something mechanical, capable of being at once comprehended and followed in obedience.
THERE STILL IS NO FINE ART. NO ART IS CAPABLE OF BEING COMPREHENDED AND FOLLOWED IN OBEDIENCE
The belief that one cuts a finer figure on the back of an ill-tempered than of a trained horse. genius can do no more than furnish rich material for products of fine art.
GENIUS CAN DO NO MORE THAN FURNISH RICH MATERIAL FOR PRODUCTS OF FINE ART
For estimating beautiful objects, as such, what is required is taste; but for fine art, i.e., the production of such objects, one needs genius.
FOR FINE ARTS THE PRODUCTION NEEDS GENIUS
If we consider genius as the talent for fine art for example, the representation of death (in a beautiful genius), or of the warlike spirit (in mars), by means of an allegory, or attributes which wear a pleasant guise.
GENIUS NEEDS GEIST – AND TO WEAR A PLEASANT GUISE
And so in a would-be work of fine art we may frequently recognize genius without taste, and in another taste without genius.
WE MAY FREQUENTLY RECOGNIZE GENIUS WITHOUT TASTE AND IN ANOTHER TASTE WITHOUT GENIUS
The mental powers whose union in a certain relation constitutes genius are imagination and understanding.
IMAGINATION AND UNDERSTANDING AS UNION OF POWERS
If, after this analysis, we cast a glance back upon the above definition of what is called genius, we find: first, that it is a talent for art.
A TALENT FOR ART AT FIRST
Genius, according to these presuppositions, is the exemplary originality of the natural endowments of an individual in the free employment of his cognitive faculties.
FREE EMPLOYMENT IS THE EXEMPLARY ORIGINALITY
In this showing, the product of a genius (in respect of so much in this product as is attributable to genius, and not to possible learning or academic instruction) is an example, not for imitation.
THE PRODUCT OF A GENIUS IS AN EXAMPLE, NOT FOR IMITATION
But to be followed by another genius-one whom it arouses to a sense of his own originality in putting freedom from the constraint of rules so into force in his art that for art itself a new rule is won-which is what shows a talent to be exemplary.
A NEW RULE WHICH SHOWS A TALENT TO BE EXEMPLARY
Yet, since the genius is one of nature’s elect-a type that must be regarded as but a rare.
NATURE’S ELECT A TYPE WRITER
Courage has merit only in the case of a genius.
COURAGE HAS NO MERIT
Taste, like judgement in general, is the discipline (or corrective) of genius.
TASTE IS THE DISCIPLE OF GENIUS
And so, where the interests of both these qualities clash in a product, and there has to be a sacrifice of something, then it should rather be on the side of genius; and judgement, which in matters of fine art bases its decision on its own proper principles.
CLASH IN A PRODUCT WHICH IS BASED ON DECISIONS ON ITS OWN PROPER PRINCIPLES
Poetry (which owes its origin almost entirely to genius and is least willing to be led by precepts or example) holds the first rank among all the arts.
THE FIRST RANK TO POETRY
He might have added laughter to the list-if only the means of exciting it in men of intelligence were as ready to hand, and the wit or originality of humour which it requires were not just as rare as the talent is common for inventing stuff that splits the head, as mystic speculators do, or that breaks your neck, as the genius does, or that harrows the heart as sentimental novelists do (aye, and moralists of the same type).
STUFF THAT SPLITS THE HEAD OR BREAK YOUR NECK, AS THE GENIUS DOES
Consonantly with this, genius may also be defined as the faculty of aesthetic ideas.
GENIUS BELONGS TO THE FACULTY OF AESTHETIC IDEAS
Not a set purpose, that in products of genius gives the rule to art (as the production of the beautiful).
THE PRODUCTION OF THE BEAUTIFUL
Nothing can be expected in the way of what is called genius.
NOTHING CAN BE EXPECTED BUT GENIUS
§ 3
Genius is utopian and utopia gets back its unreal character (cf. Ranciere, Le partage du sensible, 64) first of all as a heterotopia, after all made out of words, images, allegories. As things and art works that are possible and thinkable. Conceptualism knows about the relation of fiction and places, of seeing and acting, feeling and working. It is utopian thinking, that art and artistic practices would be exclusive and exceptional. Artistic practices represent, form and show the relation between all other practices in the digital age.
Lecture as part of the Conference “Notes on and after Conceptualisms. Conceptualism and Post-conceptualism in the Context of Contemporary Art”, Saint Petersburg State University, May 2014