{"id":3426,"date":"2018-11-21T15:45:13","date_gmt":"2018-11-21T20:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/?p=3426"},"modified":"2018-11-21T15:45:13","modified_gmt":"2018-11-21T20:45:13","slug":"found-objects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/?p=3426","title":{"rendered":"Found Objects"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The faces that seem to peer up at me on rocky beaches are indubitably creatures of my imagination, but no less real for that. I&#8217;ve been trying to invent broader contexts and aesthetic provenance to clothe their ubiquity, but it was only yesterday, as I was reading WJT Mitchell&#8217;s <b>What Do Pictures Want?<\/b>, that it came home to me that my delirious panoply of rocks are <i>objets trouv&eacute;s<\/i>, <b>found objects<\/b> in the full sense of the term. Behold:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n<center><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\"  href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/blackmerh\/44742144552\/in\/album-72157694788199290\/\" title=\"Lincolnville19ix18001\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1849\/44742144552_a23f59c3a2_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"428\" alt=\"Lincolnville19ix18001\"><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/center><\/p>\n<p>\n&#8230;just two criteria for a found object: <\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>it must be ordinary, unimportant, neglected, and (until its finding) overlooked;<br \/>\n<center><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\"  href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/blackmerh\/43693332022\" title=\"Wass29vii18012\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1840\/43693332022_8cb7faf6a8_z.jpg\" width=\"440\" height=\"640\" alt=\"Wass29vii18012\"><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/center><br \/>\nit cannot be beautiful, sublime, wonderful, astonishing, or remarkable in any obvious way, or it would have already been singled out, and therefore would not be a good candidate for &#8220;finding&#8221;; and <\/p>\n<li>its finding must be accidental, not deliberate or planned. One doesn&#8217;t seek the found object, as Picasso famously remarked. One <i>finds<\/i> it. Even better, it finds you, looking back at you&#8230;<\/ol>\n<p><center><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\"  href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/blackmerh\/31450698408\/in\/album-72157699197776092\/\" title=\"DI14x18038\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1916\/31450698408_1dc832478a_z.jpg\" width=\"427\" height=\"640\" alt=\"DI14x18038\"><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/center><\/p>\n<p>\nOnce found, however, the found object should, as in surrealistic practices, become foundational. It may undergo an apotheosis, a transfiguration of the commonplace, a redemption by art&#8230; <center><\/p>\n<p>\n<a data-flickr-embed=\"true\"  href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/blackmerh\/44753292305\/in\/album-72157702853641124\/\" title=\"31x18106\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1902\/44753292305_a32ef813f2_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"498\" alt=\"31x18106\"><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\n<a data-flickr-embed=\"true\"  href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/blackmerh\/31900256798\/in\/photolist-QAV9Xy\" title=\"pharaonic\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1941\/31900256798_26049f84d4_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"468\" alt=\"pharaonic\"><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/center><\/p>\n<p>\nIf it really works, however, we have a sneaking suspicion that the transformation was a trick, a comic ruse engineered by a deus ex machina; and the plain old thing with its homely, familiar name is still there, blushing and smirking at us in the spotlight of aesthetic attention, or (better) ignoring us totally&#8230;<center><br \/>\n<a data-flickr-embed=\"true\"  href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/blackmerh\/31450641758\/in\/album-72157699197776092\/\" title=\"DI14x18015\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1956\/31450641758_25ddecec69_z.jpg\" width=\"427\" height=\"640\" alt=\"DI14x18015\"><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/center><\/p>\n<p>\nThe true found object never quite forgets where it came from, never quite believes in its elevation to spectacle and display. It remains humble to the end, a poor thing caught up in the push and pull of desire and demand&#8230;<center><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\"  href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/blackmerh\/43509615720\/in\/album-72157699197776092\/\" title=\"DI14x18135\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1945\/43509615720_c1866f141c_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"436\" alt=\"DI14x18135\"><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/center><\/p>\n<p>\nAnother key to the found object is its tendency, once found, to hang around, gathering value and meaning like a sort of semantic flypaper or photosensitive surface.<br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<a data-flickr-embed=\"true\"  href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/blackmerh\/30541223997\/in\/album-72157699446311592\/\" title=\"20x18170 Rock Conversation\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1922\/30541223997_b221016244_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"414\" alt=\"20x18170 Rock Conversation\"><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/center><\/p>\n<p>(in WJT Mitchell <b>What Do Pictures Want?<\/b> pp 114-155, 118)\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The faces that seem to peer up at me on rocky beaches are indubitably creatures of my imagination, but no less real for that. I&#8217;ve been trying to invent broader contexts and aesthetic provenance to clothe their ubiquity, but it was only yesterday, as I was reading WJT Mitchell&#8217;s What Do Pictures Want?, that it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photography"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3426"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3427,"href":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3426\/revisions\/3427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}