Friday Links
October 20, 2023
Daniel McInerny on What Shakespeare Can Teach Us about the Arts and Technology
Amit Majmudar: Stop Looking at Yourself: On the Dangers of Mirrors and Selfies
Gerard Garrigan, O.S.B. on the healing power of poetry and jazz
James Matthew Wilson: In Memory of the North America Martyrs
An Ars Vivendi Conversation: The Work of the Hands: The Ordinary and Divine in Contemporary Art
Daniel McInerny on What Shakespeare Can Teach Us about the Arts and Technology
“A rough definition of an artistic practice is a social space in which apprentices train under masters in order to develop the artistic virtues (as well as the moral and intellectual virtues) that define mastery in the given craft.
An artistic practice is thus a form of positive resistance that, like a barbell, makes possible the growth of the “muscle” that is artistic excellence.
Last week, in reflecting upon the relationship between technology, art, and resistance, I said the following:
The prospect of technology-as-magic tempts us to give up on skill.
For an artist this is death. For it means giving up on the difficult good of the habit of art.”
Amit Majmudar: Stop Looking at Yourself: On the Dangers of Mirrors and Selfies
Do you constantly look at yourself?Do take a selfie when you arrive at the beach, a concert, the DMV? When passing a mirror or a window, do you find yourself glancing at yourself? Majmudar makes a very good case for why you should stop doing this.
“Today we live on the other side of a technological transformation that has overwhelmed the past’s moral and spiritual reservations about making images of ourselves—reservations that were often disregarded already. The proliferation of images took off in the nineteenth century, shortly after Austen published her novels,when technology democratized portraiture.”
“We were not meant to look at ourselves too closely or too often. By not meant I mean not designed, psychologically, spiritually.”
This essay is excellent. Read it and share with all of your selfie-taking/mirror-&-window-glancing friends and family.
Gerard Garrigan on the healing power of poetry and jazz
“Jazz proves to us that the human spirit cannot be defeated, because we are children of God, made in his own image and likeness. Our God has overcome the world and all of its suffering, even death itself. Our spirits are of God and God has redeemed us by his own suffering, death and resurrection. He has won for us a fullness of joy that never ends.”
H/T: Katy Carl for the link to this essay that was published in the October 2023 issue of The Way, an international journal of contemporary Christian spirituality published by the Jesuits in Britain from Campion Hall, the Jesuit Hall In the University of Oxford. Gerard Garrigan OSB is a Benedictine monk of Saint Louis Abbey, Missouri, USA and past DT contributor.
James Matthew Wilson: In Memory of the North America Martyrs
Yesterday was the Feast of the North American Martyrs. You can read James Matthew Wilson’s beautiful poem in their honor at the link.
An Ars Vivendi Conversation: The Work of the Hands: The Ordinary and Divine in Contemporary Art
The Collegium Institute and Dappled Things invite you to join us on October 24 from 12pm-1:30pm ET for this online panel featuring four artists, working across four different mediums: Kara Patrowicz, fiber artist, Daniel Mitsui, illustrator, Matilde Olivera, sculptor, and Caleb Kortokrax, painter. You can read more about the conversation, as well as registration information at the link.
