tl;dr
Among other things, I'm an art critic with 225 published essays and reviews. AICA, the International Association of Art Critics, holds a congress every year at which its members (of which I am one) read papers. It's a veritable bacchanal! I guess. I've never been, and I'm not participating this year either because my proposal got rejected. But for US$500 I'll write it anyway. If you contribute US$10 or more you can watch my presentation of the paper, which will take place via Zoom on November 24, a day before the presentations at the actual AICA Congress, on American Thanksgiving, for pity's sake.
The Proposal
Sayeth the anointed:
The 53rd International AICA Congress aims, through the lens of art, to examine the concept of the “intellectual aftermath”, as the primary condition of our age, and to explore possible new horizons for the future.
For this we were invited to send abstracts. Mine read:
In the aftermath of the pandemic and political unrest of 2020, a wide swath of thinkers are proposing that the liberal order – the regime of individual rights, markets, tolerance, and reason – has reached its end. They predict (in many cases, recommend) its replacement by a postliberal order characterized by collective responsibility, planned economies, rigorous enforcement of mores, and appeals to emotion. Advocates for postliberalism come in both progressive and reactionary flavors, drawing to varying degrees from nationalist, globalist, socialist, neoliberal, populist, or identitarian justifications as needed, in combinations that defy a simple left-right taxonomy.
Art has survived, even thrived in illiberal milieux throughout its long history. Art criticism has not – it is entirely the product of the liberal order. This paper proposes that the postliberal order, whatever form it takes, will also be postcritical, and explores the ensuing implications for art and its analysis.
The paper will likely be a couple of thousand words, maybe three. More contributions means a higher word count. It will be published shortly after the Zoom presentation at my blog, Artblog.net.
$150 of the $500 goal will pay for editors and readers. The rest will go to the author.
If the project doesn't achieve its goal, I'll assume that the idea sucks and I'll spend any funds raised on groceries.
