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2002.11.08
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Re: Concrete Comedy: A Primer
2004.11.08 14:00
Funny how I never laughed while (twice) reading Robbins' "Concrete Comedy: A Primer". Not a single good joke. No innuendo. Campless. Ironically, there are some laughable moments, like 'Big Finish'.
Perhaps it's just me, but if I were to write (for an 'international' art magazine) about metabolic imagination, for example, I'd (at least try to) do it metabolically, even.
And why 'concrete'? Robbins lists what is 'concrete comedy' but never explains why 'concrete' is used to describe it. Architectural historian/theorist Christian Norberg-Schulz used to write about 'concretization' (of ideas I think), and he was influenced by Heidegger. You often hear (in architecture school) that the Romans invented concrete, then the secret was lost and it was rediscovered in modern times. ("Don't quote me.") I'd love to be the first archaeologist to find lots of ancient Roman concrete comedy--looking around the Sessorian Palace, of course. Which reminds me of Slutsky's 'Aqueous Humour'--what a good Oppositions piece.
Alas, no concrete comedy primer is complete without Piranesi's drawing of an island in the shape of a turd, delineated in response to one of his unfortunate detractors. Ah! That feels better.
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