Andrew J. Corsa

This past summer in Newport. 6”x6” oil

6th and final part of thread: The paper I cited in this thread was Philosopher Gilbert Ryle's 1976 article titled "Improvisation."

5th part of thread: Brian David Gilbert played a character he had never played before and answered questions the character had never been asked before. Like every improviser (cf. Ryle, 1976, pp. 76-77), he needed to apply his wits to a specific, once-only situation, and he did so brilliantly!

Screenshot of Brian David Gilbert improvising as the character Avery Goodman in the show "Very Important People."

4th part of thread: Similarly, consider when Brian David Gilbert improvised as the character Prof. Avery Goodman. He knew in advance that his character would be interviewed so he could expect interview questions. But he couldn't possibly know or be fully prepared for the EXACT questions he was asked

3rd part of thread: Gilbert Ryle (1976, p. 73) writes: "The fielder naturally expects that during the game some catches will come his way; but he did not and could not make complete preparations for just this particular catch, coming toward him."

Screenshot of Vic Michaelis from the improve show "Very Important People"

Photo of baseball player

2nd part of thread: Philosopher Gilbert Ryle compares improvising performers to baseball players. Both have to react quickly to unexpected events.

Screenshot of Brian David Gilbert playing a cyborg scientist, Avery Goodman, in the Dropout TV show "Very Important People."

This thread will consider the improvisatory performance of Brian David Gilbert and Vic Michaelis in the show "Very Important People" in relation to one specific reflection by philosopher Gilbert Ryle. @vicmmic.bsky.social @briamgilbert.bsky.social @vipeopleshow.bsky.social

See replies for more!

I like this atwork!

Also, here is a quote from Henry David Thoreau:

"We had our first, but a partial view of Ktaadn, its summit veiled in clouds, like a dark isthmus in that quarter, connecting the heavens with the earth."

An artwork of Artscape Norldand. A statute of a man, appearing to have very long legs, set against the background of a small town in Norway.

3rd part of thread

Miwon Kwon (2004) notes that for some site-specific artworks the meaning of the work can't be located JUST in the art object but also in how the object relates to its site. I think this is true of the art of Artscape Nordland.

This thread cites Kwon's "One Place After Another."

An artwork in Artscape Nordland. A sculpture of a human head set against the background of a nature landscape in Norway.

2nd part of thread:

Miwon Kwon (2004) considers the possibility that removing certain site-specific artworks from their intended sites might destroy the artworks. Would removing the artworks of Artscape Nordland from their sites destroy them?

An artwork belonging to Artscape Norldand. It is a mirror that reflects on nature scene in Norway back to the audience that views it.

This thread reflects on the notion of site-specific artworks in relation to the art of Artscape Nordland.

Artscape Nordland (Skulpturlandskap Nordland) is a collection of outdoor artworks in Northern Norway. They change how the landscapes in which they appear are viewed.

See replies for more.

A fairly large pastel showing the banks of the River Cam with a couple of students reading. I have mostly used Arboreta acid-free heavy off-white sugar paper for pastels. I bought several large packs of it.

Reading on the banks of the Cam. Pastel (not recent, sold a long time ago).
#art #pastel #books #Cambridge #rivercam

7th part of thread:

Earlier posts in this thread cited two different articles. They cited Aili Bresnahan’s 2015 article: “Improvisation in the Arts.” Earlier posts in this thread also cited Philip Alperson’s 1984 article, “On Musical Improvisation.”

Screenshot of Dropout TV show "Very Important People"

6th part of thread:

Even if an improvisatory performance is recorded long before it is watched, it has a sense of immediacy & freshness that scripted performances can never have (Bresnahan, 2015, p. 579). “Very Important People” has a wonderful sense of on-the-spot immediacy. @vicmmic.bsky.social

Screenshot from Dropout TV show "Very Important People"

5th part of thread:

As Aili Bresnahan writes: “What happens in an improvisational performance is new and immediate to the artist as well as to the audience” (2015, p. 579). @vicmmic.bsky.social @vipeopleshow.bsky.social @dropout.tv

Screenshot from the Dropout TV show "Very Important People"

4th part of thread:

When audiences watch “Very Important People,” they are watching BOTH the creation of content AND the performance of that content. As Alperson writes: “Improvisation strikes us as a case in which one individual [is] simultaneously composer and performer” (1984, p. 21).

Screenshot from the Dropout TV show "Very Important People"

3rd part of thread:

In contrast, when audiences watch improvisatory performances, like Dropout TV’s “Very Important People,” they know that the performers made up the words they speak RIGHT BEFORE they speak them. The performers think on their feet, deciding what to say right before they say it.

Screenshot from the Dropout TV show "Very Important People "

2nd part of thread:

When audiences watch a pre-scripted performance, the words they hear were written long before the performance takes place. Philip Alperson (1984, p. 18) says this involves “two stages of production”: (1) the earlier creation/composition of content; and (2) the later performance.

This thread will reflect on the Dropout TV show “Very Important People” in relation to some insights from philosophers Aili Bresnahan and Philip Alperson. (This is the first part of a thread. See comments for more.) @dropout.tv @vicmmic.bsky.social @vipeopleshow.bsky.social

Painting of Vic Michaelis after getting protein powder dumped on them

Painting of Tommy feeding Vic protein powder in the style of biblical painting

Portrait of Tommy Shriggly looking pleased

As a gift for @arrowpup.bsky.social + @vektor.bsky.social I painted a triptych based on one of my favorite episodes of Very Important People! Do you feel better? Do you feel better now? #dropout #art 🎨

[Above I cited Matthew Stewart's 2006 book, "The Courtier and the Heretic."]

Spinoza's self-portrait is lost to time, but portraits of Masaniello, like that included at the top of this thread, still exist and give at least a rough sense of how Spinoza's self-portrait might have looked.

It appears that Spinoza saw himself as somehow LIKE Masaniello. Did Spinoza see himself as a "hero of the people" (Stewart, 2006, chapter 6)? Did Spinoza see himself as seeking liberation? Did he view himself as doomed to potentially meeting a tragic fate like Masaniello?

According to Colerus, Spinoza had - in his self-portrait - made himself look much like Masaniello. Spinoza had portrayed himself in a similar pose, looking like a fisherman with a net (cf. Stewart, 2006, p. 97).

Many portraits of Masaniello portrayed him as a common fisherman, with a fishnet on his shoulder. One such portrait of Masaniello, by Pieter de Jode, appears at the top of this thread.

Apparently, Spinoza had based his self-portrait on images of the Italian revolutionary Tommaso Aniello, also called "Masaniello" (Stewart, 2006, p. 97). Masaniello was a fisherman who lead a short-lived 1647 revolt against the rule of Spain before he was murdered and torn apart.

Spinoza liked to draw, and created portraits - sketches - of prominent people he met using ink and charcoal. One of Spinoza's early biographers - Colerus - maintained that Spinoza had also sketched a self-portrait (Stewart, p. 97).

A portrait of the Italian revolutionary Tommaso Aniello, also called "Masaniello." Here, Masaniello is depicted dressed like a fisherman, carrying a net for fishing.

How did Baruch Spinoza, the 17th-century philosopher, view himself? If he drew a self-portrait, how did it look? It might have looked a little like this portrait, by Pieter de Jode, of Tommaso Aniello, who was also called "Masaniello."

See the rest of this THREAD in the REPLIES to this post.

If you read the book, you might catch the the cover art itself is mentioned once in the book's story. It's a bit of an Easter-egg. (Can you find it?)

In such simple cover-art, the minor difference between the smoke and the rest of the image is noticeable. And that visual difference, in combination with the book's story, can catch the imagination.