"A Crushed Memory Time & Space" Letter in Oct 2024_05

"A Crushed Memory Time & Space" Letter in Oct 2024_05

 

 

10/6 2024

 Dear Song E,

 

How are you?

 

Thank you, above all, for letting me participate in this project.

You don't know how long I've dreamed of writing something about the books I've read and loved. The Challenge represents a pretext to do so. It amuses me, challenges me, and allows me to show myself. I have been hidden for too long, accumulating ideas without being able to realize them. Now, I feel strong and mature enough to be able to give and continue to give. And that's incredibly exciting to me.

 

I wanted to know if you had searched for something about “opaque code” and if the idea of “opaque speak” could work. There is a strong correspondence between programming language and communication language; it is a highly current theme and, from what I see, still little explored. I'm sure it's a theme that can work for you and me!

 

I found a few pages dedicated to Seondeok of Silla in the book I'm reading these days (“100 Nasty Women of History” by Jannah Jewell)!!!

 

Take care,

 

Rob

 

 

10/6 2024

 Dear, Roby

 

Just the fact that you like this project makes me very happy. You are already ready, and now you can share the process of growing up with everyone. We cannot be perfect until we die. We have to make it happen and enjoy it with sincerity. As you said, our project will go well!! It doesn't matter if many people aren't interested. Worthwhile things will be discovered by those who appreciate it someday, so I think it's already complete if we do it. 

 

Let’s keep studying about our topic.

 

 

Kisses 

 

Song E

 

 

10/21 2024

Dear, Roberta

 

I just came back to New York.

 

How are you?

 

I met some art people. They are lovely people, but I am a little bit tired. 

I like a person who focuses on the essence. Anyone discussing cumbersome success or trying to make connections feels tired. That’s why I like you and want to work together. ^^~. I just wish to feel pure.

 

Do you remember the graph about the era? I want to study the period of the Renaissance to see this moment. The times and past are connected, and I want to know what these times wish for. So I want to go to Florance and Rome. After we draw a road map, I think visiting and doing something in-depth there, including Gyeongju, South Korea, would be nice. 

I am unsure if it's possible, but if we have a mind, there will be a way. In the meantime, let's continue to share our opinions and determine the direction of our writings and paintings.

 

 

Let’s keep in touch. Please tell me about your news too. 

 

Hug

 

 Song E

 

 

 

 

 

10/29/2024
From dreamer to dreamer

Dear Song E,

How are you?

 

The Master's research I am doing is incredibly stimulating, but it requires all my time and energy. I experienced moments of strong discouragement, and I understand that the reason is that I don't rest enough. So, I took four days off and just got home.

I visited a couple of cities here in England, and I left the computer at home to detox from the screen and the tendency to work even when I'm on holiday.

 

I feel much better now; the rest has helped me.

 

I was struck by what you wrote to me last week about people who don't look at or seek the essence. It resonated very strongly with me.

The world of contemporary art is home to many histrionics and narcissus; fortunately, there are still some pure dreamers between them.

 

Do you remember when I visited your and Daisy's exhibition in Venice on the day we met?

I don't know if you noticed, but that evening, I interacted with a few people and tried to stay isolated as much as possible. I was afraid of having to relate to people who talked to me about success, the market, money, and CVs; of people who identify with what they do; of people who are not passionate about what they do but just about themselves or who exploit what they do to feel different from others.

For this reason, I have always tried to interact as little as possible in artistic environments.

 

Meeting someone like you in this context was a sort of epiphany.

I am so grateful to have met you, Song.

 

There were moments when I believed that being a dreamer and seeking coherence was outdated, naïve, and ridiculous. It was a chapter of life that you have the right to write only if you are a child, but if you insist on staying there as an adult, then it means that you haven't understood how the world works or are an idiot.

The world doesn't want us to be dreamers, hopeful, pure, and playful. But we are like that. And I refuse to live in a world that constructs me in a way that I don't like.

I read an article by Maria Lugones, and she said the same things; it impressed me greatly. I sent you a writing about that in week 5.

 

After you wrote to me eight days ago, I thought a lot about the theme of the Renaissance.

In Italy, and Europe in general, it is a super-inflated topic. So, as much as I like it and am also very prepared about it, I fear it might not be too attractive unless we link it to something very current.

For example, using the graph, we can see which other historical moments it can be connected to to try to create a bridge with the present.

 

However, I believe that the most functional solution for contemporary Western interests could be to deconstruct or decentralize the Renaissance.

 

Here in England, every museum is starting to do the same. It is a fascinating process of decolonization and, above all, very "correct" from an intellectual point of view.

 

If we consider the name itself, "Renaissance," which means "rebirth," it recalls beauty and the beginning of something new and better.

The very name of the period is ideological and is doubly incorrect:

1) because the so-called Middle Ages that preceded it were not as dark as they present it

2) because the rebirth celebrated in the arts and literature does not correspond to a human and moral rebirth; in the Renaissance, cultural vitality coexists with the most radical human brutality (the period coincides with the Slave Trade, for example).

 

We can also start by deconstructing the Renaissance ideal and seeing how this false myth has obscured the debts that the West owes to the East. 

 

Let me know if anything I've written might interest you.

 

I would be happy to take research trips. I believe that the beginning of summer (between June and July) could be a good time to organize trips to Korea and Italy. What do you think?

 

PS: for the US visa, I will publish something in the University Journal (crossed fingers). 

 

A big hug,

Take care

 

Rob

 

10/29/2024

 

Hi !! Roby

 

Thank you for your letter.

 

I went to the Toronto Art Fair last weekend. I visited the exhibition, met good artists, and had a great time there. Facing pure artists gives me comfortable and warm feelings. As you said, people who mistake an obsession with success as a passion for art are hard for me. That doesn't mean I'm a person who shies away from a realistic sense: money. I think I'm in business and understand the principles of reality more than anyone else. I want to remove people who focus on things I don't use from my surroundings because I believe the life I want is essential and only brings great success. I'm a big, macroscopic, big dreamer. I think all the great people in this world are people out of the ordinary. And they recognize each other.

 

I'm so interested in this project right now. I'm not sure if this research will remain meaningful while we're alive, but if it's worth it, I think it'll be a must for someone someday. Life may be significant anyway, but it may not be substantial. The fact that I plan to understand such research, save money, and spend cash gives me great satisfaction. I'm only interested in the completeness of this project.

 

I will try to visit Italy in June or July next year. As you said, it is good to go to Korea in December, and we can't do it all at once, so let's plan the tour separately. Before that, we need to make a good roadmap, but we have time to focus on each other's research this winter quietly, so let's deal with the topic in depth. The book explains the graph we are looking at well, but there is no translation. I would like to send you a Korean book if you can read it through a translator. Tell me if you need it. The book explains this well to save time and draw a cleaner roadmap.

 

The purpose of this study is to examine the present and the past. Of course, the ultimate expression method should be art, and we aim to record this process in a book and hold exhibitions.

 

I've been thinking about it for a long time. People in the postmodern era now feel that art is boring, incomprehensible, and ordinary, not looking at geniuses' works. I think art styles that can subvert an era are not coming out because of the background of the times. I think the reason why geniuses were born in the Renaissance is that many ordinary people accepted and accepted them. If the public officials and the public in charge of administration think this down to nothing, such a style will not become exceptional but general. Ironically, art is created by geniuses, but the public embraces it. That's why the demands of the times are essential. I think I found the reason in the book where the graph was drawn. So, I want to find something similar to the present in the era before us and something that combines like a decalcomani.

 

Let's keep studying and talking

 

 

Love

 

Take care

 

 

Song E