Bernadina de Niabla

Stop thinking about art as objects, and begin thinking of them as triggers for experiences. That solves a lot of problems: We don't have to argue about whether photographs are art, or whether performances are art, or whether Carl Andre's bricks or Andrew Serrano's piss or Little Richard's "Long Tall Sally" are art because we say, "Art is something that happens not a quality, and all sorts of things can make it happen. -Brian Eno

The term "confidence trick" has a bad meaning.  But it shouldn't.  In culture, confidence is the currency of value.  Once you surrender the idea of intrinsic, objective value, you start asking the question, "if value isn't there, where does it come from?"...

...It's obviously from the transaction.  Its in the relationship between me, the observer, and something else.  So how is that relationship stimulated, enriched, given value?  By creating an atmosphere wherein I am ready to engage with and perhaps surrender to the world it suggests. -Brian Eno

What makes a work of art "good" for you is not something that is inside it, but something inside you 

-so the value of a work of art lies in the degree to which it can help you have the kind of experience that you call art. -BE

Yesterday, my son and I had a fun time with my cousin Edith.  I haven't seen her for 30 years.  Of course, that seems almost unbelievable. How can it be that long, how can we have lived that long?  How can my son who just turned eleven, be so young?  We were looking at pictures of Bernadina de Niabla and Enrique Guilbert from 1850, our great great grandparents.  How could they have cameras from those days, and how did we somehow manage to keep those photographs?