ROBOTIC and SYNTHETIC PERFORMANCE: Steps Toward a Culture of Liberation a Manifesto of the OmniCircus
III. TWO POWERS REMOVED
One reason for our difficulty in unlocking these puzzles is that art is two powers removed from its foundations in economic and social life, and therefore the connection to its foundations are obscured. An analogy - if you're walking 5 MPH down a country road, then you drive back over that same road later at 50 MPH, you'll see certain frames of reference like a tree or fence that can tell you you're on the same road. Similarly if you're driving 50 MPH down the road then flying 500 MPH over it you'll likely see larger items like the barn and silo, which can help you recognize the road. But if you walk down the road, then fly over it later, you're not going to recognize it because you're two powers removed from your original experience.
Likewise, it's relatively easy to intuit connections between, say, sculpture and architecture, because sculpture is connected to architecture through the pedestal, the niche, etc. It's also easy to grasp the economic and social foundations of architecture; few of us can build an edifice because of an urge for personal expression. The process of construction of our architectural designscape is intimately and obviously connected to economic, social and political realities. But the connection of sculpture to those same realities is two powers removed, and therefore obscure.
Therefore, it is easy for the "art world," representing as it does the social power structure, to further obscure these connections in the interest of inhibiting the development of cultural sophistication, by promoting a purely 'personal' view of art..