Evaluation

Two Coats of Paint recently posted an article on “negative criticism” that was a response to an article of similar name by Sean Tatol in The Point. There are several good takes in the Two Coats article (Laurie goes straight to the point by noting that Galleries aren’t going to advertise in art rags that criticize their stable of talent) and I encourage you all to read (or use the “listen” option) Tatol’s article in The Point. In particular, this bit stood out to me:

“Once we make any judgment at all we are aspiring to be objective, or at least correct, to the best of our knowledge. This objectivity may not be fully achievable, but if we are to think critically, or at all, the attempt is necessary. It is plainly impossible to approach the world without making judgments: anything from choosing friends you can trust to picking out a ripe orange requires a differentiation of qualities we learn to recognize through experience. Art and media are no different. “

Tatol

I prefer the word “evaluation” to judgement, although denotatively they are apparently completely synonymous. For me the latter (culturally) implies an additional step which can be a bit more fraught. Said differently, I’d personally rather be described as “evaluating” than “being judge-y” fwiw.

I’ve since been thinking about the ideas in Mr Tatol’s piece in the context of another, recent article by Adrienne LaFrance, executive editor at the Atlantic. In Defense of Humanity is a short essay (link is a pdf) on the moment in which we find ourselves. Specifically Ms LaFrance points at the thing- a precipice looking onto a future where AI can and will shape an increasing amount of our lives. She points towards the transcendentalist movement as a way of anchoring readers to the idea that there was (is?) a theory of culture that elevates and centers a life of evaluation.

A future in which overconfident machines seem to hold the answers to all of life’s cosmic questions is not only dangerously misguided, but takes away that which makes us human. In an age of anger, and snap reactions, and seemingly all-knowing AI, we should put more emphasis on contemplation as a way of being.

LaFrance

“More emphasis on contemplation” is clearly what caught this author’s eye. And while I sense that Ms LaFrance would probably agree that contemplation of a painting has similar value personally and culturally she’s clearly referring to thinking- the contemplation of a language-based idea.

To finish loosely tying the two articles together here*, I’m seeing two distinct authors pointing, in the same cultural moment, to the relevance and in fact value of contemplation and evaluation. I would go further and say that it sure seems like they would agree that looking at Art has a cultural importance today that perhaps it hasn’t had in some time and for which we should be grateful (*it is for you, the reader of this article, to chose- or chose not to- evaluate this idea on its merits though).