Truisms (1978)
cs.utexas.edu
cs.utexas.edu
> There is a period when it is clear that you have gone wrong but you continue. Sometimes there is a luxurious amount of time before anything bad happens.
https://www.lofty.com/products/jenny-holzer-the-living-serie...
The more indirect and the slower your feedback, the easier it is to form habits and get accustomed to believing in a "reality" which is anything but reality.
I used to feel like it was better to have this luxury because who wants consequences to be swift. Doesn't that feel harsh and uncomfortable? Yes, but now I realize it's better overall. At best delayed (or dulled) consequences are like procrastination: face it now, or face it later when it's harder. And at worst, it's a path to ruin because later might be too late.
Of course you don't want to go to the other extreme. There should be a balance.
I'm not 100% sure on the "luxurious", but for me it reads as if saying "you know you've done wrong, you know it's going to come back to haunt you, but you're reveling in the inaction/avoidance in the meantime"
ABUSE OF POWER COMES AS NO SURPRISE
Her more recent work Projections doesn't involve much of her own writing but it's interesting nonetheless (both the texts and the medium). She talks about it a bit in this video [2].
And I quite like her Redaction Paintings that were made from redacted military files [3].
[1] https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/holzer-inflammatory-ess...
> A SENSE OF TIMING IS THE MARK OF GENIUS
Conductive or conducive?
As corollaries for the hardest problem in computer science:
> A NAME MEANS A LOT JUST BY ITSELF
> SYMBOLS ARE MORE MEANINGFUL THAN THINGS THEMSELVES
As advice to myself because I love refactoring:
> ABSTRACTION IS A TYPE OF DECADENCE
> DECADENCE CAN BE AN END IN ITSELF
... wait, what?
Of course, I am not sure these are truisms.
if you're operating efficiently, and generate or take only what you need, you aren't generating surplus.
surplus could be read as greed, decadence, or even waste
AUTOMATION IS DEADLY
do it yourself, retain the know-how yourself. self-sufficience. don't rely on externalities. natural processes are more, well, natural. machines tend to exploit and create imbalance.
Or as a buffer. E.g., who knew that overcapacity in a hospital could be beneficial? So once more, the veracity of such statements depends on the context.
"KEEP SOMETHING IN RESERVE FOR EMERGENCIES"
Where does the something you keep in reserve come from?
www.jajlouny.com/contradictory-epigrams
I wonder what he meant by that.
I dare you to top this.
Just scanning through these I wouldn't label all of them "truisms." For example,
> ANY SURPLUS IS IMMORAL
and
> AUTOMATION IS DEADLY
I wouldn't consider either of these "obviously true."
In "Truisms" she created printed versions of an erudite reading list she compiled when she was a student. She distributed them anonymously by pasting printed versions around NYC's fences and walls. (https://www.sutori.com/story/pop-culture-and-art-jenny-holze...). She also did leaflets and other printed versions of this.
All of Holzer's art concepts are very much like this. Her goal is to use public venues as a medium to deliver thought-provoking ideas and display daring written commentary.
Also for a more artistic rendition on the web: