Convergence (Fashion Only Forum 2/7/00)

In a paperback thriller I recently read, a mathematician has decided that God is in Mathematics. She reasoned that every new "invention" in mathematics was eventually found to apply to the physical world in some manner. Because of that relationship, mathematics couldn't be something merely invented by man, but must rather be a meta-system beyond human - God.

In a book on the convergence of language and art by Octavio Paz, he repeats the old theory that language defines a culture, but also takes the position that a culture's view of the universe is not just affected by its language, but completely controlled by it. The universe of a German isn't the same as the Anglo-American viewed universe. This goes a long way to explaining the use of English in many non-English speaking countries in the teaching of the sciences. It also explains the fear of mathematics and the other sciences by cultures that would lose their identity if sciences are accepted.

The seeming contradiction of the preceding paragraphs - there is one universe, but it is defined differently for different language speakers - leads to the conclusion that given rigorous use of mathematics, languages must converge to account for convergence in the understanding of the universe (as driven by the mathematics).

This begs the question of whether art is driven by language as well. And the complimentary question, "Is there universal art?"

In a biography of Balzac, the writer notes a time when young Honore' discovers that "Beauty is more in the mind of the artist than in the eye of the beholder." I can see this easily applied to a guy with a chainsaw carving a grizzly bear from a log. It's less easy to apply to Jackson Pollock's splatter work because that work has had serious recognition by serious critics. Maybe beauty wasn't one of the aims of the artist or one of the criteria of the critics. The chainsaw artist is probably looking for beauty.

Kant and Greenberg and other talking heads point to a universal recognition of beauty or a universal aesthetic among those with an educated taste. This would parallel a universal acceptance of the universe by those with an adequate understanding of mathematics, I guess.

We are aware of Italian and German and other tastes in editorial fashion photography. Most are also aware of the differences in taste between Japanese and German and American erotica. Understanding that erotica involves not only aesthetics, but other societal and cultural influences, maybe EF is the correct place to examine (though an examination of erotica would be rather enlightening too).

We have among us a few who hint at German photographic influences. One is currently shooting in Berlin, I believe. A couple of well-known photographers of the German school are Peter Lindbergh and Helmut Newton (though he's worked everywhere). While they don't work the same way or make even similar pictures, there seems to be a kind of stylebasis that they share. Loosely. The same might be said for Italian, French, English and American shooters. Loosely. I'd be hard pressed to ascribe to a single photograph that language/origin basis, but an after the fact look seems to show cultural, and maybe language, influences.

Perhaps there is a pressure, similar to that exerted by mathematics on language, that is homogenizing social differences in editorial fashion photography? Maybe that pressure is partly due to some "universal taste" or partly due to faster communication and thus inclusion of stylistic ideas? No photographer works outside the ideas evolved in the medium, no matter how original he is. Maybe we are seeing a convergence in cultural influences at the same time as we're seeing a divergence in personal styles.

Thoughts?

-Don