Still I really think that one of art’s functions is as a feedback mechanism for the greater system of culture. Whilst I do see your trend here of merely being reflections of the past, we are beginning to see ourselves dramatically differently from our historical counterparts. We’ve begun to augment our daily life to a new level whereby I don’t even deal with you anymore but renderings of you through text and photographs which it’s purpose at the core is to deceive me away from knowing you in fullness but only what you’ve chosen to communicate.

Also I’ve begun realising that relativism is flattening the world so we have no comprehension of what contrast truly is. Thus we’re unable to see difference when it presents itself because we’ve been fooled into making everything relative. I’ve found myself saying to friends, I wish there was a new undiscovered continent with new people to go encounter with an entirely new form of polarity unseen to my eyes. Not that I think this as much the result of relativity as much as the ubiquity of information.

As the boundaries of western art have been degraded over the last few centuries, reflecting cultural shifts, art has become more and more about recycling than innovation (because, hey, what’s left to invent after Jackson Pollock?). It’s led me to believe that there has been very little true artistic innovation in our culture since, say, 1990 — and I expect that the only “innovations” that will now emerge will be technological ones. …Which is why I’m interested in hauntology — the idea that we’ve reached the end of history because the present exists only as a reflection of things past.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hauntology

interesting observations which makes me wonder- you could have been taking philosophy as a minor too. appreciate your thoughts and perhaps we shall be exchanging more upon your return to this sunny island?

cheers mate.