Why Is Art So Boring? Do you remember being bored as a kid? I recall summer days during vacation that seem, as I think back on them now, to have been fantastically, impossibly long. Hot, end- less, open, without organization. Irritating. The buzz of flies, fighting with my little brother, nothing to do. Parents remote. By and large, there is no place for this sort of radical boredom in the life of an adult. As you get older, life gets organized around proj- ects and plans and needs and goals, and the result of this congealing of activity is that time speeds up. Or we simply stop paying attention to the metronome and are captured by larger patterns of meaning and organization. Our days are over, one might almost say, before they have begun, for we have already defined the present moment in rela- tion to what is yet to happen, in relation to the purpose, point, or plan. (“What did you do yesterday?” “I went to work.”) ‘And this is all for the good, surely. It’s a necessity. We achieve this. We do not live in the ticktock motion of sensations and buzzes and one thing after another. It is the mark of our development, of our integration—to use John Dewey's language. Our lives are not made up of a series of sensations; they are composed of experiences that demand to be named-—that dinner in Venice, going shopping, the softball game, my year in Berlin—and these experiences integrate over time. Grown-ups don't get bored. Grown-ups can't get bored, for that dis- tinct emotional state, vaguely painful, that sense of being trapped in the unending and meaningless, that state is available only in theabsence of ruc, pln, ta, obligation. The preconditions ered ae abet nt He ‘Whar des his have todo with et? My conccure everyting The closest Thave come a an aul to reliving the ford boredom of duldhoaliswhen nthe peesenceof art, Dont et me wrong Loe ft Iwork with Tsay art. asd in a family of atts. A And yeti hard for me eo think of anything more slityoue verte dl than some performances, or more excrcitinly lsh in cing than enceuntering—pet agin! —a galery space with pictures on the wall eich of which, o begin wth a est, closed, mit in dsinguishable, and offputing Tes jst a ar that ale i this way to induce that eling of anxious capture by an endless and meaningless presen. I have stoadingllre a he Met or the Frickor the Alke Nanalgaleie— places that ae for meas close to sanctuaries as anything I have ever ‘nown-—and found myself tally cold in the presence of work that ‘wand vale Is 8 if someone fied wo pres the on buts the work stays f(r Id), ad this time spent with at in the standby made can be a trture. I yrpose thar the hirngnes artis cc to what at sand why sematers tos Any aque accoun of what ats an ofits place in ‘ut ves mst ares the ssking act that at bas the power to bore ts This is + power t maintains when everything else in ot lives mitigates again boredom, Asraffods ws the opportunity tobe bored ‘to ar, when almost nohing ese n ur lie does. And ar penta to be dal doesnot contrat the fact th are also moves and thr and ransom and exits us. Indeed isthe oppo side ofthe vey sae coin. Jus as there sno encounter with Kove without the lve rf heutveak, so therecan be no conffoncation witht that does ot open up the posible geting aed unconscious an bored © ea Artis valsbleonly nde proportion tothe degree to wbich ‘tean, or might, bee ws ‘Why shoal his be? ‘We have che ingredients fr an answer ready to ha Works of art are strange tol, afterall. That, chey are tls we cant se they are useless They are texts with no pret cntent, Sr pcre that dent show us anything in partcult. And so they equ us tostp doing Ta top acting aed o sop demanding appl {rb or even pertinence. Again the compara with pier is fee Phisophy does ld postive nugget of normation tat ou Can ake sway ane pt to workin tito hat area of Your the sor pis, maeatcs,o economics des Ar, ike hoop tot pet in his sense. The piers in the clohing eta show qouromething yu can bay the achitcts model layout something sano Bx the choreography on the tage? The panting onthe al These are cut ft fom dancing f showing or learning, They Sp you dead in your tacks. That if yu le the. you upend ou iverunt. I you ener thar special pace an tha altered tate that ar provides or allows. Ae stustons have this income wth religous pcs like churches. They are places wee so much can appen bt clyecause nothing ely happens. They te spaces for sclecansfrmition, ‘Works of art are cut off an they deman chat you cit youre ff fm your engaged ving. This obviously 50 ia rata sere. ‘aac alle and send emai and cary oni the usual way when You are inthe eater A if you doo, thea to that exe, ae Rok Present. You are not taking the Bait ing in a turning om 0 ‘hats there. Ae stings ike pisophical oes ak fora ind of susresion ofthe convictions ani habs engagement chat ake the wind or of thesis of boredom, To be ontonted witha tobe lea ci isto be made helps. Are nies and desis ~ Thisisancl theme in moxern thnkingawurart. Tonio Ko, Seehen Deals, these youn are heroes, are enemies ofthe bout asus society hat gave them ie, Art iets mes stangs, tad sosubvens “This one ofthe reasons why pornographic aris almost a sonteaficton in terms, as | mentioned hoor, Per has a eeae funeton is mean to cur youn, And todo that it needs fe You images, leas, fantasies, adopts to be wha you ate— seaually arse for example. Porgy leaves ouand eveything, soe avi fas ou This i aso one ofthe seasons why achteture—thowght of in