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PARTISAN REVIEW
analyze the author's sales potential. One editor was quoted as say–
ing, "Editors will put off making offers on a book until we see a
tape or meet the author."
One of the most serious effects upon art of the seduction by
technology is that it is so geared to immediacy of impact that it
loses its possibilities to induce contemplation. Baudrillard's de–
cree that artists must make art that does not require contemplation
denies the essence of significant art. Through time, through an
inner focusing, there can slowly be revealed the true character of
the varied layers, the strata of the work. Obviously, the work of art
must entice the spectator at the very start, but such enticement is
of a relatively momentary value, a mere first step to intrigue, to
pull the spectator into a web of deeper meaning. One last quote of
Benjamin's which refers to the Dada epoch: "In the decline of
middle-class society," he says, "contemplation became a school
for asocial behavior; it was countered by distraction as a variant of
social content. A rather vehement distraction was assured by
making works of art the center of scandal. One requirement was
foremost: to outrage the public." This process continues today.
We see it in the media display of the most scandalous artists' pri–
vate lives, the clothes they wear to openings, their haircuts, foods,
bedrooms. We see it also in the already shopworn attempt to in–
corporate bizarre paraphernalia in their work, or to use deliber–
ately gauche materials or primitive techniques. We see it in their
choice of subject matter, such as sexual perversions or criminal
activities. This is not to say that the use of such elements cannot
have artistic purposes, but almost invariably their primary aim,
admitted to or not, is to shock, to draw attention to idiosyncrasies,
to scandalize. Benjamin pointed out that an attempt was being
made in our century to hit the spectator with the force of a bullet,
and that the reproduction was the perfect medium for assailing
the spectator.
One of the greatest values of a work of art in any medium is
the opportunity for its audience to become absorbed in it.
If
the
spectator's reaction to visual art is only an immediate one, leav–
ing no room for a contemplative response , that art is reduced to a
graphic experience. It would have assumed, in fact, some of the
characteristics of a reproduction, not of a work of art at its highest
potential. That potential denies the current market-dominated
