Entropy as Art Critique
In this essay we will make the argument that Entropy and Art World elitism share common qualities, and propose an art object that critiques each at once.
A brief review of Entropy :
Entropy has been called 'the arrow of time', such that the universe is, as a whole, moving toward a higher entropic state. This is connected with time, as there are no actions that any part of the universe can take that reverse this. Much like the flow of time, the progression of universal entropy is one directional (and can be argued is Time itself).
In a simple example one can imagine a perfectly taught bed sheet with thousands of perfectly spaced marbles on it. This is a state of low entropy. If a small turbulence in the sheet occurs, marbles will begin to clump together and some will space apart. This is increasing the entropy of the system.
Everything in our terrestrial lives is a clumping of such marbles. You may think that by cleaning your studio, for instance, you have made a small part of the universe more orderly, however, in doing so you have expended great energy and that energy (usually heat) are the trillions of marbles that bounce into one another in an ever increasing entropic state.
It takes energy to make order, but that energetic expense will always, in the big picture, create more entropy than it negates.
The Crystalized Art World :
It takes energy to get an art degree, rub elbows with galleries, and make profane objects. The result of a great deal of these actions creates the Art World, a crystallization of matter and ideas in an otherwise seemingly meaningless universe. However, following the law of entropy, this cannot occur without increasing the total state of entropy in the universe.
The radiation of the Art World comes in the form of excessive vocabulary. The atomic bonds of the Art World are made by releasing these free radicals, and the Ivory Tower can only be broken by slamming the terms back into the rarified elitist molecules.
Simply Put :
The Art World is not unlike a condensation of cosmic matter, the act of which creates an apparent ordered structure, but results in an overall increase in chaos and disorder.
Energy cannot be created or destroyed. Heat, however, is the graveyard of the universe, such that heat energy gets spread into incalculable amounts of atomic jiggling, and thus appears to disappear, and is, for the most part unrecoverable.
The linguistic ballet of the art world is the incalculable dance of heat, creating terms and ideas which wiggle into the soup of conversation and disappear, leaving only a slight warmth.
The Art Object :
A space heater is run through an electric meter. The price of the artwork begins at the price of the literal readymades, and constantly increases with the cost of the electricity it uses to create heat.
