Broad question of course, but transgression comes in many forms. The HBO series Euphoria, which initially presents itself as an utterly disposable zoomer entertainment product, then unleashes an onslaught of deeply deeply unsettling but ultimately very relatable and reflective concepts about addiction, sexual anxiety, the terror of youth. Cheesy? Yeah, mostly. Powerful? At times, very much so.
I mean this is also a silly question because anything that is upsetting thoughtless people to the degree that they aren't even willing to look past their own viases around it is an essentially transgressive act or art work. This might be more important than ever given the extreme censoriousness of the liberal do gooders in the west — those who wave their fingers at the peasants and say "you musn't say that" while they then unleash torrents of missiles upon the middle east or wherever — and the need to undermine these hypocrisies.
As much as I'm sure at least half the people on here will hate that I'm saying this, the 2016 campaign of Trump, his election, and all that followed (nonstop media hysteria, russiagate, Bush era spooks responsible for the death of millions accusing anonymous twitter users of fascism, etc) is the only really transgressive thing, or perhaps art, of this era. For a brief window, everyone in America understood intimately that our politics were a hollow shit show where monsters claim to be victims and killers claim to be heroes and liars claim to be impartial arbiters of truth.
Is it transgressive to use porn and serial killer imagery in collage? No, not really. Is it transgressive to force people to confront their own moral and ideological and social and political hypocrisies and limitations? Yes. And it is and always will be vital. Shakespeare was a transgressive artist. Melville was a transgressive artist. Etc.
When the word "transgressive" is used, it always seems like the person is trying to play down being offended. I'm not sure I've ever come across an artist who has stated their intent is to be transgressive.
"Uninspired" in what way? For the artist or the viewer? I've seen some stuff that looked like it was pieced together with very little skill but I have no idea if they were inspired at the time of tearing everything up or not.
When i think transgression, i think of something existing purely for shock value. And having no value outside of that. I also think a lot of PE inspired torn black and white is often times just terrible (it's like standing in the street and screaming "i'm fucking angry and i want you to know"), largely because it lacks originality/personal qualities (i think everyone can agree there is a lot of really poor shit out there, being poor "music") that separates it from the rest.
When buying a record or a tape, the artwork matters to me. I'm less likely to check something out i don't like the art (i'm sure many feel the same way) or the name.
I don't agree with this. Every society has taboos. In our society, taboos are shifting constantly. Transgressive art merely brushes up against or crosses over the line of the taboo to either affirm it OR to challenge it and find its hypocrisy. One can tell the difference between meathead shock jock shit or something that genuinely transgressive that clarifies something about our culture.
It’s hard to know completely where I was coming from exactly (the quoted post is 10 years old) and I’m not sure if I’m responding to Keith or Keith to me, or what the other talk is around the quote. My expressed opinion wasn’t very fleshed out, but I’ll do my best to address it.
I think I largely feel the same way, I’m not interested in artistic expression (regardless of medium) exploring “taboo/transgression” as much as I am looking for something that’s coming from a genuine place (if their interest is “transgressive” to some, so be it). I don’t believe in restrictions of expression and if I’m not interested in the output or I think it’s aesthetically uninteresting I’ll probably ignore it. I think you can definitely tell who is for real but the expression itself still has to be interesting.
That said, I still think there is a lot of stuff produced that is not genuine (or if it is, maybe I find it still immature) and that’s what I think of as “shock value” style stuff. Tons of people attempt to express how dangerous they are through expression in one of the safest communities around (reminds me of, I think the WCN interview with Noisewidow). I find a lot of the stuff cringey, weird male rights stuff, weak exploration of political ideas, accompanied by bad sound (ie unoriginal) and especially now hyper branded (aesthetically) to an audience looking for objects to express identity and post on social media feeds.
Regarding something “genuinely transgressing”, I’d be curious to know what you think is accomplishing this in 2023. Specifically are we talking about inside or outside the community?
