art thoughts with uncle bray bray

When a person manipulates the physical configuration of an object it has a quality different from a machine configured object. On the surface it seems that the machine makes things perfect and identical, while a person makes things irregular. Although this seems to be commonly accurate, a person can often mimic mechanical regularity with convincing precision. The difference that I am alluding to is discovered by first looking at a similarity between the person and the machine. 

The idea that a machine makes everything perfect and identical isn’t true. I have witnessed in the factories that I’ve worked that a machine makes many “mistakes”.  A piece of plastic will come out of a machine looking like it mutated. Also, a machine that is meant to put a lid on a container will mangle it instead. With the machine there is an anomaly. (It is almost comical to see this great Goliath of manufacturing that has been hailed as the product modern genius. It is comical to see these machines with almost life like movement clumsily destroy the product, like a dumb brute.)

Similarly when a person is working very hard to achieve the set goal it seems to happen that on the occasion the created breaks away as an anomaly. The outcome, seemingly for no reason, breaks from the norm. The difference between the machine and person is that it seems the machine makes things the same most of the time with the occasional very drastic change, but a person tends to make gradual changes regularly with the rare, slightly drastic change. 

This variety is rare. Like other rare things it can be considered with contempt and marked for eradication, or it can be regarded as a delight and valued like a jewel. As an artist it is fascinating to see one’s work in this light. For example, as a person regularly works and strives for a goal, at one time or another they seem extremely close. This time is when the anomaly makes something like a jewel. This is the difference with the machine.  It never makes an anomaly that functions better than the intended product. But the intelligence of the artist can produce something better. This is when it seems that everything just falls into place, what one might call the masterpiece.