This one is a brief follow up to the one I did recently called, “An Art Theory.” In that post I referred to Harmony Korine’s idea that, “It all comes from the same place.” I did some more reading and found he titled this approach to art and has labelled it as, “Mistakist Art.” His full list of rules for this art form consists of the following.
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1. i have never been one to gravitate toward the labelling of things. But i feel forced to declare my adherance to a mode of creation known as "mistakism"
2. i am a "mistakist" and all the work I produce adheres to the tenants attached to the label/movement.
3. (factors involved include)
4. All modes of work exist to produce a single body of work. each facet builds upon the other.
5. you can never differentiate between the seperate modes of creation.
6. A completely unified aesthetic.
7. Mistakes are good.
8. there is no such thing as a true mistake. only a more modern rethinking.
9. Suicide is a show of strength.
10. only in randomness and "mistakes" can one truely announce what is too deep to express in a direct and true way.
11. football games, science projects and explosions.
12. rather than direct a scene - document the action
13. Provocations
14. Heritage - Lineage - Prejudice.
15. grammer means more when words are mispelled and used incorrectly in the traditional sense of the word.
16. ----------------
17. Jokes without Punchlines.
18. Hermits and rural Lonliness
19. A "Mistakist" must believe in God over all else.
this is how I made Julien Donkey Boy
The DOGME 95 is early "Mistakism."
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Some of this is just comedy, and Harmony Korine’s sense of humour is frequently like this: a bunch of nonsense thrown in with the serious stuff, so you’re not entirely sure where the real ends or begins. The rules I’d like to focus on are 4 to 6 specifically. I believe this is a great way of looking at your approach to art as a multi-faceted artist. It’s all a “unified aesthetic,” not different pieces of work. So for example, a novel I write is an extension of how I might view the world, a painting I do is coming from the same sensibility and perspective, a poem I write will be another attempt at conveying my world, a movie I make is another way of expressing the same worldview, etc etc. Even if they are radically different on the surface, they are still part of a unified aesthetic, if that makes sense.
Because of how our brains work, and how society works, we tend to think that there are borders and place limits on stuff. If someone is one thing, then to some people they cannot be another thing. If a musician has made an album, for example, in the past capitalism has always dictated (because of radio stations and the notion of “singles,” etc) that the album has 10 to 15 songs. It cannot exist as a whole piece, despite the fact that might have been the artist’s intention, it must be considered an album with a bunch of different songs to be more accessible to the wider public. It seems like this is changing more and more lately with streaming and how fluid everything is now, but these ideas from the past still linger, and you get my point. I would argue that these ideas from the past should never have been a thing, and artists should have been given more freedom and more of a say in how they released things to the world. In fact, I’m fairly sure that if certain artists had a say, their albums would have been released as one “track.”
I just encountered a couple of amusing things the other day that cover what I mean precisely. The great filmmaker Robert Altman once said, “It’s all just one film to me. Just different chapters.” And in response to a crowd once saying, “"They all sound the same!” to Neil Young, he replied, “It’s all one song!” I realize that this all sounds crazy to people who just wanna chill and kick back with a beer and some jams after a long hard day of work at the factory or whatever, but if you’re an artist type this stuff is fun to think about.
Consider a band like Pink Floyd, for example. You can listen to any track off Dark Side of the Moon alone and it would be totally fun and fine, but if you were to listen to the whole album as one thing, it’s a more complete and whole experience that makes more sense as all of these different themes come together to paint a bigger picture. Then if you listen to another album they did, that will have a sort of conversation with the other album and act as a continuation in a way. And not just that, think about the type of iconography and psychedelic imagery a band like Pink Floyd has inspired by other people and fans: it’s all art that informs each other. The music informs the inspired imagery, and vice versa. You can see this in a band like Grateful Dead as well: they have effectively created a whole world and Americana that does not seem to be limited to just their songs).
Or consider a rapper like Biggie. He only made two albums in his short life unfortunately, but think about what he represents to people now. There are so many albums people have made using his acapellas, and it has created a unique type of art, expression, and world using his unique voice. Even if he wasn’t the one behind each remixed album, the idea and feeling can still be seen: it’s all part of one body of work belonging to him. Whether it is “Juicy” lyrics over its original instrumental, or Juicy lyrics over a James Brown funk instrumental, it’s now two different songs that are part of the same whole.
This covers the “unification” theory, but what about the use of the word “mistake” in “mistakist”? To give you a beautiful example of what this means, consider the end of the film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: it is one of the most beautiful cinematic endings of all time, and it was a mistake that wasn’t planned or meant to happen, but they left it in there. If that film was storyboarded down to every single minute detail, it would have ended up being like a Hitchcock film: good, but artificial to an almost boring and offensive degree. Sometimes in art, the things we don’t plan should not be erased or obfuscated in any way, they should be included with the other stuff because that gives the work a greater feeling of authenticity that can’t be forced.
It seems that the biggest enemy of the “Mistakist Art” concept is the idea of erasure, or the attempt at controlling or fixing said mistakes, and making sure everything is refined and easily understandable to the masses. I’m not saying that artists should release whatever they want to the public, and just shit things out without any thought or care, I’m just saying that being too careful with your borders can be doing the art a bit of a disservice. The borders should never have been a thing that existed in the first place, and it can be helpful to think of each project as parts of one big whole you’re working towards. By the end of my life, for example, I’d like my entire body of work to be considered as one thing. When I make a dumb comedy video and post it to my Instagram stories, I don’t see that as any different than a stand-up set or a short story. I know it’s literally different, but these so-called “different” sides belong to the same “dice” if you catch my drift. The fact that the artist in question woke up that day and decided to paint something does not make them any less of an artist in another medium; they are still tending to their overall aesthetic.
Finally, I’ll leave you with another good way of thinking about this: think about the stereotypical college dorm room. Or your bedroom right now. I’ll tell you about mine: the walls are painted in one of my favourite colours, a shade of blue titled, Nevada Sky. I've got two PTA posters up (one is Punch-Drunk Love, and the other is Inherent Vice) and one Tarantino poster (The Hateful Eight). And of course, a poster of my “type”/the woman of my dreams: Farrah Fawcett. There’s a bookshelf with my favourite authors, so even when I’m not reading one of their books I can always read certain passages by them at any given moment. All of this was consciously chosen: this is my aesthetic, the world I want to live in. That’s what your body of work is, as well: they’re all parts that belong to you and your choices.