Dan Gilbert - The Architecture of Art

This is an excerpt from one of my favorite books, House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielweski. He is an author that I love to read and I have no doubt in my mind I will be using his small collection of books as inspiration for these posts. In House of Leaves, Danielweski experiments rather extensively with format and story telling styles making truly a masterpiece and in itself, a work of art. To summarize the book in short, it is about a house that is bigger on the inside than on the outside. This description does it almost an injustice as the book itself is so much more and once you start reading it, you never quite finish it. In the book, Danielweski makes references in footnotes to many sources in the style of a research paper. However most of these sources don't actually exist and have been invented for the sake of the story. One of these sources intrigued me and I saw a place for it on this blog.


-Begin Segment

The Architecture of Art

There are seven incarnations (and six correlates) necessary to becoming an Artist:

1. Explorer (courage)
2. Surveyor (Vision)
3. Miner (Strength)
4. Refiner (Patience)
5. Designer (Intelligence)
6. Maker (Experience)
7. Artist

First you must leave the safety of your home and go into the dangers of the world, whether to an actual territory or some unexamined aspect of the psyche. This is what is meant by Explorer.

Next, you must have the vision to recognize your destination once you arrive there. Note that a destination may sometimes also be the journey. This is what is meant by Surveyor.

Third, you must be strong enough to dig up facts, follow veins of history, unearth telling details. This is what is meant by Miner.

Fourth, you must have the patience to winnow and process your material into something rare. This may take months or even years. And this is what is meant by Refiner.

Fifth, you must use your intellect to conceive of your material as something meaning more than its origins. This is what is meant by Designer.

Six you must fashion a work independent of everything that has gone before it including yourself. This is accomplished through experience and is what is meant by Maker.

At this stage, the work is acceptable. You will be fortunate to have progressed so far. It is unlikely, however, that you will go any farther. Most do not. But let us assume you are exceptional. Let us assume you are rare. What then does it mean to reach the final incarnation? Only this: at every stage, from 1 thru 6, you will risk more, see more, gather more, process more, fashion more, consider more, love more, suffer more, imagine more and in the end know why less means more and leave what doesn't and keep what implies and create what matters. This is what is meant by Artist.

- End segment




I found this interesting in both relation to the discussions in class and the reading of Ancient Art and Ritual by Harrison. In this segment on the Architecture of Art, the first six steps are, as I interpreted, are essentially the steps an artist must take to achieve mimicry of art. As Harrison discussed in her book, true art is fueled by emotion and impulse. It is genuine to a degree that cannot be easily, if ever, replicated. Most so called "artists" don't ever achieve more than this state of creation according to Harrison. What Danielweski is referring to in step seven of the proposed architecture is the true involvement of the artist with their creation. Though not stated explicitly, he is discussing how the line between art and artist is nearly blurred and to fully comprehend the work in it's full meaning (an important aspect of art and ritual) we must see both components as one unit. The presence of this excerpt in House of Leaves is not surprising in the least. Should one read the book, they will bear witness to a work of literature that defies all norms and expectations of what a book is supposed to be. The reader can see that Danielweski not only wrote these steps for the use in his book but almost as a guideline that he obviously followed in the writing of this instant classic.