Boredom and Art: Passions of the Will To Boredom

by Julian Jason Haladyn

Boredom and Art examines the use of boredom as a strategy in modern and contemporary art to resist or frustrate the effects of consumerism and capitalism. This book traces the emergence of what Haladyn terms the will to boredom in which artists, writers and philosophers actively attempt to use the lack of interest inherent in the state of being 'bored' to challenge people. Instead of accepting the prescribed meanings of life given to us by consumer or mass culture, boredom represents the possibility of creating meaning: ‘a threshold of great deeds’ in Walter Benjamin’s memorable wording. It is this conception of boredom as a positive experience of modern subjectivity that is the main critical position of Haladyn's study, in which he proposes that boredom is used by artists as a form of aesthetic resistance that, at its most positive, is the will to boredom.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published October 30, 2015

Reviews

[J. Moufawad-Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well 4.5 stars but I tend to round up…

A great examination of the concept of boredom in the context of art and art practice. There were gems in this book that I didn't expect: an implicit theory of the subject/subjectivity (the connection of boredom to the construction of the modern subject was very very interesting); a theorization of the avant-garde that was clearer and more concise than a lot of theorizations; the use of Nietzsche in a way that didn't bother me (since I usually dislike Nietzsche).

My only criticism of this book, which isn't really substantial, is that its abrupt end feels like it is missing a final chapter or an epilogue. After going through the examples of boredom in different artists' work (the final two being Warhol and Akerman) I was hoping for a return to the concept as a whole that could pull the last strands together. But maybe that was the point particularly since the last sentence, concerning Akerman's *Jeanne Dielman*, states that Akerman forces her viewers to decide if they allow the character "to go beyond the continuous fictions of her existence"… Perhaps the abrupt ending of the book is intended to be just like the Akerman film and is proposing a similar challenge to the reader.

[Franciszek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pięć gwiazdek może nieco na wyrost: pozostaje pewne poczucie niedosytu, związane z faktem, że obecność wykorzystania "woli nudy" we współczesności Haladyn upatruje jedynie w zjawiskach związanych z filmem (Warhol i Akerman), chociaż jej źródła wynajduje w innych sztukach, u Maneta, Bretona, marginalnie u Zoli. Wywód przeprowadzony jest bardzo zgrabnie, momentami repetytywnie, co ułatwia porządkowanie argumentacji podczas lektury, jest intelektualnie wyzywający i stymulujący.
Haladyn śledzi rozwój kategorii nudy od czasów ukształtowania nowej podmiotowości człowieka w modernizmie: śledzi ten proces od teorii optycznych Keplera przez epistemologiczne koncepcje Kanta, Schopenhauera i Nietzschego. Jego koncepcja sugerująca istnienie dwóch kategorii nudy, "no boredom" i "yes boredom", nie powala oryginalnością, ale samo jej teoretyczne podbudowanie jest warte prześledzenia, a książka stanowi dobry punkt wyjścia (także bibliograficzny) do dalszych poszukiwań.