# slacker (blogs) — RSS Amplifier Recent posts from the 1 feeds in the RSS Amplifier directory that cover slacker. Page: Feed: --- ## [Practicing Mortality: Art, Philosophy, and Contemplative Seeing – “Plato’s Art” – Christopher A. Dustin and Joanna E. Ziegler](https://randallszott.org/2026/08/16/practicing-mortality-art-philosophy-and-contemplative-seeing-platos-art-christopher-a-dustin-and-joanna-e-ziegler/) _2026-08-16 · dilettanteventures · Lebenskünstler_ In Plato’s view, it is not what we learn about art that is most important, but what we learn from it. For him, education in art is education by art. … In describing what the craft of education involves, Socrates is not simply drawing an analogy between the body and the soul…To see what is \[…\] ## [Practicing Mortality: Art, Philosophy, and Contemplative Seeing – “The Beatification of the Mundane” – Christopher A. Dustin and Joanna E. Ziegler](https://randallszott.org/2026/08/09/practicing-mortality-art-philosophy-and-contemplative-seeing-the-beatification-of-the-mundane-christopher-a-dustin-and-joanna-e-ziegler/) _2026-08-09 · dilettanteventures · Lebenskünstler_ Thoreau and Okakura devoted their professional time to writing about living, especially about what constitutes a life well lived. They were concerned with the problem of character and how it is most deeply informed by the attitude toward mortality. They both explored the idea of daily living not as an abstract idea, but a concrete \[…\] ## [Practicing Mortality: Art, Philosophy, and Contemplative Seeing – “What it Means to See” – Christopher A. Dustin and Joanna E. Ziegler](https://randallszott.org/2026/08/02/practicing-mortality-art-philosophy-and-contemplative-seeing-what-it-means-to-see-christopher-a-dustin-and-joanna-e-ziegler/) _2026-08-02 · dilettanteventures · Lebenskünstler_ …a conversation on what we love about art and philosophy, and how that love has ineluctably become a part of our own living. We talk about how art and philosophy can help one live more fully, each and every day…Art – so called – high Art, with a capital A – is usually set a \[…\] ## [Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life – Zena Hitz](https://randallszott.org/2026/07/12/lost-in-thought-the-hidden-pleasures-of-an-intellectual-life-zena-hitz/) _2026-07-12 · dilettanteventures · Lebenskünstler_ Such a vision of the work of the mind leaves it open to anyone that has a desire for it. Intellectual life is not merely professional activity, to be left to experts. Because its central goods are good universally, it belongs in taxicabs, at the beach house or the book club, in the break room \[…\] ## [“Art, Neoliberalism, and the Fate of the Commons” John Roberts, in The Art of Direct Action: Social Sculpture and Beyond](https://randallszott.org/2026/07/07/art-neoliberalism-and-the-fate-of-the-commons-john-roberts-in-the-art-of-direct-action-social-sculpture-and-beyond/) _2026-07-07 · dilettanteventures · Lebenskünstler_ …many of the new forms of collaborative and participatory art make no distinction between art as political praxis and political praxis itself; art, it is claimed, is a form of political praxis. … …”enclosure” is as much cognitive and cultural as it is economic. … This has produced a range of practices along two fundamental \[…\] ## [The Work Trap: Rediscovering Leisure, Redefining Work – Martin C. Helldorfer](https://randallszott.org/2026/07/03/the-work-trap-rediscovering-leisure-redefining-work-martin-c-helldorfer/) _2026-07-03 · dilettanteventures · Lebenskünstler_ When it happens that a worklike approach to life becomes one’s only approach, this special difficulty is termed work-fixation. Work-fixation turns every experience into work – even playing, dancing, or relaxing. Work-fixation is not the same as spending long hours at an office. Nor is it necessarily avoided by spending much time pursuing leisure-time activities. \[…\] ## [“Socially Engaged Art and Fall of the Spectator since Joseph Beuys and the Situationists” – Karen van den Berg in The Art of Direct Action: Social Sculpture and Beyond](https://randallszott.org/2026/07/03/test-community-and-the-politics-of-place/) _2026-07-03 · dilettanteventures · Lebenskünstler_ …socially engaged art is not simply a development within the art field to be described from an art historical perspective alone, but rather a specific form of activity within society. … This is because Beuys was concerned with the development of an understanding of art in which artistic practice is understood as an anthropological activity \[…\]