Just bumped into this humourfull response to the banned pickup “artist” story.
I wonder why the term “artist” is used in this context.
It seems that perhaps the term, curiously, is used because the practice is about “picking up” where the goal is precisely – picking up, ie itself.
However, the term kind of fails when it comes to another art element – honesty. The embodiment of imagination requires being honest about the body. However, here, it seems to require a degree of dishonesty. To keep the fact one simply tries to pick up, as a hidden element. As a ghost that informs the practice, but that will damn it as soon as seen.
Perhaps this is the different between a ghost and imagination. The ghost of a time is the stuff period inhabiting people Do not discuss, stuff that is to be understood silently, and when/if discussed – will fold the time/period away. Where as imagination, in my mind, is more robust with the honesty element about itself. It can be acknowledged without folding by the very act.
The ghost in that case is a gorilla filling in the room with its scent – once acknowledged, has to be the focus. eg. with “pickup” – the society full of men fearful of women. How can that be tolerated? How can we tolerate men and women full of fears towards each other, in the simple sequence of sexism?
The imagination is about how we deal with these fears. Should they be hidden behind burkas, beards, pickup dishonesty, decorum, social scripting, acknowledged, or incorporated into an education program?