"THE ARTIST MUST LIVE all the primitive experiments over again. This essentially is an injunction to rid ourselves of one of the most enduring artistic myths: that its forms improve over time. What if these forms turn in circles instead, progressing only up to a point, whereupon they return to their most rudimentary state?"
"During certain periods, a limit is reached; any further gain in technical sophistication turns manneristic and decadent, prompting a back-to-basics correction- art brut, a case in point. Nevertheless, the champions of contemporary art keep insisting that the latest model is somehow better than the previous."
"This is a music that insists on dumbness in both its lyrical content and its aural form, which are equally underdeveloped and repetitive. But stubborn repetition with only the slightest variation is no less germane to techno, sometimes even more so. The 'intelligence' we ascribe to this form is thus not necessarily inherent in it."
Henri Focillon's theory challenges the myth that artistic forms improve continuously over time. Instead, forms progress to a limit, then regress to rudimentary states when technical sophistication becomes manneristic and decadent, necessitating back-to-basics corrections. Contemporary art discourse promotes the latest developments as superior without acknowledging these cyclical patterns. House music exemplifies this principle. Though difficult to define, house music can be understood through comparison with techno. While techno is often labeled intelligent dance music by enthusiasts, house represents its non-intelligent counterpart, emphasizing dumbness through underdeveloped, repetitive lyrics and aural forms. However, techno also relies heavily on stubborn repetition with minimal variation, suggesting the perceived intelligence is relative rather than inherent.
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