The Self-Made Man

from the series of lectures “Conceptual Paradise. Artistic Practice in the Age of the Social Web”

In his lecture on July 1, the American artist John Miller will deal with strategies of artistic self-marketing. Based on his work on lonely hearts ads in city magazines (New York, Cologne), Miller will draw a parallel between this kind of self-presentation and artistic production: “In roughly parallel fashion, the object of art production is to model or to transform the viewer’s subjectivity.” Building on this, John Miller is planning an artwork in the form of a lonely hearts ad, in which the notion of a “self-made man” is taken up as a sign of the author’s attractiveness and prestige. In this way, he intends to contrast the constructions of subjectivity in Fluxus and Conceptual art that base their legitimacy on the autonomy of art. This project to be developed together with students and teachers of the Kunstraum of the Leuphana University Lueneburg will be integrated in the Conceptual Paradise Wiki, where it is to be given an optimal presentation platform.

On July 2, a workshop will be held to prepare the project with John Miller.

John Miller is Professor for Professional Practice in Art History at Barnard College of Columbia University New York. He previously taught at the California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles, the School of Visual Arts, New York, the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, at New York University, and the Yale University School of Art.

John Miller’s artworks were recently exhibited in a large retrospective at Kunsthalle Zurich. They have been on view since 1977 in numerous solo and group shows around the world. In 1987 John Miller became the editor of the art magazine Artscribe, in 1991 he founded the art periodical Acme Journal together with Joshua Decter. John Miller regularly contributes to renowned art magazines such as Artforum, October, and Texte zur Kunst.