23) Some notes on my blog „art77blog“ and John Berger’s legacy.

There is a weird thing with my blog. Most of the subjects I write about have deep roots in humanities. And that is the difficulty. We are used to read and discuss issues of humanities in long texts. My apology for the very short version is that I consider them as part of the triad of picture, text and the special format of the blog. My blog is something like intellect light or reflections to go. That’s not new. There is a long history of epigraphs, emblems, satirical texts and pictures. And there is a long list of heroes who explored new ways of communication: Comenius and his orbis pictus, Hogarth and Goya, Diderot and his encyclopedia, the  Authors of so called „ABC-Büchlein “  and not to forget Wilhelm Busch. And in this context we should remember the interdisciplinary approach of Aby Warburg, Panofsky and last not least John Berger, who died last week. His four features „The ways of seeing “ from 1970 at BBC tv were a revelation for me. He didn’t write a blog, but he had a message, that only he could write about. And think of possible blogs of him! A big legacy, isn’t it?

Ich stoße immer wieder auf das Problem der notwendigen Verkürzungen im Blog. Eine gewisse Beruhigung erfahre ich aus vielen historischen Vorläufern: Epigramme, Embleme, Satire, aber auch von jenen die neue Kommunikations- Formen erprobten: Comenius und der orbis sensualium pictus, Hogarth, Goya, Diderot und nicht zuletzt Wilhelm Busch. Als John Berger 1970 für das BBC Fernsehen die vierteilige Reihe ‚The ways of seeing “ verfasste, hat mich das tief beeindruckt. Ihm, der vergangene Woche gestorben ist, verdanke ich viel.