Seducing the Guard

Literally bouncing all over the place, Daniel Conrad's mishmash meditation on the meaning and function of art in society combines interviews with a wide range of subjects hailing from numerous disciplines in the humanities and sciences together with "art bites" from various art forms, including fine arts, dance, film and oral storytelling. While it's both heartening and illuminating to hear noted scientists such as Steven Weinberg, Margaret Geller, and Daniel Dennett exhorting art as a vital influence in expanding their ways of seeing, the humanities side of the investigation is less compelling. Actress Gina Wilkinson's little narrative stories are rather pointless, Roy Anderson's definition of the purpose of art (unfortunately accompanied by one of the filmmaker's clips) as "questioning the existing value system of the time" will strike many viewers as rather narrow, and choreographer Paul Audre-Fortier's admission that he has changed people's lives sounds a teensy bit self-congratulatory (especially in light of the content-less though riveting contortions offered up onscreen here). On the other hand, playwright/author John Gray's illuminating comments on Freud's model of the brain reminds us that art sometimes packages profound and/or disquieting messages in such a way that they seduce the mind's status quo guardian, opening up opportunities for re-envisioning the world in new and different ways. In short, Seducing the Guard is the intellectual equivalent of a snack, not a meal. In art, as in physics, it seems that a true grand unified theory is still hovering just out of present day human reach. Still, the very scattershot nature of the program lends itself to spurring discussion, making this a strong optional purchase, particularly for college undergraduate audiences in the sciences. Aud: H, C, P. (R. Pitman)