Kenneth Goldsmith, who was recently appointed MoMA’s “poet laureate,” shares over at The Awl a manifesto of sorts advocating for “smart dumb,” which he claims is an alternative to “both smart smart and dumb dumb, choosing instead to walk a tightrope between the two.”
Known for composing poems out of re-appropriated transcriptions of news articles, weather reports, and sports broadcasts, Goldsmith argues that “smart dumb” is achieved by transcending “smart” and being unafraid to access the obvious and mundane.
He goes on to condemn “twee” and “hipster” for being unsuccessful variants of the quality he describes, and cites such artists like Gertrude Stein, Samuel Beckett, Sofia Coppola, and Tao Lin as champions of “smart dumb.” Overall, a pretty convincing argument to dabble in dumbness if you haven’t already.
