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Book: I'll Be Your Mirror: The Selected Andy Warhol Interviews by Kenneth Goldsmith
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Authors: Kenneth Goldsmith
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automation is economic suicide?
A. Absolutely not.
Q. You have said many times in the past that you, yourself, would like to be a machine. Does this mean that you sense what you are doing and are able to take over operations to correct any mistakes or initiate the next step?
A. Yes. The power of man has grown in every sphere except over himself. Never in the field of action have events seemed so harshly to dwarf personalities. Rarely in history have brutal facts so dominated thought or has such a widespread individual virtue found so dim a collective focus. The fearful question confronts us, have our problems got beyond our control? Undoubtedly, we are passing through a phase where this may be so: but this will change with the rise of automation, because mankind will understand eras and how they really open and close.
Q. Purists speak of cybernation, in which a master machine is used to run other machines, as in a factory. Using this definition would you then say that you are a Purist?
A. Not yet.
Q. Would you like to replace human effort?
A. Yes.
Q. Why?
A. Because human effort is too hard.
Q. Close-tolerance “silk-screening” involves highly skilled technicians. What would happen, let’s say, if you had the chance to acquire taped programmed machines with digital signals to guide the intricate silk-screen printing which is ordinarily done by me?
A. Everything would be done with more efficiency.
Q. Would you say that I have a property right to my job? I mean I own my job for life?
A. No.
Q. If my job vanishes into a technological limbo, won’t another open up somewhere in this “factory"?
A. Possibly. It’s all a matter of doing something else.
Q. Will I make more?
A. Yes.
Q. How will you meet the challenge of automation?
A. By becoming part of it.
Q. What will you do with all this leisure time created for you by automation?
A. Sit back and relax.
Q. Will you devote yourself to life-enhancing hobbies?
A. No.
Q. What does human judgment mean to you?
A. Human judgment doesn’t mean anything to me. Human judgment cannot exist in the world of automation. “Problems” must be “solved.” Without judgment there can be no problems.
Q. Are you patient with little solutions and try to get as many as you can so they’ll add up to something?
A. What I try to do is to avoid solving problems. Problems are too hard and too many. I don’t think accumulating solutions really add up to something. They only create more problems that must be solved.
Q. Do you, then, feel that we’re moving into a period, most probably a permanent period, where the main characteristic of the world will be change?
A. Change is the same without being different. We live in a world where we do not notice change: therefore what does change only enhances itself a little more each day.
Q. Dissect the meaning of automation.
A. Automation is a way of making things easy. Automation just gives you something to do.
9 “An Interview with Andy Warhol”
DAVID EHRENSTEIN
March 3, 1965
Film Culture, Spring 1966
In 1965, David Ehrenstein, a recent high school graduate, found himself attending numerous underground film screenings in New York City. He was beginning to write film criticism and frequently met and conversed with Warhol at screenings of Andy’s films. On the suggestion of Film Culture editor Jonas Mekas, Ehrenstein was given a chance to interview Warhol. He decided to take a three-tiered approach: “I went over to the Factory one day just to hang out to get a feel for what was going on there. I then came back the next day to do the interview; and went back a third to hang out some more!’
On the day of the interview, the Factory was in full, mid-week swing: Screen Tests were being filmed of the poet Ted Berrigan and the painter Joe Brainard; a 45 rpm version of The Rolling Stones’ “Time Is On My Side” was blasting out of the stereo; and all day long various people came and went trying to pitch Warhol
A. Absolutely not.
Q. You have said many times in the past that you, yourself, would like to be a machine. Does this mean that you sense what you are doing and are able to take over operations to correct any mistakes or initiate the next step?
A. Yes. The power of man has grown in every sphere except over himself. Never in the field of action have events seemed so harshly to dwarf personalities. Rarely in history have brutal facts so dominated thought or has such a widespread individual virtue found so dim a collective focus. The fearful question confronts us, have our problems got beyond our control? Undoubtedly, we are passing through a phase where this may be so: but this will change with the rise of automation, because mankind will understand eras and how they really open and close.
Q. Purists speak of cybernation, in which a master machine is used to run other machines, as in a factory. Using this definition would you then say that you are a Purist?
A. Not yet.
Q. Would you like to replace human effort?
A. Yes.
Q. Why?
A. Because human effort is too hard.
Q. Close-tolerance “silk-screening” involves highly skilled technicians. What would happen, let’s say, if you had the chance to acquire taped programmed machines with digital signals to guide the intricate silk-screen printing which is ordinarily done by me?
A. Everything would be done with more efficiency.
Q. Would you say that I have a property right to my job? I mean I own my job for life?
A. No.
Q. If my job vanishes into a technological limbo, won’t another open up somewhere in this “factory"?
A. Possibly. It’s all a matter of doing something else.
Q. Will I make more?
A. Yes.
Q. How will you meet the challenge of automation?
A. By becoming part of it.
Q. What will you do with all this leisure time created for you by automation?
A. Sit back and relax.
Q. Will you devote yourself to life-enhancing hobbies?
A. No.
Q. What does human judgment mean to you?
A. Human judgment doesn’t mean anything to me. Human judgment cannot exist in the world of automation. “Problems” must be “solved.” Without judgment there can be no problems.
Q. Are you patient with little solutions and try to get as many as you can so they’ll add up to something?
A. What I try to do is to avoid solving problems. Problems are too hard and too many. I don’t think accumulating solutions really add up to something. They only create more problems that must be solved.
Q. Do you, then, feel that we’re moving into a period, most probably a permanent period, where the main characteristic of the world will be change?
A. Change is the same without being different. We live in a world where we do not notice change: therefore what does change only enhances itself a little more each day.
Q. Dissect the meaning of automation.
A. Automation is a way of making things easy. Automation just gives you something to do.
9 “An Interview with Andy Warhol”
DAVID EHRENSTEIN
March 3, 1965
Film Culture, Spring 1966
In 1965, David Ehrenstein, a recent high school graduate, found himself attending numerous underground film screenings in New York City. He was beginning to write film criticism and frequently met and conversed with Warhol at screenings of Andy’s films. On the suggestion of Film Culture editor Jonas Mekas, Ehrenstein was given a chance to interview Warhol. He decided to take a three-tiered approach: “I went over to the Factory one day just to hang out to get a feel for what was going on there. I then came back the next day to do the interview; and went back a third to hang out some more!’
On the day of the interview, the Factory was in full, mid-week swing: Screen Tests were being filmed of the poet Ted Berrigan and the painter Joe Brainard; a 45 rpm version of The Rolling Stones’ “Time Is On My Side” was blasting out of the stereo; and all day long various people came and went trying to pitch Warhol
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