{"product_id":"100-000-minutes","title":"100,000 minutes","description":"\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAs readers turn the opening pages of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e100,000 Minutes\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, they encounter a succession of alternative titles James Lee Byars considered for the work: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eor The Big Sample of Byars\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e; \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eor 1\/2 an Autobiography\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e (a reference to the artist's age of thirty-seven, then considered the statistical midpoint of an American lifespan); and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eor The First Paper of Philosophy\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. The publication originated in Byars's first European exhibition at the Wide White Space Gallery in Antwerp, which consisted of three performances. During the final week, the artist sat behind an opening cut into a gallery wall, painted the same distinctive pink as the book's pages, and wrote in public. The texts reproduced in this volume were composed during this performance. Some recount episodes from his life, while others take the form of short and witty philosophical aphorisms:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp role=\"presentation\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"At first sight, do you perceive the full potential of a circumstance?\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp role=\"presentation\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"I went to Oxford just to find out what questions existed in the philosophy department.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp role=\"presentation\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"If you ask for something that doesn't exist, you deserve it on the intelligence of the request.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp role=\"presentation\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"I wear a black leather suit and like clear light bulbs; do you think I'm Wittgenstein's ghost, too?\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn a 1969 interview with Geert Bekaert and Walter Van Dijk (\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eStreven\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, vol. 22), Byars described the book as \"a sample\" rather than the story of an entire life. Influenced by Ludwig Wittgenstein, he conceived of philosophy as an ongoing process of inquiry rather than a means of arriving at fixed conclusions. The title reflects his fascination with numbers (particularly large, rounded figures), which he valued less for their mathematical precision than for their poetic and symbolic resonance. For Byars, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e100,000 Minutes\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e signified possibility rather than measurement, just as his imagined possession of the complete 1-million-word \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOxford English Dictionary\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—a dream he shared in the same interview—expressed a desire to inhabit the totality of language rather than to master it.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Metabooks","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53801304097107,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1068\/8898\/6963\/files\/Byars.png?v=1779269873","url":"https:\/\/metabooks.art\/products\/100-000-minutes","provider":"Metabooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}