From these different articles, it seems that Smithson seems to really dislike the idea of art being displayed in museums (Cultural Confinement) and apparently spends a lot of time outdoors exploring nature for different sites, so it's no wonder he decided to create the Spiral Jetty eathwork. I enjoyed reading the background behind the Spiral Jetty from his perspective, with his very detailed descriptions. It sounds like he has an affinity for nature and its history and a disdain for man made things, but isn't this a bit hypocritical, considering the fact that he used a helicopter, "two dump trucks, a tractor, and a large front loader" (146) during its construction? Smithson sounds like he really enjoys criticizing others, but what is the extent to which he actually follows his own ideologies?
Also, in the entropy article, I got very confused when Smithson started describing laughter as "entropic 'verbalization'" and even more lost when he started comparing different types of laughs to different shapes (21). He applies the "ha-ha-crystal " concept to Alice in Wonderland (22), and I can vaguely understand the "grin without a cat" indicating "anti-matter," but I don't understand what Smithson means by "laugh-matter." What is the reason for associating laughter with different geometric shapes? What is it supposed to mean, and what are the differences between the types of laughs/ what they represent?
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