hello sexy babies -
clearly i don’t have the discipline to keep up with regular blog posts. i’ll still be around here from time to time for long-form rambling, but in the meantime, you can find me on twitter @ARTvsArtifact. more of a stream of consciousness musing of the moment kinda endeavor. the perfect melding of lazy and chatty.
if you’re in the tweet-o-shpere, look me up. i’ll make snacks.
more to come….
so while walking through the local art supply store the other day, i crossed paths with a group of young mothers with their toddlers. my adorability meter maxed out, i kept shopping. when i saw them again, one of the toddlers was holding a small jar of glitter. was she shaking it? no. looking at it? no. she was smelling it.
brilliant.
i thought to myself ” i have no idea what glitter smells like. i’ve never even attempted to smell glitter.” at that moment, i realized that i had been missing out. because i assumed i knew what all of the notable properties of glitter are and had never questioned that there might be more to know.
there is always more to know. stop thinking you have it figured out. assumption is a habit of complacency.
take time to stop and smell the glitter.
i will be the first to admit i am a “happy luddite.” i like analog. i like real film. i like scratchy records. i like having conversations in person.
but one of the things i really liked about the “good old days” – privacy.
not a hermetic privacy where i would be shuttered from the world. but rather the power to choose how and where and why to share my very existence with the world.
if i choose to present myself in a public forum (like, oh, a rarely updated blog) then i am choosing to make this moment and my thoughts public. but i miss the ability to just be moving through my life without other people feeling the need to document and broadcast it.
everything is a camera now. everything is the world wide web and your image, your actions, your likeness can be snatched and scattered to the winds without your knowledge at any moment. your actions can be “liked” or “favorited” or “retweeted” within minutes.
now i know that for many, this is life in modern times. it is expected, anticipated, ackowledged that if you are in public you are “on.” but is it right? do we no longer have a say over the parameters of our own privacy?so i am making a public declaration:
my existence is not public domain.
my person, my thoughts, my actions…these things are inherently mine and i should have a choice over how much i want to share and with whom.
i shouldn’t have to google myself to know what a complete stranger knows of me. each of us should – and i dare say DOES – have the authority to decide where their boundaries of self lie.
so my dearhearts, if you want to share ME, first share it WITH me. i might just say yes.
more to come…
making more work lately – sometimes it drips and sometimes it pours. but when it pours, brother you’d better grab your galoshes…
i have shared some of my work with the big blue world and often the responses i get are in the form of questions. (some rhetorical, but still…)
“so this is a comentary on (blank)?”
“are you saying that you think (blank) about this subejct?”
…or sometimes the simple comment: “i don’t get it.”
my advice: however hard you’re thinking about this – think less hard. you know the answer.
because i’m not trying to create something and make you figure out what it DOES mean. i want you to have a chance to consider what it COULD mean.
i’m not interested in waving my hands and saying “no, no – you’ve got it all wrong.” if you think it’s a joke, a sign, a sham, a gift – you’re right. So here’s the big fancy “what it’s all about” statement that seems to be at the root of the questions…
what i want to achieve, more than anything, is to provide an opportunity for an experience that the viewer / participant would not have had otherwise. an opportunity to reframe something common so that you can stop and see it – really have to look at it and think about what it is and means and does. or ask yourself why someone would do or make or say something. why they think it’s art. why you agree or disagree.
you know the answers – now ask the questions.
i’ve often heard that to reap the greatest rewards, you should push yourself beyond your comfort zone. that given a choice between two or more options, you should choose the one that scares you the most. well, this must be my lucky day, because i am terrified…
i have been given the opportunity to participate in a “thing” at a “place”…i have THE WORST stagefright of any human being. (i once passed out during a speech tournament, only to wake up in the hallway outside my room on the floor…) i won’t even sing “happy birthday” in front of other people. (this does not prevent me from being a superstar in my car or shower, however.)
so back to the “thing” at the “place”…it would involve me having to perform an action with the objective of having other people watch me. and it’s a fancy, big-deal “place” so i’m guessing there will be fancy, big-deal people there who would notice if i went catatonic and wet myself. (btw – this is NOT my performance piece. just to be clear.)
so- what to do?
i guess if i already think i can’t do it, i’ve nothing to lose and it probably couldn’t be any worse than what i’ve imagined. (my darling calls these premonitions of disaster my “catastro-vision.”)
so if you’re supposed to pick the thing that scares you the most, and if doing so will bring you the greatest reward, i have struck the motherload of good fortune!
more to come…
i’m much better at actual multi-tasking than virtual multi-tasking. i’ve been hard at work making things and putting stamps on them.
in the name of reducing virtual clutter, all of this has been posted on the IUOMA website. (see linky thing over there >>>)
come on over, if you’re so inclined.
more to come…
this is so brill…
“Evan Roth proposes that we become Intellectual Property Donors:
Why let all of your ideas die with you? Current Copyright law prevents anyone from building upon your creativity for 70 years after your death. Live on in collaboration with others. Make an intellectual property donation. By donating your IP into the public domain you will “promote the progress of science and useful arts” (U.S. Constitution). Ensure that your creativity will live on after you are gone, make a donation today.
We’re happy to share our salvageable organs with those who need them, so why not our ideas?”
http://www.good.is/post/are-you-an-intellectual-property-donor/
(i’m guessing, given the subject matter, they won’t mind me spreading the word…)
