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Okay, so I've been dealing with a lot of
questions about where I'm gonna go
as far as blog content, branding content-
angle, trajectory, progressions and whatnot--
as I am redirecting a lot of stuff
in terms of creative direction and
creative versus critical writing
how much I want to draw a balance between
cultural creation and curation,
where those lines are.
Most importantly, how to effectively network art
into my life in an everyday sense.
When I think about things like
career scenarios, everyone always says
break it into- what are the things you feel are
most important to have in your workplace environment
and there is always a gillion options from
the challenges, interruptions, the time-orientation--and all of that.
But one of the things that has always been interesting to me
is that I need to have coworkers who I think are interesting
who inspire me- whose enthusiasm and passion, creativity--
eccentricity and everything moves me to work more effectively
or efficiently, or to be more inspired or whatever
i can't jut have kind of stoney-faced professionals who
who clock in and they live for the cubicle.
A big part of what that means for me as a creative artists is
it kind of sucks when I'm here at home
I have my ...paint...work station, I've got all..
everything I could want--my books--my guitar...
I've got my cats, but-- it's not gonna take long
to realize that this is a saturated "me" place
there is no outside influence
nothing is unpredictable
obviously, you know how your living room is
you don't walk into your living room very often and
(unless you're a wizard of defamiliarization)
...walk in and say "that's it, I have
exactly the new idea for that dilemma I was facing."
that's something that intrigues me a lot
-the incubation of ideas that happens just in being presented to random people,
perspectives and vantage points, I don't think there
is any chance of understating that-
that that is absolutely huge, especially for
creative people, just to have a jump start of
defamiliarization and the novelty of working processes.
for me especially it is very very important to be networking
as I said. So in a lot of ways
when I look at what kind of work
situation is the best for me, I think that
things -how to say it... imagining the creative world
more as Indra's web more than sort of an incubation
cave where I sit on an egg until it hatches
is really helpful to me. I have to be interacting
with other creative works and I think things like
reviews-- and especially seeing the digital enthusiam
that has been behind content curation, to a degree
things like twitter, though its really hard to interact in
in a community-like sense because so many people
are you know, only marketing
they aren't interested in community, they just
so much as- everyone who is writing a book, especially if it is a bestselling book
it's kind of an ironic gimmick, they are all
writing books called How to Write a Compelling Bestselling Book
everyone is susceptible and vulnerable and so they
all fall into that, but
there are things like Goodreads which
despite being bought out by amazon
still is invigorating a lot of people to
seriously look at building a community
of books. people are getting on and talking
about why it is they like what they like
what they like-- and it is not just
Mark Zuckerberg cashing in on "upload your facebook likes to amazon and we'll make a mint"
it's much more-- nerds like myself
who really love the Leonard Cohen poetry
or **** , Henry Miller-- or
The Horizon Reader? I don't know...
They just want to talk about it, they want to connect
Was it Frank Sinatra?
Whoever it was who was speaking about
movie theatres are never gonna happen-
or, no... television-- because it's just acting like movie theatres but
at one synchronized time everyone is just at home
just ...laughing quietly alone in their houses
to these gags that should be At The Theatre
In a lot of ways, at least television
everybody comes to work the next days and says
OMG did you see the ending of Friends
or did you see the Superbowl, Bread and Circuses!
-or whatever it is that people say about these things-
books... I could read every day, on the bus--
but i'm gonna come to work and nobody is going to ask
What did you think about Chekov?
You know, no one does.
Seeking out a venue in which people are doing that
If you walk into a coffee shop and somebody says
What did you think about Chekov
A,
all the Silicon Valley people will show up and be like,
"This is a cool place, lets take it. Let's make it ours."
And then they'll all we wearing golf visors
but moreever if you show up and see that
you'll probably think oh god- this is some hipster vanity blah blah blah
i don't know, i dont think I would do that...
but it doesn't matter
Goodreads is a cool place because it is kind of
a suspension of disbelief? if that makes sense
in the sense that there is always this ironic rejection
of effusiveness that kind of permeates all consumer
culture in a lot of ways, where
if you really feel strongly about something,
it is thoroughly impressed into us to
be kind of embarrassed about that.
It is our kind of dirty american ritual
rejection of anything highbrow or difficult
or nuanced in any way--
It's sort of this bizarre pseudo social realism
grittiness that still utterly rejects socialism...
It's just like a mess of contradictions-
but Goodreads is interesting because
no matter how embarrassed you are tempted to be
for having read say, The Poetics of Space
or whatever it is you've done, you get on there--
if you say that and you click it
(Now I am theoretically fascinated with goodreads, but I have next to no experience with it, which is something I'll have to change)
It really is quite interesting because as soon as you
do that you are going to ostensibly be connected
to people dealing with the same thing
interacting with the same work and hopefully
appreciating it
there is a lot to be said for
people who are not dealing with disposable culture
immediate gratification culture
finding encouragement. Its a uphill battle
To be interested in books in a world that is fixated on
at best television- and at worse-
every new time sensitive-- twitter or vine kind of thing
being attached to permanency like that
and interacting with it, and especially
being attracted to things that aren't intentionally obsolete
is aberrant! it is very much out of the ordinary
It's interesting to find encouragement
and empathetic interaction with people that are
seeking to get a little bit more thought or
looking for a little more depth
( I don't know anything at all about
the rationale of other readers.)
I tend to be a little bit pessimistic
so I tend to assume that there are no readers
or intentional analyzers of culture at large
or appreciators of literature and art and blah blah bla
...because I don't know them.
A huge consuming part of my "far progressed life"
is kind of an angst at not finding
a community of interaction
not finding a way to connect to those people
because in the comparative scheme of things
we are pretty invisible.
It is a different time-orientation
it's a different motivation of profit--
versus thought, mystical--whathaveyou--motivations.
Interesting to me-- maybe
what more can I say?
Well, I think that is a good first start.
Things that are interesting to me:
Formats and structures in the digital world
of realigning, reattaching ourselves to slower
appraisals of the human condition, the human psyche
social/ situational scenes and everything--
books are very important to reattach and reappraise
to celebrate-- in spite of the time-sensitive
orientation of digital - fast- immediate
culture. I think it is extremely fascinating
and encouraging to see that popping up as
an instinct in the fast paced modern digital age
so we'll see where that goes
and I'll check out this new series of digital tunnels
people stay in.
Hopefully I'll see you
Hopefully we'll become some friends, we'll see! Bye