If you simply want to get a job done, you can choose to metaphorically phone it in or use some sort of pre-existing template. Of course, you can’t be surprised if nobody comes back to you for repeat business, or if your name and your work gets forgotten amid the swirling sands of time. Mediocrity rarely deserves much attention.
Read MoreOPENING CEREMONIES, DECONSTRUCTED
Yes, there were missteps. Yes, there were some ill considered choices, aesthetically, technically, and narratively. I rolled my eyes at a few of them with amusement and let most of them roll off my back at the same time. But ultimately I must applaud vigorously. With the risks of spicy big art being reduced by commercial tendencies into a tasteless pablum, this particular show asked a global audience to stretch in so many exciting and invigorating ways.
Read MoreA DOCUMENT TRAVELS THROUGH TIME
This scrap of paper and ink captures my imagination. Here’s an encapsulation of an ordinary moment, apparently compiled in haste or in an incremental process of additive notation. Its relative vacuity describes the majority of our lives, the big masses of interstitial goo that hold our more substantial bones together.
Read MoreFREE SPIRITS
Free spirits do not always seek more choices. Many free spirits will be perfectly content to eat the same plain yogurt and strawberries for breakfast most every day for the rest of their lives.
Read MoreTHE RECURSIVE PROBLEM WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
I’m not opposed to modernity, or the soul of a new machine. I fully embrace the inevitable process where innovation forces new ways of working that are destined to replace older modes. My specific concern is that the embrace of AI’s siren promise for innovation seems uncaring about its implications while simultaneously acting as a transformational agent.
Read MoreWHAT, ME WORRY?
Talent alone is like simply having access to cool tools: access without practice does not independently confer greatness. Discipline and repeated effort are much more vital, and those are traits that most people are unwilling to invest in adequate measure to rise above the masses.
Read MoreCAMERA VS CAMERA: HOW TO SEE
As a dichotomy, tools matter and tools don’t matter at the same time. Give a great photographer a cheap disposable film camera you can still buy at the drug store (I love ‘em, actually) and you’re likely going to get something interesting. Give my neighbor a camera bag filled with expensive gear, and you’re going to get backlit cat photos on the windowsill…and a bag full of expensive gear.
Read MoreMECHANISMS
Endless pursuit of the perfect tool with a perfected set of skills can get in the way of actually doing good work. Make something, and your skills will automatically improve simply by using them. Constant evaluation of artistic processes other people may have employed can similarly impede our ability to actually see what those artists are trying to do creatively.
Read MoreTHE LOOMING DARKNESS (PT 3 OF 3) -- REGRESSION
The thing about artwork is that while expertise can add meaningful substance to dialogue, even the uninitiated can be moved to feel something or get engaged. Art can influence us even if we’re not an expert. This is different than opinions about science or engineering or foreign policy, where uninformed declarations can actually be counter-productive. I don’t want to listen to an uninformed opinion about whether bridges should be inspected for safety. I want to be able to count on experts who can properly evaluate the safety of bridges.
Read MoreTHE LOOMING DARKNESS (Pt 2 of 3) — LEVERAGE
A culture built of people invested in creative enterprise is a culture that cares about building connections. Creative expressions almost always reach out. By its very nature art does not insulate itself from interaction; it pursues interaction. In times like these, when identity politics and political polarization press our self-interested faces into hand-held screens, the value of shared experiences becomes not simply a luxury, but a campfire on a bitterly cold night.
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