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(This site is still here as an archive.)
Journal - April 16, 2006
APRIL 16, 2006
… I’ve been trying to open myself up to considering a wide range of possibilities in how this project might ultimately “look” as well as how the making of it might progress. I’m trying to be open to considering a more interactive, more time based, more temporal project. P just sent me images of a seating chart he’s using to plan the seating arrangement for his own May wedding. Having access to so many weddings this summer seems like an incredible resource. Perhaps S’s infinite archive of wedding negatives would be an incredible resource also, though they may be seriously off limits.
P mentioned that addressing the seating arrangement has been difficult and stressful, though incredibly important; and while I find this first-hand info interesting, it really only seems interesting in so much as it affirms my original feelings about these charts. The fact that a real person, a real person I know well, has told me as much seems inconsequential.
And going to the weddings themselves would likely be the same. The various personalities and intricacies of potential inter-family tensions or conflicts seem kind of superfluous to the mere fact that tension/conflict exists and that this banal system has been devised/utilized to assuage these feelings. I’ve also found that so many people are interested in engaging on the topic with me, each with their own stories of seating drama. You’d be surprised. And while it’s great that people engage, I don’t know how I want to connect this interest in sharing with what I do/make. Or if I want to connect them in an active way at all.
Basically, I’m interested in the plan/chart as a form of navigation, perhaps. Like a chart for traversing difficult terrain, a rough body of water, etc…
Part of me wonders about the idea of a small text or a short film, etc… that sets the stage by describing a inter-personal, -family situation:
Joseph married Andrea. Joseph’s parents are divorced and dislike Andrea’s mother. Etc…
And then beneath it a diagram of what their seating chart looked like.
I like the idea of a little video better than a text: seeing the bride or groom talk about the family situation in person. People definitely won’t want to be so open about their family tensions though – perhaps a transcription of the audio would have to suffice.
-
Now, I can’t help but think about the fact that this is supposed to be a research project and here I am with a vision of a “piece.” I also wonder what subconscious parameters I have in place that make me arrive at a piece that apparently goes on the wall and can be experienced in a classic museum/gallery-like setting and mode. I’m definitely thinking about museum walls without even realizing it.
I wonder what a brainstorm would be like (or if it could be at all) if I was thinking only about the idea and not how to make the idea physical or into “art.” And is that really what I’m interested in? The Art? The Idea? I think the truth is that I’m into the possibilities of experiencing the Idea in the Art setting and therefore using the established parameters/conveniences of Art. It’s interesting to think of the parameters as conveniences instead of boundaries, restrictions or limitations. I don’t feel much of an interest in breaking these boundaries as they do seem just like convenient parameters that I’ve come to accept. I can work just fine within them and so I see no real need to break them. I think maybe the question – as far as that goes – is: Are there elements of the assumed parameters that are troubling? How does one present with a freshness, an unexpectedness within such time-honored traditions and formats? And then: Do I even care?
So. These are all good things to think about but right now I need to begin thinking about how to make up a calendar for my BRI time. What do I want to use as markers: products? finalized ideas for a complete project? I’m inclined to think that I would like to actually have an idea of what the completed project MIGHT be sooner rather than later and then spend the bulk of the time flushing out how best to realize it or to perhaps confront why NOT to realize it. If my weeks are book-ended with studio visits, I want to have something more than my wandering scrawling ideas, questions, brainstorms to talk about and be challenged on.
… I’ve been trying to open myself up to considering a wide range of possibilities in how this project might ultimately “look” as well as how the making of it might progress. I’m trying to be open to considering a more interactive, more time based, more temporal project. P just sent me images of a seating chart he’s using to plan the seating arrangement for his own May wedding. Having access to so many weddings this summer seems like an incredible resource. Perhaps S’s infinite archive of wedding negatives would be an incredible resource also, though they may be seriously off limits.
P mentioned that addressing the seating arrangement has been difficult and stressful, though incredibly important; and while I find this first-hand info interesting, it really only seems interesting in so much as it affirms my original feelings about these charts. The fact that a real person, a real person I know well, has told me as much seems inconsequential.
And going to the weddings themselves would likely be the same. The various personalities and intricacies of potential inter-family tensions or conflicts seem kind of superfluous to the mere fact that tension/conflict exists and that this banal system has been devised/utilized to assuage these feelings. I’ve also found that so many people are interested in engaging on the topic with me, each with their own stories of seating drama. You’d be surprised. And while it’s great that people engage, I don’t know how I want to connect this interest in sharing with what I do/make. Or if I want to connect them in an active way at all.
Basically, I’m interested in the plan/chart as a form of navigation, perhaps. Like a chart for traversing difficult terrain, a rough body of water, etc…
Part of me wonders about the idea of a small text or a short film, etc… that sets the stage by describing a inter-personal, -family situation:
Joseph married Andrea. Joseph’s parents are divorced and dislike Andrea’s mother. Etc…
And then beneath it a diagram of what their seating chart looked like.
I like the idea of a little video better than a text: seeing the bride or groom talk about the family situation in person. People definitely won’t want to be so open about their family tensions though – perhaps a transcription of the audio would have to suffice.
-
Now, I can’t help but think about the fact that this is supposed to be a research project and here I am with a vision of a “piece.” I also wonder what subconscious parameters I have in place that make me arrive at a piece that apparently goes on the wall and can be experienced in a classic museum/gallery-like setting and mode. I’m definitely thinking about museum walls without even realizing it.
I wonder what a brainstorm would be like (or if it could be at all) if I was thinking only about the idea and not how to make the idea physical or into “art.” And is that really what I’m interested in? The Art? The Idea? I think the truth is that I’m into the possibilities of experiencing the Idea in the Art setting and therefore using the established parameters/conveniences of Art. It’s interesting to think of the parameters as conveniences instead of boundaries, restrictions or limitations. I don’t feel much of an interest in breaking these boundaries as they do seem just like convenient parameters that I’ve come to accept. I can work just fine within them and so I see no real need to break them. I think maybe the question – as far as that goes – is: Are there elements of the assumed parameters that are troubling? How does one present with a freshness, an unexpectedness within such time-honored traditions and formats? And then: Do I even care?
So. These are all good things to think about but right now I need to begin thinking about how to make up a calendar for my BRI time. What do I want to use as markers: products? finalized ideas for a complete project? I’m inclined to think that I would like to actually have an idea of what the completed project MIGHT be sooner rather than later and then spend the bulk of the time flushing out how best to realize it or to perhaps confront why NOT to realize it. If my weeks are book-ended with studio visits, I want to have something more than my wandering scrawling ideas, questions, brainstorms to talk about and be challenged on.
