practice...art...design...steps
This is one of those nonsense, test posts. Since upgrading to Gutenberg, it’s time to check out those pesky blocks in a safe environment. So far, I’m not thrilled with the way it handles HTML. Other than that, it seems, on the surface, much easier for clients (aka non techies) to update content and “design” it. Generally a good thing.
Ceci n’est pas un bloc. Ceci est un bloc.
| Ceci est une table. | 1 | 2 |
| La table est bleu. | 3 | 4 |
Cover Block
I found out about the now infamous Banksy self-destructing artwork “Girl with Balloon” —- part performance, part stunt, a brilliant and deeply cynical gesture — on social media. Twitter, which although I don’t “use” it as much anymore, it still has the pulse on immediate information, despite having being upstaged by its more visual cousin, Instagram.
Watching “The Director’s Cut” video on YouTube, which perhaps purports that the image was intended to be entirely shred, and further mocks the elite art world, while yet still profiting from it, makes me realize that Banksy should clone himself and be a prof at most art schools. Or at least offer online workshops.
What would an application to the Canada Council look like that was shaped by a Banksy style intention?
Dear Jury Members, Deer Peers,
So I want to do this thing.
….//////////////////////////<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>
…|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
…_______________
…
.
Banksy shows us how to work the system and yet still, ostensibly, kick it in its backside.
Probably there are PhD students right now choosing his work as a thesis project.
——
I’m thinking about this as I decide whether or not to apply for a PhD, and whether or not to become more commercial in my approach to arts-making.
AS if there is a difference.
“
The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act
.” – The Creative Act, Marcel Duchamp, 1957
Back from a Coast to Coast trip, on what we affectionally call the “mom’s tour” – coinciding with Thanksgiving weekend (Canadian). Grateful to still have mom’s.
While away, Vancity credit union’s online banking — and I gather inside the bank as well — so their entire banking system — shut down. Completely, for like 3 days. A bit of a disaster to say the least. We do about do 50% of our banking there. Hedging our bets agains the big banks:)
I followed along on twitter — at times aghast, at times amused, at times angry, and overall in general flabbergasted at how it was handled.
It was a tragicomedy intermingled with a Samuel Beckett play unravelling in real time.
Waiting and waiting and waiting.
One key takeaway — on how not to handle a crisis:
Keep tweeting the same generic message over and over again for 2 days. Delete tweets that have replies in the them, and disable comments on your CEO’s youtube public update.
Eventually, they started responding more personally. I wonder if it was too late. Many customers said they would leave , loudly, online at least. I wonder how many who said they were going to switch did in fact do so? It takes a lot of energy to switch.
While all this was going on we happened to be decluttering some old family stuff, largely boring paper intermingled with a few precious photos and letters.
Old obsolete tax returns – shred.
Old bills from an address and account that no longer exist, just rip up. The sound of shredding and the callouses on my fingers will linger.
What was intriguing were a few letters that were business correspondance – to do with taxes, correcting errors, banking and whatnot. The tone of them was so civilized! Almost over the top.
Now the writer of these letters was British, and from a different era. So right off the bat, they were more formal.
Phrases like “Yours most sincerely,” “Please take note that…“, “It has come to my attention“, “Best Regards”
…
Compare this to some of the charming tweets I saw Vancity get:
More or less “F*CK you and $*%&($*!~” And “You g-d** incompetent” and so on and so on. (Without the polite *s)
Basically extremely vitriolic and lacking completely in sensitivity for the receiver of these tweets. Who after all, is not a corporation (at least I’m assuming they don’t have a bot answering their tweets -hmmm….), but a person.
Regardless, the contrast between the level of politeness, attention to detail (on both sides of the correspondence – the replies to those paper letters were equally civil) and the way the tweets spiralled out of control was immense.
Now, I’m not saying customers should not have been angry. Vancity’s screwup was immense, and IMHO, has been showing cracks in its system since they “upgraded” in ways that they generally glossed over in the past. I got riled up too.
It was an excellent reminder that online communication has it’s own type of informality, that can get out of hand, and that, although no one in the future will develop callouses shredding the tweets and posts of today, it might be a good idea to think about that what you are sharing is public.
Side Note – Also Noticed:
Travel takes you out of your preconceived notions. You witness others behaviour (critically, if with compassion, it must be confessed) and it opens your eyes to your own mis-behaviours and foibles. I think it’s because when you aren’t in your own daily routine, your habits get opened up. You can’t quite be on auto-pilot. Goal for November: be more compassionate.
So on my art site, I just soft-launched my shop. By soft launch, I mean —— ssssh —— I’ve only told a handful of folks. I haven’t done any MARketing. Marketing. Mark making. Not a ting.
Why might this be?
Shame. Fear. Laziness. Introversion. Lack of Courage. Guilt.
Take any of those words and mix them together with old thoughts, and boom. SILENCE.
I was chatting with several artists recently about this phenomena. Why is selling “products” a dirty word in the art world? By art world, I loosely mean the academic art world. It goes without saying that those artists who have an Etsy shop presumably have no hesitation, internal conflict, or whatnot about putting their stuff out there with a price tag on it.
One gal commented that it is the censoring voice of one’s former prof —- who probably isn’t even making art anymore! [Meow] And, even if they are, they are tenured professors — so no need to get messy with the concept of money.
Or it might be that the BIG art market wants things to remain in the old system, so that pricing can be controlled and manipulated – like the stock market.
Who knows.
What I know for sure, as Oprah often says (blush) —— my shop is live. Check her out.
Right now there are two projects:
1) Contour line drawings (as fine art prints) from a project on Instagram where I draw my phone and hand first thing in the morning before turning the phone on.
2) Drawing/collage of hearts and the neural network.
Fairy Tale is one of the synonyms which came up when g0ogling for a synonym for Narrative which is just too darn heavy a word. Besides, I like fairy tales.
How much time does a fairy tale have to unfold in a 5 second universe?
A split screen, split attention, split second space where engagement is not within the refined confines of the white cube of the gallery, but within the little box that gives you text neck and changes your vision, both day and night, now enhanced with a filter for the night so you sleep better (ha).
You’ve probably seen those blog posts that begin with notifying you “5 minutes 37 second read” / “8 min read” / “Warning! 22 minutes read – your head might explode” – ok I made that last one up, but I do wonder. Is that how busy we’ve all become, we must know in advance how many minutes it will take to read, and who is creating that algorithm of pace?
Then again, with books, or even pictures in a gallery, you can tell at a glance how long it might take to engage. Proust is going to be measured in many hours. I just finished reading “Wolf Hall” by Hilary Mantel, a whopping 672 pages, and I confess I did not propose it to my book club for fear that it would take too long for the group to read. It required engagement. A commitment to reading.
Now one must structure apps so that they respond within micro seconds or else your user is gone.
∞
Once upon a time there was a monk in an abbey somewhere, back in say, 1303, and he was turning 38, which was no doubt quite old back then. His eyesight was failing, well after all it would be given his job. Using a quill pen and precious ink, he was working on the letter R. After five days, (this was a commission), he started to see double.
∞
To be continued in 5 seconds in a parallel universe.