"I know there are artists who like music in the background while they work; they use the music to block out everything else. They're not listening to it; it's there as a form of companionship. I don't need a soundtrack to accompany my life. Music in the background nibbles away at your awareness. It's comforting, perhaps, but who said tapping into your awareness was supposed to be comfortable? And who knows how much of your brainpower and intuition the Muzak is draining?" - Twyla Tharp, The Creative Habit I had been picking away at The Creative Habit for quite a while, but I finally re-read and finished it on Monday. I really enjoyed it and very much recommend it. Lately I have been thinking about this quote above, because I do listen to music quite a lot when cleaning or in the studio or just generally. This week, though, I have been working without it. It's an interesting change. I do feel a bit more focused, I don't feel the loss of background ambience, I have just been fully engrossed in what I've been working on. I actually finished a sketchbook yesterday! I think I'm going to do a weekly roundup of what I've worked on that I'll post on Sundays. Piggybacking from the last post, where I linked an interview with author George Saunders where he talks about social media, here's an interview with artist Tishan Hsu that also touches on how humans and technology interact: Even in the mountains, then, the artist felt watched: by the sites he visited, by the phone he took to bed. “They actually have cognitive psychologists helping them design this software so that they know what will pull you in,” Hsu said. “We need to stop and think about what it’s doing to us and our bodies. So in a way that’s what my work has been trying to grasp. I would say, whether people connect to my work — I think I’m really just trying to ask the question, ‘What is really happening?’” This is something we've discussed in classes: how easy it is for us to forget that there are always human beings behind everything that's programmed. Sometimes we long for this ideal of impartial computerized decision-making, but human beings themselves are not impartial, and have hidden or overt biases - these can all be reflected in a program that we might believe to be free from human error. More inspiration for the week:
♡ This Artists' Questionnaire on Caroline Kent, who uses cut paper instead of an initial sketch for her abstract paintings ♡ Social distancing, 432 years ago (I was just telling my cousins that I would love to have a six foot long pole that I could hit people with if they got too close to me in line) ♡ The work of artist Ellen M. Blalock. Amazing, beautiful, heart-rending. (I'd rather look at her quilts than look at Red Composition.)
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AuthorArtist, essayist, divinity school dropout. Here for a good time, not for a long time. Archives
February 2024
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