Sometimes critiques stop me in my tracks.  It can be as simple a thing as needing a day to process all the new insights (or to recover from the shock, dismay, and general malaise).

Today’s critiques had the opposite effect.  I love crits that involve concrete ideas as well as generalized market/critical feedback.

Some things that connect last summer’s work to this:

-that DING! sound effect as a measurement/indicator of when an idea is completely realized in art

-the spotlight approach to images (it doesn’t always fit together as a whole, but every part is carefully considered…it’s bad and good)

-art that emphasizes (or at least prefers) intimate or personal relationships with the viewer (not aggressively projecting)

Ideas for the current direction:

-experiment with expanding my definition of the artwork to include the stuff I compulsively cluster around it in the studio (the studies, the overlays, the source material, the rough drafts….the intermediate thoughts with all their immediacy and sincerity)

-how can I up the ante with this “sketchbook mad scientist aesthetic” ?

-look up scatter art (and especially Nicole Eisenman)

-look up Tom Oberg (embracing mythology, iron oxide red, bridge bombings/radio hacks)

-for the faux museum concept with which I hope to tie all this together…don’t all proper museums now feature audio tours and gift shops?  Would this not be an absolute BLAST to set up?  Yes, yes it would.

Now, who would be the voice actors?  More importantly, just how goofy will the audio bit be?

I usually avoid those things, but I shall have to seek them out.

And the technology…providing everybody with MP3 players would be pricey and impractical.  Doesn’t the PMA offer a free audio tour that you can access via smartphone?  It limits you to that form of tech, but I suspect that I and M. are the last people in the world not yet assimilated into smartphone addiction, aka the Borg.

What happens when I leave the goofy mistakes and editing marks visible?  What if I exaggerate them?  (i.e. using a reserved/special color to tag each “booger” or screw indentation)

cf. similar conversation with j. about leaving screws exposed to create a postmodern careless/careful dichotomy