Recently I was directed to this fantastic site called Square America. The site features collections of vernacular photos from our fellow Americans.
I am beginning to have a shift in thinking in my creative process as I have begun to ask the question, "Why do I shoot photographs?" It is a simple question that I thought I understood, but am realizing that there is a much more base element to my process which I think has to do with growing up with photographs. Not just media photos, but photos of the home and family life. I am not articulating this well, but there is something about how we live our lives through those images...they become our understanding of the past and our projection of the future. The image holds so much sway over us.
television: the drug of a nation
2 Comments Published by zack on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 at 9:58 PM.
Gala and I just watched the last available episode of Lost on ABC.com after binging on the first two seasons over the past 3 weeks (this equals way more tv than any human should consume on a regular basis). I am glad to be 'caught' up before the new episodes start here in a week or so. Simple said the show is crack.
Honestly, I felt like a smoker burning up my last cigarette in the pack before quitting. Since television's cultural takeover in the late 50's, we have seen its continued rise and fall. Since then the fight between cinema and tv has been constant. Currently tv has been landing some quality blows by making our couch patrol into a bite-size versions of feature length films that add up to a novels worth of information and development. Even with an enter-at-any point philosophy and the proverbal episodal hook tv keeps us coming back for more. Let's just say they come a long way since Gilligan's Island...and Lost is the just what the doctor order for 21st century media diners.
One of 2 videos I worked on this year for Liz Janes & Create(!) from their collaborative e.p. is up on youtube here. The album is a gorgeous little number of public domain songs recrafted. It has been an interesting quest to go from freewheeling art production to having a client, if you will, and working towards the goal of capturing an essence of a song. I find that I work most creatively and energetically when there is a framework that I am supposed to engage and collaborate with. This video is definitely the most 'music video' of the 2 I crafted.
Wednesday was one of those days that epitomized my current art study interest which is the place of potential, the pregnant moment, between success and failure. What is this place, is it just what we term life? Is the notion of success bankrupt and is failure more than we give it credit it for?
A video I recently worked on for My Brightest Diamond's Remix album got some press on Pitchfork and subsequently a great amount of hits. Cool. And then I presented my work in a graduate seminar to 30 students and a faculty member...I got chewed on and it hurt. Because critiques are a blur the word "hollow" sticks out the most as a referent used to describe a wall of photos and drawings I presented. Talk about an experience you have to unpack...such is blunt critique.
