Dinner with Berwickians
Dinner with the Board. A nice way to kick-off the Residency. We talked about how I got to this point -- Nicaragua -- Dana had spent some time with the Sandinistas as well and we got into an extended conversation about the sandinista revolution, contras etc.-- hadn't talked about that in a long while. It was nice to remember those ideals. It reminded me of a conversation i had recently with people from the Red Clover (Commune in vermont) who felt there were no utopian models today, or alternate visions for a different social structure/government. That through the eighties, there were different leftist movements and governments, that held up an alternative to capitalism, but now the alternative is a right wing religeous (muslim) movement.
---anyway, back to central America and the early influences in my work. How what I valued most in the mural work was the conversations I had -- both standing on the corner as the piece evolved, getting people's reactions and the stories that people told me through making drawings. Using art as a catalyst to elicit personal histories and conversations. It's really been a key into other worlds that I would never be able to access otherwise. And I think digital media seems to be better suited than painting as a medium to accomplish those goals.
It was pointed out that there was two distinct methods I had talked about in approaching virtual street corners. One was to put the piece up and see what happens. The other was to do a lot of community organizing first and then to ask people how they would use this technology as a tool to help accomplish their own goals. I have been excited about both approaches at different times. I guess there's no reason to choose one over the other -- they both can happen, and will probably influence each other. Maybe the best result will be a hybrid of the two.
Hole in Space also came up as a similar project, which I had thought was a dance performance that two groups had done together, but it turned out to be a very similar project to Virtual street Corners! I actually don't see that so much as a problem , but others might, I'll have to figure out how to deal with that. (see next posting, same same)
---anyway, back to central America and the early influences in my work. How what I valued most in the mural work was the conversations I had -- both standing on the corner as the piece evolved, getting people's reactions and the stories that people told me through making drawings. Using art as a catalyst to elicit personal histories and conversations. It's really been a key into other worlds that I would never be able to access otherwise. And I think digital media seems to be better suited than painting as a medium to accomplish those goals.
It was pointed out that there was two distinct methods I had talked about in approaching virtual street corners. One was to put the piece up and see what happens. The other was to do a lot of community organizing first and then to ask people how they would use this technology as a tool to help accomplish their own goals. I have been excited about both approaches at different times. I guess there's no reason to choose one over the other -- they both can happen, and will probably influence each other. Maybe the best result will be a hybrid of the two.
Hole in Space also came up as a similar project, which I had thought was a dance performance that two groups had done together, but it turned out to be a very similar project to Virtual street Corners! I actually don't see that so much as a problem , but others might, I'll have to figure out how to deal with that. (see next posting, same same)
posted by JE at 10:49 AM
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