virtually munch on this!

Dear K in paradise,

Great quote from good old Sol-y! I also think it's important to remember that even when you are "doing," there is still a lot of stumbling, fumbling, humbling, searching, head-scratching. That's part of learning. I'm failing a lot with my lil' weather machines, but it's a nonetheless a productive process.

Went to a lecture last week: Glenn Adamson of "Thinking Through Craft" fame. I may write more about it later, but tangentially, he mentioned the "Unmonumental" show that was the opening exhibit of the New Museum in NY last year. One of his lesser topics included the relationship between D.I.Y. and technology, and the way most of us access this 3-D tactile work through flattening vitural contexts. Not only does this speak to our blogging and Google-urgent consumption of information, but really touched on my very intentioned approach to this animation project for our show.

"Unmonumental" had 4 parts, the last being "Montage: Unmonumental Online." I spent some time sorting through this and found it very telling of the blurred boundaries of art and life, especially in how it translates through technology. Just some highlights:1. Jessica Ciocci does these crazy web collages that really make me snicker. A teenage html angst all framed with a web browser--sooooo cute! You have to follow the links, it's a random journey through personal patterns and wild flashing gifs of special virtual awards or recognizable pop icons like Mario bros.2. Willaim Boling made a site that collects images of items for sale via online auction sites like ebay in both the US and New Zealand. Web commerce juxtapositions that are sometimes absurdly silly and thought provoking concerning their respective places.3. Nina Katchadourian put together an interactive "Continuum of Cute" inviting the viewer to organize the web images of animals in order from cutest to uncutest.4. Paul Slocum made an amazing time-lapse video, taking the viewer on a trip through the fast moving and constant flux of a homepage. It is process on display in an ever-changing virtual environment.

All of these projects seem to speak to our chunking (with small bites) way of taking in the world of web experience (and maybe the world in general), as well as the fleeting presence of content and context. This could be an interesting concept to approach in your munchings/groupings/consuming tangible page project.

Hope you enjoyed your off-grid-ness and are adjusting to the regular speed of things.
Talk soon,
k

p.s. The image at top is from a Flickr set I found while searching for more info on "Unmonumental." It highlights found objects as "artful" from the perspective of a mindful stumbling upon details in a mundane city environment.