You may know that I almost moved to San Francisco this year. I hemmed and hawwed for a while, but finally, I decided to stay in Seattle, on the condition that I would travel more.
I’m testing out the assertion that I can work from anywhere here in NYC and so far it’s good. I’ve been out with friends and seen a movie and actually done a bunch of work on my next video for Make:. I’m subletting a room in brooklyn for a reasonable amount and it’s got great wifi and very cozy and nice flatmates.
At Dave Winer’s Meetup, I met Noel, David, Sanford, Martin, James, John, and lots of other geek peeps. It was a hoot!
One of the conversations of the evening was about how the best conversations happen in the hallways of conferences. An unconference tries to deal with this. How can a group of people get together and talk in the hall without a conference? Ignite gets closer to being a place like this, since it gets people working on a project together which is a bonding activity. Playing werewolf is also pretty fun, but you don’t get to know the other players very well in that game.
I personally learn most in casual conversation. I am passionate about supporting creativity and in my interactions with people, I like to find out what they are working on, what barriers they have to achieving their goals, and I wonder about how they can make their dreams come true. I could spend every night meeting new people and learning about what gets their motors going.
So casual conversation is where I learn the most. What is the best way to get into regular conversations with new people and learn about what they are passionate about? And so now I’m curious, what strategies do you have in your life for encountering new people and uncovering their passion and enthusiasm? What kind of social gathering would nurture this? I’m tempted to invoke a salon model or a party model.
Were having another ignite in February and I’m going to be having a party sometime at the end of January if I can clean up my cluttered apartment when I get back from NYC… I look forward to hearing about what people are passionate about.
On a totally different topic, I’ve been thinking a lot about what being an innovative artist looks like for me. I’m ancy for a new art project and contemplating drawing, photography, but what’s calling me is working with a social network to create art. Got a project you’re working on that would take an entire community to pull off? I’m daydreaming these kind of things up right now.
If you are a in New York and wanna hang out, shoot me an email at bre@makezine.com and We’ll see what we can do. Are you on dodgeball? you can find me there too with username bre.
It sounds to me like you are interested foremost is creating community around the process of creating art. If I didn’t know you better I might say that perhaps it is not as important for you to actually make the art as it is to get others excited about making it, but I know you also like to get your hands dirty. Perhaps it is just very important to have a shared creative process, and supporting a community is the best way for you to achieve this.
What this reminds me of is the experimental/impromptu performance art of the 60s and 70s…I know Laurie Anderson did a performance piece where a bunch of people met up in a field in their cars and had a “concert” with their car horns…is it the shared experience (process) you are most after or the product?
For me, it is just about getting to the root of why I exist, and sharing my life with others is part of why I exist. It isn’t so much about who I am but who I want to be. It is important to me to explore some of this on my own, as I may not feel as honest with myself if I were only exploring these ideas in the company of others. But at the same time, I too crave community involvement and a connection to others in creative ways. So in that sense, I also wish to discover who we are collectively.
For you, it seems to me that it is also about encouraging others to be their best and sharing in their bestness. We are social creatures and all need to feel a connection, and you are very good at making connections and in coming up with good ideas.
Bouncing ideas off of one another is a creative process in itself, and one that we don’t have enough opportunities for in general. Maybe the process IS the product.
Glad to hear that the creative juices are flowing out there in NYC!
Thanks for the response… I like your idea about ideas. Daniel once said the same thing to me. He said, “since you have so many ideas, maybe the ideas could be the product.”
Ya, it’s a bit all tangled up in getting hands dirty, involving other people, and then activities.
I love the horn idea, I wish I’d thought of it… I bet i could do a version of it that would be fun.
I’m not sure if this is what you’re looking for but recently I signed up for this project called Small World Research Project at Columbia University. They describe themselves the best:
“…an online experiment to test the idea that any two people in the world can be connected via ’six degrees of separation’”.
I’m currently trying to connect myself with someone in Berlin. I also believe you must know the people you are starting your connection with and not recruiting people just for the project.
In taking part I was wondering if there would be a major exhibition showing these connections but also felt it may be a large undertaking for someone.
Anyway I thought maybe this can spark some idea for you locally or maybe involving some other connection with a group of people. Wouldn’t it be great if everyone was able to get photographs of all the connections to find out who knows who?
Still loving the show. Thanks
It also makes a lot of sense that you were a teacher for so long (and continue to be one of sorts). Creative communities are hard to come by in our culture except in the field of education. This was a way for you to collaborate and share ideas in a structured way. Unfortunately, because there was a teacher/student dynamic in place, sharing ideas wasn’t as emphasized as you may have liked.
I think the idea of salons is good…I also think “art-ins” may be effective. Ignite is definately a step in the right direction. Think about the woman who created a whole new persona and even placed personal ads in the paper to get others involved in the project…even the stuff you created at Earth Sanctuary had the essence of spontaneity but with structure and focus.
I’m inspired by your thoughts on art and community. I have an idea to present… but first some background info. I’ve taken a time-out this month to work on a new series of sculptures using recycled materials. Part of this direction was inspired by a gift project I did in October. Some picts here:
http://www.studiocurtis.com/skeletoncoutur
I’m now working on larger, free-standing, pieces using 95% post-consumer materials. Some of them have a functional/furniture-like quality. I’ve been raiding the trash rooms in the highrise building I live in to find scrap cardboard and paper. In the process, I’ve found two dvd players, a boombox, and a unassembled dining room table in it’s original sealed box. I’m overwhelmed with the amount of solid waist our culture produces. My idea that a community could tackle to create a system of transforming the solid waste into creative functional objects and art on a large scale. This is a seed of an idea that could take many directions. I’d be interested to hear others ideas about this.
Thanks Bre for all your wonderful work this past year. I’m very grateful for incredibly vibrant and creative online presence!
Curtis
I find that the Burner community in Seattle has a lot of creative energy that they share when they have their regular meetups. Perhaps tapping into that scene would allow you explore other mediums for meeting others to share creative energies. Also, if you’ve not been to the LRS you might find that is an interesting place to meet people and talk about creative energy.
As for meeting others and chatting them up about what makes them tick, well, I frequently find myself chatting with strangers everywhere I go–the grocery store, walking down the street, on the bus. Most people will share about their passions pretty easily I’ve found. Maybe a big meetup with total strangers where they get into small tables and create mind maps of something? who knows…
Looking forward to the next Ignite!