Today was not a good day for photos. In fact, by noon, I was so upset with my computer that I couldn't stand to look at it to work on anything more. I had also by that point in the day had enough other things go wrong that I decided that working with photo chemicals was way more hazardous than usual. I did manage to get a few new pottery pieces thrown, one of which might end up being the piece a friend commissioned, but we'll see how it dries.
This doesn't mean that I didn't think about this project though. Actually, I thought about it quite a bit, and decided that I was going about it a bit too one-sided.
The overall idea of this project is the combination of analog and digital. I do feel like that is coming through in the work – through the processes I use, and the fact that in the end, the show will incorporate digital prints and traditional silver prints as well (possibly some polaroids and/or emulsion transfers…I'm not ruling anything out at this point). What I feel is too one sided is the dialog.
Most of the dialog I have been writing lately is either from a character that lives in the digital world, or from another character who is talking about the character in the digital world. I have not written a lot about the analog world, or about a happy medium between the two. Today, I started thinking about why that might be. My best guess, is that right now, I am fascinated by the digital world. I have connected with so many new friends, and re-connected with so many old friends, found many inspiring people, and gotten great feedback about my work online. There are even family members that I have connected with a bit more because it is easy here. I don't see it as a bad thing at all. I do realize though, that it has been quite awhile since I have gone without the internet for an extended period of time. In fact, the last time was probably when our power was out for a week, and even then, I could still go online when I was at work. So, I'm going to do an expirament for my project.
Coming up in about a week-and-a-half I have a weekend long trip planned with some girlfriends. We are staying in a cabin, hiking, and just hanging out in general. I have no idea if we will have internet at the cabin, and I decided that for that weekend, it won't matter. From Friday morning, to Monday morning, I will not be online. I am hoping that this will allow me to hear the voice of my character living in the analog world a bit more, and make things a little less one-sided. Yes, I will still have my cell phone with me, and yes, I will still have my ipod for music and in case the book I might read a bit of that weekend happens to be on there. I am not giving up digital conveniences completely, just the internet. Ironically, I have already decided that I will be leaving my digital camera at home for this weekend trip. I already have a ton of pictures of Duluth, so I am bringing only a few rolls of film, but many packs of Polaroids. I haven't taken any Polaroids up there yet, and I think this trip will be a great time to do it.
Sometimes, we just need to remind ourselves how to listen.
~Peace~