Invites and Musings

Yay, invite Eleanor. I kind of want to invite Lucia too. Is that okay with you guys? I'm just afraid of it getting so big that people stop responding to each other.

And Mori, you've got great observations. Your motivations for creating may be different. (I feel like my career hangs on what I create.) I agree with Lis-- it doesn't have to be visual. But maybe it would help you to post some tune/ scales you play with and pair an image with it-- something you're drawn to or think of as you play. I'm thinking of those birds you filmed...

I listened to a great This American Life from '96... (I think I've listened to every episode from the last 5 years). The theme waas simulated realities. The show began with a reference to an Umberto Ecco essay I hadn't read-- a/b simulated worlds as particularly American. For the essay, Ecco went to oddles of wax musems and saw about 7 representations of Da Vinci's "Last Supper." Anyway, Ecco comments how simulating and re-presenting other worlds/pasts to the minutest detail is particularly American because
a) We equate significance (and I might argue, comfort) with lavishness, "no expense spared" aesthetic
b) As a country, we have a recent history and anchor ourselves by trying to authenticate other, more rooted/longer historied pasts (ex: Medieval Times)

Without going into endless depth, the show made me think of my MFA show and how in a sense, I was re-presenting other places, including specific details in order to recall or authenticate an individual's experience of that place. But i wasn't concerned with re-inacting or creating a microcosm of another place/experience. I don't want simulated experience. I wanted a sample of an individual's experience but without confusing or presuming to know exactly how that individual interpreted these places...

So, what I'm trying to process is whether my piece was very American... how to distinguish b/w simulation and paying homage (?) to another's experience of place... (I'm thinking this as I finish my wasp nest-- which is more of a reference to other's homes... still not sure what to make of it?)