Tuesday, September 1, 2009

The state of my practice. August 2009.

State the problem in words as clearly as possible

The past 6 months have given me a bunch of nuggets to consider moving forward with my practice. They've come through informal and formal talks with other artists, attending local performances, a performance opportunity accepted and one turned down, receiving my first grant, reconnecting with dorkbot.

Let's do this in order listed above. Can I boil down to 1-2 sentences? It's an oblique strategy, so I'll try and not cry if I babble:

1) informal talks w/ other artists: Artists in Portland like to chat over coffee, food, booze, whatever. I've been inspired by the artists I've met who aren't afraid to do the work that is involved if you are serious about having a long-term, sustainable practice.

2) formal talks w/ other artists: ISEA2009 in Belfast introduced me to many artists who are hungry for an opportunity to discuss their practice with others. It's high time that we insist on reconfiguring the professional conference/symposium structure so that we can share our experiences and ideas during the short time we have together. The big theme from participatory practices was about control.

3) attending shows in Portland: There are some really talented artists in Portland. Their work stands up to the globally respected artists I have seen elsewhere. I find alot of what I've seen more interesting and more fully considered, actually. This one is linked to no.1

4) accepted performance opportunity: at YogaShala in June. Was fantastic to start thinking about how to involve other artists in my work. Also, how it can work when the elements of audio, video, and live acts are more fragmented or disperse.

5) turned down performance opp: Manor of Art at Milepost 5 was an amazing show and inspiring to have such a large dedicated space to the arts. It would have depressed me to work in a former nursing home! and my work needed some incubation and evolution time before I show it again.

6) grant received: for professional development conference travel. Encouraging to get support from local arts agency so early in my life in Portland, and the conference surpassed my expectations as far as connecting with possible opportunities to present, collaborate on new projects, and hopefully bring international artists doing sympathetic work to Portland.

7) dorkbot presentation & meetings: I need to work on my presentation skills! But the playful supportive environment of dorkbot is breathing new life into my interest in converting my tool into an open source platform. Work on this has already started, maybe I can have something running by end of year? Exciting thought.

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