walking over video
wouldn't that be cool? want to make it and want to do it. in the meantime can imagine.
http://www.eriksanner.com/es_blog_2007/art_mini_proposal_070418.pdf
legal
the chess project, that's the one i got a grant for. which involved applying for a grant. so the foundation of this project is split. there were the years of vaguely wanting to do a chess project, involving other people, and painting on chess boards. then there was the descent into bureaucracy and paperwork. well, thank you lower manhattan cultural council for helping me buy the paint and the chessboards, and presumably that endorsement of this project by an institution will make it easy to get permission to do the things in the park i want to do -
ok long story short started the contracts urged in last year's volunteer lawyers for the arts bootcamp, i mean, i want to avoid any possibility of misunderstanding or displeasure right? so vla recommends contracts if you're collaborating, so today i started writing a bit about what some of the issues are (i want to be able to use this footage, basically, and i want the work to stay together as a body of work, i think, although that's something which will likely change as the project evolves)
anyway here's the beginning of what i'm going to ask participants to look at and hopefully agree to, hope you enjoy
http://www.eriksanner.com/es_blog_2007/chess_legal_stuff_beginning_070417.pdf
points of view
funny how our memories work and we can argue about what happened or what someone said or meant or didn't say... we can share this discontinuity of experience real-time, because it's not just when you look back that things are perceived and understood differently by different people, it's as it's happening, whatever it is, we might inhabit the same external universe but no way do we share our life-living sensations, do we?
the point of this is, matthew has started a blog, which is great, because if you really care about kisokaido things you can ask him, or read him, and furthermore, with two of us going at it, it'll be like stereo, you'll read things coming from two sources which should provide a more lifelike or comprehensible understanding of whatever it is we're trying to do.
http://thewalkingfool.blogspot
basically i think everyone has the potential to feel like they're on a mission. not everyone wants to be on a mission, or chooses to accept it. i think when matthew decided he wanted to walk from kyoto to tokyo, he was saying - something. and for me, i want to explore. for example, the paradox that imagination is bigger than universe yet universe must contain imagination (thank you soseki natsume), and keep travelling (which equals learning in my consciousness), and explore the nature of things, the qualities of aesthetics... anyway it was an obvious tie-in with yamanote, shikoku, what i'm doing now - a way to really face up to great work of a hero-ancestor of ours and say "what could i possibly add?"
players
wasn't really sure, when thinking about chess, if people would want to participate, if there would be interest. something have wanted to do for many years.
anyway, today first two pieces complete (of sixty-four). t used to be my neighbor, maya is his neighbor now, both paint.
a few things seemed significant:
- i didn't paint today. in a way, this project, and many of my ideas, are really excuses so i can paint in a post-painting age. but i defined my role as facilitator/referee/recorder.
- there is interest. it was fun for them, fun for me, fun for innocent bystanders. can see more people wanting to get involved in this project, which is very encouraging.
- which is more important, the art or the rules? this is a project about art and rules, basically. well, the answer, today anyway, is beauty wins, aesthetic sensation wins. the first painting had an agreed-upon twenty-minute time limit which was then abolished as neither "player" felt it was finished, didn't feel done to me either, and the timeclock was relegated to neat-idea status.
- improvisation happened, that was a big hope, but you can't tell anyone what to do or how to think. rather, if you do those things, what are you doing? anyway i don't want to tell anyone what to do. certainly not when it comes to creation. none of us had ever painted on a chess board before (i still haven't) or seen it done (although i'm sure it has been done in spades). and there were ample chances before matches to set guidelines. well, they changed, and it was pretty amicable, and obvious to all of us, if something would be more interesting another way - ok an example. during the first piece, color swap - black for white, white for black. very unusual in a chess match for one player to say "ok i want to play white now, let's switch sides or flip the board around." yeah, chess teachers do that, but honest-to-goodness players, not so much i don't think. certainly not in a serious high-stakes game right? but we have two people painting, very sincere, still playful, and they decide to just swap colors. that's what a lot of art is right? making up the rules as you go along? not even the rules, just figuring out whatever you're doing? one of the things i love most about any creative practice is the improvisational element. if i already know what's going to happen or what it will look like, i don't want to do it. both the creator and the viewer can enjoy some kind of surprise, i think, something unexpected - that is very important to me, each day, to try to find something new, or to feel something new, anyway to long for that, and the fluid nature of the way each piece developed, was deeply satisfying.
so thank you t and thank you maya and josh, christine, michael, harley, very much looking forward to doing some of the things we've talked/emailed about, and also people who aren't yet in or interested or aware, i'm so much looking forward to seeing how all this plays out. even if i'm just a bystander, can't think of a better way to make art, today, this month. when all this gets combined into a piece, it's going to be a pretty complex moving painting, with a lot of visible and invisible thoughts underpining it. no idea what it will look like, i hope. i hope whatever i'm imagining is wrong. i don't want to know how this thing will go. i'm pretty excited about seeing it.
he's in
matthew is now open to collaboration (eager, even). which means... everything will change. this is a good thing. best news all day.
totally unrelated to any project, got to meet theo jansen this afternoon, inspiring as all get out.
http://www.strandbeest.com/index.html# (suggest clicking on "film" and seeing some of those clips if you haven't ever)
makes all the stuff i think about seem like a piece of cake. from the bakery. a croissant maybe, but definitely from a bakery...
spring planting
that's the working title, not growth or buds, to autumn leaves and winter branches sequel. process still in process (like that?). first bit is coating some of those wooden stretcher frames with pva, attempting to prevent the wood from rotting when it gets wet. other bits, various seeds...
so chess, tomorrow first brushstrokes on that, excited. got timeclock today, brushes, boards, paint. more in mail.
haven't done a walk longer than a few miles since sunday, but about to skype matthew, we'll talk kisokaido.
some very nice traffic cones out there today.
still thinking
if i'm not working on something maybe it needs to change. the kisokaido concept, would be a lot stronger with video, the problem is, if i'm walking, the camera needs to keep moving with me, have been practicing not-stopping as taking pictures on training walks, won't have over three months to sit there for an hour or more at each spot with a tripod and get lots of footage i want, maybe recruit high school students in advance to meet along the way and they send me tapes? or pick from available webcams (people still shoot out of their backyards?) and get in touch with those people and ask for permission, do frequent grabs from web for timelapse effect? or start searching archival copyright-free footage?
totally different direction also occurred, ok maybe not totally different - anyway tactileness feels missing, something involving "paint" or "collage" and yes that could be taken from virtual piece or raw-created in our physical environment, then added or digicaptured to change what virtual piece consists of? but it's about five days with no progress on that mockup, and lots of little "what about changing" thoughts occurring, nagging sense of dissatisfaction with current trajectory, must change
ok, after some further thought, more options = thirty seconds enough video? will carry tripod next practice walk and see how the experience is (wanted to avoid having a tripod in my hand the entire journey but if that's the best solution, fine) as well as the result; another option would be some sort of disposable camera, hope that kind souls would mail? want to avoid asking for help but anyway we'll see. best to start with the tripod, and look forward to the days when i can plant a little camera which will fly to me an hour later. maybe that technology exists and is reasonably priced and i need to get in touch with someone from the spy world, or university labs, or do some research...
invitation
tim when are you coming to nyc next? if no plan, how about this spring? remember when i said "want to do something"? that project is starting, still interested? steph months ago said she was into exploring, maybe you and me do something, you two do something else, she and i do something else, the three of us do something, that sounds like a four-thing interest-packed day think?
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