July 19th, 2010 - Final Post
The TINT Arts Lab. This is something I am glad to have done.
In my initial Project Overview, I wrote:
“Akhil assigned me a task in which I would make a video about the best fighter jet in the world. While keeping true to Akhil’s interest in and knowledge of fighter jets, the video I am working on takes the Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor as a starting point in a network of associated histories, relationships, and concepts.
The F-22 Raptor opens into a discussion of the centralized military state, while my relationship with Akhil opens into a discussion of the globally networked neoliberal economy. These two intertwined paradigms are approached in a nonlinear history that feeds forward and backward to cybernetics and the emergence of digital computing to consider their influence on both the jet and the technosocial conditions for my relationship with Akhil. The video includes movements through contemporary military trade and entertainment, the commercial internet, and the militarized family histories of Akhil and I.”
This description still stands for the work I have presented here in the TINT Arts Lab. No radical changes have been made to my idea or the work I had done prior to the residency. As I expected, general responses and constructive questions were offered up by the commentators more so than technical suggestions and in-depth analyses. Participating in the Arts Lab was most productive for me in terms of communicating my ideas to people I have never met before and allowing their questions to change the ways in which I think and talk about the project-video relationship. Michael, Susan, Greg and Harold initially responded with a range of questions that have been very useful for me in thinking about the information I present to introduce the project, and the way that information is produced. I continue to find satisfaction in much of the work Akhil and I have done with/for each other, and feel a lot of enthusiasm while working on the video. However, most people need a certain amount of requisite information to feel engaged with the video and project as a whole, and I need to work on developing strategies to seduce people into the project and allow them to get lost in its complexity, whether the exhibition be online or physically installed, comprehensive or selective. Not everyone will give it the time I feel it needs, but I believe there are nuanced modes of generating interest to work towards.
I still find the idea that I participated in a virtual residency conceptually interesting in relation to my project. Though the dialog produced in my project and my relationship with Akhil as a whole is quite different from the dialog afforded through my participation in the Arts Lab, I think that extending this project into new and disparate networks offers the potential for thinking through how networks (and not simply online networks) are constructed, and the types of relationships they allow for.
TINT did a wonderful job publicizing our work through various mailing lists. I received emails from friends in the UK, Germany, and other parts of the United States who received an email from TINT and saw my name.
Again, I’m glad to have had this opportunity. The Arts Lab was a way for me to present my work to total strangers and receive feedback that I can bend language, thought, and video around. A lot of leverage for a small amount of applied conceptual pressure. A lot of new problems. I appreciate the opportunity and everyone’s feedback, and look forward to seeing how everyone’s projects turn out in October!
