Second Day and New Ideas – WITD

Today I worked on three things, the online virtual space, a written piece for a show and the second day of the second phase for What is the Difference? (WITD). Although the three tasks are not directly related, they nourish one another if nothing else, by virtue of their contrast. Contrast can be a great stimulus for seeing things afresh.

As I was packing away the sculpture, wrapping, cleaning, rustling and wiping, Janet noticed that these noises sound very deliberate. They are rhythmical and I explained that I always go through this ‘ritual’ at the end of a working session. I am thinking that it might make a soundtrack for a video. The sound as background would have dissonance. This composed discordance might prove to be consonant with what I had written about earlier, that the process becomes the ritual and the final work is a reification of the ideas behind it and the process that brought it into being.

This soundtrack accompanying the sculpture might appear out of context. But I think that bringing together the domains of idea and process will foster a synthesis from which something interesting might emerge from each encounter with a recipient. A physical show is a good way of observing and discussing responses, particularly in the context of the work itself. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of an online show. But what the online lacks in efficacy it makes up in reach and efficiency.