Chris Robbins had a few questions for me regarding the Personal Manifesto that I posted awhile ago.  He brought up some interesting perspectives, so, with his permission, I’m posting our dialogue here.

Chris had the following questions for me:

Hey J Joe.

I’d love to talk a bit about this list. Wanna parlay?

http://www.aestheticdialectic.com/archives/604

(btw really love the microsoft word spell and grammar check remnants)

First let me say it was good to see it got me thinking in nice general ways and I hope you dont see me probing it as an attack, but more as a way to explore whats in there… I mean, it is your *personal* manifesto so really i have no business commenting on it, but it was an interesting list so i felt drawn to think and write about it, so thats whats happening here, the beginning of a *conversation* i would hope

SO:

1. Yeah. Okay. Maybe too grad school, doesn’t seem like having to back something up matters if you’re one of those people who can leave things open. I’d say, believe in your intuition, but then make yourself figure out why.

2. Shit. Wish I knew what that meant. Could you explain what it’s like to listen to your work? I want to try. I am going to try. Remind me to try in a month, please, because I really want to, but not sure I can slow down right now (in archive mode) to do so. Hmm.

3. what! I like think the opposite! If it doesn’t feel right, push harder: you may be on to something! If it is flowing too easy it will probably be too neat and pretty in retrospect to matter.

4. yes. yes. yes. (but so hard to get past your own answers, especially after grad school teaches you such good-sounding answers that are so easy to go back to when really you should be thinking about the real reasons – this is the distinction that makes “backing something up” less important than “figuring out why.” or even “what”

5. Could you exlain what you mean? Like, stick to your plans. don’t get sidelined, and copyright that shit? What does this mean?

—

Okay J Joe looking forward to talking about this more…

And when do you come to nyc? we should meet up. Skow was heartbreakingly wonderful. God it hurts.

And then I said & >>he said:

ah, chris, this is why i luv u.  I will be glad to defend my manifesto, but am going to have to be brief because I’m trying to finish up a ton of crap today.  And let me say this—I wrote that two years ago and it doesn’t necessarily hold for me now.  But anyways.

#1.  yeah, prob a little too grad school.  I was in a really good place with my work just then and had sort of Surrendered to it and was getting a ton of ideas without having to sweat and bleed over them.  It was exciting and kinda scary and I wasn’t necessarily trusting myself, but I was thinking about trusting myself.  If that makes sense.

#2. Kind of an extension of #1. Thinking about trusting the images you get in your mind..the images that you chase and try to realize.

>>hmmm, trust. yeah, thats a tough one. for me i am having to learn which ideas NOT to trust, as in, I fall in love with every idea I have at first, more like infatuation, and my driving question too quickly becomes “how can I do this” rather than “why should I”

#3. I meant more like “If it doesn’t feel right because you are trying to force yourself to work a certain way because you studied film or graphic design and now for some reason are in a digital media ‘art’ program, STOP IT and make what you know. Because you just look like an asshole.”

>>that’s a really pertinent clarification. Thanks for that. Good point. Really good point. I say that, of course, because it applies to ME. For ME, its more like “in order for it to be art, I need to do *this* to it” and I end up castrating or at least twisting an idea until it seems more conceptual or evocative than honestly useful. I’m gonna hold onto that one.

#5. This is a good one. Wendy W was on my thesis committee and she had a talk with me about this. She was talking about how, once you are out of school, it can be very hard to maintain productivity. She said that it was important to protect your practice–protect the way that you work and the things that you need to work. Her own way of working involved setting a certain time of day that was only for her writing. It was always the same time of day and nothing else could be done during that time-no laundry, no email, etc. Even if there were months where she could only set aside 20 minutes, it was better than going days without working. Also, she knew that she wrote best in the afternoon. (May have been early morning, i forget.) And so she scheduled her life accordingly. “respecting and protecting” her practice.

>>That makes sense. Much less nefarious and paranoid than I had thought. More motherly. Nice

Miss you tons.  Back in nyc soon.

And THEN I said & >>he said:

I’m going to try to figure out a way to blog this

>>like this..