Mind games

Now that I have ivory wrapped up and given conceptual work like it is often seen as trickery and because it took long enough by most standards to complete as if it were product of grandiose ambition or foolhardy of me to attempt in the first place, I thought I should explain some of my choices and why shamelessly pushing the timeline felt okay.

Inspiration came from an anonymous performance I watched take shape day by day 25 years ago at Brick Lane's CH N. Katz's opposite the Jamme Masjid, which I would walk past regularly on the way home. That was the old string and paper bag shop in whose window Rachel Lichtenstein had exhibited for Whitechapel Open (1994), the one mentioned in her and Iain Sinclair's Rodinsky's Room (1999) about the Princelet Street Synagogue autodidact hermit keeper who vanished.

The storefront was made into a stage stuck empty for a while to start, then fit for context heavy three strand rope left coiled there in the middle for weeks probably. Then a bare bulb pendant hung over that. Then out of nowhere one evening a smoke white Butoh looking figure appeared tangled up entirely except one arm pointing towards the light in manner styled after The Creation of Adam (1508-12).

It was one of those where the lead-up is as important as the final act, spartan in production values, but generous in meaning, and an education overall. It captured my imagination and set the bar for me in terms of execution. So a decade later I decided to explore online storytelling similarly in slow motion.

Why code

Coding requires minimal studio setup and makes it easier to have full ownership and creative control. I took care to use no external libraries. That was the reason I chose Go for the back end building the whole series into a self contained application including custom filters and tooling. The front end too is strictly vanilla.

Obviously, manual labour can be unforgiving. Becoming a web mechanic was the most method and humiliating part of the project. Next to the biblical connotations of practicing a humble profession, which served the story well, my family had been weavers and silversmiths traditionally, which sort of helped in that I found a connection with the hand and homemade, craft dimension of it.

And what better way to engage with the issues that computers are at the center of: modernity, geopolitics, government, the virtual and superficial, the future. Being a developer let me absorb people's plans and difficulties with technology. Not in the least all terrible, but vain fantasist for example, or reactionary supposed realist, or closeted elitist posing as sceptic, or blind radical and confused ideologue are types of character I definitely had to deal with.

Why data

As an alternative to pure abstraction and to counterbalance my digital life being unavoidably mined for profit by drawing value for personal benefit even if mainly aesthetic.

Why wait

To neutralize the novelty factor a lot of net art I grew up with seemed inflated by. Happy coincidence, Ken Perlin uniquely placed as true pioneer nicely describes across several posts from earlier this year how progress is achieved in computing. It's an ever changing field and one of changing perceptions. Look at social media for instance. My hope was the end result would reflect some of that reality by not rushing and by taking unusual breaks.

I also wanted to face up to a culture of latent anti-intellectualism seeking to blanket delegitimize spending time and effort on pretty much anything inexact in nature or without schedule. Since when is being an artist synonymous with dysfunction? Who said art is another form of psychotherapy? Why should art have purpose, or be just decor, or done in pursuit of fame and glory? By reflex almost, I deliberately blew deadlines when sensing aversion to vulnerability or weakness, when badly stereotyped or patronized.

And?

It boils down to surrounding the marvels of technology with biographical associations and without appeals to science fiction.