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Not just artists – we all go through life’s ups and downs, good periods and bad. Right now is the least tolerant time since I’ve been alive. Everyone’s supposed to be on it 24/7.
Viewed in the context of the episode, Sylvester is talking, specifically, about the “professionalization” and “commercialization” of art, and basically the hype machine of the art world.
Source: Artists must be allowed to make bad work | Austin Kleon
I love this, and along with this post about the joy of watching films in black and white, led to me starting a new art project.
SOFA is the name of a hacker/art collective, and also the name of the principle upon which the club was founded.
The point of SOFA club is to start as many things
as possibleas you have the ability, interest, and capacity to, with no regard or goal whatsoever for finishing those projects.[…]
You can be finished with your project whenever you decide to be done with it. And “done” can mean anything you want it to be. Whose standards of completion or perfection are you holding yourself to anyway? Forget about those! Something is done when you say it is. When it’s no longer interesting. When you’ve gotten a sufficient amount of entertainment and experience from it. When you’ve learned enough from it. Whatever, whenever. Done is what you say it is.
Source: 🛋 SOFA
Austin Kleon is famous for his book Show Your Work, something that our co-op references from time to time, as it backs up our belief in working openly.
However, as Kleon points out in this post, it doesn’t mean you need to livestream your creative process! For me, this is another example of the tension between being able to be a privacy advocate at the same time as a believer in sharing your work freely and openly.
It’s bad enough trying to create something when nobody’s watching — the worst trolls are the ones that live in your head!
The danger of sharing online is this ambient buildup of a feeling of being surveilled.
The feeling of being watched, or about to be watched.
You have to disconnect from that long enough to connect with yourself and what you’re working on.