On directions (mk)
In 2019, Lauren Berlant and Kathleen Stewart published a book called The Hundreds. They write, “The constraint of the book is that our poems (makings) are exercises in following out the impact of things (words, thoughts, people, objects, ideas worlds) in hundred-word units or units of hundred multiples.” The authors use the format to generate 100 different responses to the impacts of everything from office hours to Red Bull on the ways they are human beings living in the world. At the end, they invited an artist to make some drawings in response to some of their poems. It rules.
I have self-described myself (meaning in my dormant Instagram bio) as a dilettante and professional appreciator. I use diletante as a bit of a self-defense mechanism because I am not sure how truly committed I have been to my creative career and academic work. As for being a professional appreciator, well, I find human creative ventures inspiring and see evidence of this range from art museums to my teaching of art and design students to my friends and family, and finally, to the obscene amount of money I have spent in record shops. Not unlike Berlant and Stewart, I am inspired by the impact of things on myself and the world around me.
The direction of this blog, at least for me, is going to begin as a cataloging of some of these interests. I will not be as systematic as writing about things in hundred increments. Instead, the discipline for me is going to be in posting regularly in the hopes that something will grow. What that growth will look like will no doubt surprise me. I imagine most of the writing will be on teaching art and design students in their first year at college, but I would like to also address the majesty of Stereolab and coffee at some point, so that will probably get covered too.
I won’t be alone in writing on this blog. My colleague Gweny Jin, an amazing architect and artist, is joining me on this journey. It’s actually probably more accurate to say that she is planting the flag at the start of this journey and shoving us down a path. I imagine she will be more formal in her writing than I will be, but we shall see. The only thing I can guarantee is that it will be something.
At the beginning of their book, Berlant and Stewart thank something called the “Public Feelings Project” in Austin, Texas. I think it’s related to a group of affect researchers who were discussing their writing together. I am too lazy to confirm that at the moment. Anyway, this is going to be at least partially an exercise in public feelings. Thanks for joining us.
