Light Cue 23

I spent yesterday and today moving from Queens to Manhattan. Relatively painless all things considered. Its quite an energetic change from the nearly suburban Astoria to the much more urban Washington Heights.

After living in the outer boroughs for most of my time in New York it is interesting to back in Manhattan. There is something, though it is difficult to put ones finger on about how it is different. I was at a holiday party last December talking to an English woman who said she had to live in Manhattan or her friends from across the ocean would not believe they were in New York City. Manhattan is what most people think when they think of New York. And there is a real energetic difference between it and the rest of the Boroughs.

Internet connectivity issues and working on a few projects may keep my posting to a minimum for the immediate future. I am currently at alt.coffe in the village. A spot that will probably become anachronistic soon once Manhattan gets fully wire(less)ed.

I had an interesting conversation with my friend who was helping me move. He is a set decorator for a daytime Soap opera. We were talking about artistic styles and how as artists age there is a risk of falling into a routine of formulaic solutions that work. That there is a fine line between style and habit. But the conversation veered towards the role of specificity in artistic production. How as an individuals ‘voice’ matures so too does the specificity with which one employs that voice.

I think of Richard Foreman’s last show, which at a certain level could be seen as ‘Richard Foreman with video,’ as a good example of this. Despite this perception from people, hearing him talk about the project and how it was a radical departure and shift in content and form gives a wonderful insight into how he sees. The disconnect between what an average audience might perceive and what Foreman envisions goes to show how profoundly specific his working style is. The level of attention to detail that he places in his works is astounding, and on that level ‘Foreman with video’ is a serious and radical transformation.

The role of the designer in a sense is the opposite. As the work matures, it seems, the individual Ego should become less and less apparent. The ability to seamlessly switch from one medium to another should be done with sleek alacrity. The ‘voice’ here emerges in much more subtle and at the same time profound ways. Working upon the subconscious rather than the conscious modes of perception.

Back to work now.