It has been a while since I last went to an art show. But wow, witnessing low-rumbling so-called soundscapes was exactly what I needed to realize that often art becomes better from what the artist desires to leave out rather than what to show.
I always keep an open mind and a no-expectations attitude as I attend events I am less familiar with. Hoping to be surprised, I was open to experiencing what could be a cool, underground, or sub-culture community driven by an experimental mindset. I am all in for that, but when I looked beside me to see a participant fill in his W9 upon request in order to get paid for their services, I started to wonder. Meanwhile, sighs of community gossip indicating a vibe of unfair competition and random, unrelated chit-chat were heard behind me as a performing duo tweaked the knobs under a giant screen with a gimmicky 30-minute ferrofluid sound visualiser sandscape. My mind had a hard time putting all the sounds and visuals into context and often felt the experiment of getting work out into the world failed to deliver.
Yes, I fully understand the purpose of experimentation in public. I feel it is effective, and sometimes I do it myself as I put out little test balloons to learn from the audience reactions. Finding the edges, the fringes, and perhaps even stepping over them helps to move the common understanding of expression (and thus humanity as a whole) in a progressive motion. It is not only “Democracy that Dies in Darkness.” Art itself can suffer tremendously from remaining anonymously hidden in the artist’s ‘den’ in basements or attics.
Pushing things out can only benefit the work, but please, do we really have to put every little ‘happy accident’ out into the world?
I have always struggled with the ultimate question of whether an artwork is ready to see the light of day or if more editing is needed for it to enter the ‘perfection zone’.
I have put out ‘bagger’ (or ‘mud,’ as we say), often in streams, and looking back I can point to many failures that I am ashamed of. I have to admit they were not even considered accidents at the time (and that’s what makes it bad).
With that said, the ultimate answer to what makes something good should be easy to define, right? If we just flip the script on what is bad, we are automatically heading in the right direction. No, I don’t think it is that simple. I also believe that the public trial-and-error process is thus helpful, as it is a way to get to the proverbial perfect image/tone/expression (or whatever the artist is searching for).
The Decisive Moment IS the Edit
So, what is it then? Being exposed to what is out there is one thing, as I mentioned earlier—even witnessing something that you don’t like helps with creating an understanding of what we do like. And we can do that exact same thing during the process of working out what is good. ‘Kill your darlings’ and then sweep away what was cut from the cutting room floor.
It is the editing process—the moment when the final deduction is made—that we need to focus on. This will give us a glimpse into the true nature of art behind any artistic impression.
And this costs a great amount of effort, both from the creator as well as the spectator. With the bombardment of visual ‘slop,’ ‘spam,’ and ill-intended experiments, we need to have access to filters. Tools to help us in the process of curating, culling, and editing out the trash, so as to only leave us with the fruits of our labor.
This quest is what drives me. Inspiration was never an issue. I spent tens of thousands of hours mastering ‘doing something’ (even as a distraction). Often, I couldn’t grasp the why… but with each brush stroke, line of code, 3D world, MIDI sequence I composed, video I spliced, or shutter I clicked, I did one thing on repeat: I edited out as much as I could until I felt the story, piece, or whatever, simply fell into place.
This, again, underlines the purpose of emphasizing the editing process, and with that, my motivation to create a set of tools to guide (myself in the first place) and anyone through the workflow, complex pipelines, and creative processes.
Stay tuned for Part 2: The Creative Engine OS: The Anti-Dote to Creative Chaos