#ignore the serious message about the importance of bad representation in changing the culture as a whole

[jupitermelichios]

man I will never forgive marvel (and the trolls on twitter they listened to) for cancelling the planned new warriors volume 6.

to be clear, I don't think it would have been good. honestly, I think it might have been kind of awful. and I think it probably would have lost marvel money, so from a financial perspective cancelling it was a good move.

but as an enjoyer of weird awkward superhero media, as someone who spends a non-0 percentage of every day on this earth thinking about the Generation X tv pilot and the unreleased 1995 fantastic four movie, who absolutely adores the deeply sincere and yet wildly out of touch vibes of the runaways...

there was a "cool teen" vampire called b-negative who dressed like prince going through a goth phase. there were characters called snowflake and safespace who had ice and forcefield powers and who I really think were intended to be an awkwardly sincere attempt at representation. and on an unironically possitive note, there was a fat female superhero! do you know how rare that is?!

obviously the right wing trolls hated it, and they're probably the primary reason it was cancelled, but I also saw a lot of nice sane people making good faith criticisms that basically boiled down to 'but it looks like it's going to be so awkward and out of touch and probably accidentally low-key offensive in ways the writers would be horrified by if it was explained to them', and that's totally fair. it absolutely looked like that.

but that's where the new warriors thrive as a team and always has been, they're 'how do you do fellow kids' the team, and because of that they got to have some really important firsts and representation (after silhouette left the team it took almost two decades before we got the next crutch-using superhero in a big two cape comic). the new warriors trying too hard to be relatable and ending up feeling like a parody of a 'woke' superhero team is a big and legitimately important part of both their whole deal and the history of comics generally.

which makes it sound like i'm arguing we need to let comics be bad and cringe if we want to make strides in representation, and that is true, and I am saying that

but mostly I'm just saying that it would have been terrible and cringy in the very specific way I love, and I'll go to my grave still sad that I didn't get to enjoy it.

[potagepotiron]

Hate crime

Season 3 of WTFock has ended, Robbe & Sander have found love and everyone is eagerly awaiting Christmas. It is a time to be happy. Well I’m not. I’m not happy because of how WTFock handled an important event that could have been a gamechanger for LGBTQ fiction. I’m talking about the hate crime that ended episode 28. The way in which this plot line was conceived, handled and received, tells you a lot of how our society views minorities.

Fist and foremost, I am a SKAM fan. I watched every clip and every remake. My favourite is Season 3. Because I’m a gay man. I also know this series can change people’s minds. How different crews made it into their own and are very proud about the result. So I had high hopes when a Flemish version of Season 3 was announced.

So I was watching season 3, had a few remarks here and there, and then came that slur. I’ve written about it earlier. To a gay man like me, familiar with internalized homophobia, the concept of using a terrible slur and throwing accusations at Sander like Robbe just seemed baffling. Do not do unto others what you wouldn’t want them to do to you. You wouldn’t subject another human being to such hate, because you know how it feels. Pure and simple. And then, the hate crime happened.

Let’s be honest, WTFock failed in handling the hate crime, from the absence of trigger warnings before the clip, to the immediate aftermath, right until the very end of the series. There was no middle ground, it either had to commit to its choice and be brilliant or fail. It failed miserably. It chose to portray Robbe & Sander as victims and refused to show any form of queer resilience. And even when it became clear, near the end, that they decided to have the attack trigger other major events in the story, the writers opted to not address the hate crime. And to the optimists stating that the attack could be dealt with in Season 4, I say this: too late.

Personally, I wouldn’t have included graphic violence in the first place. To me there is no value in showing violence. I seriously doubt its inclusion in a series aimed at a teenage audience, because the negatives (trauma and copycat behaviour) far outweigh the learning opportunities, even when handled perfectly. I couldn’t finish the clip. That night, I, a grown man of 35 years of age, was wide awake in my bed until 4 in the morning. I couldn’t sleep, knowing that a number of LGBTQ youth saw that clip and became afraid. Decided to hide in the closet for a bit longer, maybe. The scene simply is not worth it.

And despite my sentiments, the reactions online seemed to disagree: “we needed to show this. We needed to be shown this. People need to know.” I couldn’t understand. Trust me, I know about gay bashing. And so should you. I read all the articles in newspapers about the atrocious hatecrimes in Belgium and elsewhere. I know who Ihsane Jarfi is. Friends of mine who are in a relationship have been scared to go out late at night. I’ve been called names in the street myself. I know. The quesion is, why do I need to see two boys being beaten and left in the street?

I don’t think the depiction of a gay bashing had its place in WTFock. However, I do think that a discussion of homophobia should be included, albeit in another way. Gay violence and intolerance could have been a part of the talk that Robbe & Milan had. I’m not demanding to turn a blind eye to homophobia or to sugarcoat a story. Also, I myself am not blind to homophobia. On the contrary, I have encountered more of it this year than ever before. Belgian football, for example, is still rife with homophobic chants. And recently far right politicians have stressed the need to clearly define norms and abnormality with regard to sexual orientation and the rights to adopt or to get married.

The real question is what kind of homophobia the show chooses, wants to or needs to battle. Gay bashing is a radical example of hate, but hate has many forms. And all hate is the result of a much more complex undercurrent in Flemish society. Hate stems from fear of the unknown, indifference or lack of knowledge. And that is why Flemish LGBT interest group çavaria remains committed to eradicating homophobia in schools. This behaviour can be unlearned. Education is key. And that is why it was a good decision for WTFock to zoom in on the reactions of friends after a coming out. They could have gone the extra mile, though. Homophobia is far more varied and widespread than WTFock shows you.

Back to the hate crime. I wonder why the WTFock writing team missed the mark. Norwegian SKAM director Julie Andem demanded that research into the local youth culture should precede any adaptation of the original content. I’m finding it hard to believe that the gay community was on board with the decision to show a gay bashing. I consulted among my gay friends and all thought it was a bad idea. I also wonder whether or not anti-gay violence is a problem that is typical of Flanders. It’s hard to find reliable data on hate crimes and to interpret it because there could be a reluctance to report incidents, but there seems to be no significant difference between Belgium and its neighbouring countries, nor is there a statistically significant rise in homophobic attacks during the last years. There has been a rise, but that could be due to a higher percentage of people reporting incidents.

I’ve argued that the choices the writers made are bad, and that there is little or no claim to say that hate crimes are typical of Flanders, no more than anywhere else in Western Europe or Scandinavia, where the series originated and where gay bashing wasn’t included. But do I believe that the writers knowingly sabotaged their own writing efforts? Surely not. Yet, it’s hard to pinpoint why the series was developed the way it was without hearing from the makers. Chances are we’ll never know. Unlike their French or Norwegian counterparts, the screenwriters have, up to now, chosen not to communicate on the series. It is my perception that indifference to its LGBTQ audience, an appetite for drama and shock value and a degree of ignorance manifested itself throughout the series. That may or may not have been the intention of the makers, we can’t know, but it certainly had that effect on me as a viewer.

As always, a part of me that says I’m being too harsh. I can imagine it’s a lot less difficult and a lot more relaxed to write series on superheroes then it is navigating your way through the pitfalls of minority representation or gay televised fiction, a genre that exists less than 30 years and of which the rules are being rewritten constantly. It’s also not easy to have a number of militant gays like myself looking over your shoulders constantly, scrutinizing every line and every motive and picking on the one detail that got overlooked.

And should we dismiss the entire series because of this one incident? Let’s move on, Sander and Robbe are happy. Isn’t that a heartwarming prospect to gay kids? But this relativity is the problem. Silencing a hate crime not a detail. Showing violence on tv has repercussions, and they can’t be undone by having a cute gay couple smooch underneath a Christmas tree. A SKAM remake has a responsibility towards its audience. And it’s not that a chance like this comes around often. Budget cuts in locally produced fiction will mean it will take years before there’s another chance to see local gay fiction on screen. So every chance we get needs to be perfect. Because it will affect a new generation of young people.

Ultimately, the question is why it is so hard to have good quality gay stories, made by queer creators for a queer audience? Why was this series made by three white middle-aged men with a background in marketing, with only one of them with proven credentials in screenwriting? Why is it so hard to hire gay actors or to find authentic gay voices? Is it really necessary that a series like SKAM S3 contains “learning moments for the straight community”? Can’t we, for once, make a tv series without taking into account the heterosexual majority? It might be a bit tentative of me to say this, but I’m sure Niels Rahou, the writer of Season 3 of SkamFrance, wouldn’t have included a gay bashing scene. He has commented frequently on his scenarios, he is openly gay and he stated he would have benefited from a similar series during his adolescence. I don’t think the Belgian writing team wrote with the same sense of urgency or treated SKAM as a passion project.

To end, let’s go back to the original version of Skam Norway. The reason why the format was so revolutionary is precisely because being gay or coming out wasn’t a big deal. Jonas didn’t bat an eyelid when Isak told him he’d been with a boy. His friends were fine with it, and so were his parents. Isak faced an internal struggle, gradually coming to terms with and being the result of living in a heteronormative society. But ultimately the mopey kid with a love of sleeping waged a bigger war with his eternally overflowing locker. He just accepted his sexuality. In the end, though, Isak had grown as a person and showed serious committment to his boyfriend Even. But the eye-opener of the series was the way in which same-sex attraction was treated as something not to worry about.

As a reaction to the way in which homosexuality was depicted as part of mundane everyday life, people rightfully complained that this story was a bit too rosy. And it’s true, there is white middle class privilege in this story. Among certain communities, coming out still isn’t evident and living a gay life is considered unsafe for some people. Yet, Julie Andem would rather show her viewers with a vision of an ideal world, in order to help and comfort a LGBT audience, than care about what the public would think of the season. I think WTFock could have been more attentive to that message.

Luckily, for most of us, being gay doesn’t lead us to being the victim of a hate crime. That doesn’t mean we can turn away from the reality of such violence. But almost all of my gay friends have, one way or another, been confronted with various examples of homophobic behavior. More often than not, these instances are based on ignorance and are more small-scale in nature. Being called names in the street. A supposedly witty remark made by a drunk uncle at a Christmas party. Or take the well-known Flemish tv personality who, in all his innocence, made a plea for abolishing the Antwerp gay pride parade during a televised comedy show in june. He was applauded by the audience and genuinely seemed impressed by his clever, seemingly inclusive reasoning. More often than not, the threats the homosexual community face consist not of the raw violence of the physical attack, but of vulgarity, stupidity or ignorance. It is a potentially dangerous to narrow down homophobia to physical attacks and take the risk to have your audience believe that they’re in the clear as long as they don’t punch someone to death.

The only way things will change for the better is when the heterosexual majority steps up its game. This means they have to change, they have to start questioning their accepted beliefs, or how they educate their kids. Ultimately, they themselves won’t benefit from these changes, on the contrary, society as a whole will be a bit less tailored to them when heteronormativity is eradicated.  Inclusivity is about the majority caring about the minority. So this is my advice to the WTFock team. Don’t care about clicks, controversy or drama. Don’t perpetuate the representation of LGBT individuals as victims of a harsh outside world. Dare to shake up old, established narratives. Show that homophobia is far more pervasive and far more subtle than the large-scale evil of a hate crime. And if you’re going down that route anyway, commit to it. Don’t brush it off. Status quo is no longer an option.

[cwwdcim2019]

#NotAllMen: A Divided Community

The Internet has given a voice and a platform to many ideas and beliefs, and in doing so has given people a sense of community amongst those who share those beliefs. For marginalized people like women and people of color, having a safe space to discuss issues with people who understand their point of view helps them feel more accepted and heard. But, because the Internet is a public entity that anyone can access, there are also people that co-opt these safe spaces to challenge usually liberal ideals. 

One example is the topic of feminism, where women have the space to discuss problems faced by women in the largely patriarchal society and bring up possible changes that could resolve these issues; however, wherever there are women talking about the bad things men do to them on a daily basis solely because of their sex, there are men defending these actions and pushing back against feminist ideals as 'misandry'. This can be seen in action with #NotAllMen, a hashtag where one can observe men using it seriously and women use it satirically to highlight men's antagonistic attitude. The hashtag #NotAllMen is an example of how societal norms are informed by virtual activism, how virtual activism is informed by real-life societal norms, and how one online space can separate into two distinct communities.

The phrase 'not all men' has created two types of communities on the Internet, both of which can in some way be considered minorities: feminists and 'meninists'. While the popularity and practice of feminism continues to rise, on the Internet in particular, feminists are targeted with ridicule, trolling, and vitriol. Likewise, while men are in no way a minority in real life, men who hold misogynistic views generally don't spread them in real life, but on the Internet, they have found a common community where they can share their otherwise unpopular and unsavory views. As Larry Gross writes in "Somewhere There's a Place for Us", digital media representation can present "the opportunity to reach out and communicate with like-minded individuals", creating "virtual public spaces that can be life - or at least, sanity-saving refuges for many who have reason to feel they are living in enemy territory" (258). 

For both sides of the hashtag, people utilizing it feel as though the opposing side is the enemy, attacking their beliefs and their very right to live unmolested by others. Tumblr user Kristoffman, representing the men's rights side of #notallmen, shares his thoughts on feminists' venting below:

His post shows that, despite holding most of the social and economic powers, men feel persecuted and singled out by women sharing their complaints about dangerous or just plain annoying men. This feeling is what has led to a rise in the rebuttal "Not all men" in response to women saying things like, "Men get paid more than women," or "Men catcall us on the street." The community surrounding #notallmen is a defensive one, banding together to assert their innocence in male-perpetrated crimes and faux-pas, despite the fact that “83 percent of girls 12 to 16 have experienced some form of sexual harassment in public schools” (Blow, 2014) -- a statistic that shows a lot of men must be perpetrating sexual harassment. 

As Jess Zimmerman of Time Magazine points out, the fact that men try to distance themselves from other sexist men is an indicator that the phrase "Not all men" indicates "a developmental path that echoes an individual man growing a social conscience", moving from the mentality "'but what about men's problems' to 'not all men like that'". In other words, Zimmerman says, it shows the shift from the idea that "Sexism is a fake idea invented by feminists" to "Sexism happens, but the important part is that I personally am not sexist". While this is progress to a degree, the defensive community mentality of 'us versus them', male versus female, that #notallmen provides gets in the way of an actual conversation between the two groups.

The other side of the hashtag is the women's perspective, where feminists have co-opted the phrase so often used to derail their conversations. Women began using the phrase 'not all men' to show how ridiculous men sound when they use it as a serious argument. They will make claims about the sexism they have experienced in the past, then show a man rudely interrupting in an obvious and defensive way to show that men aren't even listening to what they are saying. As Kirsty Strickland points out, men who use the phrase “not all men” “are letting women know that discussing misogyny makes them uncomfortable, and they’d like to be absolved of any blame before they will let women continue”. 

Women and feminist men across the Internet have created a community dedicated to making sure women's voices are heard when they discuss the discomforts and dangers they face from men every day while showing defensive men that of course, rationally, not all men kill or rape or even catcall, but enough men do it that there is the need for a conversation about how to change things. By turning "not all men" into a satirical meme, feminists across the Internet have brought the conversation back to their community and, by beating men to the punchline, opened up space for a different kind of dialogue and reaction (McKinney, 2014).

The fact that men using #notallmen un-ironically tend not to share their posts on more professional or family-minded platforms like Facebook speaks to Bryce J. Renninger's observation of youths feeling uncomfortable using Facebook: because it is a social media platform where most people have family members, real-life friends, and even professional connections following them, they don't feel comfortable divulging certain pieces of information where they are "at risk of being disrupted, ridiculed, dismissed, or ignored” (2). This leads me to conclude that the un-ironic use of #notallmen constitutes a counterpublic. 

Likewise, feminist appropriation of #notallmen can be considered another counterpublic because the feminist group is "seeking to change the status quo" and utilizes counterpublic communication "because it engages in the 'non-compliant practices of intervening, and the formation of new social and cultural structures, both in support of and resistance to changing social norms and values' (Lindtner et al., 2011: 5-6)" (Renninger, 2). These two communities share so many similarities in their classification and structure, but their interpretations of the other's message mean they are unwilling to listen to the other side and have a meaningful conversation.

The fact that one single hashtag has two distinct meanings depending on the kind of person using it shows the fluid nature of virtual spaces and how easily real life can come to be impacted by the influence of a virtual movement. #NotAllMen started off as a way for disgruntled men to push back against inflammatory feminist remarks, then morphed into a way for feminists to highlight the self-centered nature of this rebuttal and open the conversation up to different discourse. In doing so, #NotAllMen has informed the way that men and anti-feminists must go about their arguing both online and in real life, showcasing the transformative nature of online communities and activism.

Works Cited:

Blow, Charles M. “Yes, All Men.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 2 June 2014, www.nytimes.com/2014/06/02/opinion/blow-yes-all-men.html?ref=opinion&_r=0. Gross, Larry. “Somewhere There's a Place for Us.” Technological Visions: the Hopes and Fears That Shape New Technologies, edited by Marita Sturken et al., Temple University Press, 2004, pp. 255��269. McKinney, Kelsey. “Here's Why Women Have Turned the ‘Not All Men’ Objection into a Meme.” Vox, Vox, 15 May 2014, www.vox.com/2014/5/15/5720332/heres-why-women-have-turned-the-not-all-men-objection-into-a-meme. Renninger, Bryce J. “‘Where I Can Be Myself … Where I Can Speak My Mind’ : Networked Counterpublics in a Polymedia Environment.” New Media & Society, vol. 17, no. 9, 2014, pp. 1–17., doi:10.1177/1461444814530095. Strickland, Kirsty. “Why Men Should Stop Saying #NotAllMen. Immediately.” Medium, Medium, 25 Oct. 2017, medium.com/@KirstyStricklan/why-men-should-stop-saying-notallmen-immediately-f657e244f7a1. Zimmerman, Jess. “Not All Men: A Brief History of Every Dude's Favorite Argument.” Time, Time, 28 Apr. 2014, time.com/79357/not-all-men-a-brief-history-of-every-dudes-favorite-argument/.

[jimwithonem]

My Creative Process

Generative art is digital art made with programming code. That's one definition. I like to think of “genart" as a vehicle for artistic expression for those who can’t paint or draw. That’s me. I couldn’t brush or illustrate myself out of a corner, but I can code. Generative art provides me the capability to express myself in a way I never thought possible. So, I welcome the convergence of art and algorithm and the creative freedom it provides.

I use the Java programming language in Processing, an open-source IDE developed specifically for designing visual electronic art. In this post, I describe my process for creating these types of non-illustrative, non-objective compositions including the song lyrics they contain. Call them, I don’t know, symmetrical abstractions maybe.

I derive the aesthetics for my compositions primarily from Suprematism and simple geometric abstraction and strive to express feelings associated with or produced by the deeper meanings of lyrical content. I’m concerned with stripping down the message of each piece into its raw expressive form, as opposed to constructing some sort of metaphorical object.

For the lyrics, I draw from my own encounters with a vast range of musical styles and genres. A sort of synesthesia takes over when I write where certain words or phrases link to works from music's past. Such impressions, if you will, augment my research into topics of interest and anchor my work in the last 70 years of music. Exploring foundational art forms gives me an occasion to find relevant contexts and expressions with a healthy dose of chaos and randomness.

My lyrical writing process adapts components of the universal creative problem-solving process. For me, I’m more concerned with the process of creating art than perhaps the product itself. I don’t consider myself any sort of authority about music or art, but I do think that process is interesting and perhaps offers a different way of thinking about how art is made which, in my case, means framing new lyrics within a visual piece. Waiting around for inspiration, or lightning, to strike is sort of a Ben Franklin approach where one is dependent on bad weather. Process streamlines this out of the equation.

To prepare for writing this post, I’ve eaten a bowl of fruit, drank a glass of water, found a comfortable chair, donned my headphones, and decided to bang it out. I want to listen to my gut, rather than it distracting me for attention. I suspect there may be many interruptions and temptations to quit early, but I’m intent on ignoring those for the moment. Now, there’s nothing to it but to do it.

The Lyrical Process

Articulate

In the articulation phase, I pick a topic to write about. It may be suggested by someone else, is related to something I’m experiencing at the time, or is inferred from some musical work of the past or present. For example, a topic I chose recently was about finding love in an unusual place or circumstance which David Bowie wrote about in his song Heroes. I wouldn’t dare presume to rival Bowie’s work, but topics are free for anyone to explore and play around with.

Inspire

Now it’s time to lower the lights and get into a mood. Each topic suggests certain attitudes and feelings that require I achieve an emotional state. It’s harder to write when I’m not feeling it, so music helps me reach a certain place where I can tap into available inputs and jumpstart creativity. I prefer to feed my creative process rather than starve it of information. Avoiding creative anemia requires a certain amount of intention, perhaps.

Accept

This phase is all about commitment. It’s my goal to finish the first draft of a piece in one sitting. Sometimes that’s as little as an hour or even days. The blank page can be a tyrant unless it knows your serious about putting something down. Acceptance helps me gather the energy I know I will need to see the project through from start to finish, or until my laptop battery runs out of juice. (Right now I'm sitting at about an 82% charge, so we’ll see.)

Analyze

Here I hop on Google and research the topic by reading articles, watching videos, and scanning blogs and boards. I’m looking for psychological or philosophical insights and perspectives to fill my cup of knowledge. Oftentimes this stage goes very quickly, but other times the information is just not there in sufficient quality or quantity. In this case, I do a soft pivot and come at the topic from a slightly different angle by changing my question or query.

Ideate

This is where the process gets a little easier. Once the creative waters are heated to a steady boil, words and phrases stand up and take notice and I write them down without analysis or edifice. I try not to actually write the song here, just curate the words I need to fill my palette with color. At the end of the day, I will attempt, in the spirit of Bauhaus minimalism, to use as few keywords as possible in the final work to convey a feeling, situation, meaning, or story. Too many words in the final piece are prohibitive for the reader in my opinion.

Associate

Making associations to prior art and current culture is a cool way to position a piece within its larger context. It also helps to have a bit of synesthesia here. For me, that means words or phrases trigger prior works without any conscious effort. So, I just write these down along with everything else and welcome the possibility of standing on the shoulders of giants. Perhaps art is a sustaining innovation where one just hopes to make incremental improvements to delivering a message, and the language of love takes over from there.

Arpeggiate

I start forming a repeating rhythm in my head here as a way to sort of frame the meter of the lyrics. My goal is to play around with the meter and stretch the boundaries and rules to my liking. For me, that means less is more. Because of many years of private vocal training, I can envision a phrase, run, rest, or diphthong and how it might be interpreted by a singer - sort of like visualizing vocal sounds as shapes - which allows me a bit of latitude in development. Typically, I won’t jump on an electronic or app arpeggiator here, just use the percussionist in my head.

Overflow

Sort of like making a prototype, or a blacksmith shaping a blank of molten metal, a work takes its form from repeated blows of the hammer. If the art is allowed to cool down it must be reinserted into the fire for another iteration with the master implement. I like to sustain momentum here and strike while the iron is hot. Cooling down too soon may result in ideas sitting just out of reach with no ladder to retrieve them.

Rewrite

There’s no getting around for it. Writing is about effort, yo. One must write and rewrite, then rewrite again, until a piece reaches a certain momentum or economy of scale. If necessary, I put the work down and come back to it later if I feel it's not ready or I’m exhausted. At this stage, I want to evaluate what I have and whether its something I want to proceed with.

Assuming I now have a lyric I’m more or less happy with, and this is a judgment call more than anything else, I move on in the process. Since I’m creating for me, I try not to impose any sort of perfection or expectation. I’m looking to startle myself or discover an effect. I don’t think this is a goal per se, more of a perception of what “done” means. Of course, art is never really done, right, so it’s just a matter of putting it out there with warts and all. Perhaps there is some sort of beauty in imperfection and uncertainty that gives room for love to cover the gap in unexpected ways. This means not shying away from essentially darker tones or topics and really acknowledging those emotions without discrimination.

The Genart Process

Through the experience of learning Processing, I have created a sketch applet to lever as a framework for constructing pieces of art. The sketch has undergone many redesigns, refactorings, and iterations which permits me to focus on configuration over convention. While the app is not gold plated or even perfectly constructed, it does use principles to encapsulate complexity and accelerate runtime.

Import

After converting a lyric into CSV format, I configure the app to import it into the sketch at runtime. The idea here is that the elements of each lyrical piece are analyzed and combined with a level of randomness to algorithmically achieve a unique output. I find that using the code in this way liberates my mind from intentionality and objectivity and suggests interesting or unusual geometrical representations of the work.  

Configure

A few choices have to be made about the font, color, and level of randomness, and dimensions of geometry. This is an iterative process, but typically a lyric will imply a color palette based on its mood or message. I try to find a starting place that provides an appropriate level of detachment that doesn’t overwhelm the final piece. Just enough is good enough, in my opinion, but too simple is boring. I prefer the artwork conjure a picture in the viewer's mind however abstract.

Experiment

A composition begins to form at this stage which leads me to code and recode the geometrical equations in relation to their placement on canvas. I like to experiment with color, movement, and perspective to shape the art into submission. What starts out as a divergent step may morph or molt the work until I start to see something I like. Then, I converge on that and continue to work it out.

Iterate

Finally, I iterate and evaluate until I’m more or less satisfied with the results. Small tweaks are often better than larger ones because it keeps the work true to its disorganized qualities. Too much intervention or intention can lead to overkill which can cause a setback. A certain level of acceptance of what is good enough is balanced with what I want to see emerging from the piece. However, it’s interesting to note that the two products, the lyrics and the artwork, synthesize into a new whole where each is evaluated and improved in relation to the other until a completed work results.

It’s fun and rewarding to make something that I or someone else may think is beautiful or inspiring. I want to thank you for reading and invite you to hit me up anytime with questions or comments. I wish you the best with your own artistic journeys. 

Jim