Thursday, 5 July 2007

126 words

While the organization of the travel side of the Kisokaido Project is coming along nicely, the art component of the project is still in a pretty nebulous state. At Erik's encouragement, and partly in response to the 200 words he wrote in order to propel the evolution of his own artmaking, I've come up with the following 126 words in an effort to move the art side of the Kisokaido Project along.

I should stress that these are not demands. They're a kind of wish list, really, and I'm happy to discuss, amend, add to, or subtract from them. The first four items relate more to the creative process, while the final three relate more to the presentation of the finished artwork(s). But then who's to say the two stages won't overlap?

So, in my humble opinion, the project should satisfy the following criteria.

1) It should acknowledge the influence of Hiroshige, whose Sixty-Nine Stations of the Kisokaido initially inspired the project and who continues to be a key reference point.

2) It should reflect a critical or skeptical approach to capitalism and its impact on people and the environment.

3) It should not entail creating artificial barriers between us and the people we meet (i.e. no clown suits), nor should it impinge on our day-to-day interaction with people.

4) It should be fun.

5) It should be presented in such a way that it is accessible to as many people as possible (i.e. its appreciation should not require ownership of prohibitively expensive equipment or familiarity with a particular language or culture).

6) It should promote communication and participation.

7) It should not be bought or sold.

Distance walked today: 3km
Total distance walked since blog began: 195km
Days left until launch of Kisokaido Project: 108
By at

2 comments:

Erik said...

oh well, so much for collaboration. no, i'm just kidding. but i think our approach is different enough that we're going to end up with two very different pieces. in particular, i don't think hiroshige had any problem with capitallism, and please remember he wasn't giving woodblock prints away for free, they were more accessible than scroll paintings or sculptures at the time but still a purchase and not within everyone's reach. a $10 dvd or a $1 itunes purchase is way more accessible these days than his work was in those days. how do you propose to pay for airfare? if you can work that out, i'm on board. (get it? on board?)

5 July 2007 at 23:54
Walking fool said...

Dude, I made it clear I'm prepared to compromise. Are you?

Your Hiroshige/accessibility argument is a red herring. Nowhere have I said we should try to emulate his approach. Of course he sold his work. He needed the money. (Remember, though, that Japan was still a feudal society at the time, so he probably had few opinions on capitalism.) We, on the other hand, both have full-time jobs, which is how we paid for our airfares.

Being critical of capitalism is a part of who I am, so chances are it's going to be reflected in whatever we do whether you like it or not. If you don't want that risk, you'd better keep your distance!

I'm going to post this on the wiki. I propose we continue the discussion there.

6 July 2007 at 09:32

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