[NetBehaviour] Re: Discussion on Jason Nelson's Residency...

[marc]

I'm just sending this onto the list because Jason by mistake just sent 
it to myself...

m.


Marc and all,

In response to Marc's question below:
MARC SEZ: [[Jason, I would like to know what elements effected you and what
you found was to be different, when working on other artists' materials,
went through your mind as you went through the process of using such a
valuable and potentially sensitive resource?]]

MY RESPONSE: JASON SEZ:
I went through sways, these periods of confidence and insecurity. At
first I was very worried about simply getting enough material. I was
worried that I would
need, be forced, grab other's work, without consent (which I did a few
times anyway), and how that might offend those whose work I corralled.
But luckily there were heaps of volunteers, and others who agreed
beforehand.

This however created a new problem. Who to pick. I was afraid if I
didnt pick someone
their feelings might be hurt, their ego stilted. Sadly, I am sure I
left many many great talents and friends out of the residency. I just
didnt want to only do the well known, the regular posters, I wanted to
bring others in from other areas of my life. Hence the Niece and
Nephew, the Davin Heckman, the Strickland and others. In addition, the
residency was a way to say thank you to some, while accomplishing
another goal.

Perhaps my greatest fear in creating with  other's work, was the
annoyingly resilient phantom thought that they would think it sucks,
that they just didnt like it. After a few days there were these
expectations for how each residency creation would be different and
uniquely involve the base materials, the images and text of others.
And I knew those whose work I used were looking forward to seeing what
I did. So, unlike those poems we throw into envelopes in exchange for
rejection slips a few months later. There was an immediate response,
one that I dreaded and impatiently waited for. And even when the
comments were good, I still found some negative or 'not as positive'
to emphasize.

Originally I had intended on using the loadMovie command for most of
the creations. Basically I wanted to pull other's SWFs into an
interface, without changing the work, simply pulling in a url and
having it work with I built. Unfortunately most of the SWF urls sent
my way were to big (file size) to use with any speed.  So I used a
decompiler, to rip apart the swf and yank out the sounds and images
and even actionscript from the published file. Honestly, I hadnt
realized how easy this is to do, and it was a bit strange, as if I was
invading someones home and using their bath towels and reading their
daily calenders. Or perhaps a better description would be pulling the
salt from a baked cake.

And as far as precious resource. Fortunately I dont think many of
those who agreed for me to use their work, thinks of their art in that
way. That is the beauty with digital bits, there are no real
originals. So I wasn't corrupting the original, but simply building
something from the clone of the original. The other benefit is that
however their writing or images or sounds were presented, the readers
know the context of the residency and that any wackiness or changes to
the 'resources" were created by me and thus any crappiness or missed
context or whatever was not of their doing.

Hmmmm....I dont think I answered the question...alas....next I will
answer the place location inquiry...which was one of the great
surprises with this experience.

cheers, Jason