Back 2 Back

From Jeremy Turner:

I would have to agree with Patrick on this. As a
result of being a co-founder of an Arts
collective and being part of an Avatar community,
I can attest to the difficulty that a collective
has when it is composed almost entirely of
strong-willed individuals. For the most part, I
like the dynamism, risk and edginess that comes
with trying to negotiate between equally strong
willed minds - quite often, some very interesting
art can emerge from this conceptual turbulence.

I would like to know more about Miranda July. I
lectured at UBC in Vancouver once about the
online artist as curator - where these calculated
and directed curatorial acitivites serve
primarily to elevate the artist as a meta-artist
and meta-curator. In the digital realm, I can
think of Agricola De Cologne who invites a whole
cross-section of digital artists to take part in
his curatorial mega-projcts. It is Agricola
though that gets to lecture on behalf of the
whole event and becomes kind of a Virtual Clement
Greenberg as he becomes the sole voice to
represent the input of the collected invitees.

I actually agree with what Agricola is doing but
I also think that more artists should also take
up his clever role if they should ever come to
feel feel slighted for thinking they may have
just been a cog in his conceptual wheel.
Everyone can be an art-star on the backs of
others if everyone also becomes back for someone
else…the karmic equilibrium gets straightened
out and everyone gets to where they want to be.
It is the "Non-Zero Sum Game" outlined by Robert
Wright in his book "Non-Zero". Create a win-win
situation.

In the Popular Entertainment industry, I am
starting to get into the idea of respecting the
work of P. Diddy (the artist formerly known as
Puff Daddy). This guy is also one of those
curatorial meta-artists. I just saw a rap video
of his last night and had many strong willed
artists helping him out as P. Diddy gave them
room to express their individual
characteristics…he gave them room to breathe
and to express themselves even though the whole
thing was a P. Diddy event. He is a true
Meta-Artist in that his rapping collective seemed
more like a gaggle of friends than a subservient
posse - well, it "seemed" that way which is all
that matters in L.A. glamourous industry.

In the avatar community called Traveler where I
hang out from time to time, there are numbers of
recorded conflicts between the strong-willed
minds of its citizens. In the end, however, they
seem to make their peace with each other and
cement their virtual community. Some Travelers
have been truly altruistic. I only just found
out that one of Traveler most creative and
prolific citizens named "Angle Grinder" renovated
the entire interface design for DigitalSpace
Traveler. I did not hear about it from him as he
remained totally anonymous in the process. I
heard it from Bruce Damer who sublets Traveler
via the DigitalSpace Commons.

At any rate, no one is to blame for wanting to be
a star. I mean does one even accumulate bad
karma for wanting and trying to be one?
Reach for the top, I say.
Hopefully, that was not too much of a ramble but
I guess the editors will make that decision.
Cheers,
Jer