Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Radically Environmentally Radical, Dude.

It is a bit of a luxury to be one of the class members whose work already somewhat aligns itself with this weeks assignment. Even so, I found myself rethinking my work in new and valuable ways. Greg made a specific point last week that the presentations should be environmentally radical where as Judy seemed to prefer a radically environmental approach. I didn't think much of this at the time but as I sat down to work on my presentation I realized that distinctions between the two phrases represented two poles through which I could approach my work and the idea of environmentalism. I found myself asking how extreme of an approach should I take not just in this presentation but in my work? Do I need to spell out the environmental hazards people are familiar with and might be turned off by? How aggressive should art be about the issues it addresses? I think a big part of my working process (and probably everyone in the program) is trying to strike a cord that balances inviting a viewer to look and then asking them to think. Considering my work from Greg and Judy's different definitions made me realize that this balance is a crucial tension in my work that I always need to tip to both sides and then realign.

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