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There are always more options than the ones we pursue in any endeavor, particularly creative ones. Even the merry reductivist makes an excessive amount of decisions regarding what to exclude. I’m always aware that a move could be to cross out the painting I am working on, a big X right over everything I’ve done. Perhaps an Atari looking x, or an x that’s Guyton chic. But the x idea is one of several extreme moves, cutting a whole out of the canvas is the way I’ve seen others go. But moves are not only extreme gestures, especially when they are the means to develop our work, to get to know an aesthetic. A move, and aesthetic decision, is also a subtle variation. Where it gathers existential weight is when we consider the value in pursuing the path to an unknown or perhaps worse, a singular instance. Preoccupations like: what does this have to do with most else of what I do, do I really want this sort of eclecticism. These preoccupations may precede or follow the creative work; sequence of events is of less importance than acceptance when it comes to the issue of management. |
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| We seem to live in a copy culture, so what do we copy? Kant claimed that there are always a multitude of aesthetic judgments, so which ones do we prioritize? It’s been written eloquently elsewhere that freedom can only flourish with a necessary admixture of restraint. The freedom of an open-ended art practice needs to have some rules. One must exercise free will responsibly. Etc. |
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Modernity is management culture, whatever else it is. Is it a fact that we progressively have infinitely more options or is it a dream? An Ipod makes all of our music options readily available; I guess that means more options, speed means more. Clutter has generally been perceived as lesser to order, in spite of how many accessories and concessions ordering will require. I liken the notion of management in general to the specific case of color management. Color Management is about making a computer screen a reliable indicator for what a printout will look like. The average display can display 1,010,101,010,101,010,101,010 colors. Would we want to see them all at once, ‘course not’, that potential must be managed, it would be maddening to contend with that range, ditto for the potential of any creative practice. Of course we don’t want to see and celebrate restraint, we just need it, we don’t even need to know its there. |
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| How do we manage; by throwing things out, hit the delete button and then empty the trash. It’s gone forever, unless it was backed up and becomes a form of order/clutter. Management, the word has the air of promises to it, can be taken as a Meta term for organizing: management is the answer, when will we get ____________ management. Right! Management is just plain coping, the offspring of desperate situations. Hitting the delete key, the relief button, is the preferred method of management. Oprah’s done shows on this throw everything out method. And relief is our present day substitute for joy. It would be a relief to get through this rough patch with some of our hair left, lets strategize. This brings me to a couple of related thoughts. What do we choose, our choices become the material that we manage, and out of what circumstances do we make choices? So much of creative work involves tactics, not strategies. Management is the interface with the strategic disposition, in spite of . If we see something thrown out, fated for oblivion, and we rescue it, re-use it, this is an aesthetic judgment par-excellence. And such acts will invariably involve management as they are assimilated to the rest of the world we make. |
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