Co-Modification

Every Blog has its origin story. This one begins with an invitation to play.

My friends Janet Donoghue and Alison Fisher (a.k.a. Glenda Greenhouse and Mary Mercury, The Composters) turned me on to an on-line artists collective, @Platea, and their on-line community art project, "Co-Modify II," set to run May 3-9, 2009. I joined in. Because I just had so much time during finals week, what with all the grading and dissertation defenses. But I joined in anyway, because I needed to do some art.

I selected Adobe as my company to shill for, or be my personal sponsor, or celebrate, or criticize...Actually, my ambivalence about Adobe is what drove my selection. Can the master's tools tear down the master's house? Would I really want to, even if they could?

And so this week has been about finding the moments around the tedious chores of the end of the semester to inspire myself with art, with heady thought about art, and with dialogue with other artists as they do their amazing work. And whatever may have been said about the conundrums of art in a consumerist society or the efficacy of artist activism, I feel so much more alive this week as I do this work, this serious play.

If nothing else, it has driven me to finally set up a blog on my Google account. I've been meaning to do that for a while now. Hey. Whatever motivates us, right? Whatever moves us forward...