OBEY

click the center of the pupil & adjust volume on right

In spite of our rhetorical litanies claiming to value free exchange, often our reality falls far short of this lofty and necessary democratic goal.  

"Be creative," "think out of the box," "we encourage free expression," "freedom of speech is important," in America we have a "free marketplace of ideas, "transparency of leadership," blah, blah, Blah, Blah, BLAH, BLAH! 

Too often we are subtly (and not so subtly) discouraged from thinking outside the confines of commercial programming, unregulated greed, plutocratic reverence, competition, prohibition, corporate personhood, academic values, departments,  rubrics, outlines, plans, hierarchies, trying to always control....but why?

"Control is controlled by the need to control."

Are a free exchange of ideas, promotion of creativity and leadership transparency really our daily experience? Sure, we don't (always) get clubbed, tear-gassed or shot with rubber bullets and hauled away to jail like people do in those "other" countries - but is that really the standard we want to measure ourselves by? 

Why smugly trumpet the values of creative free expression only to abandon them when we are bullied to do so? Sure, for survival, it can pay in the short run, but what about the bigger picture? Does history celebrate or even remember the timid and the tame? 

The heroes of history tend to be the heretics and the rebels, those who stand up to bullies, whose narrative  challenges the status-quo and who have the courage and support to relate that narrative freely (and who, we must admit,  often get burned in some way in the process).

...and if you think about it, human evolution happens because of mutation, deviance, difference, divergence - not just endless repetition of successful traits or formulas, no matter how tasty or fashionable!

could there be a connection?

mechanical metaphors

One of the thematic contrasts that recur in my show and in my thinking is that of the organic and the mechanical. The material wonders of industrial technology and mass production are ubiquitous and obvious, as is the praise for these pervasive systems but - our species seems to be losing touch with the natural and the organic and "nature deficit disorder" is on the rise. Outdoors, in the green woods we are confronted with the "chaos" of unsystematic Nature and must rely upon our own creativity and spontaneous action - there is no script. 


We regularly use machine metaphors to refer to the ideal in human performance and the digital world lures us into disdain for our bodies because they are never as "perfect" as our avatar - our bodies age and smell and this reminds us uncomfortably of our animality. Like D-503 in Zamyatin's We, our lives are increasingly lived within the comfortable confines of a "Green Wall" that keeps us safe from the chaos of Nature and encourages increasing reliance on the regimens of modern life. Though written in 1920, Zamyatin seems to capture our modern mania for hyper-scheduling and mechanical action. 

"But our Table of Hours! Why, it transforms each one of us into a figure of steel, a six-wheeled hero of a mighty epic poem. Every morning, with six-wheeled precision, at the same hour and the same moment, we—millions of us—get up as one. At the same hour, in millionheaded unison, we start work; and in million-headed unison we end it And, fused into a single million-handed body, at the same second, designated by the Table, we lift our spoons to our mouths. At the same second, we come out for our walk, go to the auditorium, go to the hall for Taylor exercises, fall asleep...."

We may not move as one for every task, but as humorously represented in the intro credits for Weeds, Americans do have recognizable robotic patterns.  As Malvina Reynolds' "Little Boxes" suggests, in some circles, the path of life is singular and prescribed - if they choose to follow the recipe given them.

"Little Boxes" by Malvina Reynolds (1962)

Little boxes on the hillside,

Little boxes made of ticky tacky

Little boxes on the hillside,

Little boxes all the same,

There's a green one and a pink one

And a blue one and a yellow one

And they're all made out of ticky tacky

And they all look just the same.

And the people in the houses

All went to the university

Where they were put in boxes

And they came out all the same

And there's doctors and lawyers

And business executives

And they're all made out of ticky tacky

And they all look just the same.

And they all play on the golf course

And drink their martinis dry

And they all have pretty children

And the children go to school,

And the children go to summer camp

And then to the university

Where they are put in boxes

And they come out all the same.

And the boys go into business

And marry and raise a family

In boxes made of ticky tacky

And they all look just the same,

There's a green one and a pink one

And a blue one and a yellow one

And they're all made out of ticky tacky

And they all look just the same.