Running and Passing.

** Anyone interested in a collaborative project? I’m open to a range of topics and production methods. Ideally, this collaboration would mimic the read/write ethos of the creative commons and the resulting work would be licensed under agreeable CC conditions. **

In January, I blogged about my interest in licensing work via the Creative Commons and ended up settling on a CC Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 license. I have since revised the terms and changed to a bit more open Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License.

The Commons are meant to expand distribution potential while maintaining a given level of control. This allows producers to publish work online while communicating to exactly what can and can’t done with the work. A large portion of my Flickr imagery is now under said license. For more info about the Creative Commons, I’d suggest examining their licensing conditions, case studies, and interviews.

Working with digital files, it is easy to either delete the mistakes or continuously edit the work until it becomes very sterile. This editing can lead to well refined work but also can be the cause of production delays and a soulless flat feeling often perceived in digital video and imagery.

Failed projects become more evident when working with tangible objects. Sculptural, environmental, and industrial design are rarely simply dragged to the trash bin. They have a tendency to leave behind visible traces of their existence in the form of scars, sweat, and scrap material.

Perhaps, the dealing with so called failed projects is actually just dealing with varying levels or imperfection?

The following project was intended to be a semi-transparent lamp shade. The construction material was air bag packing material, also known as air cushions. I cut small holes in one end of each air bag and squirted in a mixture of GOLDEN Fluid Acrylic paint, GOLDEN Acrylic Flow Release, and water. The intention was to have the paint effectively coat the inside of each bag then attach the two sections of the packing material together around the base of the lamp.

While the process was a general success, the resulting bags feature inconsistent layers of paint and generally look dirty. They lack the factory fresh, industrial clean feeling they once possessed. While they failed to meet the intened goal they succeeded in other ways.

In a recent XLR8R Magazine interview with Quentin Dupieux (a.k.a. Mr. Oizo), the filmmaker  and music producer states, “I think the important thing is my spirit, that’s where I’m getting the good stuff. It’s not from skill.” Mr. Oizo works a surreal, almost absurdest fashion, muses that he does attempts to control his accept and control influences, while not trying to bullshit the audience.

“For a long time, I was trying to be someone different than myself,” says Depieux. “But now, I think I totally accept who I am-good traits and problems. I’m not tyring to do things that I cannot do. And I know I’m very pretentious about who I am. I’ve been doing what I’ve been doing since I was 15, and I think I’m getting better and better. I’m not bullshitting the audience. When I don’t feel like doing music, I’m not doing it just to put out a record. “

I’m not trying to bullshit myself or the audience. This project failed but something was created. To place the packaging strips of color (what else are they?) in a different context,  I plan on photographing them in a variety of locations.