I spoke at a conference this past week. There were lots of strategies, statistics and plans laid out by others, so I decided to go another direction and use a few images as launching points for a discussion. I began with two versions of a biblical scene: Doubting Thomas-the familiar version by Caravaggio, the second more abstract impression by Mark Tansey. Tansey's version is exploring the uncertainty or crisis that occurs when secure foundations are crumbling--what is most interesting to me is that this crack in the pavement is right underneath the car--not at the edges of society but in the middle...you can probably guess where I was going with this.
I also talked about trash, riffing off Philip K. Dick, whose assertion that the symbols of the divine show up at the trash stratum, led to a discussion about living in a disposable pop culture and shining light on the trash to see deeper--cue Tim Noble and Sue Brewster whose work with trash taken from dumpsters around their neighbourhood in London produced some fantastic work in the 90s. There was also talk about human development and how the tools me shape, shape us, ala McLuhan, and a closing riff on 'boxes'--JJ Abram's magic box he has never opened, and some thoughts about 'thinking inside the box' as a counter to the mindless call to 'think outside the box'--what does that mean most of the time? Nothing usually, in my experience.
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