Well well well, global hikikomori!1 Who would have thought in this year of years that our private little Dignity Scholarship mission to work to some idea of productive sheltering would turn out to be suddenly a topic and a issue of global significance? It is just a shame that our investigation has not been a little more focused and that we haven't come up with some result beyond our stubborn commitment to plein air work and the dish of auto-doggerel with which we serve it up. Oh well, but can the logic that led us to believe that sheltering from the post truth storm was the best way of dealing with it be applied to the global sheltering we are witnessing? Probably not. Ours is a voluntary sheltering not in a physical space of dalls and woors2 but an imaginary sheltering from disinformation and online hysteria, but our base motivation is relevant; to stay sane. In plain speak it is a job to stay sane and culture (Doing) helps. Already we see an isolation culture emerging with keep fit classes, gigs, comedy and even clubbing, not to mention the hugely surreal public applause for the NHS! Perhaps we might have a minutes booing next for the virus itself? But imagine what would happen if when all are under curfew the internet went down; what would result? Chaos or calm? Surely that wont happen or if it does it will be back up toot suite, after all this is the data harvest of a lifetime! Cynical stop? Is this the time to stop being cynical, or critical? A ceasefire? Who would benefit from a switch off of scrutiny and questioning? But it is easy for me to sit over here in acres of space, largely unaffected and be cynical. I know from the experience of my fathers passing that when life and death are on the table then one realises that critique, cynicism, the 'critical attitude' are luxuries indeed. I said as much I believe although I have not the heart to read it back.
Now, do you remember all that talk we used to hear about immaterial labour, about how value is extracted from us via our entrepreneurial radical, or not so radical art activities? Of capital extracting value from the festival of unmoored, precarious 'playbouring' of the new networked society? Well, as you know, in the TAS we took the position view that all that came crashing down in 2011 after which, during austerity, nobody in power gave monkeys uncle for art (unless it was to speculate and profit from the luxury art market of course). The vision for a creative economy or the Knowledge economy, of enterprise culture was a goner. Not that we lament that shift necessarily but the world of neoliberal enterprise culture that was the object of critique for radical artists had vanished. So from a critical arts point of view there was no sense in continuing to mould ones practise in opposition and resistance to something that no longer existed, so it was time to call for a break and to re-orientate the work away from the abstractions of contemporary critique from which we were high and dry, and on to the immediate environment. In any case I just wanted to draw a little linky between that old craic about the immaterial labour of the radical artists and the way we see the labour of countless 'you tubers' piddling around in the most diverse ways imaginable and gaining dinks3 from the advertising. These new playbourers are people who are employed by the internet, unofficially of course, to produce content and gain likes and subscriptions. Is this not playbouring taken to a grand scale? Taken to its logical conclusion? All part of the monetising of our Doing? This type of work soon resolves into a desperate bid to gain popularity and keep it, certainly that is the case with the devilish children's channels. Of course I am no expert on internet television and its delivery but surely it is clear that the equation of content creation has changed to suit the Borg.4 The Borg pays the bills at the same time as the Borg must be attracted and new recruits must be gleaned. This is the motive behind the content creation once some success has been discovered initially and innocently enough. Someone screws around on you tube and hits the viral jackpot after which it is the game to stay up there, keep the revenues coming in.
But these are the words of one at odds somewhat with the world, or perhaps that's too strong; the words of one who, not liking the look of the roller coaster has elected to stand and watch. The ride spinning and twisting, looping the loop, we hear whooping and a hollering; the occasional body thrown clear. My view is not so much as that of the 'old bugger' but the stage just previous, the point where one sees the world changing and cannot reconcile the transition, believing everything to be perhaps more corrupt and cynical than ever. Perhaps yes, perhaps no. Naturally the youth are just living and with no phase change to contemplate they plough their furrow. I like to imagine today's 19 year olds in 25 years, lamenting the days when Siri was there to answer ones beck and call as opposed to the authoritarian prison warden it may well evolve into. But all this is my bluster and not at all helpful to our five themes. You know this year of years was set up for us with a combination of Brexit and the Trump election, the lines of my proposal poem lay out our basis and our approach to the themes and but a few weeks in and its blown up. Bang! Mice, men, its happened again. This pandemic really is a twist in the narrative though. More than that, it's the shattering of the entire arc! If you were to tell me back in October when we began this second season that by March a national curfew was being imposed, and this unconnected to Brexit, Trump, Russia, the alt right and the rest of our characters, I'd have thought you gone to seed. Not to mention fathers death. But look here, what was the most significant event of 2020 that made us think of it as such a crucial year? The US election of course, but here's a question to ponder. Will the US election in November be cancelled? Will it be postponed? Will it be via mail or online votes? It will certainly be vastly changed and unprecedented and so saying, ripe for the fiddle!
We work on however and have just yesterday began a study of rocks in the little wood, down the lane, just past the Uddeboövägan turn. Still painting a little more to the Cezanne way but I have found that once ones patients inevitably runs out then the Van Gogh way takes over; pushing home an attack that the process cannot survive. That oscillation between the two approaches may in itself bring some results but we must hold on to Cezanne a little longer, we must keep knocking at his door and ringing his bell, at least to see if anyone answers. It is a question of practice and discipline to respect the sensation which only reveals itself slowly, as the man himself says. One must hold the nerve, refrain from rushing in, from grasping at straws and slowly slowly the sensations come but it is the work to tease the sensation out of the motif and once revealed all rash impulses are dissolved, calmness reigns and there is a feeling of the infinite possibility of the method. It is the best way to get at a sense of things themselves but this perhaps at the expense of any sense of the artists feeling for 'things', for expression. This dichotomy is indeed another reason why it is quite mad to attempt any compromise between the two approaches of Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Cezanne but at the same time it could be the very reason that this impossible task may be worth a dime.
With a handshake,
John
1 Japanese. Hikikomori is the phenomenon of extreme social withdrawal and self isolation that is prevalent among the Japanese population, mostly young males. Hikikomori can refer to both the broad phenomenon and the individuals effected: 'Kenshin is a hikikomori'.
2 Accidental spoonerism, most likely a typing error.
3. Money, pound coins specifically. Region slang from the North East of England.
4. John refers loosely to any combination of the internet, social media and AI learning algorithms as The Borg. Derives from the Star Trek television on program where The Borg are a hostile alien race which feeds from the assimilation of knowledge and culture of other species.