Douglas Witmer
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Tuesday, June 07, 2005
sktchbk
I used to work in the collections department of The Rosenbach Museum and Library . Among the amazing things in the collection is the complete archive of the poet Marianne Moore and the manuscript of James Joyce's Ulysses. Looking at artists' preparatory and transitional workings is the thing I miss the most about being there. I loved the feeling of being surrounded by so much residue of creative process. In the digital culture, I fear this kind of residue--the tactile embodiment of the processes of rumination over thoughts and feelings--is quickly ceasing to be produced.
I've been conversing with several artists lately via e-mail. We're getting to know each other, but only at keyboard's length. And given the distances all we can experience of each other's work is that which we can see on our screen. It has its good and bad side. Being involved on the internet has definitely opened my conversation up in a good way. Yet there is still a sense of loss. I clean out my e-mail inbox from time to time with one click of a button. What if I had actual handwritten letters from all of you with whom I correspond?
So an intermediary idea has come to me, which is from time to time to simply post images from my sketchbooks and notebooks and let them remind on the screen what they are in my hand.
7.6.05 