Iain's Worldmaking Questions:

These questions made me think quite a bit. I know my answers are pretty vague but my practice is so broad it is difficult to speak about it as a whole in more precise terms. Feel free to ask me about specific cases and I can explain how they fit.

1. View:

●      What is the big picture? Live life well and in alignment with a set of evolving values.

●      What is the paradigm (of values) behind it all?  A set of ethics derived from empathy and introspection. I am attempting to better understand the systems affected by my living, and my participation in them.

●      What are the main values that it is in opposition to? I find many current elements within society as unethical and in a sense my activities can be seen as ‘in opposition to’ however in many of the areas that I am working it is not useful to think of things as ‘opposed.’ Opposition tends to cause things to become rigid; if one is trying to offer the possibility of alternative values it is best to do so in a way that does not solidify existing ones.

●      What model of action are you using? Action, living. My thinking and values can be seen reflected in many (although certainly not all) of my actions. As an example, a significant amount of thought goes even into little things; for example the way in which I throw out a bag of rotten vegetables is something that reflects years of thinking, moral and even spiritual beliefs. One’s life is one’s art. This is not about a mode of action or a practice within a discipline.

2. Intention:

●      What is the practice’s concrete intentions? The concrete intentions are to build new ways of living. It is intended that these will function within the current social paradigm yet offer a different possibility of human existence. One that is (mostly) comfortable and worth living and also less detrimental to the other living things of this world.

●      What are the practices implicit intentions? That there is some benefit to making a new way of living. Maybe this notion is wrong, perhaps everything is perfect already (although I know many who would disagree).

●      How do you differ from the intentions of a single piece and the whole of the practice? Each piece reflects a moment in the larger practice. It can be seen as representative of the thinking of that time as such the intentions in individual pieces may vary from the overarching goal. There is coherence though: if one were to imagine these actions as plotted out, one could probably make out some pattern with a standard deviation about some midpoint.

●      3. Speech:

●      What do you need to communicate to allow the work to have a context? The specifics of my rationale and the situations in which the work arises. Without these it may be difficult to see how or why the works arose from my framework.

●      What terms and concepts do you have to develop? Better articulation. Terms and contexts must be gleaned from the language of the people one is trying to talk to. Try using Deleuze’s language around my neighbors in Milford and see how far you get. Most people can listen and can understand, but you have to speak the right language and present in the proper way.

●      What spaces of dialog is your work involved in? Most places I am in or around. A whole bunch of places that I am also not. Even small daily purchases can have global effects.

4. Action:

●      What are the practices associated with the work? (The practices of engagement, i.e. “Viewing” the work). Some of my works are more conventional ‘art’ pieces. You look at them, you go home. A larger number are about lived experience. I climb on a building, if you come along for the ride, you get to be on top of the building too. The world is my playground, it can be your playground too.

●      What are the key actions involved in making the work? Too varied to fit here…

5. Livelihood:

●      What are the actual life practices associated with your question? Wise resource use. Good relations with those around me. Betterment of self. Many prayers of thanks. These are just a few. A great variety emerges as I go, but they are highly circumstantial.

●      How do you make a livelihood? Work in ways aligned with ethics. Provide quality work. Do not spend disproportionate amount of time earning abstract things from abstract work. This is only possible for me now from some stroke of luck that I was able to pursue my education in the way that I did. In many ways it is difficult to have a choice in the work that one does.

●      Where do you need to work? Ideally somewhere that I can get under my own power; walk, bike etc. Ideally some place where I feel OK with the larger consequences of my work.

●      What does this consist of? Circumstantial. Right now for my official ‘jobs’ I take care of people with mental illness and work for the art department. However in Maine there is the wonderful possibility of piecing together one’s livelihood from multiple sources. Here too there is the possibility for non-monetary exchange as a way of meeting needs.  

●      Who are you working with? I work with such a variety of people it is probably easiest to describe them as those who are geographically or technologically proximal.

6. Effort:

●      Perfection: What does perfection look like in regards to this work? A healthy community where members strive to live as their best selves. They think carefully about their way of being and live well with all around them.

●      What are you actually striving for? (For the art and in your own life). That will not fit here. If I am strong, diligent and carry through, you may be able to visit me in a decade or so and I will try to show you.

7. Mindfulness:

●      How do make sure all the parts of this practice are part of the same general logic? (It is important to imagine that your thoughts and your actions link up so to speak). I agonize over this regularly. Looking back at previous works and writing I have noticed a some consistency however whether I have had any real effects at my goal are doubtful.

8. Concentration:

●      Where should you locate your effort? (It is easy to shape your practice into existing methodologies but given your problem in a pure state where should you locate your activities -- imagine that it is not in art as we know it...) Everywhere: art is not for museums, it is for living.