with that said, it seems like i get some of my best thinking done during artist talks.
i managed to stay pretty focused during Jennifer Angus' talk about her work with insects in art, but i really don't like bugs and was feeling so itchy that i welcomed the wanderings of my mind for once.
Jennifer's obsession with pattern was interesting to me even though i don't share that passion, but what i was really thinking about was the concert i was going to the next night (Troye Sivan).
i fell in love with his music when i was driving back to school and his song YOUTH came on the radio; i was hooked and once i got tickets to his show in Milwaukee, it was all i could think about.
when i finally got to the concert on saturday night, i experienced some kind of odd things.
for 1, i was one of the oldest people there who wasn't a parent and that was really strange for me, i mean i'm only 22 and i guess i hadn't really grasped how different that really is from 18 (the last time i was at The Rave).
another thing i noticed, primarily during the opening act, was that people seemed to feel compelled to sing along with the music; the people next to me clearly didn't know the words, but by the end of the song they were belting them out (i was guilty of this, too, not necessarily belting, but trying to learn the words).
i watched as the girls around me nervously glanced around as they stumbled through lyrics that they'd just caught on to, in case somehow someone realized that they didn't know every single word to every song being performed.
the strangest thing was the amount of time that i spent watching the show on people's phones.
there were people who were on their phones recording or snapping or tweeting the entire concert and it made me sad for them that they missed the show; yes they'll have evidence that they were there, but you can't tell me that they really enjoyed themselves.
this video is a pretty good example.
looking around The Rave, so many people were just not there; they were standing around me, i could see and feel them, but they were so consumed with what they were taking away with them that they might as well have stayed home and looked videos up online (i totally understand the irony of my recording this and showing it to you while criticizing the other people at the show for doing the same thing).
i think it's sad how much we let technology and especially our stupid, little phones control our lives and i'm totally a part of this, too.
we pay to see someone sing for us and instead of listening and giving ourselves to the music and the experience, we focus on a little box that's in our hands like if we put it away we'll be lost.
i think that there are some really great aspects of technology: you can learn about anything you want, find people with similar interests or struggles as you, express yourself in different ways, but i also think that if we were all more present we would be much better off.
it's so easy to be someone behind a screen and to say whatever you want but what does that mean in real life?
how do we really care for each other and how do we really help each other?
sometimes i think that in ways, we're becoming more and more like technology; we can do plenty of things indirectly, but when it comes down to it, we're becoming less and less personable and this is unfortunate.
i guess i'd like to challenge you to be more aware of your real, physical surroundings; to put your phone or computer away and just be in the moment and to keep doing this until it becomes normal again.
i think that would make for a much more fulfilling life.
love
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