Hello, bloggers.

One the ideas proposed, explored, and challenged by the great book, A View from the Center of the Universe, is how we as artists could actually attack the phenomenon of the multiple layers of reality and present it to the world.

When I think about that, the fear I always have is that the world is becoming a one-glance affair.  We are inundated with so many images, ideas, and commands:  We must brush our teeth with this brand of toothpaste; we must wipe our ass with that brand of toilet paper...  Then nothing becomes important, but everything is important.

Therefore, how can we really look at things as we see them?  Do we take the time to observe anything anymore, or is it just flashes in the pan?  Do we really listen to the news because we only want to hear the Far Right or the Far Left or the center?  Are we selectively just hearing our own choir instead of listening to the great things going on around us, so that we can challenge, learn, and grow in our knowledge?

That, to me, is the great challenge of what we’re going through now with our communication technology and tools.  Are we marginalizing them so much that everything becomes trite and we only listen to what we want to—but we ignore everything else because we’re a nation of know-it-alls marching over a cliff?  On the way down, we might be saying, “Ooops, we might have made a mistake!”

I don’t know what that all means, but I think it’s one of the challenges of the world we live in.  I believe we’ll sort it out eventually.  We always seem to stumble in the right direction. 

Matt