MFYAY

I’m taking the usual red eye back to Bos tonight. I planned to return a couple of days earlier, but it’s always difficult to leave. I knew my departure date wasn’t going to work out, but lofty goals are what thesis’ing is all about.

And the goals were mighty high. I did not complete even remotely what I set out to do while enjoying a surplus of vitamin D, but I’m not so sure I was even able going to be able to in the first place. Home was so good though. And still quite helpful. Motivating! I had several meetings regarding the thesis and am happy to report I officially have a singer locked into place for collaboration with the final project. Yes, singing will be involved. 

I had originally planned to have a first draft of my written thesis by today. That definitely did not happen, and the antagonizing relationship between writing and seeing friends was trying. And in the end I should have played more than I did because I think it was better for the soul than trying to write anyways. That reality kicking in though as I pack my things, I realize that I’ll be moving into the Tufts library on Tuesday and instilling a four day per week writing schedules at the very least to make it to my first draft Jan 19 goal. I also am still going to head down to NYC for another thesis related meeting with this amazing person and to see this show and this show and this show, which I’m very excited about. That’ll cost me, but very necessary. 

So things are only going to get exponentially more difficult. I’m shooting for a production date of late February, but the balancing act is already getting intense. I’m not sure why I always make things as difficult as they need to be, but I’ve now realized that’s just how it’s going to be, and that’s OK.

So I’ll see you all on 5 April, but until then don’t count on much, I’m dropping off and there is a lot of nervous energy.

I recently spent almost a month crafting an abstract-proposal for a graduate student art history symposium on “The Art of Travel” to be held at Rutgers in March. When I first heard about it I was ecstatic and motivated as the symposium topic and my MFA thesis had a lot of overlap. And I happily report they still do as I very slowly whittle away at the written element here in California. So after four drafts and edits from two faculty members and two Tufts MA art history peers I felt confident with my submission. Fast forward two weeks: I just got an email back letting me know my paper was not selected. While I’m sorta bummed about it, huge relief washes over me. Not that I didn’t want to do it, but balancing the crafting of an rigorous art history paper concurrent to thesis production seemed to be a bad idea that grew and grew with the days following my submission. 

So I got nixed. It could have been for many reasons. The abstract could have sucked. Or more optimistically, my topic just did not jive with any of the papers proposed out of the seventy submitted. Regardless, I feel pretty good about the effort and am so relieved I can focus solely on the thesis. Practically speaking it’s for the best as my written thesis steps far beyond the art historical, which I was chained to with the Rutgers paper. Copied below is my abstract I proposed that will give you an idea, in part, to what I’ll be presenting for my thesis. So if you are intrigued, enjoy…

In presenting a modern and contemporary art historical genealogy of those who have championed the non-retinal aesthetic experience, one can begin to construct a framework in which to understand the cultural and psychological associations of the sense of taste that confront the hungry traveler. While the visual unequivocally dominates how knowledge is produced, shared and contested within the arts, there is a potent history of approaching place that extends beyond the limitations of the seen.

Inevitably, the traveler’s hunger pangs affect how they experience foreign place. As a visual artist working towards a spring MFA thesis, my work explores this issue as it affects the Millennial Generation. Born in the 80s and 90s, the Millennial has been raised within a globalized society. As privileged nomads, travel at the professional and/or personal level is assumed and celebrated. Mediated by taste, expectation collides with an anxiety arising from the consumption of “discomfort food”, in other words, the suspect and unfamiliar. At risk is a safe and planned touristic experience, facilitated by the photo-visual. Instead, notions of immediacy, surprise, desire and repulsion, responses intrinsic to taste, can be reimagined as vehicles for education and conversation, making active the traveler’s degree of participation.

Projects from Marcel Duchamp, The Situationists, Natalie Jermijenko and Conflict Kitchen destabilize the assumed dominance of the visual with performative tactics: the organically evolving, the unexpected and the viewer-as-participant. Showcasing these contributions allows us to unpack the polysensorial influences at work to see how we all potentially perform as the hungry traveler. Such awareness, specifically through taste, offers a bodily, reflexive and collaborative opportunity to learn through participating in the social, political, personal and collective qualities that creates the uniqueness of place. 

I leave tonight for home. There is much to do for the short amount of time I’ll be meandering around Los Angeles. The primary goals are to 1) get a first draft of my written thesis somewhat formed, 2) make substantial headway into thesis project pre-production, 3) begin a slow insertion of my Boston professional self into Los Angeles.

And of coures to update you all with some amazing things that have happened this past semester. There are many.

I’m too exhausted to let you know anymore right now than the following:

I have just taught my last class of the semester. None of my students are old enough to drink so I am drinking a large beer alone in the apartment. I am very tired.

I’ve fell off the tumblr wagon. Chunky updates with thoughts, frustrations and good news have fallen wayside to quick-n-easy visual updates. This needs some balancing or else the whole reason why I started MFyAy will go kaput.

This semester has undoubtedly been my best, most exciting and empowering. There is much to share. So much in fact that I am going to have to break out of chronology and skip back and forth, to and fro. So bear with me. I’ll try my best to give you context, but more importantly, I’d just like to share with you some incredible lectures, crits, visits, exhibitions, dinners and conversations that spin around at a slow groove in my thesis-galaxy. It all does make sense, I swear.

This is my update on updating.