... Towards a Mission Statement

I decided, for better or worse, that I would start a so-called "real" blog. There are perhaps many contributing factors involved in wanting to create this ongoing document, but I think there are probably two to three main reasons. The initial reason is that I am no longer an official student. After graduating from SAIC in may, I felt as though my experience there reached an anti-crescendo. Not to say that the school didn't give me the direction and insight needed to actively and critically participate in an area of contemporary art that appeals to me, but
I still felt as though I had much to learn. I had an overwhelming feeling of being a complete amateur, and that because of this, I needed to continue my education on a personal level and continue to give myself the appropriate outlets needed for continued stimulation and critical engagement.

Another reason, is that I felt as though one of the primary influences on my continued pursuit of education and learning stems from my father, who with my mother, moved to Qatar at the beginning of this month for the next year. Because of this distance, and the difficulty it will be to communicate with them on a regular basis, I decided that I should motivate myself to create a space where i could continue to share thoughts on inspirational (and perhaps not so inspirational) moments, readings, watchings, and or experiences.

Although this blog serves as a public space where I can continue these thoughts, it is also an attempt at a log of an idea that I've had for some time to be able to not only comment on these experiences, but also allow myself to be critically creative with the process of observation and reaction. Criticism is narrow, and its aims are pointed towards reduction. I wish to allow myself the opportunity to engage with work critically but also creatively, allowing for noise, obscurity, and direct obfuscation/disturbance, to play a factor in this process of observation.

But i also feel compelled to say here, as an attempt to be humble and civil, that I am no expert, nor am I a person to be held in regard as authoritative, nor is it my aim to become someone who is a master. Instead there should be an understanding between myself and those that wish to participate in this blog (if there should be persons wishing to do so), to investigate their own process of education/learning. We are all teachers, we are all students. The hierarchy of expert culture will hopefully be undermined by my attempts to engage with work both critically and artistically. I encourage responses, and also expansions to this ongoing project of continued pursuit of knowledge.

thank you.
Nicholas O'Brien