How did that phone get in my hand?
Insider #109 with questions about absurdity and stray thoughts.
Dear Insider,
In today’s post, some good writing I read this week and your free seat to next week’s Insider Hangout.
The SneakyArt (Insider) Post is written for patrons and supporters of Sneaky Art. Every Sunday, I share deeper thoughts from my journey as an artist and writer.
📸 Connecting stray thoughts
I am reading more about the work of Susan Sontag and, in particular, her ideas about modern society and the cult of nostalgia. Notes on paper (below) help me connect with ideas from previous writings -
🤳🏼 The panopticon of social media and digital imprisonment, based on the writings of Byung Chul Han
🖼️ The concept of aura and a series of posts based on Walter Benjamin’s famous essay
👯 Individualism and personal identity, based on the book Identity by Francis Fukuyama.
At a sports venue or musical concert, in front of a mighty mountain or a beautiful waterfall, have you ever caught yourself rushing to get your phone out? Have you ever wondered - Why am I trying to record this?
Modern life is consumed by words and pictures from around the world, dictating how we should think and what we should feel. Modern life is consumed by words and pictures from around the world, so much so that everything else feels like Not-Life.
The Cult of Nostalgia is our human tendency to memorialize the present for future consumption, in the form of words and pictures, and the role of technology in aiding, abetting, and monetizing it.
But this itself is a trickle-down effect of the larger problem of images and metaphors, and their role in interfering with reality.
In other words, did a tree really fall in the forest if no one was there to make a reel about it?
In other words, pics or it didn’t happen as a way of life.
Dear Insider, have you read the work of Susan Sontag, or anything related to these topics? Please recommend a book (or podcast) in the comments! My thoughts on the subject are half-baked. I need to spend more time reading, listening, thinking, writing, writing, and writing again, before I can share. But when I am ready, you will be the first to know. This is our pact.
🎙 Ep 68 of the Podcast
New York-based cartoonist and comedian
spoke about the business of being an artist in today’s world:“Let's be honest, the business side of being an artist does suck. It's not what you signed up for. It's not the reason you became an artist, but I'll tell you what, it's the reason you'll stay an artist. It's the reason you can still be an artist is because you had to figure out how to do that. And it takes a while.”
📖 Good things I have read this week
🌏
wrote about moving to a new country and not knowing anybody.🙏🏼
confessed.🌳
explained how to walk in the woods.
I live in a world of great trees and am determined to better understand them. After reading Amy’s post, I went out and bought this book (below). Over the rest of autumn, winter, and next spring, I will make notes from it and combine them with sketches and observations of my natural environment.
Dear reader, this year with SneakyArt Insiders I am learning in public. If you are as curiously ignorant/ignorantly curious about your natural world as I am about mine, become a SneakyArt Insider and join the journey.
October Insider Hangout
In this month’s hangout, I will take you through the process of making a tiny zine!
🗓️ Sunday, 29 October
⏰ 10 am (Pacific Time)
Agenda:
📚 flip-through of this month’s sketchbook pages
✍🏼 current art supplies and travel kit
✂️ cutting and drawing tiny zines
🤝 general chat and q&a
Insider Hangouts are FREE to attend but exclusive to the fans and readers who support my work. Grab your seat below!