Attention Please
To make progress, I've been challenging myself with answering two question regarding my work. Who's it for and what's it for?
Answering the second part has been a lot easier than answering the first. I have an idea of who it is NOT for, but I think I have to respond in the positive for it to have any real meaning. Moving away from something isn’t the same as moving towards something.
Because I don't have clarity on this, I don't have a need for social media. In fact, I think it's unhelpful for at least a couple reasons.
The first is specific to nude work itself. Too many people show up with an intent that isn’t productive. They're not trying to interact with the seriousness of the subject. They're simply looking to give into an unchallenged impulse. This isn’t inherently bad, but it’s a distraction for me. I can’t stop this of course, but I can discourage it. These people are inescapable on some level, but I'd like to interact with them as little as possible.
The second is that attention is a finite resource. Jumping into people's feeds to wave my arms around in the hopes that someone will pay me with split seconds of their time, is a losing game. Not just for me, but for everyone. It's a race to the bottom, where we become noise. The work is not for anyone specific and it doesn't give anything meaningful. It's grasping at attention for attention's sake in the hopes that we might be plucked from obscurity. A ring for people to compete in a zero-sum game where the reward is a glance. We dream of what could happen if we win that moment and prove we can monopolize people’s focus. Eventually we could leverage it, but for what ends?
Until I know who my work is for, I'm happy to remain in my corner of the internet. I can keep showing up for the few people that care and I don't have to play by anyone else's rules. Having the space where I can move and develop, so I can try and give something more substantial, is a long term solution. Something within my control and an actual shot at making an impact. And since my work isn’t for most, I don’t need that much attention. Just the right kind from the right people.
