A Visual Crash Course into the Mind & Soul…
The other day I paid a visit to the Tumblr blog of a new creative friend: Watching Angel. Journeying through her blog, I discovered many wonderful postings: artwork (hers and others), videos, photos, sayings and the like. I was so struck by her collection of Rumi quotes I bookmarked her reference source. As well as the Rumi treasury, I also found a great new journaling source: The Art Journaler which included a drop-dead page I was so inspired by: “Crash into me” (see above). Equally mesmerizing was a video of waves lapping upon the surface of the sea – a nice mental break. I enjoyed reviewing Watching Angel’s blog; it was so different from my wordy one! I loved its brief, easy-breezy format with tiny info and visual bytes. In five minutes of perusing her site, I felt like I’d gotten a visual crash course into the depths of her creative soul and mindscape through the eclectic choice of items she’d chosen to assemble on her blog. When I excitedly wrote to tell her how much I admired it, she said she felt bad it didn’t include enough of her own artwork, and further, that she felt a bit like a fraud reblogging others peoples’ posts. I could see why someone might think that reblogging the art and sources of others might be less imaginative, but is it really such a fraudulent creative act? So let me make a case that reblogging requires just as much imagination as making art, in fact, I believe it is an art!
Your Essence Coalescing in a Sea of Digital Code…
Like digital social media platforms such as Facebook and Pinterest, reblogging on sites like Tumblr allows us to manifest our creativity in a collage-like manner. With reblogging, as with collage, what you’re doing is composing a mix of items that personally strike you as interesting. These you’re choosing from an infinite array of things on the internet. When reblogging you have the potential to create a world of your own choosing through a melange of items that express your personal taste and give insight to others about who you are and what you’re about. Viewed in this light, reblogging is actually a very creative act which leaves you with a concrete yet ephemeral (digital) version of yourself; it’s your essence coalescing in a sea of digital code! It’s an expression of who you are for others to glean from whatever they want. In turn, they too can take from you and “collage”/ reblog what appeals to them from your world into theirs (on or off the internet). Through reblogging canvas or paper are replaced as substrate by the internet’s social media platforms. I always feel like I’m collaging and even curating (not just mindlessly collecting), when I’m posting to Facebook or Pinterest. From the thousands and thousands of art works, words and images out there, I choose only the ones that speak to my soul. When I do this I’m giving shape to a virtual self… you’ll know me by the colours I choose; the shapes, lines and patterns I’m drawn to; by the text that motivates me to action and the film clips and music that have transformed my world. And I’ll get to know those of you friends that follow me on these platforms, through your choice of the same. They give me a chance to get a sense too of the things that are important to you and the events that have shaped your lives and attitudes. Although we might never meet, we have commingled as friends, through sharing and expressing ourselves in a collage-like manner via social media. If you think about it, no other person in the world will ever reblog the exact same content as you… in this way reblogging is like a fingerprint or signature – uniquely you!
Reblogging & Music Mix Tapes…
Making a case for reblogging makes me think of the days when sharing music mix tapes were the rage. Teens recorded a list of their favourite songs on analogue tape (later to CDs) to share with good friends or love interests. In the latter case, they were the contemporary equivalent of love letters or poems. If you couldn’t tell someone you loved them, you could tell them through a collection of songs you’d recorded and suggest romantic innuendos and scenarios. Ah, that was the way of the 1980’s … a lifetime ago! It gave kids a chance to become their own musical composers or DJs in a sense as they chose the type of musical genres, artists and order they wanted the music to follow in; some even made their own fancy tape covers. I loved seeing the person’s handwriting of song titles on the tape cassette cover. The whole thing was so clandestine and I think that too made it more exciting to receive! Although it could be viewed as stealing it could be equally viewed as creating something unique for expressive purposes. Most importantly, it gave creative power to the everyday person not just giant music media moguls.
Like the music mix tape, although reblogging may make you feel like a fake artist or thief even, taking bits of stuff that already exist (ready-mades) and putting them into a kind of personal poetic, collage-like manner on the internet, can also be viewed as a cool, creative and bold gesture of self expression! Through these acts ordinary people have the opportunity to become artists in their own right. So my dear Watching Angel, this is my long-winded way of saying, although you may not realize it, every time you reblog something you are indeed creating and sharing your unique artistic perspective with others! You are making art! Now, you could’ve probably said all of this with a single quote, an image or a video! 😉 Thanks for giving me some food for thought.
Other Related Links:
The Art Journaler
Mix Tape: The Art of Cassette Culture (Thurston Moore)
Leave a Reply