There’s the notion that the artist is always at work, even if it doesn’t always seem like it. At least some parts of their brain are at work. I have to agree, and often it’s not the question of choice but simply the way the mind works. A fresh example follows.
Yesterday I borrowed an old VCR (my own VCRs had been dead long ago) to check out some tapes I made 20+ years ago (more about them later). To test the player I grabbed the first VHS tape I found from my storage. It turned out to be The Hunger (1983), directed by Tony Scott and starring Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie and Susan Sarandon. Unfortunately but perhaps not unexpectably, the old VCR turned out so hungry it ate the video tape right up! I don’t blame the player, it is totally understandable by circumstances – shelved away like the decaying former partners in the vampire queen’s attic in the film would make anyone crave for anything to chew on.
Anyways, I turned to more imminent things on my ToDo-list, making my way towards a thing that had a deadline set for tomorrow (ie. today). The thing was an assignment for a film course by renowned artist-researcher-lecturer Kari Yli-Annala, on topics related to hauntology, Russian cosmism, David Lynch and whatnot. So I had that in the back of my mind while doing the other stuff on my list… but the day grew short and I had to push the assignment over to the last day and get some sleep.
(Zzz…)
One of my dogs woke me up at 3 am to let him run his errands outside. After, I went back to bed but couldn’t get sleep. Something was bubbling under in the unconscious and kept me awake. And it suddenly dawned on me I had practically done the course assignment unknowingly! Hauntology, the VHS and the VCR, The Hunger… it’s all there and just needs some camera work and writing as a red thread to connect the dots.
(Coffee & work ensues…)
Now it’s 7 am and I’m writing this down for personal amusement, having mostly finished the assignment as well as a small media art piece (or two) related to that. More about those later; the Instagram photos here are merely for fun and documentation. This note is to illustrate how the ‘office hours’ are sometimes so off.. and… that the conscious mind is not always up to date on what’s going on.