Thinking about Making

transition screenshot

On my recent train ride to NYC from Boston, I began considering what it is that I’m trying to present to an audience. I was writing up an explanation for Transition, and had a hard time deciding whether to explain it as a software piece (which it is), or as a video piece (which it also is). I settled on describing it as an animation, since I am presenting it as a quicktime with fixed duration and music.

However, I also created the software system that made the animation. Do I want to distribute that? Is it more or less interesting to have a delimited work or a perpetually changing one?

Obviously, the distribution of one form doesn’t prevent distribution of the other, and they may be shown in a complimentary manner. The question for me is whether the essential characteristic of the work is its perpetual generation/development or if there is a single trajectory that can be distilled from what would otherwise be an endless exercise in form making.

Put in that way, a linear time-based piece seems the obvious desired outcome. But since the software can respond to any sound input, can’t it take on other trajectories, incorporating them into an endless series of short narratives throughout its lifespan?

I will be revisiting these ideas in the future, but I think the questions posed help to focus the discussion as it pertains to a particular piece of work. Was it made to tell a story? Does it facilitate the creation of separate, personal stories? Or does it express some other idea altogether?