My friend Chris has launched an area of his site showcasing works in progress. I love seeing how a sketch evolves into a final product. It reminds me that I’ve always loved seeing original manuscripts of poems I like – seeing which words the poet scratched out, what that original impulse was.
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Minor hijack post, but it spun off a thought. Most of the stuff I work on creatively is a collaboration, and increasingly with people far away from me. As a result, I have a lot of works in progress floating around.
I’ve been offhandedly tracking the way some of the collaborative tools Google has been releasing lately are going to pop up in the art world. I haven’t seen too much yet, outside of this:
http://www.freakitude.com/2006/10/11/the-broth-ajax-based-collaborative-art/
But in general, the potential is incredible. Real time interaction on art, music, writing from remote locations. The ability to write a screenplay with a friend in LA and see each others edits at the same time. (Or, more pedestrianly, to edit a document with a client in real time from separate locations.) It’s still nascent, but the collaborative (and environmental) implications are pretty staggering.
So, works in progress + Internet got me thinking about that, and Amanda, given your media consultant lifestyle, I thought you might have some thoughts on how the increased interactivity provided online will affect the creative process, both for generators and consumers of art.
More to the point of the post, Wired magazine focused last month on transparency in business as a strategy for winning over customers. Interesting to see that parallel here.
I personally go back and forth on transparency in art. I love hearing demos of my favorite bands songs, but I also love the illusion that great works of art just pop out fully formed. Sometimes pulling back the curtain to reveal the great and powerful Oz can take away the magic. Always a struggle.
Lots to chew on here!
Interesting that you draw the comparison between corporate and artistic transparency. I see what you mean about drawing back the curtain – but for me, I think that adds to the magic, rather than killing it…since I’m often as interested in the creative process, and the creative person, as I am in the final creative work.
I love the idea of companies using the Web to be more transparent, but am wary of how calculated this has become. Seems like jumping on the transparency bandwagon can yield a kind of faux transparency, an illusion of intimacy or accessibility…but I suppose that’s still preferable to secrecy. Still, spin is spin…