On Creation and Consumption: Combatting Idleness
My instinct has been to consume more than create. The voice that settles at the base of my diaphragm rising with my breath, is halted by the weight on my chest.
Hesitation.
Hesitation.
Instagram, Meta, and Facebook reels; Bell Hook's “All About Love”; art exhibitions; Tem’s new album; RuPaul’s Drag Race; true crime podcasts; news of genocide, war, and more. I am inundated.
A time to tear, a time to mend, an exhibition I co-curated in 2022 with SuperCollider at Wonzimer, centered on the idea that we could find alternative modes of processing the inundation of timeline trauma--that we can metabolize and heal from collective traumas witnessed every day. I reflect on Jody Zellen’s “Photo News,” a now 6-year series with daily posting of a news image created each morning from the digital version of the New York Times. The result is an ambiguous montage that poetically references the original photograph, albeit reducing it to its most graphic and stylized form.
Reduction, simplicity, pause.
I found Jody’s pause practice aspirational and one that I imagine requires great discipline. In George Prochnik’s In Pursuit of Silence: Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise, he writes about his quest for silence, seeing it as a “dwindling commodity.” Commodifying reduction and pause seem counterintuitive, but they are also natural outcomes if we see commodification through the lens of cultural/spiritual capital instead of financial. Creating or consuming creative outputs can be generative and life-giving instead of agents of capitalist burnout.
I often see this idea of do-nothing-ism circulating. As a do-er, to just "be" is often a challenge for me. Yes, I can binge a show, listen to Tem's album (2nd plug, go listen!), or practice yoga, but these do not constitute doing nothing.
A zero-sum game--if I consume, I am doing, and if I create, I am also doing. Even in Jody’s pause practice, she is creating something new. Outputting her interpretation of the matter.
Give-and-take is necessary. Even in one’s lack of creative output, there is a symbiotic exchange between the creator and the consumer. Take Jody’s 6-8-2024 iteration of her Photo News series captioned, “Israel Strikes Another School Building as It Pushes On in Gaza.” Pixelation of the original image, superimposed with graphic white tracings, with the word “pushes” large and sitting in the lower third of the image. In an endless scroll where our minds might swiftly process a post or image, hers requires pause.
Reduction, simplicity, pause.
A message can often be simple because reality bears all and bears enough for us to see clearly if we pay attention. #ceasefire.
What surfaces for me is the ongoing genocide in Gaza, as well as the conflicts in Ethiopia. I am no expert. What I do know is that injustice, terror, and slaughter of innocent lives are happening just across the Atlantic. Social Media and the 24/7 news cycle nears us to the hearts of those suffering. So much so that it shifts the public consciousness, political landscape (in an election year, no less), and our spirits.
It has been four years (and two days) since the nation took the streets to protest the slaughter of George Floyd and systemic racialized police brutality. #blacklivesmatter.
Messages so simple.
Maybe my instinct to consume has been an instinct to numb.
I’ve resolved to write this post to combat my fears and hesitations. To reject pure numbness and escapism. To honor what has been created and to create.
When we listen to and honor other’s voices, we validate their humanity and are attuned to the needs of those around us.
When we listen to and honor our voices, we validate our humanity and are attuned to our needs.
A time to tear, a time to mend, an exhibition I co-curated in 2022 with SuperCollider at Wonzimer, centered on the idea that we could find alternative modes of processing the inundation of timeline trauma--that we can metabolize and heal from collective traumas witnessed every day. I reflect on Jody Zellen’s “Photo News,” a now 6-year series with daily posting of a news image created each morning from the digital version of the New York Times. The result is an ambiguous montage that poetically references the original photograph, albeit reducing it to its most graphic and stylized form.
Reduction, simplicity, pause.
I found Jody’s pause practice aspirational and one that I imagine requires great discipline. In George Prochnik’s In Pursuit of Silence: Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise, he writes about his quest for silence, seeing it as a “dwindling commodity.” Commodifying reduction and pause seem counterintuitive, but they are also natural outcomes if we see commodification through the lens of cultural/spiritual capital instead of financial. Creating or consuming creative outputs can be generative and life-giving instead of agents of capitalist burnout.
I often see this idea of do-nothing-ism circulating. As a do-er, to just "be" is often a challenge for me. Yes, I can binge a show, listen to Tem's album (2nd plug, go listen!), or practice yoga, but these do not constitute doing nothing.
A zero-sum game--if I consume, I am doing, and if I create, I am also doing. Even in Jody’s pause practice, she is creating something new. Outputting her interpretation of the matter.
Give-and-take is necessary. Even in one’s lack of creative output, there is a symbiotic exchange between the creator and the consumer. Take Jody’s 6-8-2024 iteration of her Photo News series captioned, “Israel Strikes Another School Building as It Pushes On in Gaza.” Pixelation of the original image, superimposed with graphic white tracings, with the word “pushes” large and sitting in the lower third of the image. In an endless scroll where our minds might swiftly process a post or image, hers requires pause.
Reduction, simplicity, pause.
A message can often be simple because reality bears all and bears enough for us to see clearly if we pay attention. #ceasefire.
What surfaces for me is the ongoing genocide in Gaza, as well as the conflicts in Ethiopia. I am no expert. What I do know is that injustice, terror, and slaughter of innocent lives are happening just across the Atlantic. Social Media and the 24/7 news cycle nears us to the hearts of those suffering. So much so that it shifts the public consciousness, political landscape (in an election year, no less), and our spirits.
It has been four years (and two days) since the nation took the streets to protest the slaughter of George Floyd and systemic racialized police brutality. #blacklivesmatter.
Messages so simple.
Maybe my instinct to consume has been an instinct to numb.
Naomi Stewart, numb, collage poetry, 2024
I created this collage three months ago in response to immense life changes. This piece counters the weight of numbness to uncover what is behind the veil of “I’m okay.” We numb to snuff out fear.
The fear of change, the fear of loss, the fear of rejection, the fear of distance from connection, the fear of failure.
“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven…He has made every thing beautiful in his time…” (Ecclesiastes 3:1,11)
I’ve resolved to write this post to combat my fears and hesitations. To reject pure numbness and escapism. To honor what has been created and to create.
When we listen to and honor other’s voices, we validate their humanity and are attuned to the needs of those around us.
When we listen to and honor our voices, we validate our humanity and are attuned to our needs.
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