the biggest news of this week was definitely the exhibition at OtonomArt. after ~50 hours of work, it was so exciting to put Syzygy on display. it was also thrilling to see my name as the artist on the label.
i’m glad i photographed the sculpture after every session so i could see the gradual process. now, looking back, i find it eerie to look at the first photos. i created this thing from mud with my bare hands!
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One day late reflection on the previous week.
Last weekend was so busy that I couldn’t find an hour to sit and write a few paragraphs. Yesterday, we had a Mother’s Day dinner with my in-laws (where did the morning go? who knows!). On Saturday, I watched my first ever American football game. My hometown team, the Halcyons, was playing against the ITU Hornets. Unfortunately we got our asses kicked by the Hornets, but it was fun either way!
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Contemporary art is often criticized for being extravagant, farfetched or nonsensical. You might think of the paintings and movies of David Lynch, sculptures of Miquel Barceló or even the banana (Comedian) of Maurizio Cattelan. They are definitely strange and hard to interpret, and in Cattelan’s case, give the finger to Art as an institutional practice. I have no problems with this kind of art. I don’t think the artist owes me any meaning. Even if the artwork seems straightforward, it is still too easy to misinterpret. My sculpting tutor made a sculpture of an anorexic girl with a VERY visible vagina and still, people keep thinking it’s a male…
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Sunday reflection on the passing week.
I charged my car battery! This might sound unimportant to you, but it was a big deal for me. My father was a handyman and I helped him a lot on different projects throughout my childhood. So in theory I have a good grasp of how to use tools. But it was not enough. One also needs to be willing to do this kind of stuff, which I was not. My experiences of doing projects at home with my father primarily taught me that a project never goes according to plan. There are always edge cases that lead you away from the happy path, and it’s always easier to hire someone else to be responsible for them. But more and more I feel like the immortal insight of Ozan Akyol, a Turkish comedian, is spot on: “You call an expert. They come and you immediately realize that they’re just another guy.”
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I was in Antalya, Turkey for the company offsite last week. This is a reflection on the past week. photo dump.
The worst type of leader is the one who needs to be the leader. The second worst type is the one who just can’t accept that they are the leader.
I’m a leader. Writing this fills me with dread because it sounds megalomaniacal to my ears. However, it’s true. I am a leader. I’ve been a leader for some time—I’ve been the technical lead of my team for the last three years. Although they had been calling me that for some time, I think I never really assumed it. I always treated it like a symbolic title that they needed to give me not because I deserved it but because conditions demanded it. Somebody had to fill the void, and no one else was going to.
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I’m writing this in haste before packing my laptop for travel. This will be a short one.
Random thoughts on the passing week.
If you think that it looks odd, it was intentional. It’s a bust, half female and half male.
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“We are always open.”
i’m writing this in amsterdam. i’ll be in the city for kubecon till friday. let me know if you want to meet!
it’s been almost a month since i wrote that i’m yearning for a digital community that runs preferably on irc. guess what, there’s now the dealgorithmed irc server. if you want to believe in the magic, voice your intentions more.
halloy.chat might be the prettiest software i’ve seen in a long time!
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We were watching Pluribus for the last 10 days and finished the first season today. I have mixed feelings about the show. I especially found the first few episodes hard to watch because I couldn’t stand Carol. It got easier towards the end of the season but I can’t say that I loved the show. Nevertheless, it was an interesting watch. I especially liked the depiction of the collective power that humans possess. It’s eerie to think about the connection between our individuality and the problem of coordinating with others. I read a take (Turkish) that said the show is trying to teach communism to American masses but I disagree. Although the world becomes communist in a few hours after everyone gets “infected,” Pluribus’ virus is not of communism but McLuhan’s. It turns the world into the global village:
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