A Project for Polishing Ideas

I have written in notebooks and sketchbooks for years, mostly ideas for new projects accompanied by drawings and sketches. These books were never linear in their development, there was no narrative to follow. I would flip through old sketchbooks and see old ideas or doodles that would spark new associations. Those new blips would go down right next to the old. I thought of these as lexicons of ideas rather than diaries.

As I grow increasingly digitized in my handling of text, images and drawings, my writings shifted from physical spaces to electronic ones. It is easy to categorize and organize these files but I sometimes find the sheer quantity so overwhelming that I cannot find a path to where I want to be. Printing everything and making binders or pinning it all to the wall doesn't help. But it makes the ideas seem more tangible, with a greater presence.

As I am currently enrolled in an MFA program and am surrounded by a constant stream of people and ideas, I have for some time considered printing everything I write out and pinning it up on the hallway wall outside my studio. I would invite my peers to read these and offer me their input. However, my walls are always covered with something and there's something about putting all those private thoughts and emotions up on a wall that seemed a little too public an airing for my liking. A blog could, potentially, reach a much greater audience. But I am not so vain as to think it will be noticed by anyone except those I tell. In a way I feel I can safely post my thoughts and they will remain hidden and anonymous; they are hidden in plain sight.

What I hope to achieve here may be antithetical to the notion of blogging. I am not interested in reporting overly personal or private information. I will never be a religious poster who covers a beat and tries to give sharp tongued insights for the edutainment of my readers. I will not link to a thousand other blogs or read blogs any more than I already do, which is pretty seldom. I actually find bloggers who actively seek a public role to be problematic. I look to this project as a means to clarify my thoughts by working within a forum that (given its public nature) will focus my thinking. What that means and whether it comes to pass remains to be seen.