Writing is the first thing I want to think about. I write a diary every day, but as I do more and more work online and on my god forsaken laptop I’m afraid I might be finding it easier to express myself at length and with care when I type.
Also the lines in my new diary are horribly far apart, so page-units feel disproportionately brief, and the paper is a little shiny. I will get a diary without lines next time, but either way I find it slightly troubling that all my research and thinking is bound up in page after page of unfiled, uncategorised notes.
And I use my diaries for personal, intellectual and emotional things, lists, plans and schedules. While there’s a lot to be said for not distinguishing between my artwork and these other things, I think my current relationship with my diary means it’s time for separation. I’m spending a lot of time wishing I were writing my diary, then I open it and write but to negligible effect, and it’s becoming an unproductive things insofar as my art practice is concerned.
So writing online does a number of things. It makes my writing searchable and it separates it from my everyday writing. I also want to see if the move changes my tone, and by extension changes my default impulse towards quiet introspection and making a pot of tea. Without trying to engineer what I write, I want to be harder on myself and make sure my writing is work not comfort.
Tags: art
