Explaining absence: it's starting to feel like a pattern.

One of the things that I have found to be a characteristic of being involved on deviantART or even on other, smaller art sites is how uncertain things can be, especially when it comes to maintaining relationships with people. I don't think it's something you necessarily feel until you realize that someone has gone missing. I have stumbled upon journals here on dA where someone posts something like "I'm alive!" and then go one to explain why they hadn't posted in a while. Sometimes these are greeted with comments such, as "I wondered where you were!" or "So glad to have you back!" and that sort of thing.

I don't have a good feel for how long someone has to have gone "silent" before their absence becomes noticed. But, when you don't get a chance to meet face to face on a somewhat regular basis--even if it's every few weeks--regularly posting something online seems like the only way to demonstrate that you are still around, still engaged with the world (even if you have a lot going on in other parts of your life). Here, "posts" could mean artwork and journals, but also could must mean showing up in a chatroom, commenting on someone else's journal, userpage, or a piece of artwork, or maybe just getting involved in a discussion on a forum.

**

At times I inadvertently make myself absent. I forget that just by not going onto dA or other sites, I have made myself invisible. Well, that's only partially true: the continuous presence of my profile and past comments ensure that I'll never be invisible in any absolute sense.

What it means to be absent, for me, seems to depend on why it is that I have mentally checked out. Recently, it's mostly about making myself distant from the process of "doing research" (in the sense of observing conversations, enjoying people's art work, reading journals, or talking to people) in order to sit back and understand what the stuff that I have already done means to my overall research project. In a strange way, the more I do, the harder it can be to move forward. I expect this to continue into next year as I push forward and try to turn analysis into better draft form.

**

Starting tomorrow, I making myself absent by going on another long vacation. At this time tomorrow, I'll be sitting in a Chicago airport waiting a flight to London, and from there I am going to Tanzania. It's a country on the eastern coast of Africa. It's kind of strange to think I'll be in a completely new place in just a couple of day. Unlike last year when I went to India, there is a significant chance I'll have regular internet access. This may mean that I am not as absent as I could be. Hopefully, I'll make myself post a few photographs, maybe even a sketch or two.

But, it's hard to know for sure. And, if it's hard for me to state without a doubt that I'll be posting anything before I return in mid-January, then of course there's no way anyone else could be confident that I'll be "present" for the next six weeks. So, I find myself here in that strange position of pre-emptively explaining absence. But maybe it really doesn't need an explanation. Maybe people grow accustomed to others coming and going, that one person's coming or going isn't something that demands much comment. It's one of the ambiguous parts of being a member of website like this, I guess.

So, for those celebrating anything in the next month, Happy Holidays! For those getting the chance the take a vacation, enjoy! And maybe you'll hear from me sooner than any of us realizes?



_______________________________
Researching Creativity and the Internet (or, who I am what I am up to)

FAQ and more information

_{Journal credit: CSS modified from code by Christopher Skillicorn [link]}

To anyone who happens to be watching this journal. Prior to seeing this post, had you heard of this contest, which was announced over the weekend?

Love Unites Print Remix Contest ([link])

Have any of the people that you watch written journals about it? If so, would love to see the links.

If you hadn't heard of it, or hadn't seen anyone write about/talk about it, please don't be shy about just saying "no" (that is helpful).

As always, feel free to Note me if you don't feel like commenting here.

Thanks!

_______________________________
Researching Creativity and the Internet (or, who I am what I am up to)

FAQ and more information

_{Journal credit: CSS modified from code by Christopher Skillicorn [link]}

Last year, attending the Alternative Press Expo really changed the research process for me . It was amazing to see so many artists* at all stages of their careers producing work, selling work, networking, socializing, and just having a good time. I met some great people and it really changed my perspective on things. (I wrote up some notes about it here)

Well, it's a year later and I'll be spending the weekend at APE again. I'm excited! Maybe I'll run into some familiar dA names when I'm there...

*In this case, mainly people who make comics, but also illustrators, zine-makers, print-makers, writers, and craft producers as well.

_______________________________
Researching Creativity and the Internet (or, who I am what I am up to)

FAQ and more information

_{Journal credit: CSS modified from code by Christopher Skillicorn [link]}

I re-read my last journal update a few minutes ago and am amazed that it's just over a month later already. As all months seem to be when you're in grad school, September was hectic. I took a couple of trips, one to Phoenix to visit family, one to Irvine and Los Angeles (both in Southern California) for work. And, I have started to flesh out this dissertation.

Starting up

I'm not the best at putting together outlines as I tend to let things build from the bottom up. But, I've never tried to write anything this long, with this much material, so working through an outline was priority number one for September. The good news is that I have one that my advisers think will work. None of us would be surprised if it changed, but having a framework does make it easier to go back through the last year-and-a-half of work and find places for "data" (I don't love that word) and see how it fits into arguments that I am trying to build. In future journals, I may try to give you all a sense of what that outline looks like.

While outlining, I also started to try to write something, anything, every day. This seems to be what many recommend. I think I have known that this is a good idea for quite some time, but now it's really hitting home.

Writing about theft

As October begins, I am turning towards trying to write a coherent chapter of this project. I'm not starting with the beginning (nothing unusual about this). Rather, I'm starting with one of the later chapters--on the topic of confronting and dealing with art theft. The not-so-catchy title might just end up being: "Dealing with Art Theft" but I'm not holding myself to that.

What this involves is going through three kinds of material: 1) stuff that I have already written on the topic, from short papers to small notes-to-self; 2) conversations, articles, and interviews where issues of theft or ownership have come up in the past two years; and 3) books and articles written by others that I need to address or that will help me think about this topic. Reading is actually the most fun, but it's often an escape from the difficult work of analyzing data.

Upcoming

I am also going to be attending a few events such as a small anime convention here at UC Berkeley tomorrow and then the Alternative Press Expo (APE) in San Francisco in two weeks. I am particularly excited about APE as it was the first convention I attended as a part of this research project. I think I'll be seeing it with a whole new set of glasses (er, contact lenses) this year. Maybe more to come on APE later...

_______________________________
Researching Creativity and the Internet (or, who I am what I am up to)

FAQ and more information

_{Journal credit: CSS modified from code by Christopher Skillicorn [link]}

It's Labor Day here in the United States and it marks a shift in my work. I've been relatively quiet since the beginning of July when I started teaching. With the exception of a couple of posts and a comment here and there, my research efforts have been primarily "limited" to Anime Expo and San Diego Comic Con. The scare quotes back there are to remind myself that I am still sorting through what I saw and heard while at those two large conventions. Each convention is quite an effort and have been great opportunities to learn from different artists. To those of you who I hung out with or interviewed at either convention--or at a particular BBQ here in the Bay Area last month--thank you for your time and willingness to talk to me!

Most of July and August were dedicated to teaching. My co-teacher and I had a challenging time smooshing 17 weeks of a semester into the six week summer session. But we worked well together and the class was a success. Well, we think it was, and many of the students seemed to enjoy it! For those of you who missed earlier posts on the topic, or are interested in seeing the updated class, the course site has the final syllabus along with descriptions of each class and the student-team research projects. Who knows... you might find something interesting up there!

Of course, deviantART and your lives have kept going with or without me hanging out paying close attention. A funny moment (well, funny to me!) was when I was preparing one of my last lectures in which I talked a bit about my research, particularly on the topic of "art theft" and copyright, some features were launched on the site that generated a lot of discussion on these exact issues. I almost couldn't give my lecture! Were any of you actively paying attention a couple of weeks ago with the launch of the embed links and "share" buttons for different platforms? Did any of this strike you as a problem? Did those who you watch talk about it? What did you come away thinking from all of this? I'd be curious to hear how your experiences with this have been. Notes, as always, are fine if you'd rather not comment publicly.

Oh, if you have no idea what I'm talking about, that would be worth knowing as well!

I started this post talking about a shift in my work. I'm at the point in my project, where it's time to start spending much less time "in the field" and more time analyzing and writing up. Traditionally, this is when a field researcher leaves some exotic location, returns to the University and detaches herself/himself from the material and re-reads everything with a much more critical eye. This is tricky for me, because I'm not exactly "leaving" deviantART (and my other research sites), nor do I want to. Yet, I do need to spend time every day reading the material I've been working on for the past two years (well, almost two), rather than reading new material, and then writing, writing, writing!

The goal is to have something on the order of a short book by next Summer. Perhaps 6-8 chapters. Maybe 200-300 pages. I hope to post regular updates of analysis, even most complete writings here. I'd love your thoughts and feedback as this stuff comes out. I may even post writings to the literature gallery rather than in journals. I'll have to just see how it goes and what feels right.

_______________________________
Researching Creativity and the Internet (or, who I am what I am up to)

FAQ and more information

_{Journal credit: CSS modified from code by Christopher Skillicorn [link]}