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MTAA-RR » news » twhid » murphy s law in full effect:
Feb 12, 2006
Murphy’s law in full effect
posted at 16:43 GMT by T.Whid in /news/twhid
Holy shit.
Could more have gone wrong today? Yes (we’ll get back to that in the epilogue). But not much.
Where do we start? Hmmm, let me see. Let’s start on a NJ Transit train to Newark (starts out bad and just gets worse).
M.River and I traveled to Newark on this snowy day to interview for a ‘professional development’ program at an arts organization in Newark called Aljira. The program is called Emerge, and you can read all about it here.
The wind and snow was fierce as we trudged from Newark Penn Station to Aljira (normally probably a short and pleasant walk — not today).
The interview process consisted of 5 artists (MTAA counts as 1) showing and talking about their work in front of a panel of arts professionals (there were reps from Creative Capital, eyewash, The Brooklyn Museum and Aljira).
During preliminary introductions, we ran into our first problem. “Oh! We don’t do collaboratives,” Aljira’s program director said, “There was a question mark there.”
That’s OK, M.River and I figured, we’ll win them over.
We had submitted a DVD-video of work samples. The other artists had all submitted slides and for reasons to do with the format, presented their work before us. Finally, it was our turn.
Bad disk. Let’s try again. Bad disk. Let’s try another disk. Bad disk. Let’s try a computer in the other room. All of the computers only have CD drives. I had brought along a few prints of the installation version of 1YPV and gamely passed them around to the jury panel, but was seething inside.
M.River bravely attempted to describe our work without the help of any visuals of our visual art as I stewed in my own juices and fought back urges to crack that goddamn DVD in half and fling it across the room.
Eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore. “You know. I feel like an idiot trying to explain the work with no reference images,” I interrupted, “I’m just kind of sitting over here and being angry.” That was pretty much the end of our interview.
What are our chances of being accepted to this program? Considering they don’t take collaboratives and couldn’t really see any of our work, we’re optimistic.
epilogue
It’s around 7:30PM on 7th Avenue in Manhattan and it’s snowing like hell. M.River is wondering if he’ll be able to catch a cab home. I’m thinking, no way in hell, when a cab comes cruising up and stops right in front of him. He gets in and a guy half-way down the block starts screaming and cursing at him. He runs over and makes like he’s going to punch the passenger window but thinks better of it. Evidently, he thinks M.River stole his cab. He keeps calling M.River, “asshole!” and “motherfucker!” He’s stomping his feet and venting his spleen. I casually watch him.
Ahhhhh. Sweet, sweet schadenfreude. permanent link to this post
Could more have gone wrong today? Yes (we’ll get back to that in the epilogue). But not much.
Where do we start? Hmmm, let me see. Let’s start on a NJ Transit train to Newark (starts out bad and just gets worse).
M.River and I traveled to Newark on this snowy day to interview for a ‘professional development’ program at an arts organization in Newark called Aljira. The program is called Emerge, and you can read all about it here.
The wind and snow was fierce as we trudged from Newark Penn Station to Aljira (normally probably a short and pleasant walk — not today).
The interview process consisted of 5 artists (MTAA counts as 1) showing and talking about their work in front of a panel of arts professionals (there were reps from Creative Capital, eyewash, The Brooklyn Museum and Aljira).
During preliminary introductions, we ran into our first problem. “Oh! We don’t do collaboratives,” Aljira’s program director said, “There was a question mark there.”
That’s OK, M.River and I figured, we’ll win them over.
We had submitted a DVD-video of work samples. The other artists had all submitted slides and for reasons to do with the format, presented their work before us. Finally, it was our turn.
Bad disk. Let’s try again. Bad disk. Let’s try another disk. Bad disk. Let’s try a computer in the other room. All of the computers only have CD drives. I had brought along a few prints of the installation version of 1YPV and gamely passed them around to the jury panel, but was seething inside.
M.River bravely attempted to describe our work without the help of any visuals of our visual art as I stewed in my own juices and fought back urges to crack that goddamn DVD in half and fling it across the room.
Eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore. “You know. I feel like an idiot trying to explain the work with no reference images,” I interrupted, “I’m just kind of sitting over here and being angry.” That was pretty much the end of our interview.
What are our chances of being accepted to this program? Considering they don’t take collaboratives and couldn’t really see any of our work, we’re optimistic.
epilogue
It’s around 7:30PM on 7th Avenue in Manhattan and it’s snowing like hell. M.River is wondering if he’ll be able to catch a cab home. I’m thinking, no way in hell, when a cab comes cruising up and stops right in front of him. He gets in and a guy half-way down the block starts screaming and cursing at him. He runs over and makes like he’s going to punch the passenger window but thinks better of it. Evidently, he thinks M.River stole his cab. He keeps calling M.River, “asshole!” and “motherfucker!” He’s stomping his feet and venting his spleen. I casually watch him.
Ahhhhh. Sweet, sweet schadenfreude. permanent link to this post
MTAA-RR » news » twhid » murphy s law in full effect