Lisa Smith @ 18% Grey
Table of Contents
I just wanted to show off how proud I am of my friend Lisa, who made an amazing thing that I can’t really describe. I will steal her description:
Watson is a light box with two perceivable surfaces. While the first
surface is purely luminous, the second surface is one of opacity and
ornament, visible only by peering through a polarized loupe. The
ornamental elements are designed so that different patterns emerge from
their intentional rearrangement. In this way, those “peering” share a
dynamic experience that is invisible to the rest of the visitors, who
can, however, be brought into the interaction by peering themselves.
And here it is:
I’ve been thinking about the need to specialize, vs. pursuing everything you’re interested in. I’ve been thinking about this because I’ve willfully abandoned some of my pet interests: Ableton Live, Max/MSP, photography, funerals. Lisa has a specialty, but she has also done photography, installations, music and film, and her degree is in architecture. I guess the difference is that I’ve always felt like a dabbler (Even as a writer, though that’s mostly self-doubt. I think.), while her work has always been good and real, though ‘real’ isn’t the right word. What I mean is it conveys the seriousness of the person making it in an intimidating way, even though, I’m happy to say, Lisa herself is nice, funny, and pretty non-threatening.
